Calli was sure that if this woman had grown up in the village during those long summers of her childhood, they would have been good friends. She had always longed for a girl as a playmate – her cousin Vasiliki, she remembered with amusement, was her only female cousin and she hadn’t been that much fun. Better late than never, she smiled to herself; if she had lacked a girl friend then when she was growing up, maybe she would find one now.
14
The second night Calli spent in the village and in the old house was probably the first time that she had spent alone with her aunt without a crowd of relatives and friends around them. They sat at the table under the olive trees breathing the fragrant air which blew down from the hills mingling with the salty breeze from the shore and ate what Froso had prepared – Manolis’s freshly caught barbouni, fried in shallow oil just as Calli liked it, with thickly cut potato chips and served with the ever-present mixed salad of seasonal leaves.
‘These rocket leaves are so peppery, Thia,’ Calli said with her mouth full. ‘And these potatoes are just like Yiayia used to make them.’
‘How else did I learn to cook them, if not from my mother?’ her aunt replied, visibly pleased as she refilled Calli’s plate. ‘Your mother always loved them too when she was small. So happy that you are enjoying them, my girl.’
‘I’m not sure what size I’ll be by the time I leave here, but I’m very happy you cooked them for me,’ Calli laughed.
‘Would you like to go over and see Costis and Chrysanthi now?’ Froso asked after they finished their meal and cleared up. ‘It might be more fun for you there with the children than here with me.’
‘We are both going to see them all tomorrow, Auntie,’ Calli replied. ‘Tonight it’s just you and me, so let’s get the raki and some of your delicious glyko out now, please!’
The two women sat caressed by the evening breeze, enjoying the cool that comes with nightfall under a sky filled with more stars than Calli thought could be possible.
‘I always forget about how a moonless sky looks here,’ she told her aunt and took in a lungful of air.
Suddenly Thia Froso reached across the table and cupped her niece’s face with her palm. ‘Your mother has told me about what happened this past year, Calliope mou,’ she said, looking into the young woman’s eyes. ‘I am so sorry about what you have gone through, my beloved girl.’ Her aunt’s unprompted words and loving gesture caused a surge of emotion to rise in Calli’s throat. She swallowed hard and reached for her glass of raki.
‘Yes . . .’ she struggled to say and took a sip of the hot liquid, feeling it slide down her throat, releasing the tightness.
‘Do you want to talk about it?’ Froso asked gently.
Calli of course knew that her mother would have discussed the events of the past year with her sister but given the nature of her relationship with her aunt and the lack of communication with her, Calli herself had mentioned nothing of her troubles as yet. In many ways since leaving London she had hoped to escape from the sadness and had managed to do so despite the rush of emotions that had floated to the surface in Ikaria with Maya. However, Calli was beginning to understand that to face her sorrow was not the same as to wallow in it. She had found that out during her sessions with a therapist, realizing that the talking had actually encouraged the process of healing.
As Calli began to speak and her aunt sat quietly listening to her, she concluded that this was not unlike her therapy back in London. The only difference now was the warm night air and the several glasses of raki she was consuming, which were making her open up and talk more candidly than usual. She spoke of her worries that she might never have a child, and of the joy in discovering that she was pregnant, of James and his harshness, of her decision to keep her baby, and of her parents’ support and her grief after losing her baby girl. ‘We were going to call her Eleni, you know,’ she said, fighting back tears.
When Calli fell silent, Froso stood up and took her in her arms.
‘Oh, my girl,’ she said, her voice catching in her throat. ‘Oh,