violin like the devil!’ she laughed. Although he had had several love affairs in the past that she knew of from Costis, she continued, there was only one girl, an Athenian, who had come to live with him in the village for a year or so.
‘She was nice enough,’ Chrysanthi went on, ‘we all thought they’d get married – you know, in these parts people eventually marry, especially if they want to have children. But apparently she didn’t like living in Crete. She missed the big city, so she left.’
Calli sat absorbing this information about Michalis, which she hadn’t asked for but was pleased to receive. Neither of them had as yet spoken much about their past and this spared her from the need to delve with inquisitive questions.
‘He is the only one of Costis’s friends who is still single, and as far as I’m concerned, he is the best of them all,’ Chrysanthi concluded. ‘Time he found a wife . . .’
‘You’d better start looking harder for him then,’ Calli giggled, reflecting that nothing changed in these parts, whichever generation you belonged to. Hadn’t it been just the same when, before she met James, all the women in the village were for ever trying to marry her off, and then afterwards urging the two of them to have a baby? In those days their persistence had seemed tiresome and irritating; now she found the warmth and sense of community comforting and touching. Hadn’t she learned the same in Ikaria too, that this sense of belonging, this taking care of one another, even if intrusive at times, was the very factor that kept the people of that island contented and living for so long into old age? This close-knit village community might seem a contradiction of the life she had led in London, but she was beginning to wonder if this could be a preferable way to live.
Calli and Chrysanthi sat in the kitchen chatting cheerfully for some time, comfortable in each other’s company, until thoughts of her aunt began to trouble her. Where could she have gone so early in the morning? There had been no mention of a visit to the doctor or any other appointment, and given the state they had both been in when they left each other the night before, she was concerned. But her worries were needless, for on her return Calli found Froso sitting at the table under the two olive trees with her embroidery as before, a cup of coffee and a glass of water by her side.
‘Ah, there you are,’ she said, looking up from her needlework as if it was Calli who had gone missing. ‘I was concerned . . . you disappeared so early.’
‘And I was worried for you, you disappeared even earlier,’ the young woman retorted. ‘I couldn’t find you anywhere.’
‘No matter!’ Froso replied. ‘We’re both here now.’ She hesitated. ‘I couldn’t sleep. Too many memories . . . I went to see old Pavlis, I haven’t visited him since you arrived.’
Calli pulled up a chair and sat next to her aunt. ‘Kosmas’s brother?’ she exclaimed, surprise rising in her voice. ‘Where does he live?’ she asked again, examining her aunt for signs of distress, and reached for her hand.
‘At the edge of the village. I must take you to him some time . . .’
‘How is he? Is he all right?’
‘He is very old and almost blind now, but yes . . . he is all right.’ Froso took in a deep breath and patted the back of Calli’s hand.
‘It’s so terribly sad and painful for you . . .’ Calli stopped and looked at her aunt. ‘I don’t know how you managed all these years, I couldn’t sleep last night with all you told me.’
‘I know, my darling girl,’ she let out a mournful sigh, ‘why do you think I never spoke of these things before? They are too . . .’ her voice trailed off, she looked at her niece and started to say something, then stopped.
‘What, Auntie? What?’ Calli asked.
‘They are too hard to even think about,’ the older woman said sadly.
6
‘Oh, my dear Thia Froso,’ Calli said. She stood up to wrap her arms around her aunt’s shoulders and kissed the top of her head. ‘I have thought of little else since our talk last night.’ She observed her aunt, trying to gauge her emotional state and how she might respond to Calli’s questions. There was so much she wanted to know but