had a soporific effect, so by the time they dropped her off at her aunt’s house she was more than ready for an afternoon sleep. Her mother and Thia Froso were both well into their own siestas and their gentle snoring could be heard as she tiptoed upstairs to her bedroom, where she promptly fell into a deep sleep.
She woke with a start as the light outside was beginning to fade. Opening her eyes, she realized she had woken herself up singing. She had dreamed that she was flying. She was lying on the span of an angel’s wings as if on a magic carpet, singing her heart out and soaring above the blue waters of the Aegean, the warm wind blowing through her hair and ruffling the angel’s snow-white feathers against her skin. The angel had Nicos’s face. She closed her eyes again, summoning up her dream, when she realized that the song on her lips was one and the same as the song playing on the radio downstairs, an old island folk melody that she had known all her life.
Over the blue waters of the Aegean sea,
Where the dove-white islands lie
Rose petals fall from the sky
With each flutter of their wings
As the Angels fly by.
She lay in bed for a little longer, softly singing along with the music that drifted through the window as her mother’s and aunt’s voices had done earlier that morning. This time, though, she didn’t hesitate to go downstairs to join them; on the contrary, she looked forward to being in their company.
‘Yiasou, Calliope mou!’ Froso called, the first to greet her again as she came through the kitchen door to join them in the garden. As before, the two sisters were sitting over their coffee, refreshed and cheerful after their afternoon sleep.
‘Sorry if we woke you with the radio, but if you slept any longer you wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight,’ her mother told her.
‘I think I woke myself up,’ Calli smiled. ‘I was singing in my sleep, would you believe!’ She gave a little chuckle and bent to give her mother and aunt a kiss. ‘I do believe the angels are circling above us in more ways than in the song,’ she said and pulled up a chair next to Eleni.
‘How was your day, Calli mou?’ her mother asked eagerly. ‘Did the guys give you a nice time?’
‘Yes, Mum . . . they did . . .’ she replied with a certain hesitation. Giving a long sigh, she leaned back on her chair.
‘Want to talk about it?’ Eleni asked and reached for her daughter’s hand. She had been concerned about her since that morning. She knew her girl well: Calli wasn’t usually one to avoid talking about whatever preoccupied her and her earlier evasive behaviour was uncharacteristic.
Calli sat in silence for a while. Then she reached for the jug of water on the table, poured herself a glass and took a sip. She looked in turn at her mother and aunt.
‘Do you believe in love at first sight?’ she asked them.
Froso’s reply came back immediately, a little too loud and with no hesitation or pause. ‘Yes!’ she said, causing Eleni to turn to her in surprise.
‘What about you, Mum?’ Calli asked.
‘I do too!’ she replied, her eyes still fixed on her sister. ‘I believe it’s real.’ She turned to look at her daughter. ‘The minute I saw your father, I knew he was the one. In fact, I knew before I saw him,’ she said, alluding to her psychic qualities.
‘So, my girl . . .’ Froso said leaning forward to reach for Calli’s hand. ‘Are you in love?’
‘I think so, Thia . . . I’ve never felt this way before, it’s so unexpected.’
‘But evidently not with Michalis?’ Eleni added. ‘Am I right?’
‘Was it that obvious?’ Calli asked, leaning her elbows on the table and her chin in her hands.
‘Yes!’ the two women replied in unison. ‘I thought you were so taken with Michalis,’ Eleni said, ‘and he with you . . .’
‘I was and I am, but not in that way . . . Oh God, I don’t know . . . it’s so confusing.’ Calli sat back and lifted her arms in the air in a gesture of exasperation. ‘I honestly thought I was falling in love with Michalis . . . Oh, why are we so complicated? Why, why can’t things be simple?’
‘Things are never simple, my girl,’ Froso replied, ‘because we are human and because our heart tells