Chapter 10 #2
‘Thank goodness. You must have run incredibly fast. I can’t believe you’re back already.’
Mac shifted from one foot to another and wiped his sticky forehead with the back of an arm.
‘I didn’t find it too difficult, actually. I was quite surprised. I expected it to be really hard as I haven’t run for so long, but maybe my fitness isn’t as bad as I thought.’
‘Clearly not. I’m impressed!’
‘Is Hannah upstairs?’
His gaze shifted up, towards the first floor. Edie guessed he must be keen to wash and prepare himself for the rest of the day.
‘She’s reading her book.’
It was only now she remembered the real reason for Mac’s mission, but scanning round, she couldn’t see any bags of food. It crossed her mind he might have left them in the porch.
‘Did you get to the supermarket?’ she asked, puzzled. ‘I’ll put the shopping away if you want to jump in the shower?’
His response wasn’t what she expected.
‘I-um…’ he said with a stammer, before licking his lips. His eyes darted this way and that and she wondered what on earth was coming next. ‘I’m tempted to lie, but I can’t.’
Now, his focus settled on her and she found herself blinking more than usual under his gaze.
‘The fact is,’ he went on, ‘I completely forgot. I’m really sorry. I was so busy concentrating on my running technique and trying to maintain my speed, it just slipped my mind. I’m such an idiot.’ He slapped his forehead with the heel of his hand. ‘Hannah will have my guts for garters.’
Edie couldn’t help laughing. ‘I haven’t heard that phrase in ages. But don’t worry,’ she added, more seriously. ‘We can get something later. It’s really not a problem.’
* * *
Ralph seemed to be taking ages in the shower and Edie suspected he’d got stuck into his next book. She was about to go and fetch him when Hannah and Mac came down.
Hannah seemed to be in a remarkably cheerful mood still, despite Mac’s oversight.
‘Did you hear about what happened?’ she asked Edie, when she found her in the garden.
Edie raised her eyebrows and nodded with a grin.
‘Honestly,’ Hannah went on. ‘You can’t trust him with anything.
’ But she was smiling as she spoke. ‘What’s that old saying?
“The rooster may crow, but the hen delivers the goods”.
He was so busy wanting to show off about how fast he could run, he forgot why he’d offered to go to the village in the first place. ’
She and Mac soon started to head off in hats, shorts and walking boots, clutching bottles of water. Whether or not they’d had any sort of discussion last night after their row, they’d obviously completely cleared the air. They were like a different couple.
Ralph joined Edie at the front door, just as they were leaving.
‘Give us a ring when you get lost,’ he called as a joke when they reached the big iron gates, which slowly swung open at the press of a button.
Hannah gave him a thumbs up. ‘We will!’
‘Well!’ Edie said to her husband as soon as he’d closed the front door again and turned to face her. ‘What shall we do now?’
‘I can think of a few things.’
He raised his eyebrows and the flicker of a smile crossed his features. Something deep within her stirred: memories of blissful moments, long forgotten.
Wistful, she reached out and touched his cheek, but then reality crashed in and the feeling quickly vanished.
‘We should clear away the breakfast things,’ she said with a sigh.
* * *
They were both hungry by the time they left the villa and made it down the mountain into Porto Liakáda.
It was a bit late for lunch and too early for supper, but they found a café that served traditional Sfakian pies, thin pancakes stuffed with local, soft mizithra cheese, drizzled with thyme honey and topped with nuts and cinnamon.
After devouring a couple of these each, washed down with cold draught lager, they were full to bursting and ready for a siesta.
Just beyond the café lay the village’s curved, shingly beach, dotted with conveniently placed sun loungers for hire.
They made their way across the crunchy pebbles to two empty chairs and sat down beneath the jaunty parasols.
Edie, who was wearing her bikini underneath her clothes, quickly stripped off and lay down. Meanwhile, Ralph grappled clumsily with his towel while he removed his shorts and underpants.
He was almost changed, just trying to shimmy into his swimming trunks, when a man came to ask for money for using the seats.
While Ralph searched for some cash in his shorts pocket, the towel almost slipped off.
Edie yelped before stretching over in the nick of time to pull it back up, preserving her husband’s dignity – just.
‘That was close,’ she said with a giggle when Ralph finally lay back with a relieved sigh. ‘I don’t think Porto Liakáda’s ready to see you in the buff.’
Ralph scratched his nose. ‘Oh, I don’t know. There are plenty of nudist beaches in Crete.’
‘Yes, but have you seen that sign?’
She sat up and pointed to a wooden notice nailed to the wall of the hotel behind them: ‘NO TOPLESS BATHING ON THIS BEACH PLEASE’.
Ralph flopped down again. ‘Fair enough. But it doesn’t say anything about todgers.’
The beach was only about a quarter full and pretty quiet, save for the background murmur of people talking, the odd rumble of a boat’s engine and the lapping of the waves on the shore.
It was hot but they were comfortable in the shade and it wasn’t long before Edie heard the familiar sound of Ralph’s snores. She didn’t try to prod him awake as he only ever snuffled and wheezed when he was dropping off. He’d soon stop.
She was nodding off herself when her phone pinged in the bag beside her. It was a text message from Hannah, asking where they were.
‘On the beach in the village,’ Edie replied. ‘Where are you?’
‘We’ll come and join you. See you in a few xx,’ came the answer.
Edie’s heart sank slightly as she’d been enjoying having Ralph to herself, but at least Jessica wasn’t around. She seemed to stir up Hannah and Mac and make everything ten times worse.
A young woman in a skimpy bikini walked gingerly across the pebbles to the water’s edge, taking short, soft steps to try to minimise the pain.
It seemed to take her an age to get into the sea. She inched forward, with her arms held high, then retreated every time a wave came her way.
Edie watched with amusement, thinking the woman would do better to dive straight in; she was only prolonging the agony.
The woman finally went all the way under, only to bob up again almost immediately. But after a few more attempts, she became used to the temperature and stayed under.
She must have started to enjoy herself because she swam out quite a distance to some rocks and sat for a while, waving at her friends on the beach and looking all round.
Edie remembered herself at this age – so young and carefree – and was tempted to go in herself. But she soon heard familiar voices behind and, on turning, saw Hannah and Mac walking towards her. They smiled and waved and Edie got up to greet them.
‘How was the walk?’ she asked, watching Mac drag over a couple of sun loungers.
‘Great.’
Hannah took a slurp of water from her bottle, which was almost empty. She looked rather hot, sweaty and uncomfortable after her exertion.
‘We found the castle. We got good views from there. It was a fair old hike, though,’ she added.
The pair undressed, with much less of a song and dance than the one Ralph had made, and went straight into the sea. Hannah lay on her back, staring up at the bright blue sky, while Mac dived down to the bottom, coming up with a handful of sand and seashells.
They were clearly having such a lovely time that finally, Edie couldn’t resist joining them. Ralph stayed snoozing under the parasol for a while, but when he woke, he went in, too, then they all swam to the rocks and sat on top, chatting and sunbathing.
Leaning back on her hands, with her face to the sun and her eyes closed, Edie breathed in and out deeply. It wasn’t the right time to quiz Hannah about Mac, she thought. In any case, at that moment everything felt reassuringly normal.
Hannah was beside her, dabbling her feet happily in the crystal-clear water, while Ralph and Mac were on the adjacent rock, talking about this and that in soothing, low voices.
‘It’s rather nice, not having Jessica here,’ Edie said eventually, before waiting tentatively for an answer.
‘Do you think so?’ Hannah said.
Edie’s eyes sprang open. ‘Well, yes. I mean, it’s nice to be just the four of us for a bit, don’t you think? I hope she has a good time in Knossos,’ she added quickly.
Mac started to rise. ‘Shall we go back?’ he asked Ralph. ‘Race you to the beach.’
Ralph started to protest, knowing Mac was the stronger swimmer, but it was too late.
Mac was already launching himself off the rocks and was soon slicing through the water, using his best front crawl. Ralph would have to be quick to have any hope at all of catching him up.
While the women watched from their rock, Hannah drew up her legs and hugged her knees.
‘I think Jessica’s amazing. She’s such a strong woman. I wish I was more like her,’ she commented.
‘She’s certainly very independent,’ Edie replied carefully. In truth, her opinion had shifted and she’d begun to think Jessica was really quite selfish. But Hannah viewed things differently.
‘She told me she never wanted to get married or have children,’ Hannah went on. ‘She’s an individualist. It’s important to her not to have to rely on anyone for anything.’
‘I can see that, but some of us want and need support from others. If everyone was like her, the world would be rather a lonely, disconnected place.’
‘I disagree.’
Edie sat up and brushed the dirt and stones off her hands. ‘Really?’ She swallowed, wondering what was coming next.
‘Yes. For example, I’m sick of bending over backwards for my family and getting nothing in return. It’s all take and no give, as far as I’m concerned. I could do with being a bit more self-centred.’