Chapter 25 #2
She then gave us a potted version of the history of the island, which seemed to consist of various marauding forces taking over and then being ousted by different armies, and on one occasion the preserved relics of St Christopher deflecting all the enemy arrows back at the invading troops. Which seemed pretty impressive.
And then the tour came to an end, and Ludmilla spent a few minutes chatting informally to people and answering questions. We had a quick whip round for a tip for her, which she accepted with a sweet smile.
‘I think I need a drink after all that marauding,’ Don said, fanning his face with his hat. ‘Takes it out of a chap.’
‘Good idea,’ Craig said. ‘What do you think, girls?’
Dawn had evidently not forgiven her husband and she spoke in frosty tones.
‘You go ahead; I am going to contemplate what it would be like to live here and be a nun. Do you think they would let me bring Pookie? Are nuns allowed to have pets?’
Craig snorted with laughter. ‘Well, you’re definitely not going without him; that dog has chewed up more than his fair share of my shoes. I think his squeaky dinosaur would disturb your contemplation so you’d better leave that behind.’
‘I sometimes think my mother was right about you. Come on, Belinda, I need a drink of water,’ she said irritably.
‘I was hoping for a glass of wine,’ Belinda murmured.
‘On your liver be it,’ Dawn murmured.
‘Do you want me to go back to the convent, Dawn, and ask for an entry form for you to fill in?’ Craig shouted as she left.
‘You never know, there might be a bogof offer.’ Don chuckled. ‘Buy one get one free, two for the price of one. What do you say, Belinda?’
Belinda fixed her husband with a basilisk stare and Don snorted with laughter.
‘That’s a no then? I’m going to suffer for this later, you mark my words.’
‘Look, Dawnie-pops,’ Craig said in a conciliatory tone, ‘can I ask a stupid question?’
‘Go ahead, you’re more than qualified,’ Dawn replied, and as she walked away, she made a surprisingly rude gesture.
* * *
Marjorie decided to go back to the ship to change her shoes and have a little rest. Evelyn said she was fine to carry on but wanted some lunch first so she went with her friend to see what the on-board buffet had to offer.
Don and Craig tried to persuade us that we should seek out some lunch together, because Belinda and Dawn had stalked off to the nearest café without them and could be seen sitting with large glasses of wine and water respectively and rigid backs that spoke of their annoyance.
‘I think we’ll join the ladies on the boat actually,’ Anna said.
‘We were going to do that thing, weren’t we?’ Harriet said.
‘We were,’ Anna agreed. ‘Come on, we don’t want to be late.’
The two of them hurried away in the direction of the quayside, pointedly leaving me behind.
Jack caught my arm as I hesitated.
‘There’s supposed to be a marvellous viewing spot over there. Shall we go and find it and then we could find the nun’s shop? Or buy some of this famous cake?’
‘I’d love to,’ I said, relieved.
Spending an hour listening to Dawn cross-examining the waiter about harmful ingredients on the menu wasn’t my idea of a good way to spend the day.
We walked back up the stone stairs to the upper street and carried on until we found the viewing place we had been told about.
A fabulous area, sheltered by trees and overlooking the sea.
Beyond was an area which was more thickly wooded, with proper pathways and convenient benches.
There were families there, a small boy on a tricycle, who was enjoying himself immensely whizzing about between his parents.
Eventually we sat down on an empty bench and looked at the view.
‘This is glorious, isn’t it?’ he said. ‘Exactly what I hoped it would be like. I’ve been to a lot of places over the last year which have failed to live up to their promise, but this isn’t one of them. I could almost see myself living here.’
I laughed. ‘It’s funny, Harriet said the same thing about Susak, Cres and Mali Lo?inj. I think she has been googling house prices already. And checking up on the standard of health care.’
Jack stretched his long legs out in front of him and sighed.
‘Perhaps I might just rent a place for a couple of weeks, to see if it really is as good as it seems. A place like that one we passed near the convent, the one that had the sign in the window, with a view over the sea and a tiny little garden. All I would need would be a few books and all these cafés and wonderful places to eat just a few steps away.’
‘And some clothes, otherwise—’ I said. And then I laughed nervously because of course that made me think of him without clothes, and the whole thing was getting a bit too surprising.
He laughed too. ‘And some spare socks. I can’t rely on Mickey Mouse forever.’
I thought about that too and tried to imagine myself living with just a few chosen possessions instead of a house filled with things.
A simple, uncomplicated life, without a vegetable spiraliser, a fully programmable bread maker or the hugely problematic and expensive coffee machine that Fred had bought me for our last Christmas together and never used because it took too long.
And then of course there was the chef’s mandolin languishing in the back of a drawer which he had bought having seen one at a trade show, used only once and lost the tips of two fingers in the process.
I brought myself back into the real world and away from Fred and his disasters.
‘I wonder where people get their groceries, or petrol?’
‘Perhaps you wouldn’t need a car?’ he said.
‘That’s almost unimaginable these days, isn’t it?’
He nodded.
‘But wouldn’t Harriet miss her friends and family?’ he said.
‘Probably. Wouldn’t you for that matter?’
‘I think they would very quickly come and visit me,’ he said, ‘with their various boyfriends, or in Ivy’s case one of her chums who would be mesmerised by all the sparkly T-shirts and bracelets I’ve seen in the shops.’
‘I bet they would,’ I said, ‘and no traffic to worry about. The closest we have come to that was the toddler on his trike.’
‘Would you?’
I was confused. ‘Would I what? Ride a trike?’
‘Would you come and visit me?’
I turned to look at him and he gave me a funny, lop-side smile.
‘Yes,’ I said, ‘I would. Though how I would get here is anyone’s guess.’
‘You’d have to take a flight to Zagreb, and I could probably get a rental car, so I could come and pick you up.’
‘Wow, would you?’
‘Of course.’
He shrugged as though it was obvious and for a moment I tried to think how that scenario would work out.
Did I like the idea or was it all a bit too soon?
After all, we hardly knew each other. Not really.
There was still the possibility that he had been cleverly concealing unpleasant habits or that he snored like a walrus.
Why would I be worrying about that? It wasn’t as though I was expecting to find out if he snored, was I?
‘It’s an interesting prospect,’ I said at last.
He chuckled. ‘That sounds like a polite no. Or at least a play for time.’
‘I suppose it’s the latter,’ I said. ‘After all, we hardly know each other. You might find me awful company after a few days.’
‘No, I don’t think I would,’ he said. ‘Anyway, it’s just a thought. Let’s find some lunch. Hopefully Craig and Dawn will have made up their row by now.’
‘What did she say? Why not you’re more than qualified. Honestly, I had to bite my lip.’
Jack sputtered with laughter and I joined in, and after a while we were a little bit hysterical.
And it made me realise how nice it was to be sitting there, with him, just laughing.
And there was the prospect of another few days of this, where perhaps we would find out more about each other.
And the possibility of nasty habits and character flaws.
Which I was sure he didn’t have. Perhaps not all men were like Fred, maybe there were some decent ones out there who were just as confused about life as women were.
What had Evelyn said? Sometimes you meet the right person at the right time and when that happens, grab them with both hands.
And then suddenly I really could see myself coming to visit him in his little rental apartment overlooking the sea because we would be friends. And maybe, just maybe, more than that.