The landscape looked different this morning with the sun rising higher by the minute. Wild orchids and blue pimpernel peeped through the vegetation on either side, which was so dense, it felt as if they were walking through a giant salad bowl.
Edie breathed in deeply, filling her nostrils with the scent of herbs, listening to the sound of birds chirruping in the nearby trees and goats bleating in the distance. The ground underfoot was rocky and a bit slippery in places so she couldn’t totally switch off; she had to watch her step.
‘Are you all right in sandals?’ she asked Hannah, who needed to stop every now and again to retrieve a stone from her shoe.
‘I’m OK for now, thanks. They were a bit of a silly choice, though. I’ll definitely wear trainers next time.’
Katerina’s neighbour, Eleni Manousaki, was outside her tumbledown cottage hanging out today’s washing when they passed. Dressed all in black and bent almost double, she had numerous lines criss-crossing her face and wrinkles so deep, they seemed to mimic the Cretan landscape with its cavernous valleys and gorges.
Despite her age and evident infirmities, she heard the visitors approaching and turned to give them a friendly smile, revealing rows of stumpy black teeth.
‘Kalimera!’ Hannah said. ‘Good morning!’ It was one of the few words she and Edie had learned before arriving in Crete.
The old woman’s black eyes, almost buried beneath folds of tanned, crepey skin, twinkled with pleasure.
‘Kalimera,’ she replied, bobbing her head in acknowledgement.
They were about to move on when she held up an arthritic hand, gesturing for them to wait. Edie and Hannah glanced at each other when she disappeared into her cottage, only to bustle out a few moments later with a basket of ripe, golden apricots.
Proffering the goods, she muttered a few words in Greek and nodded her head vigorously. Edie put a hand in the basket and looked tentatively at the old woman, unsure if this was what she was meant to do.
Eleni nodded several times again –‘Nai, nai!’– and pushed the basket closer.
Feeling more confident, Edie chose a plump apricot with soft, slightly furry skin, and said thank you. Then the old woman proceeded to shove the basket towards the others, who did the same.
‘Thank you,’ they all repeated once more, this time in Greek, taking Hannah’s lead: ‘Efcharistó.’
The old woman laughed and grinned, as if she’d never heard a foreigner try to speak her language before. She was so endearing and friendly, like everyone’s favourite grannie, Edie wanted to give her a hug, but decided against it on the grounds it might not be the ‘done thing’.
Instead, she bobbed her head and beamed and sniffed the apricot while making appreciative noises. ‘Mm… yum!’
This seemed to tickle Eleni enormously, who giggled like a teenager. They could still hear her laughing when they turned their backs and walked some little way along the track, munching on the fruit, which was sweet and delicious.
‘Well, we’ve certainly made a hit with one of the locals,’ Hannah commented, throwing her apricot stone into the bushes and wiping her mouth with the back of a hand.
Edie licked her sticky fingers, one by one.
‘She was so lovely, I wanted to take her home with me,’ she said when she’d finished.
Hannah laughed. ‘I think her black teeth might upset you after a while. You’d have to get her some sparkling falsies.’
Before long, they came to a set of rough wooden beehive boxes, stacked one on top of another on a stony plateau.
Painted in vivid, primary colours with metal catches on the front, they looked very jolly, like jack-in-the-boxes.
Edie paused briefly to take a photo. ‘I expect that’s where our breakfast honey came from. They say Cretan honey’s the best in the world.’
‘I’m afraid I went a bit mad with it this morning and slathered it on,’ said Hannah. ‘Not good for the waistline.’
Jessica, who’d been very quiet up to now, paused and took a swig of water from the bottle in her small, neat backpack.
‘Want some?’ she asked Edie and Hannah, replacing the bottle before they had a chance to reply.
‘Er, no thanks.’ Edie watched Jessica buckle up her bag and swing it over her shoulders. She looked quite the professional hiker, all set for a demanding twenty-mile trek. The only item she lacked was walking poles.
‘Come on,’ she said, marching ahead. Hannah broke into a trot to catch up but Edie stayed behind, content to lose herself in her own thoughts.
As she walked, she found herself thinking about her children, whom she loved more than life itself, and felt truly grateful they were doing well. Also Ralph, who was being kinder and more gentle than usual. She realised she felt just a little bit lighter.
