We chose a gelateria and sat on comfortable chairs under a broad canopy and picked our flavours.
‘Shouldn’t we be looking in churches and museums?’ Anna said. ‘Not just dropping in to cafés all the time. We can do this at home, after all.’
‘Hardly the same,’ I said with a happy sigh. ‘I wonder where everyone else is?’
‘You mean Jack?’ Anna said. ‘Missing him, are you?’
‘It was just you made me think, about talking to Rupert. Realising how easy it is to stop talking properly to anyone. To have discussions and even arguments and still be friends. To disagree with someone and not have one of you go off in a sulk. That must be nice, I would like that.’
‘And you have that with Jack?’ Harriet said, a spoonful of strawberry ice cream halfway to her mouth.
‘Yes, I suppose I could. But then it’s easy for him to talk to me like that for a few days, on holiday, in the sunshine. What happens when one isn’t on holiday, and it’s raining and the car needs servicing? Would he be like that then?’
‘Only one way to find out. And anyway, he is working too, I assume that’s what he is doing now,’ Anna said, finishing up her double dark chocolate sorbet. ‘Perhaps you should go and knock on his cabin door when we get back? And slink in wearing your new caftan. You could twirl the tassels in a suggestive manner.’
‘Oh, Anna!’
* * *
We went to the museum, to see their one exhibit, the Apoxiomenos, which focussed on one bronze statue raised and restored from the seabed relatively recently. The whole place was very impressive and the statue absolutely beautiful.
Anna read out the brochure. ‘Discovered in 1997. An athlete of perfect physical proportions, impressive in its wholeness and beauty of composition. It dates to the second or first century BC.’
‘Reminds me of someone,’ Marjorie said thoughtfully as we peered up at the statue. ‘Now who did I know with a physique like that? Ah yes, Gregory someone, Gregory Bennet. He used to play in the village league years ago; he was a cricketer. They have very muscular bottoms. Cricketer’s rump, my mother used to call it.’
‘Marjorie, really.’ Evelyn chuckled.
‘Don’t be such a prude, it’s true. Cricketers and ice skaters. You take a look when you get the chance, you’ll see I’m right. Buttocks of steel.’
Evelyn and Marjorie decided that they wanted to have a leisurely stroll along the sea front and the three of us went off to walk through the town, and on to what looked like a bike trail which brought us out to a little beach with little more than some stone seats.
‘I could live here,’ Harriet said after a while.
I tutted. ‘That’s the third time you’ve said that. You said the same thing in Susak and Cres. Do make up your mind.’
‘Well, I could, you know,’ Harriet said. ‘I’ve watched those house finder programmes on TV and occasionally the couple are looking for a house in Croatia. And I’ve always thought, why on earth would you want to move there? Well, now I understand. It’s unspoiled, gorgeous and the people are friendly. And the food is good. As long as you like fish, which I do. You were right about the cost of some of those holiday houses though, I was quite shocked, but there are other places which aren’t quite so high end where I could pick up an absolute bargain. And they often come complete with all the furniture.’
‘That’s because it probably costs a fortune to move anything anywhere. Remember what you said in Susak. I can just imagine you moving all your books into your new house with a wheelbarrow,’ Anna said.
‘I’m going to look into it when I get home, I don’t care what you say,’ Harriet said.
‘But what would you do here?’ I asked.
‘Paint? Write? Just be,’ Harriet said. ‘I haven’t done any of those things for years, and I got a grade one at Art O level. Miss Lowther said I was one of the best students she’d ever had.’
‘It’s not a lot to build a life on,’ Anna said. ‘Something that Lanky Lowther said fifty something years ago.’
‘All right then, I could teach English; I know a lot about that. Better than being at home, hoovering, cleaning and wondering if the girls are okay. And they could come out and visit me here. They would love it. They are all in favour of these simple places, and low carbon what not.’
‘What about health care?’ I said. ‘None of us are getting any younger.’
‘I’d get insurance. And now my knee is getting so much better… Anyway, stop being so negative, it’s just an idea.’
‘We’d miss you,’ I said.
‘You could come and visit me too, you know,’ Harriet said.
‘Stop encouraging her, it’s a daft plan,’ Anna said.
