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Hello all who come by!
Hello all who come by!
It's time for the #AprilWEP challenge. During this time of Covid-19 and the challenges it brings, many of us are finding strength, more than ever, in our writing.
My flash came to me when I woke one morning a few weeks' ago, no doubt brought on by the constant inundation of Covid-19 news stories from around the world.
I hope you enjoy my story, which when I analyse it, is a love letter to Santorini in the Greek Islands where I spent a wonderful day a couple of years ago. Like my hero, not long enough.
EVIE’S IDEA
It was Evie’s idea to holiday on the Greek Islands, to spend
a day on Santorini, the insanely beautiful jewel set in the Aegean Sea.
It was Evie’s idea to walk every square mile of that island,
to explore every cave where in World War 11 she told me the locals hid from the
German invaders, spending days and nights huddled together, existing on raw
onions and grass, all that stood between them and mass starvation.
That was until the Germans discovered the caves and the
onions. There was nothing left for the island inhabitants.
They suffered.
They starved.
They died.
As we walked through the streets of Oia along the ridge overlooking the waterfront, Evie regaled me with history of the Greek Islands I never
knew, history she’d kept to herself. ‘To prolong life, the islanders bartered
everything they owned, everything they couldn’t eat. Their possessions were few.
Just old bowls and utensils belonging to their parents and their parents before
them, all the way back to antiquity. They didn’t know these relics would one
day be considered valuable. All that was valuable at the time was their lives
and the lives of their children.'
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Hustling along the beautifully tiled streets of Oia, Evie
grew increasingly irritated by the crowds. They pushed their way along the
ridge, stopping to take in the breathtaking view over the sea, cameras snapping
the whitewashed buildings tottering down the cliffside.
Up and down one set of narrow concrete stairs after the
other.
Then Evie grabbed my arm. She spied the vase. An antique
vase. Perched on its pedestal. In the window of the smallest shop I’d ever
seen.
‘Look.’ She pointed to the whitewashed walls, the bright
blue painted door, the red checked curtains framing the windows. ‘Isn’t it
darling?’
Evie thought everything was darling, except the hot mess of
tourists pushing and shoving, anxious to cram everything into this
island-hopping experience, anxious not to miss the ship which left in two short
hours. When they looked down the hill to Fira, the capital, their cruise ship
loomed like a threat.
‘Evie, let’s keep moving. There’s still a lot to discover.’
She stood gazing in the window, mesmerized. ‘I must have it,’ she said, clambering down two steep steps
into the tiny hole-in-the-wall-dusty-with-desperation shop.
The vase didn’t look as good at close range as it had from
the window. Its main features were covered in years of dust and grime. How long
had it been sitting there, waiting? Evie’s lineage was Greek and by the rapt
look on her face as she traced the delicate lines of the vase, I saw that she
was transported back in time to the stories from her mother’s childhood during
the German occupation, how they’d survived on a diet of onions and grass.
The old Greek shopkeeper approached, his eyes rheumy, his
hair tousled and falling past his shoulders, his front teeth missing as he
beamed at us.
I insisted on checking the base to see if it said made in
China, but no, it seemed genuine, something we could take along to the Antique
Roadshow next time it came to Yorkshire.
‘There are very few of these old vases left,’ the old guy
said, lighting up a filthy-smelling cigar and blowing smoke at the vase. ‘This one
I found myself in a cave high up in the hills near the caldera. Someone had
buried it aeons ago. Must have been their treasure. You are the first to show
an interest. Perhaps it was meant for you.’
We made it down the chairlift to the boat, bathed in the
glorious marmalade sunset over the Aegean Sea.
Evie clutched her vase to her chest as we stood on the deck,
watching the twinkling lights of Santorini disappear. Her eyes were alight with
the fervour one feels when given a peek into the past.
‘We must come back soon,’ she whispered, tears running down
her cheeks.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Home again
I checked in on Evie every evening. We’d share a glass of
ouzo and toast to our next trip. Both being alone, we loved to travel together.
‘I must go back to Santorini,’ she said, a week after we arrived home. ‘I want to spend
days, not hours, exploring. I want to know more about my ancestors. When I listened
to mother’s stories, I was detached. Now I’m invested.’
As we planned our next travel adventure, she nodded at the
vase in pride of place on her mantlepiece.
The vase. Evie was completely obsessed.
I had to admit it was beautiful with its classic lines, its
black silhouette figures, its scrolls.
Then Evie took sick.
We’d congratulated ourselves on making it home before Covid-19
hit, but it appeared we hadn’t.
Evie tested positive.
I tested negative.
The hospitals struggled to contain the outbreak.
Evie demanded she isolate at home.
I was no nurse, so I hired one. I did everything I could. But
Evie was over seventy. In the high-risk category.
Her descent was swift.
Hospital. Intensive care. Respirator. It killed me to watch
her through the glass, gasping for breath as pneumonia took over her lungs.
Dressed in my hazmat suit, mask and gloves, I was allowed a
minute to say goodbye.
Her bony hand reached for mine. ‘Son,’ she said, ‘Come
close. Listen.’
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
After the outbreak was over, I sipped ouzo on my tiny terrace
in the cave-house AirBNB in Oia, anticipating the sunset, talking to the antique
vase in the center of the glass table.
‘Evie. Mother. I’m back. I brought you to your favorite place.
We didn’t have much time that day. Now you have eternity.’
At sunset, as the golden-orange-pink tipped sun dipped into
the Aegean Sea, I made my way down the rocky slope to the rocky shore, my arms
covered in red welts from the riotous red bougainvillea growing wild, snatching
at me each step I took. I reached the beach made up of black, red and white lava
pebbles.
I uncapped the lid of the precious antique vase. ‘Goodbye
Mother.’ Her ashes caught the wind.
It was Evie’s idea.
Her final resting place would be the Aegean Sea.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
WORDS: 1,010
If you haven't yet participated in WEP writing challenges, or you've backslidden, we warmly invite you to participate in two months' time for our June challenge:
I'm writing this over the Easter weekend, eagerly anticipating Andrea Bocelli's Easter Sunday concert on youtube. Here he sings a favorite of mine. Very apt during this time of Covid-19.
Enjoy my post? Please hit my buttons!
