‘You’re never too young,’ jokes Keera lightly.
‘This might sound silly, but I’m beginning to feel like a bit of an interloper,’ India says awkwardly. ‘You’ve obvs got rehab stuff. Dan has his girlfriend attempting suicide. Bernard and Grazia must have something that’s a very big deal because there are two of them here. I’ve no idea what Dianne’s thing is – and me: I’ve got nothing much to talk about compared to that.’
‘Don’t believe you,’ says Keera easily. ‘We’ve all got stuff.’
‘Not big stuff, though,’ India protests. ‘My stuff’s all ordinary.’
‘I bet it’s not. Why did you come?’
India grimaces. ‘It really sounds lame. I’ve been so blessed all my life, I have lovely parents – not that they’re together. I adore my stepmother … None of this is enough for me to be here. I lovedThe Talisman Effectwhen I was young. Rose is so cool, isn’t she? She looks totally different than from on TV, though. I like the hippie vibe – it suits her. The long silvery hair, cool.’
‘Very cool,’ agrees Keera.
‘I love that she can listen to you and ask the right questions,’ India goes on. ‘I guess I thought she could sort my life out.’
‘You see?’ Keera says. ‘You do have stuff. What needs sorting out?’
‘Normal stuff …’ India says hopelessly. ‘Nothing big. I have this problem with guys – I meet them, we hook up and just when I think it’s for ever, they leave. I haven’t dated anyone longer than six weeks in, like, two years. I wonder if there’s something wrong with me.’
‘That’s stuff,’ Keera points out.
‘I suppose.’ India’s silent.
‘I’ve realised that I don’t want to leave it too late to have a child.’
Saying it is a rush. The words are out there.
She’s half-waiting for Keera to say:How can you look after a child, you don’t know what you want to do with the rest of your life, never mind take care of a baby?
She rushes in to correct herself: ‘I mean, it’s OK if you don’t and I’m not making the point that all women should have children because, obviously, it’s a deeply personal thing—’
‘It’s OK,’ says Keera. ‘Your wanting a child doesn’t upset me. You do you and I’ll do me. I don’t see me wanting kids because I’m not sure I want to pass these genes on.’
She grimaces.
‘I’ve got to say that I’m not in a maternal phase right now – but who knows. Thing is: youdowant a baby.’
‘Yes.’ India sighs a huge heartfelt sigh. ‘If you did rehab, why are you here? Sorry if that’s too personal,’ India adds.
‘It’s life and family stuff,’ Keera says quickly. India gets the impression that she doesn’t want to scare her off.
They walk on in silence.
As they reach the craggy path down to the beach, the vast, shimmering Ionian Sea is splayed out in front of them: infinite, mysterious.
In the distance, there’s a sea haze floating over the blue.Beneath the gentle waves, there’s an unknowable kingdom filled with coral, seaweeds, mysterious fish, big and small.
Both women gaze at it.
The sea has been here for millennia, seeing problems, worries, women’s tears falling onto this beach.
And then suddenly, those same women are gone, and the next generation and the next come along. The thought of it was making the two women standing on the shore feel their insignificance beside this huge part of their planet. That their current worries were puny things in the huge scheme of the ancient and modern worlds.
‘It’s so beautiful,’ sighs India, taking off her sandals and delicately walking across the flat rocks that lead to the sand and pebbles lining what Christos had called the Kri Kri beach.
‘It means a type of wild goat,’ he had said. ‘We don’t have this goat any more in Corfu, only in Crete and the smaller islands. They are very beautiful but wild, very wild.’
India loves the feeling of the sand and the pebbles on her feet. She feels connected to the earth.
