Outside, the breeze persisted, sunlight streaking down throughhigh, threadbare clouds. There was little protection from the elements up in their village, which was why every garden came with tall walls, built there long ago to protect crops and livestock. Far beyond the road, the sea stretched wide and dark, a sweep of blue so breathtaking it still caught Skye off-guard.
“Do you ever catch yourself thinking this might all be a dream?” she asked Joy. “I know this is our home now, but that feels absurd somehow. I mean, why us, of all the people who must’ve entered that lottery, how did we get so lucky?”
Joy smiled rather wistfully. In the light, her eyes looked every bit as green as her outfit.
“I don’t question the good stuff,” she said. “You know I went through it after Bobby. I suppose I see this as my reward. You lost your dad, didn’t you? Perhaps this is your peak after that trough?”
“That’s a nice idea,” Skye said, reluctant to commit further. “Or we could be about to wake up in our beds and find that the last year or so never happened.”
“If Bobby was in that bed, I’d go right now,” Joy said.
After that, they fell into a companionable silence, arriving at the mini-market ten minutes later to find Cora on her hands and knees outside, chasing down errant postcards.
“The children knocked over the display,” she said as Skye scooped up several cards bearing the image of a donkey in a sun hat. “They are bored, so they play.Éla, how are you both?”
Before either woman could reply, two child-shaped bullets fired out through the shop door and ran squealing into the road, the eight-year-old Iris pursuing her younger brother, Ajax. Cora clapped her hands furiously, shooing them back inside. Skye and Joy followed.
“They are like monsters,” she exclaimed with an exasperated laugh.
Ajax slid open the lid of the freezer and helped himself to a Popsicle in the shape of a rocket.
“Stamata,” Cora admonished. “No more sugar.”
The little boy tore off the wrapper and let it drop to the floor, yelping as his mother made a lunge for him. Iris, meanwhile, had crept behind the counter and was now scrolling through Cora’s phone. Not wanting to let on that she’d witnessed such mischief, Skye moved down the aisles, putting semolina flour, olive oil, and fresh tomatoes into a basket, while Joy perused the bread selection. They met by the fridge and agreed on a block of locally made manouri cheese, which was similar to feta only less tangy. The mini-market had a section at the back for household items, and Skye found a rolling pin for six euros.
“It’ll save me having to use a bottle of ouzo to roll out the pasta,” she said to Joy, who was advancing with a bottle of white wine.
“You ladies are making matsata,” Cora said as she scanned each item.
“Mama.” Iris tugged her mother’s arm, her solemn gaze settling on Skye as she murmured in Greek.
“Éla, agápi mou, you can ask her yourself.”
“Ask me what?” Skye smiled at the girl, but Iris buried her face against her mother’s shoulder.
“She is shy to speak in English,” Cora explained. “They have only begun it this year at school, and she does not have much chance to practice.”
“I’m shy to speak in Greek, too,” Skye told the girl, which Cora quickly translated.
Iris’s eyes widened, and then, haltingly, she said, “You are very pretty.”
“Why, thank you.” Skye jokingly flicked her windswept hair. “Efcharistó.”
“Parakaló,” Iris replied, and then, looking to her mum for reassurance, she asked, “A bag?”
“I have one, thank you—and your English is very good. Bravo.”
Ajax sidled up beside Skye, a Popsicle stick poking out from one side of his mouth.
“Geiá sou,” she said, crouching to greet him properly. Without warning, Ajax threw himself into her arms, squeezing her so tightly that she almost fell backward.
“What was that for?” she asked when he scurried away.
Cora stared after her son in bewilderment.
“He must like you,” she said. “Whenever hisgiagiácomes to visit, she always wants him to sit on her knee, but he refuses. Screams like a baby goat if we make him.”
Iris looked inquisitively up at her mother, and once again, Cora translated what she’d said.
