Once upon an August sunset, he took her to the shores of the village dock, a stone’s throw from his late grandmother’s ancestral stone house. They sat together, hands and memories entwined, on the smooth gray pebbles of shore, pebbles that glittered like fragments of a half-forgotten dream.
"There are many theories in the world", he said, breathing in deeply the aroma of the sea.
She followed his lead. It smelt of brine and seaweed and sundrenched stones.
"Like the one you believe", she asked, "which says that every picture taken of you captures a fragment of your soul?"
"Like that", he agreed. A smile lit his face, a flash of teeth like the ivory foam on the crest of the waves. "Except more cheerful. It’s not Indian this time; it’s Japanese."
"Share". She shivered as a breeze wafted to them from the ocean, chilly and damp with the aroma of the sea. "He pulled her close with an arm twice the size of hers". She reached into her knapsack and pulled out the last of the food she’d packed for the day; two apples were left. As she polished them against her sleeve, he reached into his pocket and handed her his pocketknife.
She listened carefully as he spoke, knowing and appreciating his taste in exotic cultures and well-meaning philosophies. Her skin prickled with goosebumps, as it always did when he hinted at their future together, a future they both knew could not happen due to their Cretan families’ vendetta, but a future the two rebel lovers both yearned for nonetheless. She cut one of the apples, fed him the pieces. She realized that she herself was not hungry and whittled at her apple absent-mindedly.
"There is a notion called Feng Shui", he explained. "Two Mandarin ducks symbolize lifetime love, and their presence in a household is said to bring luck, and sustain romance and fidelity. Much like that creature in your lap".
She looked down in surprise to see that her hands had molded into existence the essence of his thoughts. The apple-duck that nestled in her hands breathed in deeply the aroma of the sea.
Perhaps there was hope after all.
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