The Greek for Love by James Chatto

Author:James Chatto [Chatto, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-36870-6
Publisher: Random House of Canada
Published: 2005-05-15T04:00:00+00:00

OUR LAST NIGHT with Eddy began with a candlelit feast in his honour. Planks were laid across the tea chests and dressed with a blanket and my grandmother’s embroidered tablecloth, unpacked for the occasion. Jars filled with scarlet explosions of poppies from the garden adorned the bookshelves. We began with hunks of soft, crusty white bread and saucers of new, green olive oil for dipping. Then fresh baby sardines, tossed in flour, pan-fried in olive oil and dressed with pepper and lemon juice. The best way to eat them was to pick them up by the tail and pop them into your mouth, biting off the tail and crunching down. A preliminary decapitation with knife and fork was a permissible option. Our main course was a shoulder of lamb baked in the Greek way—long and slowly until the tender, juicy meat almost parted company with the bone and the skin was crisp beneath its marinade of garlic, salt and oregano. Artichokes, haricot beans and tomatoes had shared its roasting pan, while in another dish sweet white onions braised in white wine, pepper and bay leaves. It was the first real meal I had cooked in the little gas stove, and it turned out well. Dessert was less elaborate—apples and bars of chocolate—and then we cleared the table, leaving the dishes for tomorrow, and played poker for hours, until Wendy went up to bed.

Voices would have kept her awake, so Eddy and I went outside into the warm night and sat on the old stone wall. There was no moon, but the stars were bright. Down in the blackness beneath the olive trees, fireflies danced. A tiny scops owl was using the oak tree above us as a watchtower, and its single, high-pitched peep marked the time at regular intervals, answered by other owls below us in the valley.

“It’s all about to begin for you two, isn’t it,” observed Eddy quietly. “Not a bad place to raise a family.”

May 3, 1983

Dear Ros,

There ought to be a very good reason why I haven’t written in a week, like having a baby, but nothing yet. There have been plenty of times in the last three months when I have longed to postpone the event. Now we’re here and I want it to happen SOON. I’ve been getting lots of abdominal cramps in recent days, and thought it might be labour. Spent all day timing the cramps and cleaning the house in case we had to suddenly LEAVE, but no dice. My stomach is as hard as rock and the baby is constantly on the move. After months of assuming it was a girl, I now feel convinced it’s a boy. I went to the doctor’s again and this time he says I’ll be right on time—May 10th!! On the way back we stopped at the Nissaki Beach Hotel, which has just reopened for the season. It’s a beautiful modern hotel halfway along the coast between Kassiopi and Corfu Town. We went to the

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