Chalkida- Love in Greece

A Story by Willow Clark

Love in Greece. Excerpt from a longer piece I'm working on.

I looked up when Karlos got into the car with a bag in his hand. “Sorry about leaving you out here for so long.”
“That’s alright,” I shoved the magazine back under the seat.
“These are for you,” He said, reaching into the bag and pulling out a pair of sandals.
They were simple but pretty. “Thank you,” I said as I slipped them on and admired how well they fit.
“Perfect shoes for Chalkida,” he said, starting the car.
“For who?” I pulled the price tag off the shoes.
“Chalkida. That’s where we’re going.”
“You don’t have to work today?”
“I can’t work today,” he stated simply, pulling out of the ramp and back into the Greek sun.
“Why not?”
“Because I’m taking you to Chalkida,”

*****
Two hours later we were in Chalkida, walking along the river with our bellies full of gyros.
“Isn’t it amazing?” Karlos asked, looking out over the river. He took my hand as we continued to walk.
“It is,” I agreed, following his gaze, secretly giddy that he was holding my hand.
“It’s the Channel of Evripos,” he said as if there was some significance to the name.
I stared at him blankly.
“The current changes direction every six hours. See, it’s going that way now, but if we stay long enough we will see it go the other way,”.
“Magic,” I said. Half joking, half believing it really was magical.
“People have driven themselves crazy trying to explain it. They say Aristotle threw himself in and drowned himself out of despair when he couldn’t solve the riddle of the changing tide,”
“Really?”
“That’s what they say but I don’t think it actually happened. Aristotle was a pretty smart guy. I don’t think he would let a river do him in,” he said, as if he knew Aristotle personally.
“You should get a picture here, to show all your friends at home,” He said, taking his phone out and posing me by the rail. Standing back he snapped the photo. “Beautiful,” he said. Then he snapped another photo as he put his arm around me and kissed my cheek. “That picture is for you.” Then he kissed me again. “That was for me” he said. “That kiss was magical.”
I raised my eyebrow.
“Seriously. So magical it stopped the current.” He said. I looked back at the channel and saw that it had stopped.
“Magic kisses, huh? If only Aristotle had known. The reason the tide changes direction is because you’re here kissing all the girls,” I said.
“Not all of them. Just the pretty ones,” and with that he patted my cheek and started walking away. “Enough magic. We need some ice cream,”.