PIPE DREAMS #1 THE TRIP

Day 4. (part 4)

We woke up two hours later. He woke up first and then he woke me up too, with hugs and kisses. It felt so nice that i wanted us to stay like this forever and to not leave the bed for any reason but we had to. 

"Do you know any good restaurant to go to eat?", he asked me.

I suggested one in the village plaza. After a while, we went to the bathroom, had a shower separately, dried our hair, styled them, got dressed and left my house. We headed to the direction of the restaurant that i told him. In the route, we were starring at the beach that was empty and i was explaining to him how during the summer, it is filled with umbrellas and plastic deck chairs, everwhere, from one side to the other. We watched the cafeterias that they open only in the summer months and they get filled with lots of people and payed attention to how they look now that they are closed. 

In the path we had to walk for the plaza, i showed him a fountain that is there and informed him that they turn it on whenever they want, you never know when you will see it working but it's very beautiful and he laughed. In front of that, many times, they set up a stage that they use for events and some of the events are with traditional dancers that arrive here from all places of Greece and people come to watch them and applaud them, others are dancing to the music. It's so much fun.

Sometimes, it has street musicians when there isn't a stage here and they play their music, singing and people are gathering all around them and checking them out. From either side it might have street vendors that are selling their goods, but mostly they are selling all types of jewelry. When, there is a feast to celebrate the Saint of the only church in this village that happens once in a year, it has everywhere, literally everywhere, without missing even the smallest spot, merchants that selling all that you could think of from food to clothes, shoes, socks, items for your home, everything.

We moved on and to our left, i showed him a park for kids there. 

"We used to come here a lot when i was small. I pressured my parents to bring me, to play on the swings and with the others kids that were coming to this place. I loved the slide and the monkey bars and to hang my self from there upside down. I think i liked to see the world that way because i spent most of my childhood with my head down and my feet up while my mother was yelling at me that all my blood will be only in my head and it won't go to other parts of my body as it should and that i don't let it circulate properly", i shared with him.

How easy it is to make friends when you are a kid. No requirements, no demands, no judgement. And, how do we lose this ability later? Maybe, we ask too many things from others. Maybe, it's the cynicism. Probably, during our lives we become too closed off to let anyone easily in. We search for excuses of why we should do that and these keep us apart. It is possible to be because we are too suspicious and we have raised so high walls so that we don't get hurt, to not get disappointed from others and also from ourselves that we will meet them through our confrontation with others. But, don't we condemn this way our selves to a life of loneliness? Though, isn't it loneliest thing, when we waste our time with people that don't understand us and that it would be impossible to ever do?

While i looked at this park, i saw it full of kids that were playing, even if it doesn't have any right now. The memories are still existing, too vividly inside my head. Many images have stuck in my mind and they jump from my subconscious from previous summers, whatever i can remember, maybe with a little dose of imagination and fill me with all kinds of different emotions, travel me back to more innocent times. I can see this special code of communication that kids have and understand each other, sometimes without even needing to use words, that can connect children from different countries, that don't speak the same language but they can play for hours together, that now that i grew up, i don't understand anymore, how they can make it happen. 

Children are chasing one another. They were playing on the swings. They were coming down from the slide. And, suddenly i'm a child again and play with them. I hang my self from the monkey bars and i can't control this wholehearted laughter that comes from inside of me. The place is full of screams, laughs, games, enjoyment, freedom and i don't want this to end.

Then, the thought of my friend's mother came to mind to shout to me to come down from the slide. I don't remember where Liza was at that moment, probably she was playing somewhere. I only remember her mother. She used to take us both and bring us here. Her father probably was around too. My Liza, my sweet friend, where are you right now? Probably at home in Thessaloniki, waiting Nick to leave, so i can tell you everything that happened during this trip. 

I have spent so many moments throughout my summers when i was younger here but after i grew up, i was passing from the outside area of this park and i didn't even give a glimpse to what was going on, on the inside. I just continued walking and going to wherever i was going. And, now that i wanted to show to him all the things that are important to me, i was flooded with memories. This happens too when you grow older, you forget. Despite that, they came back to me to remind me what i lived, how i grew up and how fast time flies and that i don't have to forget to let my self enjoy life like a little kid, playfully, curiously, with lots of wonder and without rules. 

Nick hugged me from behind, kissed my cheek and brought me back to reality. 

"Where are you travelling?", he said to me.

"I remembered my childhood. The time when we used to come here with Liza and not only with her and we played. 

"I think you told me that Liza has a home close to yours."

"Yes. It is a little above ours. We used to go to the same school in Thessaloniki and both us had a home in Kallikrateia. And, our homes weren't far away from each other, what a luck! So all these years side by side, spending our falls, winters, springs, summers in the company of one another, it's no wonder why we are best friends now. We have very similar characters and we are both crazy too or maybe we developed these together. Who knows?! It wasn't only one or two years."

He turned my body to look at him. He caressed my cheek and left a kiss on my mouth. He made two steps and offered me his hand and told me "Let's go". I looked for a last time at the park, i  gave him my hand and followed him. We headed to the beginning of the plaza where it has some palm trees in middle and the whole time he hugged me tightly in his arms and kissed my right temple. I didn't want him to let go of me, for anything in the world. 

"Do we have more?", he asked.

"No, we are very close to the restaurant."

And, before we knew it, we reached to our destination. We sat across from each other. He starred at me at first, with his shinning, foxy eyes and gave me a look full of meaning. Then, we found ourselves feeling awkward for some reason that i don't understand and we were laughing with each other non-stop. 

We decided to order two rations of pasta, that they looked so delicious when they arrived, with a nice salad containing tomatoes, cucumbers and lots of olive oil. The owner brought us too a really tasty, steamy bread to accompany our food. We were dipping all the time, the bread in the oil and we couldn't get enough of it or we were leaving the bread in the salad till it gets pretty soaked and we were pinching it with the fork and ate it. 

After some time, we started playing and feeding each other from that sinked in the oil breads and laughing. At some point and while he was feeding me, a little bit of the oil run underneath my lower lip and i placed my hand to cover my mouth and my chin before i wiped it with a napkin that i had near to my plate but he came from my side of the table and sat to the chair next to mine and hit my hand when it reached the napkin and he took it away from me. I continued covering my face with my one hand and with the other i was trying to take the napkin from him. I looked at him thoroughly, trying to understand what he wants from me and what he wants to do. 

"Remove the hand from your mouth", he ordered me. 

"That's not going to happen! Ever!"

I tried again to grab the napkin from him but he didn't let me. 

"My face is dirty. Give it to me."

"That's why i'm here. I want to see it."

"Are you okay? NO!"

"Please give me the napkin. "

"No! Remove your hand!

"No", but he wasn't willing to give up, so in the end i gave up and took my hand from my face. For a moment, i tried to put my hand back on but then i understood what he wanted, so i let him to have his own way. Maybe, there was a part of me that wanted it too, so i allowed him to do what he wanted to do. And, of course he spread his tongue, a little under my lips where the oil was and licked it, while keeping eye contact and ending up kissing me. We looked at each other for some seconds, then we both closed our eyes and go on with the kiss. 

During our time at the restaurant, we both tasted each other's pasta because we both ordered different ones. He chose spaghetti bolognese and i chose pasta shells with cream sauce. Many times we moved from our seats and we went to sit to the chair next to the other. If someone was looking at us, they would wonder why we didn't sit side by side and we continued to sit on the two opposite sides of the table, that we had to change seats all the time. I guess we liked to stare one another and to sit close to the other too, so we couldn't pick. But, we didn't spend time thinking of what others will think. We were just enjoying our time together. 

When we asked for the bill, the owner came and brought it to us while teasing us with his eyes but we didn't bother at all. We might had fun with all this, maybe because it felt like the whole world was smiling at us. There wasn't another place on earth that i would rather be, other than the one there, with him. All my defences were down.