Chapter 1; Tim
A soft warm hand on my shoulder, shaking me, waking me and a distant voice echoing around my brain as I sought to establish just who and where I was.
"¿está usted bien?"
"¿Usted necesita ayuda?"
A soft female voice then and the realisation that in fact I had fallen asleep on my beach.
At least, what I considered to be my beach.
In truth it was a small secluded cove about half way along the magnificent Sotovento beach in Fuerteventura. I had found the cove at the end of an overgrown track leading off the main road from Caleta to Jandia.
"¿está usted bien?"
"¿Usted necesita ayuda?.
The same questions were repeated.
" No, I'm OK, thanks," I said pushing myself up onto my knees and dusting the loose sand off my chest. "Sí, Im multa, gracias, yo conjeturan que debo tener dormido caída."
I turned to face the girl who had almost certainly saved me from a bad case of sunburn.
She was stunning, late twenties, around 5'6" tall, 120 lbs, black eyes, dark skinned, with waist length hair tied into a flowing single plait. She was dressed in a wet suit and carrying a snorkel mask.
"Soy Francesca" she said
"and I'm Tim," I replied extending a hand.
"You really should get some sun cream on your shoulders" she said lapsing into a beautifully accented English, "they are looking quite red."
I reached forward and rummaged through my beach bag, pulling out a bottle of an Aloe Vera after sun lotion. In truth my shoulders were beginning to tingle and I checked my watch to see how long I had been asleep, I frowned in surprise as I realised that far from a short nap I had actually slept for a couple of hours.
Francesca saw me checking the time and said, "You were asleep a long time weren't you. I saw you were asleep when I passed here on my way for a swim and when I saw you hadn't moved when I came back I wondered if you were ill or something."
I turned what I hoped was my best smile and said that I had been working all night and had just come down here to chill out for a while.
She asked what I did for a living and I told her that I worked at the airport, looking after the business and private aircraft that routinely used Puerto Del Rosario.
"Would you mind if I joined you for a while," she asked.
"Not at all, would you like a beer?" I said and pulled a couple from my bag and passed one to her, which she accepted with a smile.
She sat beside me and stretched out her long legs.
"How about you," I asked, "How do you spend your time"
"I lecture," she told me, "I teach Spanish History at Madrid University."
We sat and chatted for a while, watching the birds sweeping in to take the fish from the shallow waters along the beach. We talked about each other's lives and occupations as we drank the beers then,
"Look, Tim, I didn't mean to socialise today and I haven't actually brought anything down to change into, but I really need to get out of this wet suit, its making me sweat. I've made myself a little nest up there in the rocks, would you care to join me for a drink or something?"
"Sure," I said, "I've been on the beach too long as it is"
I pulled a pair of shorts over my trunks, grabbed my shirt and stood up, and collected the few things I had brought down with me and stowed them in my beach bag. I followed Francesca up the hill toward where I had left the car but she broke away from the path, toward the base of the hill that overlooks the cove. A stony track virtually invisible led to the very foot of the cliff. She pulled away some branches of loose vegetation, carefully laying them to the side and there in front of us was the entrance to a small cave.
"Welcome to mi casa de la cueva," she smiled, "Come in and make yourself comfortable"
The cave was a lot bigger than I had expected, extending to about 20' in depth and about 15' wide with a ceiling that allowed a person of average height to stand normally without stooping. The single entrance rose to about 7' and was about 4' wide.
It was immediately obvious that this cave had been lived in for many hundreds of years; generations past had made use of its natural shelter. Each generation had added to its décor and there were traces of all of them.
"How did you find this place," I asked, "its virtually invisible from any direction"
Francesca explained that whilst researching the subject of the Guanche tribes of the Canary Islands she had discovered that many of the early tribes had made use of the original geographical features of the landscape and that she had found this one whilst looking specifically for just such a place.