About eighteen months after she had moved back home, Debbie, my neighbour Rachel's daughter, was given a well earned promotion by her employer. With the significant increase in salary that came with her new position, she could afford the mortgage repayments on a place of her own, and with her mother's help, she put down a deposit on a small, but well appointed loft conversion in a refurbished warehouse close to the city centre.
In order to celebrate her daughter's new circumstances, Rachel booked a fortnight's holiday on Cyprus, and as I was living on my own, and also as a way of saying thank you for my help in moving Debbie's belongings into her new home, as well as other favours, Rachel kindly asked me whether I would like to join them. So one Saturday in early May we found ourselves waiting in the departure lounge of Manchester airport for a plane to fly us to the island of Aphrodite.
The flight was uneventful, but the queues at the car hire booths at the airport were long, and it was nearly 90 minutes after our plane had touched down at Paphos International Airport before we were on our way. We took the road in the direction of the village of Kouklia and the area known as Aphrodite Hills, where Rachel had rented a small villa. The area was famous for its proximity to the mythical birthplace of Aphrodite at Petra tou Romiou, and the open air sanctuary where she had been worshipped as the goddess of fertility for over 5,000 years.
We had brought tea and coffee with us, but we stopped at a small supermarket in the village to buy other essential supplies — bread, butter, cheese, cooked meat, olives, tomatoes, etc, and of course, wine. The first thing we did on arrival at our villa, even before unpacking, was to have a simple al fresco lunch in the small garden alongside the pool at the back of the villa. The surroundings were idyllic, and we were serenaded by the chattering of the birds in the pine trees, and the hum of bees in the bougainvillea that cascaded over the walls of the building
After lunch, once we had put our clothes away and stowed our suitcases, we were at last free to change into our bathing costumes, and crash out in the sun beside the pool. Debbie had bought a very skimpy white bikini and brightly coloured sarong especially for the holiday, and I could not help thinking how delicious she looked. The sunlight was intense, and we all started to apply sun lotion to prevent ourselves burning. Debbie asked me to do her back, and to make things easier for me she unhooked her bikini top, letting it fall to reveal her pert young breasts, before lying face down on her lounger.
After doing this very pleasant duty, I wiped my hands, lay back, and picked up the copy of Lawrence Durrell's collected poems, which I had brought with me to read. Many of these had been written when he lived on Cyprus in the 1950s, long before the Turkish invasion and partition of the island — years described in his book 'Bitter Lemons'.
As I leafed through the book, I found the following poem, which seemed very apt with Debbie stretched out on the lounger to my left. The poem was called "To Ping-Ku, asleep" and began with these lines, "You sleeping child asleep, away Between the confusing world of forms, The lamplight and the day, you lie . . ."
As I finished the last lines of the poem, a gentle breeze sprang up, seemingly from nowhere, and ruffled the folds of Debbie's sarong to reveal her white bikini bottoms with little bows at the sides. A sudden naughty thought came unbidden to my mind, that I would like to undo those two little bows, and remove her bikini bottoms altogether. I was also filled with a deep longing that before the holiday was over she would sunbathe naked and allow me to spread lotion on her lovely round cheeks. As I watched her she stirred, and sat up briefly, turning to face me, not caring to conceal her breasts. She mouthed "Uncle Will isn't this wonderful?" before blowing me a kiss and lying down again to luxuriate in the sunshine.
Soon I too was overtaken by the languour of the afternoon, and fell into a light doze, my mind filled with vaguely erotic dreams of beautiful girls in diaphanous gowns dancing around my bed in the sunshine, beckoning to me to get up and follow them. As they danced, it suddenly felt as if fingers were gently stroking my penis through my trunks.
With a start I woke up and looked around, but Debbie was still lying face down, as she had been when I dozed off, and on the other side of the pool Rachel had also fallen asleep. The book she had been reading had slipped from her fingers and was resting on her breasts, so I got up and walked round the pool, gently taking the book from where it had fallen and placed it by her side. I thought that she would not be pleased with a book shaped patch spoiling her tan. I then dived into the pool to cool off, and swam a few lengths, before going into the villa to fix a cool refreshing drink for us all.
The rest of the day passed uneventfully. In the evening we took the car and drove to a nearby taverna, where we had our first Greek meze, followed by baclava and dark sweet Greek coffee. The deep fried baby squid were particularly delicious, so different from the rather rubbery fare in restaurants back home, and the whole meal was washed down by a bottle of the local wine. Rachel and Debbie did not particularly like the resinous flavour, and I must admit that I drank two thirds of the bottle, so it was a good thing that I had added Rachel as a named driver when I hired the car.
The next morning we decided to explore the immediate area, driving first to Aphrodite's sanctuary, before making our way down to the coast to her reputed birthplace at Petra tou Romiou, where Rachel and I sat by the car, while Debbie went off on her own to explore the beach. We were chatting about what a good idea it had been to come to Cyprus, when she came rushing up with another young woman in tow.
Rather breathlessly she managed to blurt out, "Hey Mum and Uncle Will, meet Anastasie. She lives in England, but she is here for the summer staying with her grandparents. They live just down the road from our villa."