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Upon the arrival of young Dimitris, Ariadne’s anger abruptly stopped. She kindly greeted the
boy and asked him about his parents. Ariadne threw the weeds over the fence, washed her
hands and told us to stop chatting and join Flutura and her husband who were sitting at the
front of the open fast food restaurant, partly covered with kalami (dry grass). We went there
and sat next to Flutura and her husband. They were talking to Kosta, who was washing the
stone tiles with a rubber hose and explaining all the novelties in the restaurant that he and son
introduced that year. During Kosta’s talk, Ariadne interrupted Flutura and inquired about her
well being. At the same time she wondered whether there were any guests on the kseni meria
(foreigner’s side) which Flutura and Lolo passed on the way to the fast food restaurant.
Flutura’s answer was negative; she added that Romano (the owner of a restaurant on the
northern part) had some tourists last week but they have left by now. Ariadne noted that she
heard about that and commented that kseni meria, by which she meant the northern part of the
coast that was mainly populated by the tourist facilities built by newcomers, always had more
tourists than the local side or meria tou horiani. She added that the main reason for this are
more attractive offerings on the kseni meria side, where the major hotels are situated and the
guest houses are generally bigger.
Meanwhile little Dimitris, who roamed around with his elder sister, came to Flutura and with
sad eyes, holding his hand on his bottom tried to tell her something. When Flutura turned to
him, she smelled that he had voided in his pants. Slightly annoyed she looked at Dimitris and
yawned that she had forgotten to take another pair of shorts for him. She asked Kosta if he can
pour some water from the hose to clean his dirty legs and the floor. While washing the floor
he tenderly and with a smile on his face explained to Dimitris that next time he needed to go
to the toilet he should talk to his mother first. Flutura removed his pants and took him to the
sea to wash him more thoroughly. Little Sofia took my hand, looked at me beseechingly and
asked if we could join them. She was all the time looking forward to swim in the sea.
The gravel beach, situated 30 metres down from the restaurant was almost empty. Besides
some children who were playing and shouting in the far distance there were only two families
with young children on the beach. The couples in their mid thirties were resting on colourful
mattresses under the blue and white umbrellas. Their two girls and a boy were playing in the
sea.
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