Page 9 of The Greek Café

Seated at our table eating our food, we chat easily enough, and Kai agrees to meet me poolside at ten minutes to eleven for the eleven o’clock aerobics session.

‘I will bring the music system down,’ he offers. ‘Then show you where it is stored after the class. Do you want me to take the lead on the first session, and you can follow me?’ he offers. ‘We normally do it in pairs.’

‘Sure,’ I tell him. I felt relieved not to be literally thrown in at the deep end, even though Kai only arrived here a week ago. It will also be useful to find out the expected level of tuition, I guess.

Outside, the sun is already beaming down, and I feel the heat wash over my shoulders, before I return to my room and cover myself in sunscreen.

I change into gym wear – shorts and a fitted vest, before slipping on my trainers. It’s 10 a.m. a glance at my watch tells me so I have time to give my mum a quick call. She’d told me to check in as soon as I was able, and I know she’ll have been up at least an hour by now.

She finds it amusing that I am to sing and dance as part of my duties.

‘Oh, Mum, it’s not funny; you know how worried I get.’

‘Which is precisely why you must do it,’ she advises. I can hear the familiar tune to The Archers strike up on the radio in the background. She must be listening to it on iPlayer, given it’s only 8 a.m. there.

‘Shall I call you back?’ I offer, knowing how much she enjoys listening to it.

‘No, it’s just finishing,’ she tells me. ‘As I was saying, just enjoy the experience. You were quite the performer as a little girl, you know.’

‘I suppose I was, wasn’t I?’ I say, recalling me singing around the house, and enjoying taking part in school plays.

‘Oh, yes. I remember you being desperate to be the lead in your school plays. I have some photos of you being Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz when you were six years of age. I will dig them out next time you visit.’

‘I would love that.’

Her comment reminds me of how much we can change over the years and that we maybe ought to channel our inner child a little more. Everything is wondrous as a child, before life takes over and our childhood imagination is slowly eroded and replaced by hard work and the general worries that being an adult brings. We must never lose the joy and imagination that once inhabit us as children, or else we run the risk of become dull and boring. Unlike my mum.

‘Thanks, Mum, see you soon. Be safe on that zip line tomorrow,’ I tell her, which sounds like a funny thing to be saying to a seventy-year-old.

‘Of course I will,’ she says. ‘Now stop worrying and go for every opportunity that comes your way.’

‘I will,’ I tell her, hoping the aerobics class will be enjoyable. And that it goes without a hitch and no one has an angina attack. But surely something that dramatic could not happen again?

EIGHT

‘Are we ready?’ shouts Kai.

The club music pumps out over the pool as Kai rouses the assembled group of people (mainly women) in the water. Sun worshippers and people reading books are lounging on the sun beds that surround the large kidney-shaped pool.

He is wearing a vest that clings tightly to his six pack, and his shorts reveal legs that are muscular and tanned. His fair hair is immaculately styled. I can see why he draws such a crowd, and, clearly an exhibitionist, he’s loving the attention.

‘Let’s get beach body ready.’ He claps his hands above his head as everyone follows. He makes eye contact and winks at a lady who is maybe in her sixties, and it clearly makes her day. I chuckle as I watch him strut around, then wink at one of the men too.

His routine is easy to follow, and a whole lot of fun. Despite his easy manner though, the routine is quite demanding and some of the women emerge from the pool with red faces, ready for a cooling drink.

‘I enjoyed that,’ I tell him as he shows me to the storeroom, where the music system is kept.

‘Good.’ He smiles. ‘You take the lead tomorrow if you like.’

‘Sure.’

He glances at his watch. ‘We have a twenty-minute break until we swap over lifeguard duties; fancy a frappe?’

‘I’d like that.’

Over coffee at the poolside restaurant, I tell Kai all about my job back home.

‘Ouch, that must have been a shock being made redundant after all that time,’ he says.