Blue Memory

Climbing down the 600 steps to Hades for the second time, I watch my step. You would think that climbing down would be easy, but it's not. Careful to miss what the donkeys before me left, I take my time. I'm in no hurry to get there.

It's hot. Litres of water are being consumed but with little effect. I'm tired and sticky. Sexy. Braided pigtails clinging to my neck. Freckles rapidly darkening in the sun. Why am I doing this to myself again?

Why didn't I just stay at the top with the blue domed churches?  Just to prove I can? Is that reason enough?

Although I've been here, done this and have the t-shirt packed with me somewhere, the view stuns me as it did seven years prior and I find myself elated. Crystal waters lay out before me like a blanket, enveloping the tip of an active still volcano, grey in it's ash.


An excerpt from my novel in progress, about my second visit to Santorini...In response to this week's Theme Thursday prompt of Blue.