Posted by feitheachd on Sun 12 Jul 09, 2:18 AM to feitheachd's blog.
It was only the fifth day but I was already beginning to lose motivation for these early morning runs. Of course the scenery was still spectacular and this was always the best time of the day to appreciate it, but I couldn't get acclimatised to the heat which lay like a fussy woollen blanket over the ground, and the hills just seemed to get hillier and dustier with each passing day.
As I struggled up yet another one of those hills, my mind fully occupied by thoughts of the swim that I'd have at the end of my trial, I became aware of a sound like a thousand horses galloping towards me; then, as I looked up, an opposing sun came up over the brow through the hard shadows of the olive trees and just in time I threw myself into the shallow rocky ditch at the side of the road.
Coughing through the dust, I checked myself for wounds – there was nothing serious, some cuts to my elbow and knee which were both bleeding slightly. Then, through the haze she appeared, at least seven feet tall from my ditch prone position; melting honey skin paraphrased by darker honey clouds, a belt around serpent curves.
Gleaming eyes diminished mine.
“Ah, an English boy…”
The response to the hated error dried on my tongue.
“…you need to take more care, running on a road like this – but you're hurt, you're bleeding.”
A nod, an exaggerated twist; couldn't I show masculine forbearance?
“I have some water but… … there is the more traditional method.”
My still dust blurred eyes stopped just before her hand did.
“Heroes have been blinded for less English boy – close your eyes.”
I sensed more than heard her movements; then, down there in the ditch, I felt the warm splash on my legs and stomach, flecks sparked and then drummed for a moment on my chest; and, as the shadow eclipsed the sun, my face and lips were speckled.
“Ah, nectar English boy, maybe now you are my hero… … now you can run in the Olympiad and win a race in my name.”
It stopped as suddenly as it had begun, and when I sat up in the dusty ditch she had already started up the yellow jeep and pulled up beside me.
Gleaming eyes diminished mine.
“I've been coming this way for a long, long time – maybe I'll see you again.”
And when the jeep dipped over the hill, it seemed as if it had devoured the sun.
