‘Yeia sou,’ he called.
The two were both knee-deep now and were struggling, their strength sapped by laughter.
‘Yeia sou,’ the man returned.
‘Can I help?’ Josef was addressing the man, but his eyes never left the girl. She stopped when she heard him and stood up quickly. Her hands released from the net and one tugged at her skirt while the other clutched at her blouse. A lock of hair, as black as the vein of rock in the cliffs that housed Josef’s family taverna, had escaped its ties and was hanging over her forehead. The man, who waded then between Josef and the girl, sized him up and down. Josef felt as though his longing was exposed and shifted his cap about his head.
The older man shrugged with a look in his eyes that only now, as an older man, Josef was able to interpret and said,
