“Good for them.”
“Anyway, he traveled a lot for work so we lived all over: London, Athens, Hong Kong. Then, when I was around twelve, he changed jobs, so we didn’t travel as much. We settled in the town where he grew up. I couldn’t understand why we weren’t jetting off to another new place. I used to keep a packed suitcase in my closet. Ready for an adventure at a moment’s notice.” She kicked a pebble along the sidewalk.
“You don’t have an accent.”
“I had an American tutor who traveled with us. But…” She slipped into a patrician British accent. “I suppose I tend to pick up the accent of the locals. Quando a Roma.” She quipped in flawless Italian. “Je parle aussi Francais. Deutsche. Portuguese. Kai ligo ellínikó.” I also speak French, German, Portuguese, and a little Greek.
“Wow. I speak Farsi, Arabic, and Spanish. Between the two of us, we could really do some traveling.” Then he pulled his lips into his mouth as if to silence himself.
Calliope simply laughed and said, “For real. Plus, I have no burning desire to go to Russia or China. I lived in Thailand for a second. That was cool, but there are other places higher on my list of dream locations.”
“What’s number one on that list?”
“Central America,” she said without hesitation.
Tox did a stutter step. Images of the pica caballo tarantula that had crawled into his pack in Nicaragua flashed. The brutal traficantes he faced in El Salvador were also a drawback, but man, he hated spiders.
“Belize, Costa Rica…” She sighed, oblivious to his eight-legged thoughts.
They aimed for a tiny local park as thunder rumbled in the distance and pregnant clouds hung heavy overhead.
He wordlessly conceded if he weren’t ghosting through a hostile jungle, Central America was probably a pretty spectacular place.
“Where’re your parents now? You said they settled in a small town?”
“Yeah, my dad is semi-retired, so they’re pretty much homebodies now. I’m obviously not to that point yet.”
“And where is this tiny town?”
“It’s a pinpoint on the map.”
“Try me.” Tox challenged.
“The closest city is Faro. It’s ...”
“I know it.”
“Really? It’s not exactly a hot zone.”
Tox chuckled imagining the quaint European locale, the farthest thing from a war zone. “No, but I had some leave after an op in… south of there. It’s a beautiful place.”
“It is. I think it’s the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen.”
“You must miss it.”
“I miss my parents, but the town is as pretty as a postcard and equally boring. My mom, it’s weird. We never stayed anywhere for more than a few months. Now, she travels sometimes with my dad, but most of the time she’s just happy at home.” Calliope’s words were tinged with disbelief.
“I mean. I’m happy they’re happy. My mom and my stepdad are like teenagers.” She made a barfing motion with her finger. “They have literally excused themselves in the middle of dinner and gone to bed. To have sex. With a kid at the table!”
“Maybe she found what she was looking for..”
They sat on a green slatted wooden bench.
“I never thought of it like that.” Calliope stared at the sky.
“And you inherited her wanderlust?”
“I feel like it’s imprinted in my DNA. I can’t see myself ever living in the same place for the rest of my life. My grandmother calls me her Kalimpri; it’s Greek for hummingbird. I’ve lived in a ton of cool places, but there’s so much more to see.”