ECHOES

There it was – the unmistakable smell of lavender

This holiday was an unmitigated mistake

July 2022

They weren’t butterflies in her stomach, she told herself. Well, not exactly.

She realised now, a little late, that she’d spent virtually no time considering how it would actually feel to be back. The trip had been so last minute that this precise moment had barely reached her long list of thoughts.

Yet here she was. Now. In the present that she really should have contemplated, with a sensation unexpectedly akin to butterflies in her tummy.

Liv pulled over, lowered the car window and killed the engine. Now. Today. Here. This moment had to be lived.

It was only a few hours past dawn and the road was virtually empty – with tourists, the sun and cicadas in a conspiracy of early-morning lethargy, none yet fully awake. Liv smiled and exhaled slowly. Then, inhaling, she caught her breath. There it was – the unmistakable smell of lavender, so faint and gentle on the motionless air, it too awaiting the relentless heat of the day to relinquish its full power.

This was a place that time forgot. That she too had forgotten or, at least, set to one side. For 37 years? An entire lifetime.

Yet, if she sat here long enough, the years would simply fade away.

The butterflies melted. There was no need for them, Liv thought, restarting the car. Along