Chapter 18: 18. Road Trip

I glanced over my shoulder through the balcony door and smiled, "Looks like she's done. Let's head back in and see how it went."

"Judging by her smile I'm sure it was fine Lexi," Eva replied with a smile of her own.

The two of us were out on the balcony, we'd spent the previous forty-five minutes or so looking at the old Venetian harbour and fortress, watching boats come and go while we chatted idly with each other.

As we went back into the hotel room Marianne playfully scolded us, "I told you two, you don't have to go off and hide every time I get on the phone with my mother."

"I know," I shrugged as I joined her on the sofa. "But it's a nice view, the weather's good, and I don't mind the private time with Eva."

Our demon asked, "How was your call Marianne? You look happy."

My girlfriend smiled widely, "It was a good call, and I'm very happy. In fact this whole week has been wonderful, you know? The past eight days have been amazing."

"Actually what am I saying? The last thee weeks have been heaven," she added as she pulled me into a tight hug. "Eva, Lexi, I cannot thank you enough for bringing me with you on this trip. And for indulging my interests here in Heraklion."

Before either of us could respond she asked, "I hope you two have been enjoying yourselves as well? I hope these last few days haven't been an ordeal for either of you."

I smiled and shook my head, "Definitely not an ordeal Marianne. It's been really interesting, and yes I've enjoyed it."

"Same," Eva agreed.

It didn't take us long to abandon all the plans we made last week. There was just too much to see, too much to do, it was impossible to get it all done in three or four days. In fact things pretty much went off the rails starting last Monday morning.

Instead of touring the city on foot we went back to the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion, with the plan to visit the upper floor since we missed that last Sunday. We thought we'd do that in the morning, then in the afternoon we'd begin our tour of the city. What actually happened was we spent the whole day at AMH, exploring the upper floor in the morning then in the afternoon we revisited Marianne's favourite exhibits on the main floor.

Then my girlfriend couldn't wait to see Knossos so we found a tour bus and spent all day there on Tuesday. That wasn't enough for her so we were back again on Wednesday for a second full day at the ruins. Not that I could blame her though.

I'd been expecting it to be more of the same stuff we'd seen before, like at ancient Akrotiri or Thera. And it sort of was, but it was also a whole lot more. Even to my uneducated eyes it was impressive. I'd seen it referred to as a palace, and I could believe it. The site was enormous, it covered multiple levels, and the restored bits looked amazing.

From what I understood it was like the capital of the Minoan civilization or something, so for Marianne it was every bit as important and fascinating as all the stuff we saw at the archaeological museum.

Thursday and Friday were both spent doing walking tours around the heart of Heraklion. We saw the old defensive walls and a few of the original main gates. We saw fountains and squares and a bunch of old buildings. And we toured the old Venetian port, and that old fortress on the other side of the port.

Yesterday we finally visited a couple more museums, we went to the Historical Museum of Crete in the morning then spent our afternoon at the Natural History Museum.

And the past three nights me and Marianne were also out enjoying the local night-life. That was totally new for me, like going out and doing fun fashionable things. Or in other words, we visited a night club and went dancing.

According to Marianne the night life in London was better, and in Paris was best. Though she wasn't unhappy with the club in Heraklion, but she explained it's because this was a smaller city and the scene was more touristy.

Today had been a lot quieter. Thanks to being out drinking and dancing till the wee hours of the morning, we slept in late today. We had brunch around noon, then Marianne got her tablet out and worked all afternoon while my demon watched movies and I got caught up on my social media.

"Would either of you like to go out?" Marianne finally asked as she stood up and stretched. "We could take a bit of a walk, then find someplace to have dinner. And we should revisit our plans for touring the rest of Crete."

I nodded, "Sounds good to me. What do you think Eva?"

Our demon agreed, and within a few minutes we were out wandering around Heraklion once again. We didn't do any big walks or tours though, and it didn't take long before me and my girlfriend had enough of the walking. We found a restaurant with a nice patio and the three of us sat down for some drinks and a light dinner.

There wasn't a lot of planning to be done, mostly Eva just reminded us about covering the island as the three of us drove around and visited some of the other cities and tourist sites and stuff. Marianne still wanted to see a couple more archaeological sites too, but that fit right in with Eva's road trip idea.

After dinner we ended up just going back to the hotel, where we had an early night. Our demon made herself scarce while me and my girlfriend shared some quality time together on the balcony, the sofa, and eventually the bed. And despite our early night the two of us managed to make it a late morning too, despite having a lot to do once we finally did get up.

It was already past noon on Monday by the time we packed up, checked out from the hotel, rented a car, and stocked up on supplies for our road trip. So we delayed our start a little longer by having a nice lunch in a fancy restaurant in Heraklion.

Then at about half past one in the afternoon I finally slipped behind the wheel for the very first time since becoming Lexi. Marianne was in the passenger seat next to me, and Eva appeared in the back seat behind us.

"You look a little apprehensive cutie," my girlfriend commented with a smile. "You're sure you can do this?"

I blushed but nodded, "It's fine. I promise, I do know how to drive. And it makes more sense for me to do it, since you're going to be better at navigating. After all, you can read the maps and road signs. I can't."

You are reading story Missed Connections at novel35.com

Having said that I was still a little anxious about driving in a foreign country. At least they drove on the right side of the road here, I didn't think I'd ever want to try driving in the UK.

Without wasting any more time I got the car started and the three of us set out on our very first road trip adventure. At least it was my first road trip, and I was pretty sure it was Eva's first as well. I wasn't sure if Marianne had done any road trips, but I couldn't rule it out.

Getting out of the city was a little stressful, there was a lot going on around me between pedestrians, buildings, traffic, and numerous twists and turns. And having everything in another language just added to the whole experience.

I managed to survive it though, and before long we were on one of the main roads heading west away from Heraklion. And a few kilometres later we were on the main east-west highway. It more or less followed the north coast of the island, although to start with it took us sort of north up the west side of the Gulf of Heraklion.

Before long the road turned to the left and we were finally heading mostly west, towards Rethymno and the other cities and towns in that direction.

I soon realized that the highway didn't exactly hug the coast. In some areas it did, but there were also stretches that were further inland. The scenery was nice though, and out away from the city it was a pleasant drive through some hilly rugged-looking countryside.

For the next little while all three of us were quiet, just enjoying the drive and the scenery. We passed a few small communities as we continued our way west, and after a little while that led me to come up with a question.

"Eva are you sure you won't miss your daughter while we're driving along the highway?" I asked as I glanced back at her. "What if she's at one of these places we go past, keeping herself hidden?"

She replied, "Don't worry Lexi, I'm using a different kind of magic now. Instead of looking specifically for my child, I'm looking for any trace of anything demonic. This magic isn't as accurate, but it is easier and covers a wider area. If I sense another demon then we can stop and take a closer look with more accurate magic."

Before I could respond she added a little sadly, "If there is a demon on Crete this will help me find her, but to be honest I don't have high hopes. I think if she was here she would have been in Heraklion. Searching the rest of Crete is another long-shot, like Milos was."

That left me quiet and feeling a bit sad as well.

"I don't want to sound negative but if this is a long-shot, then what's our next move after Crete?" Marianne asked softly. "If we don't find your daughter here, where are we going next?"

Eva sounded more confident as she replied, "We will fly to Naples. My lover lives there, I know exactly where she makes her home. And if she's been forced to move in the past three millennia, we will search the area around Naples. She's lived there almost her entire life, she won't have gone far. And she will know exactly where our child is."

Me and Marianne were both quiet for a few seconds, then my girlfriend asked "If you know exactly where to find her, why didn't we go straight there after we knew your daughter wasn't on Santorini?"

Even without looking I could tell Eva was blushing just from the tone of her voice, "Partially because I wanted to find my child first. My lover is even stronger than me, I know she'll be ok. But partially because I knew visiting here would make you happy Marianne."

I couldn't help smiling, while my girlfriend blushed and struggled to come up with a response.

"Thank you Eva," she finally said. "I appreciate the opportunities you've given me, and this trip has made me very happy. I just hope we find your family soon? Me and Lexi both want to see you happy too."

"Same," I nodded. "I know we'll find them Eva. If not here, then like you said we'll get the answers in Naples."

It actually didn't take very long before we arrived at Rethymno, which was our first stop. It was smaller than Heraklion, but was apparently just as old. According to Marianne it was first settled by the Minoans.

Marianne already had a hotel picked out and she guided me to the right spot so we could park the car and get checked in. It wasn't as fancy as the other places we'd stayed so far on our trip, but it was right downtown and pretty close to the harbour and marina, so we had a decent view again.

Our plan was to spent two nights there, which gave us a full day in the city to explore. They had a couple museums and there was an old Venetian fortress that we'd be checking out. Marianne and Eva both said we'd be back on the road again come Wednesday, but I figured I'd wait and see how it played out.

It was still fairly early so we ended up heading out on foot to get a head start on our touring. Our first stop was the Archaeological Museum of Rethymno, but when we got there we found out they were closed on Mondays. So we just wandered around a while, till we ended up at the old fortress. It was only four or five hundred years old and wasn't related to Marianne's studies at all, but it was still kind of cool to explore.

When it got towards dinner time the three of us found ourselves a promising-looking restaurant, and after that we spent some time at one of the local night clubs. I was a little surprised to note more than a few UK accents around, but when I commented on that my girlfriend explained this city and our next stop at Chania both had a lot of British immigrants. In fact she said Crete was a popular destination for a lot of folks from northern and western Europe.

That made me smile as I looked to Eva and commented, "That includes you right?"

Our demon smiled but shook her head, "Most of my visits to this part of the world were to Santorini, to see my child."

That was about it for the first day of our road trip. After an hour or two in the night club we returned to the hotel and got some rest. The following day was interesting but turned into a bit of a blur for me, like it could have been exchanged for any day we spent in Heraklion.

It was more meaningful to Marianne, she enjoyed seeing the Minoan artwork and other exhibits at the archaeological museum. We spent half the day there, visited another museum in the afternoon, then explored more of the old city before we finally stopped for dinner and drinks.

We got off to a slow start Wednesday morning, but once we were up and moving we actually stuck to our schedule. We checked out of the hotel around noon and had a nice lunch in Rethymnos, then continued our road trip west.

It wasn't that far to our next stop at Chania, where we planned to spend another couple nights.