After asking directions to the Kamari Hotel from one of the street side kiosks, I looked out again at the yachts quietly anchored in the bay. I knew it would be only an hour or so before a motor launch would be sent from the blue-hulled ship to the shore with its foreign dinner party. Perhaps some of the eight guests on board, or perhaps all of them, were already ashore and would be arriving for the rendezvous at the hotel—a meeting for some mysterious reason scheduled so much earlier in the year, according to Kimiko.

            Making my way over several cross streets I found the hotel in question. It was island white and lit up in the darkness with impressive spotlights. A good thirty minutes before the event was to get underway, I entered the premises and attempted to get my bearings inside. As I walked in, there were several tourists standing at the registration desk and beyond it I could see the lights became more intimate and amber. The décor was romantic and I could make out a modest bar area and beyond it still, a larger dinning area. As I passed by the guests who were checking in, I was convinced they were much too young and unsophisticated to be a part of any nefarious cabal I was interested in. I walked passed them towards the bar.

            My heart nearly stopped when I saw her. She was sitting alone at a small corner table, obviously awaiting her dinner party to arrive and to greet them there before entering the more formal dining room. It was definitely the mysterious woman I had seen the evening before seated in a graceful yoga position, out on her breathtaking pool deck high above the sea. This night she wore a light blue, full length dress, somewhat diaphanous, with her tanned body glowing within it. Her jet-black hair was brushed down close to her striking features, and these made further her age to be a great mystery, though in the temporal ground of our own time she appeared somewhere between thirty and forty. She was undeniably and attractively steeped in that age of a woman's peak of sophistication and desires.

            As I approached her she did not look up, and it was not until I was standing right before her in the relatively empty bar that she raised her face to mine and our eyes connected for a long moment. I pulled my courage together and persisted with the plan I had devised, should I ever be given this unforgettable opportunity.

            "Pardon me," I imposed of her. "Do you know where I might find a woman they call "La signora di Venezia esima vita maledetta"?

            She did not react as I had expected her to.

            "Do I know you?" She quietly asked, looking at something in her hand.

            "No," I said. "So far . . . no."

            She looked down into her hand once more. In it was a delicate, diamond watch she strangely held but did not wear.

            "Well then I want to know why you asked me that question." She said calmly, directly.

            Only then did she seem to be looking more carefully at my facial features. Concentrating, perhaps thinking back centuries, trying to remember.

            She looked at the watch once more.

            "I'm not with them," I said nonchalantly. "If that's what you're thinking.

            "I can see that . . . So may I offer you a drink?"

            I was dying inside of anxiety but somehow kept my poker face during this game at hand.

            "Please. Sit down. I want to talk to you."

        I took the chair across from her, unwisely with my back to the entrance. She placed the diamond watch on the table.

         "We don't have much time to talk now," she said. But I believe we should resume this conversation very soon."

             "I agree. Perhaps sometime after your meeting tonight?"

         "Yes. I think that is a certainty." Her face was now glowing as her interest had turned to intrigue.

           "Fine.  When and where?" I asked boldly. Yet I had the frightful feeling any minute we would be intruded upon from behind.

            "Tomorrow.  In Space," she said,

            "Space?"

            "It's a club. In Chora."

            "When?"

            "Ten o'clock. Before they open. We'll be able to talk then.

            "In the evening, then?"

            She smiled at me--a little seductively, and in complete control.

            "No. In the morning. We can talk then. And I'll be alone."

            I got up from the table and picked up the watch which lay in front of her.

            "You should really wear this thing" I said. "It suits you very well."

            "I hate time." She answered enigmatically, and smiled more fully.

            I placed the diamond timepiece back into her hand.

            "I never like it either." I said, nodding to her as a 'good-bye.'

            As I walked back out toward the concierge desk, I saw the well-dressed group we had both waited for entering the hotel from the darkness. It was firstly two couples--the first younger, looking to be celebrities of some sort by their impeccable dress, their sheer charisma and animated gestures. The second couple were more subdued and older, perhaps in their fifties or sixties. Obviously they were still close as a couple. The other four were men. Two were rather physically fit and dangerous looking—Russians or Ukrainians it seemed, and the other two very refined and sophisticated. These last y looked to be Scandinavians. Each man had a regal air about him, like he could have descended from royalty, been a diplomat or perhaps a world leader.

            The group found their way back to the dining area and I delayed my exit just long enough to see them meet with my own new contact--Melina Vespucci, as Kimiko had named her. The party of eight congregated with loud greetings as they all kissed Melina on both cheeks—European style, followed by animated compliments and words of good cheer. I lingered just long enough to see them weave back in single file to their reserved table—a venue which offered an intimate setting for discussions and perhaps a reiteration of their purpose, only two days away with the coming of the full moon. I left them to their business and gourmand meal, already in great anticipation of my own morning date with a superbly beautiful lady—and no doubt the oldest resident of Mykonos. 

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