Venetians Reoccupy Kerkyra

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The Venetians returned to Kerkyra because Venice had always regarded possession as nine-tenths of the law and the remaining tenth as an unfortunate Greek misunderstanding.

They came by sea, naturally. A Venetian distrusts any road that cannot accommodate a gondola.

By noon the old houses had begun remembering them.

Balconies leaned forward like elderly ladies recognizing a scandal from their youth. Bougainvillea climbed the walls in such quantities that one suspected it had been receiving subsidies. Marble saints stared down with the exhausted patience of people who had already survived several empires and knew another would presently require directions to the harbor.

The Venetians immediately set about reoccupying the island in the civilized manner.

They opened cafés.

Then they argued about architecture.

Then they opened cafés in which to argue about architecture.

Within forty-eight hours every staircase led to another staircase, every balcony possessed three balconies beneath it, and carpets appeared on walls where no sensible person would put a carpet. A bridge was constructed between two houses that had no reason to communicate. Another bridge connected nothing whatsoever, but was greatly admired.

The Greeks watched all this with the calm expression of men who had been occupied by Persians, Romans, Byzantines, Normans, Angevins, Venetians, French and British and had consequently developed the philosophical conviction that foreigners are weather.

They arrive.

They make proclamations.

Eventually somebody puts out chairs.

Above the courtyard flew the Greek flag, which nobody had thought to remove because removing it would have involved climbing a ladder in the afternoon heat.

A Venetian official pointed at it.

“What about that?”

The proprietor shrugged.

“It is holding up the sky.”

This appeared reasonable.

So the flag remained.

By evening Kerkyra had become impossible. A castle floated over the rooftops. A fish-shaped airship cruised past the moon. Statues stepped out of their niches to inspect the new administration. Lemons hung from the trees like small yellow suns that had been demoted for misconduct.

On an upper balcony a woman reclined among Persian carpets, watching history happen below with the indifference of a cat observing theology.

Nobody could determine whether Venice had reoccupied Kerkyra or Kerkyra had simply swallowed Venice again.

This is the difficulty with empires.

They draw maps to prove where they are.

Islands wait for the ink to dry.