Field Trippin
Copyright© 2026 by Sci-FiTy1972
Chapter 2
Week 2 — Pavlopetri
Day 1
The water was shallow.
That was the first thing Eric noticed.
Not deep enough to drown you. Not calm enough to forget it was there. Clear, sunlit, rippling just enough to soften straight lines.
Stone streets lay beneath it.
Not ruins—streets. Carefully placed. Measured. Walls rising to knee and waist height, doorways opening onto water and sky.
Tyler exhaled slowly. “We’re ... standing in it.”
“Wading,” Randy corrected, already lifting his pant legs. “Which somehow feels worse.”
DeAndre tested the ground with his foot. Solid. Certain. “This place was meant to last.”
Eric didn’t answer.
He was already cataloging.
Angles. Distances. Drainage channels that still worked. Streets that curved gently instead of cutting sharp. Design that assumed continuity.
“This is functional,” he said quietly. “Not symbolic.”
They moved carefully, water cool around their calves. People passed them without alarm—barefoot, baskets balanced easily, eyes curious but unafraid.
The AirPods murmured concepts. Trade. Boats. Salt. Home.
Nothing panicked.
Nothing hurried.
The city accepted them.
Days 2–3
By the second day, Eric no longer had to look down when he walked.
He knew which streets sloped toward the harbor, which led inward, which stayed dry longer as the tide shifted. He stopped reacting and started anticipating.
That felt good.
The AirPods became confirmation, not instruction. Language here bent easily toward understanding—proto-forms, shared roots, familiar rhythms.
Randy joked less and listened more. DeAndre watched the flow of people the way he watched a crowd at home. Tyler stayed quiet, tracking patterns without naming them.
It worked.
That was the problem.
By the third night, Eric realized he’d stopped thinking about leaving.
Day 4
Day four was when the lesson arrived.
Not loudly. Not cruelly.
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