Index: lib/Parrot/IO/Directory.pm
===================================================================
--- lib/Parrot/IO/Directory.pm	(revision 10434)
+++ lib/Parrot/IO/Directory.pm	(working copy)
@@ -161,7 +161,13 @@
 	
 	$path = $path->path if ref $path;
 	
-	return File::Spec->abs2rel($path, $self->path);
+	my $rel_path = File::Spec->abs2rel($path, $self->path);
+
+    # some (all?) versions of File::Spec->abs2rel() prior to 3.13 return ''
+    # instead of '.' to indicate the current working directory.  In order to be
+    # compatible with both pre/post version 3.13 we're normalizing the current
+    # working dir to be '.'.
+    return ($rel_path eq '') ? '.' : $rel_path;
 }
 
 =item C<parent()>
Index: t/perl/Parrot_IO.t
===================================================================
--- t/perl/Parrot_IO.t	(revision 10434)
+++ t/perl/Parrot_IO.t	(working copy)
@@ -97,7 +97,7 @@
 ok($f1 && $f2, 'file_with_name');
 
 # Relative paths.
-is($d->relative_path($d->path), '', 'relative_path same dir');
+is($d->relative_path($d->path), curdir(), 'relative_path same dir');
 is($d1->relative_path($f1->path), 'file1.txt', 'relative_path same file');
 is($d->relative_path($d1->path), 'one', 'relative_path down to dir');
 is($d->relative_path($f1->path), catfile(qw(one file1.txt)),