One Greek Summer Wedding

Chapter 3

Akis Diakos sipped the froth from his coffee and sat back against the chair, looking out through his sunglasses at the other people sitting in the pavement café, pigeons at their feet. It was hot but here in the shade, underneath the large rectangular parasols, there was respite from the searing sun.

‘Three o’clock,’ Akis said. ‘A group of six.’

His friend, Horatio, sat forward in his chair and dipped his sunglasses down a little, turning his head to the correct position. ‘Never.’

‘Are you kidding? It sounds like you are setting a challenge.’

‘One you will not win,’ Horatio replied with confidence.

‘Do you put money behind it?’

‘Everything I own.’ Horatio dipped his fingers into the pocket of his cargo trousers and brought out money that he deposited on the table between them. ‘Exactly… fourteen euro, seventy-five cents and a button from my jeans.’

‘OK,’ Akis said, nodding. He took another sip of his coffee but remained unmoved.

‘What?’ Horatio asked. ‘You do not accept the challenge?’

‘Patience, my friend. I am waiting for the right opportunity.’

Horatio snorted and scooped all the loose change and notes back into his hands. ‘You did not even approach the group I suggested two coffees ago.’

‘Because they were too young.’

‘They were in their twenties at least!’

‘And, if they are like us, they do not have the money to spend thirty euro each on a ticket to see our show.’ Akis looked at the women he had pointed out. ‘These women are more mature. They have fancy clothes and good handbags. The only thing they are missing is a great night out with us.’ He grinned.

‘You do not have to sell the merits of the older woman to me. I am accustomed to their attributes.’ A smile hit Horatio’s mouth. ‘Intimately accustomed.’

‘I am aware,’ Akis said. ‘And that is why, as it is your specialist subject, shall we say, you should be the one to invite them.’

Akis watched Horatio blush. It was craziness. He watched his friend three times a week, dancing on stage with all the confidence of a seasoned performer, yet other times he turned the colour of a radish and sucked his neck and head back in like a frightened tortoise.

‘I do not have that thing you do,’ Horatio said, reaching for his coffee.

‘What thing?’

‘The thing, with your eyes. It is like a form of hypnotism.’

Akis smiled at his friend’s comment, but inside there was conflict about the statement. He was aware his eye contact could be used for gentle manipulation, but he also knew he had inherited his eyes from his mother and the way she used them was anything but gentle. The stand-off situation they were currently in wasn’t ideal when there was a family wedding coming up. Right now, he didn’t even know if he was going to be permitted to attend.

‘See!’ Horatio exclaimed, plucking the toothpick from his mouth. ‘You have attracted them already!’

He had been staring into space not trying to attract anything. But, it seemed the group of older women had noticed him…

‘Perhaps now is my best chance,’ Akis said, getting to his feet.

But before he could move through the tables, someone else caught his attention. Was that his yiayia, Irini? He lifted his sunglasses up to get a better look at the grey-haired woman, squinting against the sun. Carrying two hefty-looking shopping bags, he watched her as she shooed away a pigeon with her foot. And, as the curse word rushed past her lips, loud enough for the whole of the Liston to hear, there was no doubt. Akis hurried to her aid.

‘Yiayia, what are you doing here?’

The shopping bags thumped to the ground. ‘Aki? Is that you?’

Akis was not sure if his grandmother’s eyesight was really failing or if she just enjoyed getting confirmation.

‘Ne,’ he replied. ‘But is it really you? Because you are a long way from Notos.’

‘And I need a passport to leave the village now?’

Her eyes always spoke too, usually the language of defiance. He smiled. ‘No, but if there is anything you need you can always ask me.’

‘And make sure there is no reason for me to go out of the house? Shall I gaze at four walls until I die and make everyone happier?’

‘That was not what I meant?—’

‘Yiannis brought me in his truck. He had to deliver manure; I needed things for the wedding.’

Akis swallowed then, taking a closer look at the contents of the shopping bags. There was lots of lace and items embroidered with the mati – the eye symbol the Greeks used to ward off evil spirits and promote good fortune. The last thing he had heard was that Irini wasn’t invited to his brother, Cosmos’s wedding…

‘You can carry the bags to the bus stop,’ Irini told him.

‘You are getting the bus back to the village?’

‘Do you expect me to walk?’ She snorted. ‘What is this? First, I cannot leave the village, now I should go back by a means that could kill me in this heat? Make up your mind!’

‘I could take you,’ Akis offered, picking up the bags.

‘On your motorbike?’

‘You have never been one to refuse a ride on my motorbike before.’

‘I do not worry about me,’ Irini said. ‘I worry about the bags and the balance. The bus will be OK. And if I do not arrive home and I die, Pig will find his way to your mother’s house for food.’ Irini laughed.

Pig was his grandmother’s donkey, so named because of its voracious appetite. No one knew how old Pig was, but Akis was twenty-nine and he had never known a time when Pig hadn’t been around. And, by around, he really meant the donkey had his own bedroom inside the house. He also knew that his mother, Sofia, despised the donkey…

‘What is that look on your face?’ Irini asked, hobbling a little as she walked.

‘I don’t have a look on my face.’

‘It is the one I see you make when your mother says the word “priest”.’

A shiver ran up his spine then and he fought to not let it show on his face. Instead he created a quick smile and nudged his grandmother’s elbow. ‘Yiayia, I only have smiles today.’

‘Yassas, Irini.’

Akis felt the weight fall from one of his hands as Horatio took a bag and began to walk alongside them, skirting the paved area outside the Arcadion Hotel.

‘Horatio, you have got even more handsome!’ Irini declared.

‘And you are all the more beautiful.’

‘Shall I leave?’ Akis asked.

‘Yes,’ Horatio agreed. ‘Now, while I have 180 euro in my pocket to treat your grandmother to lunch…’

It took a second for what Horatio had said to hit home. ‘You?—’

‘Yes,’ Horatio interrupted. ‘The older ladies bought tickets for tonight’s show.’

Akis shook his head. ‘See, Horatio, you do not need my eyes. You have charm all of your own.’

‘What do you think, Irini?’ Horatio asked her. ‘Akis’s eyes or my aura?’

Irini seemed to muse on the point for a while before making her reply. ‘All I know is that Akis will need his persuasive look if he wants to encourage a dwindling congregation back to the church.’

‘Irini, what did I say? You—’ Akis began.

‘If he lets his mother keep calling the shots on his future,’ Irini finished firmly. Before anyone could say anything else, she continued. ‘And in my opinion, your eyes would be a terrible clash with the colour of the priest’s vestment. Therefore it cannot be. Come on, Horatio, I will let you buy me an ice cream.’