One Greek Summer Wedding

Chapter 29

‘You! What are you doing eating whatever you’re eating when you should be… I don’t know… doing something with that thingamajig?’ Margot was berating the workmen and pointing towards tools that had been discarded on the ground.

Akis took everything in. The inside of this fortification was worse than the outside. There was nothing but bare floors and bare walls, a carcass of a building and no matter how hard anyone worked now, there was no way this was going to be fit for anything for the wedding day.

‘Is lunch,’ the workman replied. ‘Then soon it will be siesta.’

‘Siesta!’ Margot hissed. ‘You don’t get a fucking siesta when this castle looks like Bang Kwang prison! Tell them, Sofia!’

Akis looked at his mother. She was wearing a white trouser suit that was far from pristine now. There were dark dust marks down one side of the jacket, paint spatters on her trousers and her usual elegant pinned hairstyle was coming loose, tendrils of her hair escaping. But it was the expression on her face that hit Akis the most. She looked lost, desolate, not in control…

‘Mama, what is going on here?’ Akis asked.

Sofia turned to him and tears were falling from her eyes. He watched her rapidly wipe at them with the sleeve of her suit jacket, adding mascara stains to the mix. ‘We need to… prioritise, I think. I am prioritising and Margot is helping.’

‘Mama,’ Akis said. ‘This place, it cannot be ready for Wren and Cosmos’s wedding.’

‘It has to be ready! They said it would be ready! I came to see it two weeks ago and it was better than it is now and I spoke to the foreman yesterday and he told me that everything was in hand!’

‘Mama, what will have been in hand is a chicken souvlaki in each fist while he was talking to you.’

‘Please, I am right here!’ a man with a yellow hard hat called.

‘And you should be working! Not listening to other people’s conversations! Shoo!’ Margot ordered, flapping her hand and ushering the man away from their gathering towards some very flimsy stairs that seemed to lead to the upper floor.

‘I was so busy! I was seeing to the flowers, the cake and the wine, Wren’s dress – which I am still not entirely happy with – the chocolate fountains, the vows – they are still not finalised either – the bridesmaids, who have all changed shape by the way.’ She heaved a giant breath as she ran out of air. ‘And then I do not sleep because all I can think about is the curse! And when I get here I see this and I think, the gods, they know. They know that you are not going to be a priest before you are thirty and they are ready to rain down their might on this occasion as a taste of what is to come.’

And then Sofia let out a scream so loud it had Akis reaching for his ears, while the tiropita – cheese pie – in one of the workmen’s hands fell to the ground.

‘For God’s sake!’ Margot bellowed, clamping a hand over Sofia’s mouth and stopping the noise. ‘Get a grip of yourself! You’ve lost all sense of decency and decorum and you were always quite good at that, I’ll admit.’ Margot looked to Akis. ‘Does she do this often?’

‘Never,’ Akis replied.

‘Right, well,’ Margot said, turning back to Sofia. ‘No more of this silly nonsense. No one has died, have they? Although, if the staff don’t start pulling their weight I can’t promise that will hold true for long. I’m looking particularly at you.’ She eyed the man who had dropped his food. ‘Now, I’m going to take my hand away and you’re going to take some nice deep breaths. OK?’

Akis watched as his mother drew in some very shaky breaths, tears still bubbling away.

‘OK, Margot, could you give us a minute?’

‘Absolutely,’ she replied. ‘I will find someone in this place who actually knows how any of these tools work and get some action.’

As soon as she was gone, Akis put a hand on his mother’s shoulder. ‘Mama, Wren and Cosmos, they can’t get married here.’

‘They have to get married here! The whole event has been planned around this castle and?—’

‘Mama, look at this place. The time it will take to achieve the effect you want…’

‘I am going to cry again,’ Sofia said.

‘No one is going to cry again today. OK?’ He placed his other hand on her shoulder.

‘Aki, your finger,’ Sofia gasped. ‘I mean, where it was…’

‘It’s fine,’ Akis answered, knowing she was talking about the reddened skin. ‘It gets like that sometimes when I ride the motorbike too long.’

Sofia shook her head. ‘Why does Cosmos have to get married now? I mean this year, this time, when we have the curse hanging over us.’

‘Because he is in love. Because he wants to be the best husband to Wren. Because he wants to start a family. Because the idea of this curse should not dictate what the family does and when. There are many reasons.’

‘But,’ Sofia began, walking to one of the arched windows that was dripping with some kind of solvent. ‘I need to make it perfect. And I can’t make it perfect now.’

‘Mama, it will be perfect because, wherever the wedding is, it will be about Wren and Cosmos becoming married,’ Akis said. ‘Do you not remember that at the beginning Wren wanted to be married on the beach?’

Sofia scoffed. ‘I remember she also wanted to get married surrounded by birds, but I was not having everyone in their finery trudging around the perimeter of Lake Korission.’

‘But,’ Akis said, standing next to her and looking out at the view of the woodland. ‘Does it have to be about a statement castle?’

‘I have a reputation to uphold,’ Sofia bleated. ‘I have the best. Of everything. Always.’

‘But, Mama, it isn’t your wedding. It’s Wren and Cosmos’s.’ He steadied her shoulders again, looking into her eyes. ‘I think you are focussing on the things that matter the least.’

He waited a beat for what he had said to sink in and hoped it would make a difference.

‘OK,’ Sofia said in a barely audible whisper.

‘OK?’

‘I guess I will have to find a compromise. I will talk to Stavros. I will see what he can commit to finish and, if we get the photographer to take from certain angles then?—’

‘Mama, no. What you need to do is decommission this place. Forget it. Talk to Cosmos and Wren about what they want.’

‘I can’t do that,’ Sofia said, eyes widening in terror. ‘Because the wedding is not far away! Where else are we going to get that’s of a standard that?—’

‘It is not my wedding, Mama,’ Akis said. ‘You need to speak to Wren and Cosmos.’

She took a deep breath, as if she was still contemplating whether he was right or not. Finally, she gave a nod.

‘Good,’ Akis said, taking a step back.

‘But, if I speak to Wren and Cosmos,’ Sofia said. ‘Will you do something for me? Will you speak to Pappa Spiros? Just to let him tell you a little about the life of a priest. I am sure it is not like you think and?—’

There was only one answer that Akis could give. He took a deep breath. ‘If you speak to Wren and Cosmos about what they really want for their wedding, then yes, I will speak to Pappa Spiros.’

‘Oh, Aki!’ she exclaimed, throwing her arms around him and hugging tight.

And as he took a second to remember what it felt like to have his mother proud of him again, he also wondered how long he could carry on at the centre of this curse dilemma.