One Greek Summer Wedding

Chapter 30

It was so hot in the town today, everyone was seeking the shade of the large canopies around the Liston where Cara and Margot had sat on their very first day on the island. Even the pigeons had looked hot as she and Akis had ridden through on his motorbike, zipping up the narrow alleyways that appeared like they were part of some magic maze game. A game that also involved ducking for hanging laundry and swerving past cats. And then they had stopped, at the end of one of the alleyways, outside a terracotta-coloured building with green shutters. Once they were off the bike, Akis had pushed at a partially opened old thick wooden door and they entered a marble-covered entrance hall.

‘I am on the top floor and I am afraid the lift is broken,’ Akis announced, heading towards a flight of marble steps.

‘How many floors are there?’ Cara asked him, already feeling perspiration trickling down her back.

‘Five,’ he said. ‘But we can go slow.’

They started to climb.

‘I meant to ask you, back at Notos, if your grandmother is OK,’ Cara said. ‘She’s got a bad cough.’

He sighed. ‘She is the type of person to not admit when things are wrong. She suffers with her chest but, you know, she will not do anything but drink honey tea, and if I suggest the doctor she will hit me with her slipper.’

‘I thought your mother was going to hit the foreman with more than a slipper at one point,’ she said as they got to the first landing.

‘My mother is actually going to talk to Cosmos and Wren about where they want their wedding. Perhaps it is something she should have done from the very beginning of wedding preparations but, with my mother it is like a bullet train rushing towards a destination.’

‘It is the same with my aunt,’ Cara agreed.

‘What happened with your aunt? I mean, do you know what caused the accident?’

‘Oh,’ Cara said. ‘I… don’t really know. She wasn’t really able to give me any specifics.’

She swallowed an immense feeling of guilt for not telling the truth. Here Akis was, about to take her to his apartment and help her try to unlock her voice and she was lying to him. But she knew she couldn’t let anyone know about the Maxi-Go. It was potentially a business-destroying situation.

She took a deep breath as the stairs began to take their toll. ‘Are there many more stairs?’

He laughed. ‘We are almost there. And, just so you know, the lift is never working.’

It took a few more minutes to get to the top but, finally, they stopped outside a rather unassuming door. There was a label in the doorbell that said the name ‘Spyridoula’.

‘That was the previous occupant,’ Akis said, putting his finger to the name. ‘I have tried everything to get it out, even taken the whole thing apart but still it will not come.’

Cara laughed. And when he put a key in the lock and opened the door, what lay inside took her breath away.

Light flooded in from four sets of large windows across the breadth of the space and old wooden floorboards held the minimal furniture – a sofa and a large armchair, a coffee table – with a neat, compact kitchen at one end. At the opposite end of the room was a black upright piano, paint peeling a little.

‘Damn it! I forgot to close the shutters this morning. It is like an oven in here.’ He moved towards them.

‘No, don’t close the shutters,’ Cara said, striding into the space. ‘Can we open the windows instead? Oh, this one is a door and… oh, there’s a balcony.’

‘We can open the doors and windows,’ Akis agreed. ‘But, the way the weather is out there, it is likely to be hotter than it already is.’

‘I don’t mind,’ Cara answered. ‘I want to see everything.’

Akis unlocked the patio door and as soon as it was open, Cara pushed out onto the balcony. The humidity hit her, but the view made more of an impact. It was a high-rise snapshot of what they had ridden through, this beautiful town in all its glory. She could see rooftops and church bell towers, people going about their day carrying take-out frappes, teenagers in groups around benches, backpacks swinging, colour everywhere from the vibrant green of the trees, the orange and pink flowers in displays, to the cloudless blue sky. She breathed deeply and simply admired it all.

‘So many tourists,’ Akis remarked, standing next to her and leaning against the iron railing.

‘It’s beautiful here,’ Cara said. ‘It’s nothing like London. Here you can see it’s busy, hear it’s busy, yet it still feels so calm.’

‘Ah,’ Akis said. ‘That is because you do not live here. Everyone feels calmer when they are somewhere temporarily.’

‘No,’ Cara said. ‘I don’t think it’s that. I think it’s the vibe of a place. The vibe here is just chill.’

‘You know,’ Akis began. ‘If we have all the doors and windows open it will be easier for others to hear our music.’

‘I know,’ Cara replied. ‘But, here, no one can see us.’

He watched her looking down at the town he knew so well, the place he had decided to move to to get away from how claustrophobic Notos and life in the family home had started to be. It was only a few kilometres but it felt like another planet.

And what Cara had just said about no one seeing resonated. That was exactly how it had been for him after the accident. Once he realised that playing the piano wasn’t completely out of the question, he didn’t want people to see, he only wanted people to hear. If they only heard then they couldn’t know he was different or make assumptions, it would only be about the music.

‘Is that what worries you the most about singing again?’ he asked, looking at her.

She nodded. ‘You think that’s silly, right?’

‘No,’ he said immediately. ‘I think it makes perfect sense.’ He nudged her arm with his. ‘You want a frappe?’

‘I would love a frappe, but not too much milk, it doesn’t help with singing.’

He smiled. ‘Ah, but we are making music for fun, not following the rules.’

‘OK,’ she replied.

It didn’t take long to make the drinks and then he opened up the lid of the old piano, its keys a little yellow with age. It still smelled of two things: olive wood where it had ended up being stored in Irini’s woodshed next to the winter logs for many years, and peppermints. His strongest memory was his grandfather’s sweet of choice, always on hand, drawn from pockets or cupboards and generously shared.

‘It’s gorgeous,’ Cara said, stepping up to the piano and running her hand over the body of it.

He played some chords. ‘And it still sounds so good.’

‘Oh my God, it does. That tone.’

‘So,’ he said. ‘Where do you want to start?’

She took a sip of her frappe as if she were in deep contemplation. ‘Maybe at the beginning. There was this song my mum used to sing to me when I was little. It was something my nanna taught to her and one of the first songs I ever learned all the words to.’

‘Hit me with it,’ Akis said, pulling out the stool and sitting down.

‘It’s “Son of a Preacher Man” by Dusty Springfield.’

‘Ha!’ Akis exclaimed. ‘You are messing with me now! You want the fake Deacon, the person my family wants to become a priest, to play a song about a preacher man.’

He watched Cara put her hands to her face, her expression one of horror. ‘Oh my God! I didn’t think! I am so so sorry.’

He laughed then and shook his head. ‘It is OK, really. But I do not know this. Give me one moment.’ He took out his phone, unlocked it and handed it to her. ‘I have Spotify.’

‘And then you can learn it?’ she asked, sounding surprised.

‘What can I say? I have a gift for this.’

Two listens through and he had it nailed.

He looked to her. ‘So, whenever you are ready?’

‘Yes,’ Cara said with a sigh. ‘That’s the problem. I don’t know if I ever will be ready.’

‘OK, this is not a problem,’ Akis said. ‘I will sing with you.’

‘Really? You can sing too?’

‘Not like you,’ he answered. ‘Nothing like you. But, you know, it will be fun. Not so much fun for my neighbours, but Stamatis has stopped doing night shifts so he won’t be sleeping and…’ He checked his watch. ‘Siesta is almost over.’

‘O-K,’ Cara said.

‘Just for fun, no?’ He grinned. ‘And much more fun than what we would have been doing right now with snakes if the castle wasn’t falling down.’

She smiled at him. ‘OK.’

‘OK, let’s go.’