One Greek Summer Wedding

Chapter 56

‘When can we go home?’

Akis was starting to wonder why they were having a bachelor party when the groom did not want to be there. Most things about this wedding had been unorthodox, and it was continuing to be so. It was all going through the motions of tradition and what was expected rather than what the bride and groom wanted.

‘He was always like this,’ Thanasis commented as Horatio brought around trays full of shot glasses and distributed them to the outside tables of the bar they were sitting at. ‘He started asking to go home the second we got into the car to go anywhere, do you remember?’

‘I remember he always wore a hat, the bright yellow one, even in the summer.’

Thanasis laughed. ‘Your mother hated that hat. She threw it away so many times but Cosmos cried so hard she ended up having to get it out of the trash again to make the noise stop.’

Sitting with his school friends, his brother looked uncomfortable, hands on the fish head, trying to loosen the tape.

‘How do you think he will get on with being married?’ Akis asked his father.

‘I think,’ Thanasis began, ‘that Wren is good for him. I think he is supremely lucky to have met someone like her. She takes him for exactly how he is. And he loves her.’

Akis nodded. ‘Yes, I have no doubt about that. They are perfect together.’

‘I do not, however, feel the same way about your intended marriage,’ Thanasis said, picking up a shot glass and downing the liquid.

‘My marriage?’

‘To the church.’

‘Oh,’ he said, feeling the mood sour.

‘Your grandmother says she spoke to you.’

‘Yes,’ Akis said. ‘In her dying breaths that ended up not being her dying breaths.’

‘You say that like you are not grateful she is still with us.’

‘No,’ Akis said. ‘Of course I am grateful, I just?—’

‘She told you? About the spell we intended to sell to your mother to make all this stop?’

He nodded. ‘I think it was more consequential that she told my mother.’

‘And do you know what your mother has said about it all?’ Thanasis asked, passing him a shot glass.

Akis shook his head. ‘No.’

‘Then I will tell you,’ his father said. ‘She has said not one word. She has said nothing to anybody. She has not left the bedroom since Pig’s death. And with the wedding only moments away, her focus for the past twelve months, she is unable to function. No one knows what to do. Anastasia is trying to get Wren to agree on final things and Cosmos is here crying with a fish on his head while you still deliberate on whether to join the church because of a curse only your mother is concerned about.’

Akis downed his shot and picked up a second. ‘People have died. Villages have been lost, right? There is some substance to it.’

‘Aki, it is a Diakos story. I am a Diakos. Your mother, only a Diakos by marriage. And it is my family this bad fortune has affected. If that is what it is.’

‘You do not believe in it?’ Akis asked him.

‘I believe that what will be, will be.’

‘That everything is predetermined?’

‘No,’ Thanasis said, shaking his head. ‘The opposite of that. I do not go to church because I do not believe that there is one person or thing above us moving us all around like pieces on a chess board of life. How can that be so? With so many billions of people and so many infinite possibilities. It makes no sense.’ He picked up another shot glass. ‘It is my belief that life is simple. You make choices. In the moment. Like, do I want to stay at the cafeneon for one more beer? Yes. But what will Sofia say? She will be mad. But will she be mad I was at the cafeneon anyway. Yes. So one more beer will make no difference.’

‘That is not the same as committing to the church so there is no possibility that people die,’ Akis countered.

‘Aki, there is only one assured thing in this life and that is death.’

‘Yes, but?—’

‘Listen to me, my son,’ his father said seriously. ‘If you do not make a choice for you now, you are going to forever be making choices to save Cosmos, or Anastasia, or your mother’s pride, exactly the same way you put your brother first when you lost your finger.’ He put a hand on his shoulder. ‘I do not say enough how proud I am of you.’

Akis swallowed, emotion welling up. ‘You do not have to say that.’

‘Your mother, she is proud of things that are loud. Anastasia’s art projects that won awards, being able to say she spent thousands of euro on Cosmos’s wedding. I am proud of the quiet things, the things that sometimes go unrecognised. Anastasia’s patience with your mother, Wren’s kindness when Cosmos is being frustrating, Irini’s utter fortitude, your gentle sacrifice, Aki.’

Akis downed another shot and this one burned his throat.

‘The tragedies in the Diakos family I know about can be explained away by many different things. And the priests in our family, not all of them had long trouble-free lives blessed because of their commitment to the church.’ Thanasis sighed. ‘Your mother is a perfection-seeker. She always has been. Wanting to tick every righteous box so nothing is out of place. That is all this is. Her paranoia, coupled with ancient tales most likely half-written by alcohol.’

Akis put his hand to the bonnet on his head and pulled it off. ‘How long do we need to wear these for? I told Horatio this was to be low-key.’

‘I quite like it,’ Thanasis said with a laugh.

Akis smiled at his father. ‘Thanks, Bampás.’

‘You can thank me by living your life the way you want to, Aki. Your mother has me to try to perfect. She will never do it. She will always try and I will let her. That is the secret of our successful marriage. Do not tell everyone.’

He put his hand on his father’s shoulder. ‘Another drink?’

‘Ne! Fisika!’