The Song of Youth

Chapter 1

Emilia crossed the busy coastal road and stood on the pavement, staring out into the semi-darkness. She could hardly see the beach at this late hour but could hear the sea sighing as the waves broke softly on the shore.

It was early June, and she felt grateful to have chosen to wear sandals tonight. A sudden urge overcame her to walk barefoot on the beach, so she removed her sandals and stepped onto the sand. The breeze was pleasant and felt just right on her bare arms and face. Her long summer dress billowed softly at the hem as she began to saunter to the edge of the shore. Now, as the sounds of the sea amplified, the traffic noises began to die down, and the strong lights from the restaurants and bars lining the street no longer reached her.

She stood on the wet sand, the water tickling her toes, and, a little later, she began to see more clearly in the semi-darkness. The waxing moon cast a mesmerising silver glow on the water’s surface. Transfixed, she gazed at it for a while, allowing her mind to drift.

The lights of the small marina at the edge of the bay glowed like amber in the distance, catching her attention and reminding her she was still in Varkiza.

This eastern suburb of Athens had been her home since her twenties, twenty odd years ago. Even though Varkiza was built on the outskirts of a metropolitan city, on this beach she could often fool herself… Especially in the dark, it often helped her to imagine she was back on Milos, the island where she’d been raised and had come to miss to the point of tears.

Tears… Oh, how many of those I’ve shed! And not just for missing Milos. But also for the suffering that had befallen her family for two decades, depriving her of so much, a life of bliss on the island included. But now, all that had left her feeling as weak as a blade of grass that once used to bend effortlessly, flexible and green, at the whim of her life’s raging winds. But, these days, now overgrown, weakened and hardened, that blade of grass that once was her young self, now felt like a twig about to snap in half at the softest whisper of life’s next capricious wind.

Emilia sat on the sand and began to weep. Oh, how it all burdened her… Her family memories, all that suffering, and all the things she never did or had because of all that hardship. And now, she was forty-five, without a steady job. The gardening service she provided to the odd customer she could find, she did it on her own, so she had no colleagues. She had virtually no friends and, more importantly, she had no family of her own either. No husband or children.

Yes… Life’s capricious winds had just kept blowing. And they were thieves. They had stolen everything from her in the process.

What brought this on today? Why do I feel more upset than normal? I know it’s my birthday, but…

A wave of intense sorrow rose from her heart, forming a hard lump in her throat. She knew it well. It was forever ebbing and flowing inside of her, and, at times, it could be more tumultuous than the sea spreading majestically before her had the capacity to be. Sobs began to bubble up from inside her, leaving her with no choice but to allow them to surface without restraint, seeing that no one was looking. Or, so she thought.

‘Hi!’ she heard from behind her and it caused her shoulders to jump.

Still sitting on the sand, she bent her legs and swivelled to look behind her to find a tall gypsy woman in her sixties standing a few paces away, her head tilted to the side. The moonlight reflected on her face, giving it an eerie glow. The gypsy’s eyes were kind as she smiled faintly.

‘Hi…’ said Emilia, her voice frail in her own ears.

The gypsy gave a small wave and took a step forward. ‘I am sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you. I was just passing by and heard you crying. Are you okay?’

‘Oh, sorry—’

The gypsy shook her head. ‘No need to apologise. Sometimes, things get too much to bear. Believe me, I know.’

Emilia smiled and the gypsy approached, mirroring her expression. She came to stand beside Emilia and pointed to the sand. ‘You seem like someone who needs to talk. For what it’s worth, I am all ears. May I?’

Emilia nodded, and suddenly became aware that she had instinctively gathered her bag from her lap and was now clutching it with both hands against her stomach. What am I doing?

The gypsy seemed to notice that too. As soon as she sat on the sand beside her, she pointed to Emilia’s bag and said: ‘I can give you one hundred euros, if you like. Will that help you to trust me? Enough to talk to me?’ Then, unbelievably so, she reached into her long skirt pocket and showed Emilia a roll of hundred euro bills tied with an elastic band.

Emilia felt her eyes bulge and she couldn’t help it. She’d never seen so many hundred euro bills in one place before. As a matter of fact, she hadn’t seen a single one of them in a while.

The gypsy laughed. ‘Have I now clarified that I’m not here to ask for your money, or even worse, to steal it from you?’

Stunned to silence, Emilia simply nodded. Her fingers let go of the bag and it slid off her lap, falling onto the sand with a soft thud in the small space between them.

The gypsy giggled and put the money back in her pocket. ‘Goodness me! Every time I do this it gets more entertaining than last time.’

‘What do you mean “every time”? You mean, showing people your money? How’s that funny? I don’t get it.’

The gypsy shrugged. ‘Yes, it’s funny. People’s misconceptions are. People’s wrong programming. Their tendency to split people into categories, then assign traits to them. “Gypsy” equals “thief” and “trickster”, right? So, I enjoy giving people a jolt. Showing them how wrong they are. It’s funny to see their faces. Your face was a picture just now.’

The gypsy woman laughed out loud, causing Emilia to stare bewildered.

Finally, she sobered and offered her hand. ‘I am Esmera. Pleased to meet you.’

Emilia shook her hand and offered her own name. She managed a faint smile and added, ‘Lovely to meet you too. You’ve managed to distract me enough from my dark thoughts to help me feel better already. So, thank you.’

‘It’s nothing.’ Esmera grinned and nodded encouragingly. ‘So, tell Aunt Esmera everything. Why were you upset just now?’

Emilia huffed and looked up at the moon. ‘Oh… Where to begin?’

‘Anywhere you like, honey.’

Emilia turned to face Esmera and saw in her eyes the kind of warmth she hadn’t seen in ages. This warmth she’d only ever seen in her mother’s and her grandmother’s eyes. Once, her pillars of strength and her best friends, now, they were her precious angels in Heaven. The thought rang heavy in her heart, causing it to twinge. But Esmera’s eyes called on her, encouraging her to allow that heaviness to lift. Perhaps, it was her two angels who had brought this gypsy before her tonight. A sign from them on this special night. A gift for her.

Emilia gave a laboured sigh.

‘It is that bad, huh?’

Emilia offered a bitter smile. ‘And then some.’

‘Go on. The first words are the hardest, I know…’

‘Well, the thing is… I feel all alone. And bereft…’

‘Bereft? Like, how?’

‘Like, I’ve lost so much time in my life. Like, it was stolen from me.’

‘Who stole it?’

‘Life…’

‘Oh, I see. And how did life steal from you?’

‘My life gave me only family woes. I lost people precious to me to awful diseases…’

‘But those were their diseases, not yours.’

‘I had to be there for them, though, didn’t I? I couldn’t just let them go through it all on their own.’

‘What did you do for them?’

‘I did what I had to do. I did my family duty.’

‘You took care of them?’

‘Yes, to the bitter end. For everyone.’

‘That’s commendable.’

‘It wasn’t easy…’

‘Nothing commendable is, Child.’ Esmera rubbed Emilia’s back gently, and it felt warm, comforting, like warm soup on a cold day trickling down to the pit of her stomach.

Emilia took a deep breath, then said, ‘We were living on the island of Milos, where I was born and raised, when my mother got sick with cancer. We had to sell our house and move to Athens so she could have endless rounds of chemo, on and off, for years. But it was all for nothing.’

‘She died?’

‘Yes. And shortly after, my grandmother had her first stroke. Many followed. I mean, when you start greeting ambulance drivers and paramedics with their first names, you know your life’s not normal any more… To cut a long story short, my grandmother passed away eventually, too. And, after just a couple of years of a blessed reprieve, my father got ill with Alzheimer’s. Believe me… that was the hardest thing I had to deal with. On most days, he didn’t recognize me. I couldn’t get him to talk to me, let alone give me a much-needed hug…’

‘Oh my… I am so sorry, my darling. And how are things with your father these days?’

‘My father passed away, too. I have no one here now.’

‘No one?’

‘No. No siblings or cousins. No friends either. Well, I do have one friend. But I hardly ever see her. She has a job that keeps her busy. And family too. A husband. Kids.’

‘And… do you have these things, Emilia?’

‘No…’ Emilia pressed her lips together and hung her head. She desperately didn’t want to cry again, but the conversation wasn’t helping.

Esmera placed a gentle finger on Emilia’s chin and tilted it up.

Emilia stared into the gypsy’s eyes and, somehow, managed a thin smile. The twinge in her heart disappeared and, for a few moments, she felt at peace as she gazed into Esmera’s serene expression.

Esmera broke the silence first. ‘Are these the things that you think life stole from you? A family of your own and a steady job? The things your friend has?’

In lieu of an answer, Emilia nodded once, then looked up at the moon.

Esmera’s voice echoed soft in the semi-darkness. She sounded like her mother used to as she read her fairy tales in bed when she was small. ‘Emilia… If I were to tell you that this is a special moon that can grant wishes, and that it’s out tonight just for you, what would you wish for?’

Emilia began to laugh, beside herself, and it helped to clear all the remaining sorrow that had burdened her heart all day and throughout the evening. Special days had that effect on her as a rule. Feeling relieved now, she turned to face Esmera. ‘I would ask the moon to make me young again. To make me twenty years younger.’

‘Why twenty?’

‘Because that’s when it all started. When I was twenty-five. Back then, I had my whole life ahead of me. I was strong physically, emotionally, and mentally. Men still flirted with me and asked me for dates. Now I am forty-five I might as well be invisible to them.’

‘Wow. This is so well-defined, Emilia. You didn’t just think this all up, did you? How many times have you wished to be young again?’

‘More than I can count… And, believe me, I’d give anything to make it happen.’

‘What if I told you I can grant your wish, Emilia?’