Chapter 15
15
‘We need to call the police!’
Christos’s eyes snapped open, then closed again just as quickly as the shutters on his bedroom window were pushed open and sunlight flooded in. It was morning.
‘Mama!’ he groaned, sitting up, eyes still shut against the brightness.
‘Did you hear what I said? We need to call the police. Now! I do not know why I am even coming in here telling you what we need to do. I should be doing it, this minute. I will do it this minute!’
His mother went to rush from the room again and he realised he really did need to open his eyes now.
‘Wait, stop! Why do we need to call the police?’
‘Because your sister is missing?’
‘What?!’
Now he was tuned in, his brain racing to wake everything up as he scrambled out of the covers and reached for a T-shirt.
‘She is not here. She did not come home. She is not answering her phone. She is not yet at work because I called them,’ Angeliki rattled out like rapid gunfire.
Where had Magdalena said she was going last night? She hadn’t said… But, perspective, she was a grown woman and his mother was well-known for overreacting. One time she had called the fire service thinking a low-lying cloud was smoke.
‘She is walking back from somewhere, dehydrated, the sun burning her skin, hopefully without those stupid high shoes she was wearing…’ His mother’s voice broke then and Christos realised how worried she actually was. ‘And that… is the best scenario. In the other scenarios I am imagining bags of rubbish, flies, abandoned takeout coffee cups around her lifeless?—’
‘Stop!’ Christos yelled, pulling shorts on over his underwear. ‘Don’t say things like that. You are being dramatic, Mama. The likelihood is she has met up with a guy and?—’
‘Argh! You stop! Don’t say she has met up with a guy! That is worse than flies and bins and no shoes!’
Marilyn . He remembered his sister said she was going to meet Marilyn.
‘I introduce her to nice boys. Boys who go to church. Boys I know do not race around on motorbikes in the dead of night. Boys who do not shave the back of their heads. Boys who would not expect a girl to stay the night when they have only met them once and?—’
‘Have you called Marilyn?’ Christos asked.
‘Which one? She has three friends called Marilyn!’
‘Well, call all three. She definitely said she was meeting Marilyn last night, so she will either be with one of the Marilyns or?—’
‘Do not mention any other alternatives, I cannot stand it!’
‘Mama, please, calm down.’ He put his hands on her shoulders, holding her still. ‘This is Magdalena we are talking about. She is sensible.’
‘She is what?! Are you crazy? This is the girl who ate crayons and wondered why her shit was rainbow colours.’
‘When she was seven,’ Christos answered. ‘Mama, she is grown. She makes sensible choices all the time. Sometimes they are too sensible in my opinion.’
‘What do you mean?’ Angeliki snapped, removing herself from his shoulder hold and glowering.
‘You smother her, Mama. Most of her decisions are your decisions.’ And he was feeling the same way in the tight space of his bedroom right now. He moved towards the door, picking up his Nikes on the way into the open-plan living space.
‘I do not do that!’
Angeliki followed him and he dropped to the sofa and began to put on his shoes.
‘You do do that,’ he told her. ‘You do it to everyone. You even did it to Vaggelis. Remember when he wanted to take the diving course so he could be qualified to train people? You told him all the dangers of diving from… sharks being attracted to the shape of the oxygen tanks to the oxygen tanks running out of air and him getting the bends. You went on so much that he never took that course.’
‘That is not true!’ Angeliki exclaimed. ‘I just gave him my opinion… that he asked for.’
‘And that is what you do with Magdalena,’ Christos said, looking up at her from his lacing. ‘But, Mama, sometimes people do not ask for an opinion because they want the truth.’
‘What? I have never heard anything so stupid in all my life. I mean?—’
‘Sometimes,’ he interrupted forcefully, ‘they ask because they want reassurance. Because they want to do something, but they want the comfort of knowing they have the support from the people they care about.’
As he watched his words land he remembered when he had told his mother the idea about his gym. It had been exactly like Vaggelis’s diving idea. She had given him all the reasons why it would fail, or he would lose his money, like he was so obviously losing his mind.
‘Are you saying I do not support the people I care about because just last night I made you both gemista and neither of you cared about that!’
‘I am just saying, Mama, that sometimes you need to… take a breath, consider why the person might be asking your opinion, maybe put aside your true feelings about it for a moment.’
‘You mean I should lie?!’
He shook his head. What was the point of all this? He didn’t need his mother’s opinion or approval any more. Magdalena would likely not share anything that was truly important to her either for fear of being locked into the apartment so it did not happen…
The front door opened and Magdalena walked in, a takeout freddo cappuccino in one hand.
‘Who is lying?’ his sister asked. ‘Because our neighbours are at their front doors waiting to find out. Shall I leave the door open for the answer or shall I invite them in?’
‘Magdalena!’ Angeliki exclaimed, rushing towards her looking like she might be able to deliver a heartwarming embrace. But then she stopped short, snatched the takeout cup from Magdalena’s hand. ‘Where have you been?! Why were you not answering your phone?! Why are you not at work?! Who were you with?! If it was not all the Marilyns then you have much explaining to do and I will?—’
‘Christo!’ Magdalena exclaimed, putting her hands to her ears. ‘Make it stop!’
‘Mama, come on,’ Christos said. He stood up, taking the coffee from Angeliki’s hands and passing it back to his sister. ‘We talked about this.’
‘You talked. For once. I did not say I agreed!’ Angeliki replied.
‘And this is when I leave,’ Christos said, heading towards the door.
‘You cannot go and leave me here with her like this!’ Magdalena cried. ‘It will spoil what was a really good coffee. I got it from Kontesa.’
‘What?!’ Angeliki exclaimed. ‘Kontesa is in Acharavi! You have been out all night with someone in Acharavi?!’
‘Bye,’ Christos said, opening the door. ‘And good luck.’