Chapter 23
23
ASTRAKERI BEACH
‘Christos, stand up straight and smile,’ Angeliki ordered as they left his mother’s car and headed towards the grass-cum-sand the white plastic tables and chairs for the festival were arranged on.
He was standing up straight. As straight as the now very tight hessian honey patch on his side was allowing. That and the fact his mother had an Opel Corsa with a broken driver’s seat which felt like he was contorting his frame into position on a good day. Driving tonight, injured, had not been good, but his mother hated driving at night and he didn’t want to tell her there was a problem.
‘What is wrong with you?’ Magdalena hissed as their mother forged ahead. ‘You are acting weird and you smell.’
‘I smell?!’ he exclaimed.
‘Like gym sweat and way too much Sauvage to cover it up. Maybe that’s a thing in Athens but I wouldn’t know because I’ve never been.’
‘You have been invited,’ Christos said, lifting an arm and smelling his armpit. ‘You have made excuses not to come.’
‘That is a lie! Mama won’t let me come! She thinks Athens is full of homeless people who will steal from me! And, whenever I have made plans to lie, Eleni at the supermarket has got pregnant again and I am back working double shifts.’
‘How many children does Eleni have?’ Christos asked as they walked.
‘I have lost count!’
‘Listen,’ Christos said, taking his sister’s arm, ‘I saw Auntie Maria today.’
‘You went to Old Perithia?’
‘Not intentionally at first but, anyway, have they fallen out again?’
‘She did not tell you?’ Magdalena asked, standing still and rocking a little on her high shoes.
‘Magdalena, she tells me nothing.’
His sister sighed. ‘They had a big argument outside Jasmine’s about two months ago. When I asked her about it, Mama said it was about yiayia’s paintings that are still at Maria’s, but that was not what Dimitri the baker told me.’
‘What did Dimitri tell you?’ Christos asked.
She lowered her voice further. ‘He said it was something to do with Vaggelis. Do not ask me any more because that was all he said. Maybe Vaggelis knew he was unwell, maybe he had told Maria and not Mama, I do not know. You know what this family is like!’
He did know. Saying a great deal but also nothing at all. He nodded. ‘Well, I invited her to Vaggelis’s forty-day service.’
‘What?!’ Magdalena exclaimed. ‘Mama will go crazy! She is planning a whole show!’
‘What?’
‘Honestly, Christo, it is going to be like the Olympic opening ceremony had a baby with a Greek wedding… and it was triplets.’
He didn’t get a second before his mother was calling.
‘Christo! Magdalena! Ela ! échoun éna trapézi !’
They had a table? Who had a table? He looked towards the gathering groups amid the sea of white plastic and there was Janette, Siobhan… and Molly. He pulled in his core and winced as he remembered his injury.
‘Do I really smell?’ he asked his sister as they made strides forward.
‘Yes,’ she answered.
Great .
‘So, let me get this straight,’ Siobhan said as the Baros family arrived at the table, ‘we go to that stall over there to buy beer in cans or wine in small bottles or ouzo or water. Then we go to that stall over there if we want hunks of lamb from the spit. And then we go to that stall over there if we want pork on sticks.’ She was counting the ways on her fingers.
‘Why do you make it sound so difficult?’ Angeliki asked, frowning.
‘Are there chips?’ Siobhan asked next.
‘Yes,’ Christos replied, pulling up the chair next to Molly. ‘And there are also the best doughnut balls, which you can cover in honey or chocolate sauce or?—’
‘ Loukoumades !’ Magdalena said, plumping down on another seat. ‘It is the only reason I come to these things.’
‘ Kalispera ,’ Christos greeted Molly.
‘Hello,’ she greeted.
‘I didn’t know you would be here,’ he said.
‘ I didn’t even know I would be here,’ she replied.
‘Well,’ he said. ‘Sometimes those kind of evenings can be the best kind.’
‘Right now the doughnuts are sounding pretty good,’ she replied.
‘Oh they are!’ Magdalena interrupted.
‘So, how is your injury?’ Molly asked him.
He wanted to shush her but it was too late and he knew exactly what was coming next.
‘His what?! You are hurt?!’ Magdalena exclaimed loudly. ‘That is why you are not straight and you are sweating!’
‘What is this? You are hurt, Christo?!’
Now his mother had raised her head like a meerkat peering out of its home.
‘I thought we agreed we would say nothing about that,’ Christos said to Molly. ‘Because it is nothing.’
‘Sorry,’ Molly apologised.
‘I think I would like to hear about nothing,’ Angeliki insisted.
‘Does this have anything to do with the olive tree?’ Siobhan asked.
‘We don’t need to talk about the olive tree,’ Molly said quickly. ‘Very boring.’
‘Boring?’ Angeliki exclaimed. ‘You are calling Vaggelis’s olive tree boring?’
‘No, I mean, not boring but not as interesting as… Christos’s accident.’
‘Wow, efharisto ,’ Christos moaned, as the heat landed firmly back on him.
‘An accident!’ Angeliki yelled. ‘You have had an accident!’
‘Could someone please say something more than repeating words?’ Janette said.
‘Please, Christos,’ Molly whispered. ‘Do not mention the tree.’
‘Like you said you would not mention the accident.’
‘Please.’
Why she didn’t want him to talk about the tree they never made it to he didn’t know, but her insistence sounded desperate. And real . However, he was going to have to divulge at least a little of the truth if he was going to help her out. But if he did it quickly and then followed it up with a distraction the questions would hopefully stop for them both.
‘It is fine,’ he said. ‘I had a small fall and… that is all there is to say. So, shall we get some drinks?’ He started to rise out of his chair.
‘Have you seen the doctor? Where is this injury? I want to see it!’ Angeliki ordered.
‘You’re very overprotective of a grown man,’ Janette commented.
‘He is my child,’ Angeliki countered. ‘Are you not protective of your child?’
‘Not so much I want to see everything in front of scores of people,’ Janette continued. ‘He’s breathing, isn’t he? Walking, talking and?—’
‘And now is the perfect time to get loukoumades ,’ Christos said, getting up. ‘Come on, Magdalena, and you can help, Molly.’
‘OK,’ Molly agreed, getting up too.
‘You do not have to ask me a second time,’ Magdalena said, up and already pushing back her chair.
‘This is not the end of this. You can—’ Angeliki started.
‘Run but you can’t hide?’ Janette said with a laugh. ‘Your “child” won’t tell you anything if that’s how you treat him.’
‘Janetto, you know nothing and…’
‘Come on,’ Christos said. ‘We will leave them to fight about us.’
‘It is the best way,’ Magdalena agreed.