Chapter 50
50
THE BAROS’S APARTMENT, KASSIOPI
‘Did you hear that one? Boom! It was so loud!’
‘Magdalena, get away from the doors, you could get struck!’ Angeliki shouted as a flash of lightning ripped across the now black sky.
‘I should have gone home,’ Maria said, shaking her head. ‘It will be worse in Old Perithia. People might need help.’
‘You are not going anywhere now,’ Angeliki stated. ‘No one is going anywhere now. We are all sitting here and keeping safe until it has passed.’
Christos felt trapped. Yes, he and his mother had talked, but he wasn’t sure there could ever be enough talking to sort out the mess of his ancestry. And Molly kept calling. He didn’t know what to say to her. What could he say to her? It was bad enough before, but now he knew Vaggelis was his father, that they were brother and sister. He bit his tongue.
‘It does not seem so bad to me,’ Christos said. ‘I might take a walk.’
‘You will do no such thing! Sit down! We could… finalise the plans for Vaggelis’s service,’ Angeliki suggested. ‘It is only a few days away now and?—’
She was interrupted by a loud clap of thunder and a joyful eruption from Magdalena who was still stood at the balcony doors. ‘Did you hear that one?’
Vaggelis’s service . It was the whole reason he had come over here, that and the inheritance, but everything was cast in a brand-new light now. He stretched, breathed, tried to collate his thoughts, tried to think of something other than Molly…
‘Is Christos going to lead the service now? With the priest?’ Maria asked.
‘What?’ Christos said, arms dropping back down to his sides. ‘No… I am not leading the service. Why would I lead the service?’ He was not a public speaker. He excelled in small groups, in business meetings, but he was not any kind of showman for the masses, and if he knew anything about his mother’s planning abilities it wouldn’t just be the residents of Kassiopi who would be there, but half the whole island.
‘I think it would be weird if Christos did the speaking with the priest,’ Magdalena said, finally coming back over to the table. ‘I mean, wouldn’t it be weird?’
She nodded at everyone, trying to get confirmation and agreement. He appreciated what she was trying to do on his behalf but he could fight his own battles.
‘You want to tell people? Now, after all this silence and keeping it a secret all these years? Because I do not need to even open my mouth at the front with the priest before the gossip will start.’
‘Do you think?’ Maria asked. ‘Because you are the eldest surviving male of the family.’
‘Ugh!’ Magdalena said, rolling her eyes. ‘Like that’s of any twenty-first-century importance!’
‘It is up to you,’ Angeliki said softly.
‘What do you mean it is up to me?’ Christos asked.
‘The priest is happy to do all the speaking but, you know, it would be nice if someone else, someone closer to him, talked about who Vaggelis was. And, before all this, he was still your godfather.’
‘Well, how about you ask someone else who was close to him, how about whoever inherited all his blue shirts or the second-best camera, Giorgos, was it?’ Christos snapped.
With a horrendous crash from the skies outside all the lights went out.
‘That will be the gods,’ Angeliki yelled. ‘Angry at what you just said!’
‘I think it is very much more to do with the storm and the speed at which the power always goes out here,’ Maria said.
Almost as suddenly as the power had disappeared, a thick, wide candle appeared in the middle of the table and was somehow lit within seconds.
‘Did the gods get the candle too?’ Magdalena asked.
‘I always carry one around,’ Maria said. ‘I do not know what is so strange about that on this island?’
‘Christo, get the torch from under the sink,’ Angeliki instructed. ‘There are more candles in the cupboard and?—’
Christos turned on the torch app on his phone, accidentally directing it right at Magdalena.
‘Ow! Blinded like Tiresias!’
Then there was more thumping and it wasn’t thunder.
‘There’s someone at the door!’ Angeliki exclaimed. ‘Quick, Christo, see who it is. Who is out in this weather?’
‘I will get the candles,’ Magdalena said, turning her own phone torch on and heading to the kitchen area.
Christos opened the front door and there was Janette looking soaked through, hair dripping, clothes sodden, rain running off her face and pooling on the floor.
‘Please, come in, come in,’ he ushered before she could say anything.
‘I’m so sorry to barge in,’ Janette began, teeth chattering with cold. ‘I don’t want to be any trouble.’
‘Janetto, do not be stupid. Come in. Get out of those terrible clothes… wet clothes, I mean. Magdalena, where are those candles?’ Angeliki said, getting up out of her chair and picking up the big candle with both hands as she avoided furniture in the dark.
‘Give me a second!’ Magdalena called.
‘I’m OK,’ Janette said, visibly shivering. ‘I’m just worried… about Molly.’
Now Christos was paying full attention. ‘What has happened?’
‘I know it’s probably me being an overprotective mother, but Siobhan said she went looking for that cat, ran up past the Wave Bar and that was… well over an hour ago now and?—’
He didn’t need to hear any more. He grabbed the first coat from the hooks by the door and put it on.
‘I will find her. Do not worry,’ he said, putting a hand on Janette’s shoulder.
‘Christo! Wait!’ Angeliki ordered, moving back across the room.
‘Don’t tell me not to go,’ he said, hard.
She threw her arms around him and hugged him perhaps a little tighter than she had ever hugged him before.
‘Just… be careful,’ she whispered.
‘Don’t worry,’ he said, extricating himself from the hug.
He opened the front door, took one look at the rain coming down in sheets and then headed out.