Chapter 45
Emilia returned to the house to find Elise and Chloe sitting quietly at the kitchen table. They both had glasses of lemonade before them but they sat full, ignored.
Chloe was munching on a biscuit, gazing at her lap while Elise had her chair turned toward the window, gazing out to the vast sea that was sparkling under the sweet afternoon light.
The child spoke first when Emilia walked in. ‘Hi, Emilia.’ Gone were the usual high spirits she demonstrated non-stop, and Emilia, despite coming in with a heart burdened with pain and dread, didn’t fail to notice.
She greeted them, and Elise’s attitude was just as odd. The usually chatty young woman was laconic.
Emilia served herself a glass of cool water from the fridge and sat with them at the table. While the others looked at her mutely, she drained the glass in one go.
‘We have to talk to you,’ said Elise finally.
Emilia turned to her and felt the dread inside of her rise to new heights. ‘What is it?’ she managed to mumble.
‘It’s not easy for us to tell you, Emilia…’ said Chloe. ‘Because we made a mistake. Or, rather, we missed something. And, in effect, we have failed you…’
‘Indeed. Hard to admit, but we have…’ said Elise, lowering her gaze, then turning to lock it with Chloe. They both looked so sheepish, their voices low, heavy with regret.
Emilia panicked. Just how bad is this mistake they made? And what does it have to do with me? ‘For goodness sake, girls! Tell me! What are you talking about?’
Elise took a deep breath, then said, ‘Takis… He talked to Stefan, just a few minutes ago—’
‘Wait! Did you just say “a few minutes ago”? I’ve just come from Papikinou beach and actually bumped into Takis there. How would you even know what he did a few minutes ago?’
‘Emilia! Just listen, okay?’ asked Chloe.
Emilia let out an exasperated sigh. ‘Fine. Just give me the bad news then… See if I’ll flinch… You know the Greek saying that says “a soaked man is not afraid of the rain?” It has always made a lot of sense to me. Sadly, life has a knack for making me a live example of this proverb.’ She gave a bitter laugh and added, ‘So, go on then. Soak me.’ She leaned back in her chair and looked at them in succession, feeling her whole body go rigid.
Elise took a deep breath, then said, ‘Takis asked Stefan what the relationship between Lia and Emilia is…’
‘And…?’
‘And Stefan answered him that Lia is Emilia’s niece.’
‘Oh, is that all? Yes… I told Stefan and Andreas this little white lie the day I visited their home for the interview. When I saw Andreas and realised this was his home I had to think fast.’
The girls were looking at her mutely. She didn’t understand. ‘Well, don’t look at me like that. I had to! Andreas noticed the stark resemblance between me and my younger self. Well, obviously.’ Emilia tittered, trying to lighten the mood. She still couldn’t understand why the girls seemed so glum about it.
Chloe cleared her throat. ‘Erm… You forgot to tell us of this little white lie, Emilia.’
‘Yes, I guess I did. I forgot. But, why is that a problem?’
Elise sighed and said, ‘For one, Takis knows you don’t have any siblings, or any cousins with kids, and thus, that you can’t possibly have a niece.’
Emilia flicked her wrist and spoke more loudly than she’d meant to. ‘Oh, who cares about Takis? He’s an idiot! I’ll make up an excuse…’ Even as she spoke the words, she knew she didn’t mean them. Now, she dreaded what this new development meant. She also dreaded telling the girls that Takis had indeed found her out. But, her wounded ego wasn’t willing to confess this just yet.
Chloe spoke then, interrupting her thoughts. ‘There’s more, Emilia… Takis told Aleka what Stefan said, i.e. that Lia is your niece. And then, they asked their cook to give them her mother’s phone number…’
‘Mrs Popi?’ asked Emilia, breathlessly.
‘Yes. They called Mrs Popi and posed the same question. And she told them, what we told her, i.e. that Emilia and Lia are—’
‘Not relatives…’ muttered Emilia, her head in a dark menacing cloud. ‘That the uncanny resemblance between them is completely coincidental…’
‘That’s right,’ said Chloe. ‘Mrs Popi has just been here to tell us. She demanded an explanation, as Aleka told her Stefan said Lia is your niece, but we stuck to the story. We said it was all a big misunderstanding.’
Emilia wasn’t listening now. She had propped up her elbows on the table, head resting between her hands, her whole field of vision restricted to the colourful pattern of the tablecloth she was staring blankly at.
Chloe’s voice sounded soft, not accusing, when she said, ‘Had we known what you’d told Andreas and Stefan beforehand, we could have fixed it… but now it’s too late…’
Emilia listened and wondered how they would have fixed it, but didn’t bother asking. What does it matter now, anyway? Takis had won. He had promised her to get to the bottom of it, and it had taken him just a few minutes to expose her big secret to everyone. Andreas too, no doubt. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
‘We have failed you, Emilia… We should have been more careful looking out for you,’ said Elise.
Emilia lifted her gaze to find the girls’ faces had dropped, their sympathy palpable in their eyes. They both stood and went to her, putting their arms around her. They hunched over her like two comforting angels, as she sat crying.
They soothed her for a while, promising that things would get better.
Then, Chloe spoke and it caused Emilia’s ire to mushroom inside of her. ‘Don’t worry!’ she said, ‘We told Esmera, and she’s coming. She will fix everything, you’ll see.’
‘ Fix ? Fix what? ’ Emilia shrieked, jolting upright. ‘Esmera couldn’t fix a drink , let alone this mess !’
‘Oh, it’s not advisable to speak badly of Esmera. I wouldn’t do that…’ said Elise, flinching.
‘I agree, you don’t want to do that,’ said Chloe, shaking her head profusely.
‘And why the heck not?’ shouted Emilia. ‘She destroyed my life! This stupid gift of hers! I was fine without it!’
As she spoke, she rushed past the girls and strode to her bedroom. She could hear the girls rushing behind her, but she didn’t care. No one would stop her now. That stupid CD!
Just thinking it was laying in her room made her furious. No! She wanted nothing more from it. She wanted it gone! Now!
Sure, she still had Lia’s form. If she destroyed it now, she would stay young. But, so what? She would go back to Athens, when practically no one knew her, and start afresh. Find new customers for her gardening services. Appear as Emilia’s niece to the landlord to announce she’s helping her move out. And, as for her friend, the only other person who knew her there, she could keep their friendship from afar. The odd phone call. A dear price to pay, to miss the chance to ever see her in person again, but she had known worse losses than that. Now, she wasn’t willing to let Lia go. Since she’d lost Andreas, the man she loved, she might as well keep her youthful looks. Start afresh.
She went to the dresser where she’d left her CD player this morning, after singing the song to go to work. She detested it so much that she hadn’t even packed it in her bag today. She yanked the CD out of the machine just as Elise and Chloe entered the room.
‘ No! ’ shrieked Chloe from the door.
‘Emilia! Stop! What are you doing?’ shouted Elise from the doorway, stopping beside Chloe, to stretch both hands out before her, palms turned upwards.
‘What I should have done from day one. Destroy the damned thing and live a new life as a young woman. But not here. Live it somewhere else where no one knows me!’
‘But you are in Lia’s form! You’ll stay like this if you destroy the CD now!’ said Chloe.
‘And why not? This way, at least, I’ll reap one benefit from the momentous mess Esmera and her gift have caused me!’
‘But… but…’ said Chloe, looking like she was about to cry.
Charged with anger as she was, Emilia snapped back at her, without meaning to. ‘But, what?’
‘But… What about Andreas? You love him, don’t you?’
Emilia faltered then, her mind whirling with the bittersweet memories of Andreas. But then, she remembered his quick change of heart, the way he’d let her down easy, acting like nothing had changed while giving her the cold shoulder. This gave her the determination she’d lacked a few moments ago, when both the girls came in behind her. She’d hoped they’d give her a reason to change her mind. But, now, she knew there wasn’t one.
‘There is no Andreas!’ she screamed, ignoring the tears that began to flow anew from her eyes. Like in a dream, she felt her shoulder tense as her arm jerked forward, and the CD was thrust out from her hand, heading for the nearest wall.
That’s when time froze, for lack of a better word. Emilia wasn’t sure what happened next. She saw everything in slow motion, somehow. As the CD approached closer and closer to the wall, and as if viewed on video, frame by frame, Elise’s muscular back in her tight-fitted t-shirt suddenly entered her visual field. How had she appeared there without passing her by? And how had she got there so fast?
With one outstretched hand, Elise grasped the CD mid-air.
‘Oufff!’ exclaimed Elise, catching her breath as she landed on her feet upright, even though Emilia could swear she’d just seen her, a split second ago, almost parallel to the floor, pouncing like a jaguar to catch the CD mid-air.
‘What the…’ said Emilia breathlessly.
‘Are you crazy ?’ said Elise, coming toward her, shaking the CD at eye-level in her hand. ‘You would have stayed as Lia forever, and neither you nor Andreas would have ever tasted the sweetness of the love you have for each other. And that is the greatest crime in this world! To have love to share and not give it!’ Elise’s face was ablaze with indignation.
‘There is no love between me and Andreas…’ Emilia’s voice sounded heavy in her own ears. It felt even worse to admit it out loud.
Elise opened her mouth to speak, but then, she seemed taken aback, her eyes pinning themselves somewhere behind Emilia.
Emilia spun around and found Esmera standing at the bedroom door beside Chloe.
‘Child, you’ve made quite a mess…’ said Esmera to Emilia, and began to come closer.
Emilia strode up to her, closing the distance between them in a hurry. ‘No! This is your mess, Esmera! I’m in a terrible bind and it’s all your fault! I shouldn’t have trusted you!’
Esmera seemed unfazed by Emilia’s display of anger when she answered, ‘You people… You’re always quick to blame someone else. And that is why you remain blind to your own mistakes and shortcomings.’
‘ You gave me this CD!’ she said, pointing at it in Elise’s hand.
‘And you nearly destroyed it. Destroyed your future with Andreas, too.’
‘Oh, please! Andreas and I have no future! Why do you all keep saying there is one?’
‘Guard your tongue, Child! There is tremendous power on it, and you should never curse your own life!’ She let out an exasperated sigh, and added, ‘And as for your future with Andreas, the reason I know you have one is because of the indications of it that are strong in the present.’
‘What indications, pray, do you see present in this mess? He had a change of heart about me overnight, Esmera! And now, he doesn’t ask to see me anymore. He doesn’t even come out to the garden to see Lia, for goodness sake! And now… thanks to Takis and Aleka… he will soon find out, if he hasn’t already, that Lia and I are the same person. He’ll hate me when he finds out I’ve been fooling him like that! So, where is this future you can all see between us?’
‘The indication—’
‘ What indication?’ shouted Emilia in exasperation.
‘Will you stop interrupting me?’ shouted back Esmera, then seeing that Emilia didn’t respond, she gave a soft sigh, and added, ‘The indication I have is the very fact that it takes one touch from him for you to revert swiftly to your true form whenever you appear before him as Lia.’
‘And? What about that?’
‘Well? Haven’t you worked it out yet?’
Emilia shook her head, lost for words.
Esmera gave a triumphant smile. ‘It means that your soul connection is so powerful that the effect of my gift gets immediately cancelled. And that, believe me, is the most valid argument of all that you and he are meant to be together.’
‘I’d love to believe that, Esmera… But the current situation indicates the opposite. And now that he probably thinks I am an impostor, he won’t even want to speak to me or see me ever again. Let alone want to have a future with me.’
Esmera raised her chin and gave a little wave with her hand, as if swatting a fly. ‘Details… I am sure I can find out the exact reasons he has for acting so aloof toward you. There is always a logical explanation, Emilia. The only thing I am not willing to believe is that he has had a change of heart. This man loves you, Child. And no matter how Takis and Aleka may have intervened, trying to expose you in his eyes, believe me, they will not be reasons enough for him to stop loving you.’
‘I don’t know, I just don’t know…’ Feeling exhausted, Emilia flopped herself on the side of the bed, her eyes on her lap. Elise and Chloe sat on either side of her, their hands on her back.
Emilia felt a comforting warmth on her back, and it caused a flutter inside her heart that felt uplifting. She didn’t know why or how. Lost for words, she raised her eyes to look at the girls in succession, then at Esmera.
‘Who are you people? The truth.’
‘Oh, believe me, Child, I am about to tell you all about us. And then, you’re going to sit tight over here with my girls, while I go over to Trata. I’m going to have a little chat with Andreas. And Takis had better not be around…You’re not the only one who’s mad right now.’