Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
There wasn’t really an alternative to grabbing Thanassis round the waist and hanging on for dear life as he manoeuvred his motorbike round the many bends in the roads on the other side of the island.
It was a position Maddie was more than familiar with after being married to bike fanatic Tony for so many years.
She appreciated Thanassis’s efforts to take them as far away from her hotel and his home as possible to a place where, hopefully, they wouldn’t be recognised.
It was just weird being so close to him, feeling the muscles in his back move under her body and inhaling his smell.
It was a mix of aftershave and exertion, not sweat exactly, just the smell of a man, a smell she’d not encountered this close up for a long time.
It combined with other, less familiar, scents along the roadside, such as wild garlic, curry plant and now the tang of sea salt, to produce a heady mix.
As the bike began its descent, the first glimpse of the sea made her want to scream into the still air.
It took her right back to when she was a little girl and the once-a-year trips she took with her mother to stay in a bed-and-breakfast in Blackpool owned by her Aunt Maisie.
They’d go on the bus and whoever saw the sea first would shout the word ‘bananas!’.
She had no idea why it was bananas; it was just one of those silly family traditions that she shared with her mum.
There had only ever been the two of them, her dad had never been in the picture, and although money was always tight, they’d had a lot of fun together.
Leaving her beloved north to spend her secondary school years on the outskirts of London had been a wrench, but her mum couldn’t turn down the offer of a better-paid job with free accommodation. And she’d never have met Tony, or indeed Sofia and Charlotte, so it had worked out for the best.
The woman who’d given her life had been gone three years now, but her laughter still echoed down the years.
Maddie turned her head to whisper the word bananas and blew a kiss at the sky.
Pushing ninety, her mum had been worn out by illness and happy to go when the time came, so different from Tony, who had everything to live for.
But there was no point dwelling on it. Today, she’d promised herself she’d embrace the present, not the past.
Thanassis brought the bike to a stop a few minutes later, in front of a tiny golden bay, where a shimmering turquoise sea lapped at the edges of the sand, and cliffs on either side protected the beach from the worst of the elements.
The road had narrowed to a track which no car could make it down, and they were alone.
She barely knew the man, but strangely she didn’t feel remotely nervous.
They set up camp on the sand, on a waterproof blanket Thanassis had apparently stowed in his pannier, along with several bottles of beer, and bread, meat and grilled vegetables wrapped in paper.
They hadn’t discussed food, but as ever, Maddie found she could eat. She chinked bottles with the cook and unwrapped her booty. Straightaway Maddie fashioned herself a sandwich, which she held up for Thanassis’s approval.
‘I’ve made a real doorstopper.’
‘Doorstopper?’
‘It means chunky.’
Maddie started demonstrating with her hands but had a sudden attack of shyness when she realised he was looking at the shapes she was making in confusion.
‘Never mind.’
‘It is choirinó, pork, with slices of peppers from the garden, roasted in olive oil. And of course, home-made bread.’
Maddie took a big bite.
‘It’s gorgeous, thank you.’
A peaceful few minutes looking at the sea while eating reminded Maddie how little men talked compared to women. She, Sofia and Charlotte, wouldn’t have been able to stop themselves commenting on everything in front of them. It was nice for a change.
Thanassis reached into his pocket and brought out a tobacco pouch.
‘Do you mind if I smoke?’
‘Of course not. In fact…’ Maddie deliberately stamped on her sensible side. ‘Can I have one?’
‘A roll-up?’
‘Yes please, I used to smoke them back in the day.’
She hadn’t had one for years, but it was that sort of day.
‘With your husband?’
Thanassis’s fingers were working at making the cigarettes while he spoke.
‘Yes, with Tony.’
Thanassis put both cigarettes into his mouth, lit them and handed one to her. It seemed perfectly natural to take it off him, and the slight dampness at the end when she took the first drag brought Charlotte’s horrified face to mind.
‘And your husband, Tony…’ Thanassis turned to look at her. ‘He is dead, yes?’
‘Yes.’ She didn’t mind telling him for some reason.
‘I know this. I saw it in your eyes that first day down at the port.’ Thanassis turned back to look out to sea. ‘The pain is something you can recognise instantly if you see it in the mirror every morning.’
Maddie stared straight ahead, rather than at the man sitting next to her.
‘You too?’
‘Yes, my wife, Eimear, died five years ago.’
Thanassis did the sign of the cross on his chest.
Maddie put her hand on his arm. The soft dark hairs were warm to the touch.
‘I’m so sorry.’
‘For you too.’
The sea began to blur in front of her eyes. She blinked and sneaked a peek at him.
‘It’s coming back to me. You said her name out loud several times the other night … while you were barely conscious.’
Thanassis turned to her with a smile.
‘Did I? I suppose it is not so strange. I think of her every day. One day, not too soon I hope’—his smile was like the sun after the rain—‘we will be reunited.’
‘It must be nice to believe that. I really don’t know, but I would love to think it’s true.’
Maddie turned her head away, so Thanassis didn’t see her eyes. But she didn’t need to tell him she was near to tears.
‘Don’t be sad. Why don’t we talk about them a little? It is hard to talk to people who don’t understand.’
Maddie nodded. It was hard. So hard. Some people got upset themselves, and others just looked embarrassed and made excuses not to meet up again.
‘You go first.’
‘OK. Eimear was nineteen when I met her. She was a tourist, like you, from Ireland. It was her first time abroad, and she had all these big plans to travel the world. But we took one look at each other and that was it. We both knew.’
Maddie sneaked another look at the man beside her. His eyes were closed, but he had a great big grin on his face.
‘And that also explains why your English is so good.’
Thanassis shrugged.
‘I suppose. Eimear never left. It was a lot for her to give up, but my life was here on the island. We’ve been fishermen in these waters for four generations, and tradition is strong in Greece. But she fell in love with the island as well as me, and the people took her to their hearts.’
His clear blue eyes stared into hers a moment.
‘What about your Tony?’
‘It’s not so different. We met at school.’ Maddie held back a sob. ‘We were both sixteen.’
The memories of the tall, gangly boy came flooding into her mind. ‘We both went for the last piece of cake in the cafeteria, and he let me have it. That was Tony, generous to a fault.’
Thanassis smiled.
‘I don’t like mean people.’
‘Me neither. Everyone thought we’d split up because we were so young.
He went off to university because he needed a degree to be a teacher, which was always his dream, and I started work in social care.
But we managed to meet up most weekends and we never found anyone else we thought was a better fit. ’
Thanassis took another long drag on his cigarette.
‘Eimear had all this beautiful red hair, very much like yours, which is another reason why I was drawn to you.’
‘Ah, and that’s why your daughter thought she’d seen a ghost when we brought you into the harbour. And why she was giving me a strange look at the panigyri.’
Thanassis sighed.
‘She is very protective of me. She still misses her mother dreadfully and is so sad that Eimear never got to see our beautiful grandchildren.’
The crack in his voice told Maddie that her companion was near to tears himself.
‘My son, Alex, works as a chef in Dublin where Eimear was from and where her relatives still live. They have been so welcoming, but I miss him all the time. My daughter, Georgia, is married to a local man, so she looks out for me. Do you have children?’
‘Yes. My daughter, Becca, runs two bakeries in the north of England. She’s married, but no children yet. While my son…’
Maddie couldn’t go on any further.
Thanassis put his hand over hers. A hand with rough skin. A working hand.
‘What is it?’
‘My son and I have fallen out. Or rather I have fallen out with his wife…’
There was no point in varnishing the truth now.
‘I said some things I bitterly regret. Which means I haven’t seen my beloved granddaughter, Elsie, for three months. No one else knows. And it’s killing me.’
Maddie couldn’t keep the tears at bay any longer. Thanassis carefully took the cigarette from her hand and stubbed it out on the sand before he held her sobbing figure in his arms, the stunning beach and the glorious sea all but forgotten.
When she could speak again, she reluctantly pulled out of the comforting embrace, but not before Thanassis had wiped away her tears with his thumbs.
‘You must fix this. Family is everything. We have lost so much. You cannot lose them.’
‘I know.’ Maddie’s throat was so sore she could barely swallow. ‘I just don’t know how.’
‘Find a way. Your friends will help you.’
Maddie stayed silent.
‘They don’t know?’
She shook her head.
‘Please tell them. I’m begging you.’
‘I will. I promise.’
‘Good. And you know you cannot break a promise made to a Greek.’
Thanassis stood up, pulled his T-shirt over his head and stepped out of his jeans.
Maddie found it hard to tear her eyes away from his muscular body, not honed in a gym, but by years of hard physical work out at sea, as evidenced by the tan lines halfway up his arms and across the tops of his thighs. She must stop gawping.