Chapter 16
1988
Gran came in, loaded with an oven dish that teased everyone’s empty tummies with its heavenly smell. She set it down in the centre of the dining table and gave a chuckle of self-satisfaction. Granddad and Sofia, having forgotten their manners for the moment, tucked straight in, before Gran even got to sit down.
Pastitsada. A famous Corfiot dish and one of Gran’s specialties. Beef cooked in tomato sauce, then mixed with pasta and sprinkled with lashings of grated kefalotyri cheese.
“Yum! Gran, you’ve excelled yourself again! This is out of this world good!” Sofia managed to say after a while. It was like coming up for air after a long dive, the way she’d managed to come out with a long sentence while chewing appreciatively.
Gran gave a chortle. “Eat! Eat!” It had taken her hours to prepare this meal in her tiny, warm kitchen. She’d had to miss out today’s swim to manage it. Being a typical Greek woman, nothing gave Gran more pleasure than to feed her loved ones the meals she made with love. And to put love in a meal, you need to take time to prepare it. Perhaps this is why, the fussier the meal, the more pleasure one derives both from eating it and offering it to others.
Granddad chinked his wine glass against Gran’s, and they both raised them together, waiting for Sofia to join in. As always, she didn’t have any wine. She raised her tumbler of water and giggled.
“Ygeia! Cheers!” she burst out, having a sip of water. Then, she took another mouthful of pasta that felt velvety on the tongue. It was thanks to Gran’s thick sauce made with local olive oil and tomatoes, a dry herb mix from the mountains and lashings of chopped onion and garlic.
The extra sweetness was owed to Gran’s secret ingredient: a teaspoon of sugar. She did the same with her gemista; the roast tomatoes she stuffed with rice and herbs. She’d always sprinkle a bit of sugar inside the beef tomatoes before putting in the mix.
“How’s Steve and Loula today? Did they come down for a swim?” asked Gran.
“Yes, of course they did.”
“It’s been a few days. When is the lad going back?” asked Granddad.
“In less than a week,” Sofia focused her eyes on the opposite wall as she worked out the days. “In five days to be exact.”
“Danda adores that boy. She was telling me only yesterday what a good chap he is. Very polite, very kind.”
“Yes Gran, Loula’s very lucky.”
“Well, let’s hope it works out then. When Loula goes to England, I mean,” said Gran.
“Oh! I meant to say, Steve told me they want to rent a car for a day to try one or two other beaches near here. They asked me to go along. It’s okay, isn't it?”
Grandma gave a frown. “Wouldn’t you be the odd one out? You know, tagging along with a young couple like that. It might be best to let them spend the day alone, don’t you think?”
“Gran! I can't believe you said that. What do you think they’d be up to anyway?”
“Well,” exclaimed Gran, an expression of shock animating her face, causing her to put her fork down numbly. “You girls today! I didn’t mean it like that. I simply said—”
“Relax Gran, I was only joking,” tittered Sofia waving her hand dismissively at her.
Gran delivered a playful slap on Sofia’s arm, causing the young girl to squeal. “So, is it all right for me to go? You don’t mind, do you?”
Granddad knitted his brows and stared at the salad bowl for a few moments, then looked up to meet Sofia’s gaze. “I think you should call and check with your dad, Sofia mou. If he says it’s all right, then you can go.”
“But Granddad, I’ve had a talk with Dad, you know that. He trusts me now. I don’t need to ask for his permission any more.”
Granddad shook his head fiercely. “What? He trusts you with everything? We don’t know that. We don’t know if he’d be okay with you going off in a rented car with a lad he doesn’t know behind the wheel.”
“I’m sure Steve is a careful driver. You’ve seen him, you know he’s a sensible lad,” protested Sofia, turning to Gran for reinforcement.
Gran gave a numb little nod but never voiced any concerns nor gave a vote of confidence. In her head, she was already dreading the possibility of her other son, Yiannis, spotting Sofia in that rented car and causing another fuss.
Grandad drew a single long breath, then spoke softly. “Psyche mou, just tell me this: what if Steve and Loula invite you to go to the disco one night till the wee hours of the morning? Are we to allow you to do anything out of the norm without your father knowing? No, that won't do. We know he’s happy with you going off to the beach without our supervision now. We also know you can go and have a walk with your friends alone. But for anything else, you’ll just have to ask him.”
Sofia frowned and eyed her granddad with exasperation.
“Sorry, Sofoula mou. There’s no way around it,” he insisted.
“But I’m not a child any more! I’ll be in England on my own this autumn. You know that! What am I going to do then? Phone him before I leave the campus every time?”
“Well, all I’m saying is—”
Sofia brought a fist to her ear and pretended to be on the phone with her dad all the way from England, the sarcasm colouring her voice heavily as she spoke in a shrill, mock-begging voice. “Can I go to the cinema tonight, Dad? Is it all right? And how about Saturday’s party at the club? Can I go, Dad? Please, please, please? Can I go? Can I go or will you ground me, Dad? All the way from Athens?”
“SOFIA!” Granddad’s eyes were glaring at her now. It made her shoulders jump, and she stared back at him aghast. She lowered her eyes and stared at her plate then, feeling shamed. Granddad never scolded her. For him to shout like that, she knew she must have overstepped the mark.
“Sorry, Granddad . . .” she whispered.
“Kyra mou,” he said softly again, patting her hand as she held her fork by her half-empty plate. “Just listen to me. Do the right thing. Obviously, when you’re in England, you’ll be fully responsible for yourself. But while you’re here, under our roof, the responsibility is ours. You have to respect that. There is no other way.”
“Endaksi. Siggnomi, Pappou. All right, I’m sorry, Granddad. Look, I’ll do it now.” To their surprise, she stood up then and marched happily to the phone. She dialled the number of her father’s restaurant and waited. His voice echoed chirpy in her ears.
“Yassou, Baba. Ego eime! Hi, Dad, it’s me.”
“Sofia mou, hi! How are you all?”
“We’re all fine, thank you. Listen, Dad, I won't keep you long. Just to say, Loula and her boyfriend are renting a car to visit a local beach and asked me to come along. Granddad said to ask you. You don’t mind, do you?”
“Loula’s got a boyfriend? Isn't she too young for that?” Her father sounded so shocked it seemed to Sofia rather comical.
“She’s nineteen, Dad.”
“Do we know him? What’s his name?”
“His name is Steve. He’s a good boy. Gran knows him . . .” Sofia nodded fervently at Gran, a cue that caused the elderly woman to shout out her agreement all the way from the table. “Yes, a lovely boy, he is. They’re serious about each other. Loula is moving to England to be with him so it’s that serious. He’s British. Tell your dad, Sofoula mou.”
“Really?” asked Sofia’s dad when he heard his mother’s words.
“Yes, Dad. He’s a very decent young man. Now, can I go? You said you trust me and that I can do anything my head tells me is right, didn’t you?”
Sofia’s father cleared his throat before speaking. “Yes, I have, koritsi mou, but not sure this applies to what’s on other boys’ heads as well.”
He gave a pause, a rather long one, causing Sofia to lose her patience. “Come on now, Dad, if you’re going to be like that about a simple car ride in broad daylight, what would you do if I were to say I’m going Disco dancing with them at night or something?”
“You are?” Her dad sounded appalled.
Clearly, he’d started finding it hard saying no to Sofia since that big talk they’d had in Athens, since she’d demanded for the very first time that her voice be heard too for a change.
“No, Dad, I am not. But I’m just saying! What are you going to do when I go to Brighton? Am I to call you every day to get your permission about this and that?”
“No, of course not. I trust you, koritsi mou.”
“If that’s the case, then can we pretend I’m in Brighton, and I am going for a car ride with my friends please? What’s a month or two ahead, huh?”
“Oh Sofia . . .”
“What, Dad? You can see I have a point now, don’t you?”
Back at the table, Sofia’s grandparents listened with their mouths gaping open.
“She sure got our son cornered! Did you ever expect that?” chortled Granddad.
“She certainly did. And maybe I did expect it a little . . .” answered Gran in a whisper, so absorbed by what she saw and heard that in a way, she was half-talking to herself.
“How did she ever get to be so open and direct with him? She used to dread talking to him. Now, look at her!”
“Amazing what a straw hat can do,” murmured Grandma, shaking her head with astonishment, as she listened to her granddaughter manipulate her father, bringing him face to face with the exact dead end she had in mind.
“A hat? What are you mumbling about there, woman?”
Grandma tittered and gave a dismissive wave in her husband’s direction. Too complicated to explain. Men never notice anything anyway. Unlike her husband, she’d been watching from the very start and knew exactly what had happened to change Sofia that way. I’m so proud of her!
“Okay then, Dad! Thanks! Love to Mum. Bye!” said Sofia, putting the phone down with a triumphant slam.
“Well?” asked Granddad when she joined them at the table again.
“What?” She shrugged her shoulders, then rolled her eyes. “Of course he said yes. He had no choice.” She tee-heed, then picked up her fork and resumed enjoying the leftovers of her delicious meal under the appreciative gaze of her grandparents. Amazed, the elderly couple exchanged glances and chuckled as they watched her eat.
Chapter 17
The sun was blazing hot and glaring down on the world even though it was well before midday. Sofia was in the water with Steve and Loula playing with a beach ball. Whenever she missed the ball, Loula shrieked, causing tourists who passed by or lounged on the sand to turn their heads. When Steve miscalculated the distance while throwing the ball to Sofia, it shot far behind her, causing her to issue him a mock-disgruntled look.
“I think I need a boat to go catch that,” she groaned.
“You’re all right,” he answered with a suggestive nod to make her look behind her. “Looks like you’ve got a helper there.”
Sofia turned around to see someone swimming towards the ball, but against the glare of the sun she couldn’t see clearly at first. Soon, she made out the slim silhouette of a young man holding the ball, up to his chest in water. He swam a little towards them and then planted his feet on the seabed, issuing a wide smile.
Now he was close enough for Sofia to see him properly, and she gave him an appreciative nod for his assistance. He tossed the ball to her and she said thank you, causing him to stare at her a bit longer than was customary. Behind her, Steve and Loula shouted out their thanks too, and the boy eventually turned around and swam away.
Sofia thought no more about the lad until he appeared in front of her again a bit later. At the time, she was lying on her straw mat, soaking up the sun, her head buried under a huge blue hat.
He cleared his throat, and said, “Excuse me?”
Sofia’s puzzled expression emerged from under the hat, and she shaded her eyes with a hand before sitting up. “Hello,” came her bewildered response. She recognised him immediately. It was hard not to. You wouldn’t exactly call him an average-looking guy.
For one, he was awfully skinny and pasty. The other thing, something very unfortunate for him, was that his face was covered in pimples. Some looked rather raw. Two large ones, on the side of the bridge of his nose, looked like pregnant volcanoes about to erupt. She was so drawn by his ghastly looks that it took her a few moments to notice he was offering her a drink.
“Is that for me?” she asked when she realised, bewildered, and without moving to take it from him.
“Yes. I thought you’d be thirsty after playing in the sun.”
“Oh!” She didn’t know what to say. For starters, she wasn’t the type of girl who accepted drinks from strangers. Besides, this was the wrong drink for her. Okay, so let’s not offend the guy. I’ll stick to the facts. “That’s very kind of you, thank you, but I don’t drink alcohol in the sun,” she said, throwing a sorry look at the umbrella-clad glass of the brightly red cocktail.
“Oh!”
The boy looked so crestfallen that she got distracted from staring at his angry pimples then, enough to warm up to him a little. “I’m sorry. But thank you anyway,” she added with a little smile, shrugging her shoulders.
“No problem! I’ll get you a fruit juice!” he said breezily and before she could stop him, he was already gone, rushing back to Karavi.
By the time he returned, which was under a minute later, Steve and Loula had come out of the water and were sitting beside her. She had hoped he wouldn’t come back so hadn’t bothered telling her friends about him. As a result, when he returned with a tall glass of freshly squeezed orange juice, Loula’s expression of pent-up excitement was the least she would have expected from her.
Sofia had no choice but to save the boy from further embarrassment and to accept the drink. He issued her a broad smile and stood there for a few awkward moments. Seeing that Sofia didn’t seem interested to engage him in conversation, and as neither of the other two dared intervene and ask him to sit with them, the boy had no other choice but to give them all a little wave and walk away. He returned to his towel a few feet from them, and when Loula noticed how he kept throwing surreptitious glances their way, she jabbed Sofia in the ribs.
“Hey, you got a new admirer! Shame about the face though,” she teased. Tactful as he was, Steve didn’t comment. Instead, he grabbed a few coins from his wallet and headed to Karavi to get a similarly refreshing drink for him and his best girl.
***
In the afternoon, Sofia arrived at the beach on her own. A couple of days remained till Steve’s departure. He and Loula had opted for a long walk to Messi to sit at a beach bar together and just be.
When she got to the beach, Sofia chose a spot by the sports pier and wasted no time. She peeled off her flimsy beach dress, quickly laid out her beach mat for later and hit the water. Moments later, she was floating blissfully on her back in the shallows, counting the usual blessings she could find. At least, while she was in Vassilaki, she had plenty of joys to distract her from the unbearable sorrow in her heart.
“Hello!” she heard someone say. Startled, she set her feet down and turned around. Oh no, not him again!
“Hi,” she said reluctantly. At least he wasn’t holding any drinks this time.
“Look,” he said, putting up both hands, as if he had guessed she’d looked down upon them to check if he was carrying anything. “I feel I must apologise. You looked a bit embarrassed when I gave you that drink in front of your friends this morning. I didn’t mean to intrude or anything.”
“Did I?”
“Well, yes, a little.” He said with a tiny smile, his blue eyes squinting. As usual, the sight of blue eyes caused Sofia to compare. No one’s eyes could be like Danny’s, for they were sparkly and bright like no other’s. Either that, or they had acquired such a supernatural magnificence in her memory that chances were, that even if she got to look at them again, even Danny’s eyes wouldn’t amount to what she remembered them to be.
“Don’t worry. You didn’t embarrass me. It was thoughtful of you to offer me a juice,” she said. Although she wasn’t i
nterested in him at all, she saw no reason to be impolite.
“I am glad. Look, can I be honest?” he asked, flinching.
“Honest? About what?”
“I fear I must have given you the wrong impression. You see, I wasn’t making a pass at you this morning, or anything. It’s just that I am alone on holiday. I noticed you are holidaying with your friends and from what I’ve seen they are a couple. I thought that since you came on holiday with them, perhaps I could keep you company, and in the process, relieve my own boredom. It’s not much fun being on my tod all day, I can tell you.”
Sofia wasn’t sure how to answer to that. She had to admit what the guy said made sense. She knew, of all people, how odd it felt to be the spare wheel, in the company of a couple. She imagined it must be even worse to be on holiday on your own. “I guess you’re right,” she said, relaxing into an easy smile. In response, he seemed to relax too. She felt terribly guilty then for being so stiff with him earlier on. “I’m sorry,” she said offering her hand. “I am Sofia.”
“Jeffrey,” he replied taking her hand in his for a quick shake. “But you can call me Jeff.”
“Pleased to meet you, Jeff.”
“Me too, Sofia.”
“How come you came on holiday on your own, if I may ask? I expect it must be very lonely at times. I don’t think I could ever do it.”
He pressed his lips together. “I didn’t have much choice, I’m afraid.”
Sofia tilted her head. “Oh? How come?”
He pulled a face of dismay, then sighed. “My girlfriend dumped me just before the holiday, you see. It was all booked, and it seemed like a waste not to come.”
“Oh, I am so sorry to hear that.”
“Well, what can you do? At the end of the day, it was a choice between sulking around the house for a week or going on holiday. So I thought, since I was going to be alone either way, I might as well be alone and soak up some sunshine in the process.”
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