by Sara Alexi
‘Nefeli, I have left the priesthood. Will you marry me?’
A frown, a smile, a chuckle, a straight face. She seems to go through a whole range of emotions. It takes some time for her to compose herself.
‘Papas,’ she begins.
‘Savvas.’
‘Savvas, it would take someone with a personal conviction strong enough to make that person become a man of the church for me consider them as a possible partner.’ It is possibly the longest sentence he has ever heard her say. She looks down at him where he remains kneeling, her beautiful eyes, with deep, wide pupils reaching deep into his being.
‘And I am that man.’
‘Yes.’
‘But now I am free.’
‘You are.’ She is smiling now.
‘I am. I was a priest, and now I am not.’ His excitement is making him tremble. It is difficult to keep his balance.
‘So I could never marry you.’
Does she misunderstand?
‘No you could not, but now you can. I am free of the priesthood.’
‘And now you are free of the priesthood, I could never marry you.’
‘No, you can.’ This is not making sense.
‘No, I cannot. I will not. If you are fickle with the calling of God, how much more fickle will you be with people?’
‘But I love you.’
‘You love yourself.’ She does nothing to soften her words. There is a beeping outside. She goes through to the bedroom and returns with a stout leather bag. She sweeps her treasure into the bag and, snapping it shut, walks to the door.
‘Goodbye,’ she says.
‘Where are you going?’ Savvas doesn’t care that he is losing all dignity, running after her as she marches to the waiting taxi. ‘Nefeli, where are you going?’
She climbs into the backseat.
‘Athens,’ she inform the driver, who looks back at her with a frown. She fishes in her pocket and brings out some notes. The driver pockets them, smiling now.
‘Nefeli? Nefeli? Are you coming back?’
She tuts and rolls her eyes; a very Greek ‘no.’
And the square in front of the church is suddenly empty. There is just him, and Maria outside her front door, arms folded across her chest and a sneer playing about her mouth.
The bishop’s car pulls up.
‘Well here we are.’ He leads the young man in the cassock from the chauffeur-driven car towards the grand house. ‘This is your house and you have a help who lives there.’ The bishop points to the cottage. Savvas ducks below the window ledge from where he has been watching. ‘He is called Savvas. He used to be a priest but has lost his way a bit, so out of kindness, we let him live there and be caretaker, but let us know if he is not up to the job.’
‘Oh, it is sad to hear when someone loses their way.’ The young priest cannot be much more than twenty. His beard is hardly there at all.
‘I think at one point, he became almost delusional.’
‘Oh dear, nothing too awful, I hope.’
The bishop takes on his confidential tone.
‘Well, between you and me…’ He moves closer to the new priest but even his whispers carry through the cottage’s open window. ‘He said the girl that lived in the cottage before him killed her own mama! He said he found items of clothing that she had stolen from her neighbour stuffed up her chimney. He said that she had burnt charcoal in a pan in the sealed room. Carbon monoxide poisoning. The girl herself has disappeared to Athens, and we cannot trace her, but then, why would we? The mind does funny things under stress.’
The bishop sighs before continuing. ‘And if that were not enough, he claimed that this same girl killed the priest before him, too! It is hard to find sympathy for a man who goes to these lengths in his lies. But then, perhaps they are not exactly lies, if he believes what he says. His mind was focused on the material things in life, you see. One of his fantasies is that this same girl lowered herself down that well and came up with her skirts full of gold. We have tried to keep his state of mind out of public knowledge. It is not always a good thing for the people to know everything. No, indeed it is not! What this village needs now is a steady man like you. A steady man who can work towards both the good of God and the church.’
The young man is smiling and nodding with enthusiasm. But he stops suddenly and Savvas shifts his own position to remain hidden behind one of the shutters, following this new priest with his gaze.
Outside her door, opposite, with arms folded, stands Maria, appraising the new priest.
<<<<>>>>
Also by Sara Alexi
The Illegal Gardener
Black Butterflies
The Explosive Nature of Friendship
The Gypsy’s Dream
The Art of Becoming Homeless
In the Shade of the Monkey Puzzle Tree
A Handful of Pebbles
The Unquiet Mind
Watching the Wind Blow
The Reluctant Baker
The English Lesson
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Sincerely,
Sara Alexi
About Sara Alexi
Sara Alexi divides her time between England and a small village in Greece. She is working on her next novel in the Greek Village Series, to be released soon!
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PUBLISHED BY:
Oneiro Press
The Priest’s Well
A Novella
Copyright © 2015 by Sara Alexi
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.