by Beryl Darby
‘You can make it beautiful,’ exclaimed Dora. ‘You can put up shelves for your books and you could have a proper desk. Which room will you use as the living room?’
‘I thought this one.’
Dora nodded. ‘It’s a little larger and the windows look out over the garden. You’ll be able to make it look very pretty, Yannis. Are you going to leave the walls white or paint them a colour?’
‘I thought I’d leave the choice to you.’
‘To me? But I don’t know what else you’re planning to have in the room or what colour the curtains and rugs will be.’
‘Maybe you could come with me to choose them?’ Yannis slipped his arm around her waist. ‘I thought you might like to share it with me, as my wife.’
A deep red rose from Dora’s neck, filling her cheeks. ‘Do you mean that, Yannis?’
He nodded. ‘I’ve thought about it for a long time, but I didn’t see how it would be possible whilst I lived at the hospital.’
‘I have nothing, Yannis. You know that.’
‘I’m not asking you for anything.’
Dora pursed her lips. ‘I’m not a young woman to marry again.’
‘I know that too. You told me, you’re forty-three next birthday, but age has nothing to do with it. Could you put up with having me around all the time, being bad-tempered and impatient when things don’t go the way I want?’
‘I’ve been able to put up with you whilst you lived at the hospital.’
‘You could always get away from me there, or shut your door in my face. It won’t be so easy here.’
‘I can always visit my friends at the hospital if I find you difficult.’ Dora smiled at him. ‘Of course I’ll marry you, Yannis. Did you think I’d say no?’ She held her face up towards Yannis who frowned at her.
‘I can be very difficult to live with. I’m terribly untidy. I like well cooked meals, clean clothes every day and coffee whenever I fancy.’
‘And what will you be doing whilst I’m coping with all this washing and cooking you want done? Sitting and watching me?’ asked Dora.
‘I think I’ll find enough to occupy my time. The publisher has accepted those little anecdotes and wants more.’
‘Oh, Yannis, that’s wonderful. You’ll be famous.’
‘I doubt that, but it should bring us in a little money to live on. Now, have you decide what colour you want the walls?’
Anna stepped from the aeroplane onto the hot tarmac. Her legs felt weak as she followed the other passengers to the passport control building. Yannis had promised he would be there and she hoped desperately that she would recognise him. The official gave her picture a quick glance and stamped the papers, slapping them onto the desk and holding out his hand for the next in line. Unsure what to do Anna stood there.
‘My case?’ It was new, the first time she had ever owned a case, and it was packed with her possessions. It had been whisked away at the airport in Heraklion and she was now wondering if she would ever see it again. Feeling herself pushed from behind she repeated her question and the man she was hindering took pity on her.
‘Come with me. You collect it through here.’ He pointed through some swing doors, each time they opened a milling throng could be seen. ‘First time you’ve flown?’
Anna nodded. ‘My brother’s meeting me. I can’t see him.’
‘He’ll be waiting the other side. He’s not allowed through here. What does your case look like?’ He guided her skilfully through the people to the cases, which were going round on the conveyor belt.
‘It’s black. Maybe that one?’
Her benefactor held the label for her to read. ‘Is this it?’
Anna recognised her rather childish printing and held out her hand to take it.
‘I’ll carry it through.’
‘Thank you.’ Dutifully Anna trotted along at his side, scanning the faces of the men and women who stood behind the barrier eagerly awaiting arrivals.
‘How long is it since you last saw your brother?’
Anna thought, but gave up trying to calculate. ‘A long time.’
‘Then I suggest you sit there and wait. The crowd will thin and you’ll be able to see each other.’ He deposited her case on the ground beside her. ‘I can’t wait with you. I have an appointment. If you have any problem go to the desk over there. They’ll help you.’
Before Anna could finish stammering her thanks he had gone, swallowed up amongst the moving mass that showed no signs of dispersing. Nervously she gazed around, the loud speaker making her start as it gave out a cracked message which she could not understand.
‘Anna? It is Anna.’
She looked up to see her brother standing before her; the years had changed him very little.
‘Yannis! You did come.’
‘I said I’d meet you. You can’t go running around Athens on your own.’ He tried to pick up her case, his fingers too misshapen to slip through the handle.
‘It’s not heavy. I’ll take it.’
Yannis nodded and held the door open for her. ‘We’ll take a taxi to the apartment. It’s quite a distance from here.’
Swiftly the yellow cab found its way through the maze of one-way streets that they encountered once they left the main road from the airport. Yannis pointed out landmarks as they passed, whilst Anna gazed dumbfounded. Heraklion had been a nightmare of people and rushing traffic, but this was worse than she had imagined. She clutched alternately at Yannis and the seat in front as the driver applied his brakes at the last moment to enable them to skid around a corner. She took deep breaths as they finally came to a halt.
‘We’re here.’ Yannis waited until the driver had opened the door for him, another small thing that he was no longer able to do for himself without great difficulty. ‘Dora is looking forward to meeting you.’
He pushed open the front door and led Anna to a small door set in the wall at the foot of the stairs. She looked in surprise at the tiny box as Yannis ushered her in. He pushed a button on the wall and she gasped as the box began to move upwards. With a slight shudder the lift came to a halt and Yannis opened the door.
‘Much easier than walking up the stairs,’ he smiled as he rang the bell set in the wall. The door opened and a small, dark haired woman appeared.
‘Welcome. You must be Anna. Yannis has told me so much about you. Do come in. You must be tired after your journey.’ Anna followed her as she limped into a room that was beautiful beyond belief to Anna. The smooth, white walls, pale blue curtains and cover on the bed, a cupboard to hang her clothes and a chair to sit before a mirror to brush her hair.
‘I’ll show you the rest of the apartment later. I expect you’d like to wash and have a cup of coffee before you visit your brother. I’ll show you the bathroom.’
Anna crossed the hall and gasped. The small room held a bath that filled from taps in the wall and also a basin. The toilet was the kind you could clean by pushing a lever and the walls were made of shiny tiles.
‘It’s so beautiful!’ she exclaimed.
Dora smiled. ‘It’s very ordinary, but the tiles were replaced recently.’
Anna turned the taps over the basin on and off, marvelling as the water gushed out. She washed her hands and dried them on a soft towel before she emerged and looked timidly across the hallway. The first room was obviously her bedroom, but which was the living room?
Dora came from the end room, carrying a tray. ‘In here, Anna.’ She limped ahead of her, making Anna long to take the tray from her before the entire contents fell to the floor.
She nibbled the biscuit she had been offered and looked surreptitiously around the room. Brown velvet curtains hung to the floor, padded chairs were either side of the fireplace and in one corner stood Yannis’s desk, a light above it. ‘Is that where you sit and write?’
‘Usually. I do very little now, apart from writing letters.’
She sipped her coffee. ‘Your apartment
is very grand.’
‘You’re in Athens, now, Anna. This is a poor place compared with many you could go to. We’re comfortable, but it’s not luxurious.’
‘It is to me. I’m used to the farm at home.’
‘Why didn’t Yiorgo come with you, Anna?’
Anna lowered her eyes. ‘He had to look after the farm.’
‘Yannis is there. Surely he could have left it for a few days?’
‘He didn’t like to. He felt it was too much for Yannis.’
‘He’s a grown man, not a child!’ Yannis snorted in disgust.
‘Does it matter very much? You said yourself that when you went Stelios was unconscious and they wouldn’t let you see him. It could be a wasted journey for Yiorgo.’ Dora tried to smooth the matter over.
‘Wasted journey or not he should have come,’ grumbled Yannis.
Anna shifted uncomfortably in her seat. ‘Do you know how he is today?’
‘I telephoned this morning. They said he’d rallied. We’ll take a taxi over when we’ve had lunch.’
Anna nodded. Her brother seemed very much in charge, both of her and his wife. Dora smiled. ‘Take no notice of him. He doesn’t like hospitals and sick people.’
‘But you spent all those years with them!’
Dora wagged her finger. ‘They weren’t sick, were they, Yannis? You know, the first time he said that to me I laughed until I cried. I think that was what first drew us together.’
Yannis smiled at her. ‘She made me laugh for the first time in years,’ he explained. ‘I decided there and then that I should see more of her.’
Anna studied her sister-in-law, taking in the dark, bird-like eyes and the ready smile. She obviously adored her husband and knew how to keep him happy.
It was with trepidation that Anna followed her brother along the corridor of the hospital. He had checked at the desk downstairs and had been directed to the fourth floor, now he scanned the numbers on the doors, before stopping at number seventeen. He laid a hand on Anna’s arm. ‘Ready?’
Anna nodded. She was completely over-awed by this large, white building. Her head was in a whirl with the new experiences she had crammed into the last twenty-four hours. First travelling to Heraklion and staying the night with Andreas, when she had never been further than Aghios Nikolaos or slept in a bed other than her own, then the airport and the flight in the early morning, and now this city which seemed so full of marvels that she did not know which way to look first.
As they entered three heads turned and looked at them with curiosity. The woman recovered herself first. ‘You must be his relatives from Crete.’
Yannis nodded and watched Anna walk to the bed and take her brother’s hand.
‘It was good of you to come at such short notice. Maybe we could return to the apartment afterwards and get to know each other? Believe me, this situation is as difficult for me as it must be for you.’
Yannis stood motionless, looking at the shrunken form on the bed, remembering how Stelios had wanted to search for pottery with him; how he had brought his own little finds to him for approval, and then over the years all contact had been lost.
Anna returned to where her brother stood. ‘He’s conscious. Do you want to speak to him?’
Yannis stepped forward. ‘Can you hear me, Stelios?’ Stelios’s lips parted and closed, no sound issuing from them. ‘Thank you for making Mamma and Pappa proud of you when I failed.’
Stelios’s eyes opened and he looked with shocked recognition at his brother. ‘Yannis!’ His lips framed the word. He struggled to move himself in the bed and his eyes closed again.
‘We’ve probably tired him. The doctor said only a few minutes. Maybe we should go now.’ Daphne bent and kissed her husband. ‘We’ll come again tomorrow,’ she promised.
They tiptoed from the room and Daphne walked beside Anna along the corridor.
‘You will come back to the apartment, won’t you? I don’t even know your names. Maybe we could get to know each other over a glass of wine?’
Anna nodded dumbly. In her confused brain she decided this must be Stelios’s wife and the younger man and woman his children. ‘I’m Anna, and this is my brother, Yannis.’
Daphne smiled and held out her hand. ‘Daphne,’ she said, ‘And these are our children, Elena and Nicolas.’
Anna shook hands with them, a fixed smile on her face. They turned to Yannis and Nicolas held out his hand. ‘I’m pleased to meet you.’
Yannis looked at the hand before him. Very slowly and deliberately he took his own from his pocket, giving Nicolas plenty of time to see the clawed fingers and shrunken thumb.
‘You may prefer not to shake my hand.’
Nicolas stared. ‘Good God – a leper!’
Yannis returned his hand to his pocket. ‘I’m burnt-out. There’s nothing to fear.’
‘Can we get home, please?’ Daphne suddenly felt very near to tears. So that was why her husband had not wished to acknowledge his family.
In silence they walked the length of the corridor and down the flights of stairs. Elena led the way to the car. ‘Come on, it’s big enough for all of us.’
Yannis hung back.
‘And you – uncle Yannis.’
Obediently Yannis climbed inside, sitting between the door and his sister. Surprisingly Elena slid into the driving seat, switched on the engine and began to reverse the large car from the car park. She drove fast and skilfully, taking the road to Piraeus, before turning off into the most select suburb of Athens.
‘Do you drive often?’ Anna asked, her knuckles white from clutching at the seat in front of her.
‘Every day,’ she replied cheerfully. ‘Don’t worry, you’re quite safe.’ She swung the wheel violently to the right and brought the car to an abrupt halt. ‘We’re here.’
The apartment was larger and more opulent than Yannis’s and seemed a wonder of modern conveniences to Anna as she followed Daphne into the kitchen.
‘Is it all right for Yannis to be here?’
Daphne smiled. ‘I’m thrilled to meet both of you. It was just a bit of a shock. When Stelios started talking in his delirium and saying he wanted to see you I didn’t know what to do. I thought his only relative was a cousin. He had told me his family were dead.’
Anna’s eyes filled with tears. How wicked to say Yannis was dead! She followed Daphne back into the lounge, carrying the bottle of wine that had been handed to her. Yannis was sitting self-consciously on the edge of the deep settee, whilst his niece and nephew were trying to think of something to say that would ease the tension. Daphne handed the bottle to Nicolas.
‘Pour us all a glass of wine and then I think we should sit and talk. We’ve a good many years to catch up on. Where do you live on Crete? I only found out about his cousin through reading a letter which Stelios had dropped.’
‘Yannis, I think it’s better if you do the talking.’ Anna was beginning to feel very tired and she would have liked nothing better than to lean back in her chair and close her eyes.
‘We heard nothing from Stelios once he went to Athens and after the war we thought he must have died. Then Andreas wrote and said he was alive and well. We were obviously a great embarrassment to him as he refused to have anything to do with us.’
‘Poor Pappa. He should have told us.’
‘I think he really had convinced himself that his family were all dead.’ Elena looked at Yannis with misty eyes. ‘I asked him once to tell me about you and he spoke so sadly.’
‘Then why did he suddenly want to see us?’ asked Anna.
‘I’m not sure. Maybe the doctor was confused. Stelios had been drifting in and out of delirium for some time. He kept repeating that he must see Yannis. The doctor asked me if I knew who this Yannis was and I eventually remembered the letter from years ago. I wrote to Father Andreas and asked him if he could help.’
“What other relatives do we have?” asked Nicolas.
‘It might be better if I told you all about us. It could help you to understand.’ Yannis looked at the attentive faces before him and began to recount the story of his life and the details of his family.
Nicolas drew in his breath. ‘You lived on Spinalonga?’
‘Yannis and his friends made it beautiful,’ interrupted Anna.
‘You went there?’ Nicolas could hardly believe his ears.
‘Of course I did, once I was allowed. My brother lived there. I made many friends over there.’
Nicolas shook his head in disbelief, whilst Elena gazed at her newly found uncle in astonishment. ‘Are you really a leper?’
Yannis spread out his hands. ‘I couldn’t possibly deny it.’
‘Is your brother Yiorgo still alive?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then why didn’t he come over?’
‘He had to look after the farm,’ Anna defended him.
‘And what about the children you brought up? What happened to them?’
‘Marisa is married to an Italian; she has three children, all boys. Here, I’ve a photograph.’ Anna delved into her bag and drew out a snapshot of her niece, the baby on her lap and her other sons on each side of her. ‘Yannis is married, too, but he has no children yet.’
‘And you?’ Daphne turned to Yannis. ‘I suppose not.’
Yannis smiled. ‘You suppose wrongly. I’ve married twice. The first time was when I was on Spinalonga and then again when I returned to Athens. Lepers are human, you know.’
Daphne coloured slightly. ‘I didn’t mean…’
‘I know what you meant. How could anyone find a leper attractive enough to marry? My present wife is also a leper. We accept each other’s defects, although mine are a good deal more noticeable than hers.’
Daphne swallowed. She felt she had been extremely tactless. She leaned forward and refilled Yannis’s glass. ‘Will you visit Stelios again tomorrow?’
‘I’ll take Anna tomorrow, but I’ll wait outside. He may not remember seeing me today and I don’t want to upset him.’
‘Suppose he asks for you?’
‘I’ll be there if he does.’ Yannis looked at his watch. ‘We should go. Dora will think something has happened to us.’