A Stranger in the Village

by Sara Alexi

  ‘Ah, would you look, Theo has done us proud,’ Petta says. On each table there is a carafe of ouzo and a jug of wine, next to a vase of wild flowers.

  ‘I think Juliet and Frona picked the flowers,’ Vasso says.

  Sakis is on the stage, checking his equipment. When he sees Miltos, he leaves what he is doing and comes over to him.

  ‘Well, who would have thought, eh?’ is all he says, but he makes eye contact and Miltos senses that he understands everything that he is feeling about the village and his new life here. Sakis then formally shakes Miltos’s hand and wishes his grandchild joy before returning to his soundcheck.

  Miltos spots Nicolaos in the crowd with a foreign-looking woman on his arm and a smile on his face, which suggests his toothache is no longer bothering him.

  ‘Eh, look,’ Petta says to Miltos. ‘I don’t think I have ever seen a man look more uncomfortable in his suit than Cosmo does.’

  For a moment, Miltos is pleased to see Cosmo deep in conversation with a woman, but then he notes that she looks slightly bored and that makes him sigh and smile at the same time.

  Aleko is almost unrecognisable in a pristine white shirt, his oily hands scrubbed and his face clean and free of oil stains. Miltos is not sure why but it surprises him to see that Aleko’s wife is very pretty, and, more than that, that they have a set of twins as well as the triplets. No wonder life no longer surprises the mechanic.

  ‘Come and sit here,’ Marina suggests, pointing at the central seat of the main trestle table. A dog slides past his legs and slips under the tablecloth. Two women are busy putting baskets of bread on each of the tables and some guests have already found seats and are pouring themselves wine.

  Theo hurries over and wishes Petta, Irini, Marina and Miltos all the good wishes in the world. An attractive woman is by Theo’s side. Unlike the majority of women at the gathering, she wears no make-up, but somehow it suits her, in a natural, earthy way. Her hair is long and flecked with grey, and she wears it in a knot piled on top of her head. There is an easy manner to her movements, and a hypnotic quality about her. Miltos instantly recognises that this must be the woman who loves Theo but will not marry him. She exudes the strength of someone so completely comfortable and confident within herself that she is slightly unsettling. Miltos can see the boy Theo once was as he tries to please his love. Theo’s conversation may be with him, Petta, Marina and Irini but his attention is almost entirely on his reluctant bride. Miltos has not stopped smiling since he left the church but now he smiles even more. Being included in the secret dynamics between Theo and Anastasia makes him feel even more a part of all that is going on, linked by an unbreakable thread.

  Anastasia wishes them well and moves off to talk to other villagers. Theo returns to the masculine domain of the kafenio and switches the radio on, plugging it into Sakis’s amplifier, and suddenly the bustle of people in the square feels exaggerated by the added noise. Most are seated by now. Stella and Mitsos are on the main table and Stella ushers Juliet to sit next to her, opposite Miltos.

  Juliet is wearing a caramel-coloured dress that swings as she moves and she has casually pinned up her hair, which falls in curls around her ears.

  Something nudges his foot. He looks Juliet in the eye and makes a quick sideways move of his head with an enquiring frown. ‘What?’ he silently asks. But she does not respond and so he returns his attention to the greetings being given to him, and then a plate of food is put before him. But his foot is nudged again, and so again he looks to Juliet, who smiles.

  Is she flirting with him? He studies her as she talks to Stella. Juliet is easy on the eye, of that there can be no denial, and they have a love of language in common. From their conversations so far it seems that she has not travelled as broadly as him, but, since she has lived in both England and Greece long enough to know, to feel, the culture of each and to understand the thinking of each country from the way words are used and the dynamics of syntax, they can talk about the world in similar depth.

  It is on the third nudge that he looks down, a little curious to see if she has painted her toenails for the occasion.

  The heat burns his cheek in an instant, for there, nudging his foot, is the leg of a dog as it scratches and grooms itself. For the rest of the time they are eating, he finds it hard to talk to Juliet at all.

  The food and drink flow endlessly. Theo is loving his role and is running from person to person and back and forth to the kafenio, making sure everyone is happy. Miltos catches Anastasia watching him, admiration in her eyes. Glasses chink, and when one person calls yeia mas, the salute ripples around the tables and everyone drinks.

  Soon the radio is silenced and Sakis begins. This draws everyone’s attention, and for a while it is as if Miltos is at a concert at Lycabettus in Athens, but after three songs Sakis calls for attention through the microphone.

  ‘That is enough of the self-indulgence of playing my own music,’ he announces. The villagers groan, good-naturedly, in response. ‘Instead, I will play all our country’s old favourites!’ he says, and the villagers cheer, and he only needs to strike a few chords to get the women on their feet. Then tables are pushed back and the dancing begins to the rebetika Sakis plays.

  ‘So, when do we start this boat?’ Petta leans over and slurs as a full jug of wine is placed on the table.

  ‘As soon as you like,’ Miltos replies. Vasso pushes past them to go into the kiosk: someone wants to buy cigarettes, but she waves the money away.

  ‘Tomorrow,’ she shouts above the music, ‘pay me tomorrow,’ and quickly she is back with the other women, dancing, arms flowing, hips swaying. She reaches out her hand into a group of onlookers and her hand is taken and then Juliet is there in the middle, moving to the music, her caramel-coloured dress swaying to the beat.

  Chapter 47

  The music changes to a faster tempo.

  ‘Opa!’ Petta shouts, and his drink is left on the kiosk shelf as he strides to the centre of the cleared area. He begins to dance, reaching out for Marina’s hand. She accepts the invitation, her face shining, and Miltos can see the girl he once knew, and a part of him is sad that their lives have made them such different people. Would it be possible for them to fit together, if he tried? His heart tells him that this romantic ending is not a reality, and the sadness that threatened for a moment lifts almost as soon as it started.

  Irini is pulled into the dance, leaving Angelos fast asleep in the arms of her neighbour, an old lady dressed in black, who cradles him carefully in her arms. Miltos does not know who the woman is, but he will; maybe not today, or tomorrow, but at some point he will know each and every one of these people. He will know their families and their stories and they in turn will know his. He hopes he has enough to offer them. A little self-doubt reminds him of the feelings that dominated his past. Mentally he clicks off that indicator. He is not going in that direction.

  He looks out at the dancers and there, Mitsos, with one sleeve tucked into his waistband, the other arm out to his side, his wrist limp, his fingers clicking, dances as best as his balance will allow, and their eyes meet. With a nod of his head, Mitsos invites Miltos to join him. How long has it been since he danced to Greek music? He cannot even recall. Maybe not since those enforced lessons at school? Has it been that long?

  Mitsos nods again, and at the same time Petta dances towards Miltos. When he is close enough he throws an arm around his father’s shoulders and shouts ‘Opa!’, leading them back to where Mitsos is dancing. Nicolaos is quick to join them, and Cosmo is reluctantly pulled in, and the line grows further as more of the men of the village join it. Now even Theo forgets his job, and Anastasia, and they all dance to fill their own hearts. Sakis rises to the display and his playing grows stronger and then faster. They dance on and on, growing hot and tired, but elation carries them.

  Eventually Mitsos sits down, the empty arm of his shirt swinging free. Then one or two more of the older men sit.

  Sakis looks at Petta and Miltos, an
d Miltos is sure he sees a challenge in Sakis’s eye as the music grows in tempo and the dancers are forced to keep up. One by one the men drop out, but Petta seems oblivious, his eyes shut, only his grip on Miltos’s shoulder keeping him in this world. They dance on and on, and more and more of the men drop out until there is only Miltos and his son left, their masculinity on display. Miltos cannot imagine being any prouder than this, but in the moment he is only there to support and draw attention to his son, his handsome, strong and good-hearted son. Despite the rapid beating in his veins and his inability to draw in enough oxygen, he wants the moment never to stop …

  And then Sakis begins to slow his rhythm, and Petta returns to the world around him, and finally they stop. The villagers cheer as Petta holds his baba’s hand high. They are both winners.

  The music does not stop for long – there are other dancers with feelings to express – but Petta and Miltos take a break and drink several glasses of water. The sun is long gone, sunk over the horizon to give way to the stars and the moon, but the air is still warm. Miltos takes out the handkerchief that Petta gave him and Petta takes one out too. They both have black butterflies embroidered on them. Petta shows his to Miltos to emphasise this fact before wiping his brow.

  ‘There is a significance?’ Miltos asks.

  ‘Tomorrow, I will tell you such a tale, of black butterflies and Marina’s care of her children,’ Petta says, and Miltos recognises that his son has inherited his own love of storytelling and so he does not press him – he is happy to wait.

  Irini takes Petta away to dance, and for the first time in the whole of this day Miltos finds he is alone. He looks up at the stars. If he is not mistaken, the ink-black sky is turning pale. Surely they cannot have danced till dawn? He does not feel in the least tired. But as he looks over the village square he can see that the tables are half cleared, jugs are empty, glasses abandoned, napkins on the floor and children asleep on chairs and in their mothers’ arms.

  The older generations, the women in black, have gone home to their beds. Both Marina and Angelos have gone now, as have pregnant Ellie and her beloved Loukas. Nicolaos and his English wife or girlfriend, Sarah, have also gone. Cosmo is asleep across two of the chairs. The village dogs have cleaned the floor of any scraps and they too have now gone.

  ‘Have you had a good time?’ Juliet startles him.

  ‘You keep doing that!’ he says in English.

  ‘Doing what?’ She laughs, and his eyes shine.

  ‘I think you must wait until I am deep in thought before you sneak up behind me,’ he teases.

  ‘I do not sneak.’ She sounds offended and he is about to apologise when she grins.

  ‘In answer to your question, I have had and I am having the most amazing time. This place is something quite special.’

  ‘Umm. I have pondered this over the last couple of years, and I have come to the conclusion that all the little villages all over Greece must be equally special,’ Juliet says seriously. She folds her arms and her stomach growls. ‘Pardon me,’ she adds.

  ‘You don’t think this place is unique then?’ To him it is. To him this is the most special place on earth, and he has seen quite a lot of the earth.

  ‘I came to the conclusion a while back that this village may be a little unusual, but then I have not spent enough time living in other villages to be able to compare it properly.’ She yawns and her stomach grumbles again.

  ‘Didn’t you eat?’ Miltos asks.

  ‘Oh, I did, but that was hours and hours ago.’ She looks at her watch. ‘Gosh, is that the time?’

  Sakis is packing away his equipment, and the kafenio radio is playing again, but quietly, no longer amplified through the speakers. A cockerel crows once and then again and a dog barks its response, greeting the new day.

  ‘You know what I would like now?’ Miltos speaks slowly, checking his emotions and his thoughts as he speaks. He wants to be sure that what he is saying is coming from a good place, a place of which Marina would approve.

  ‘What would that be?’ Juliet asks as they stand side by side.

  ‘I would like to look at that book you have bought your son.’

  ‘Now?’ It is Juliet’s turned to be startled.

  ‘Why not?’ Miltos stretches, and the first rays of sun catch the top of the church tower.

  ‘Yes, why not!’ she says with another grin. ‘And I will make you breakfast. Do you like marmalade? I have some great marmalade. I used to buy it online but now I make it myself from a recipe of Frona’s.’ And she turns to walk in the direction of her house.

  They seem to have the same pace of walking, which pleases Miltos, who is in no hurry. And as they make their way out of the square and along the road to her lane, he feels something against his hand, and he looks down to see which of the village dogs it is, ready to shoo the animal away.

  He is delighted to find instead that it is Juliet’s hand taking his, and he allows her fingers to intertwine with his own.

  <<##>>

  Also by Sara Alexi

  Good reviews are important to a book’s success and will help others find A Stranger in the Village. If you enjoyed it, please be kind and leave a review wherever you purchased the book, or on Goodreads.com.

  I’m always delighted to receive email from readers, and I welcome new friends on Facebook.

  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorsaraalexi

  Email:saraalexi@me.com

  Happy reading,