“You can ask. Despite her looks, there’s not actually a big age gap between us and she was very keen to get married and have children as soon as possible. At the time I had just received a grant from the university I was working at to study the history of Lake Bracciano and the towns surrounding it. It’s considered one of Italy’s most important lakes and I wanted to know what else I could find out about the founding of the towns on its shores. Which wasn’t as important to her. There are family ties there for me, well us now, so I was very keen to be able to combine work and family research.”
“So, you went your separate ways?” Iris said, before stuffing some baklava into her mouth.
“Yes, essentially. She’s still not married though and doesn’t have any children. I wonder if she’s waiting for me still but I don’t see why she would. I was very clear when we broke up that I was in no rush for all of that and that if she was, she should find someone else to do it all with.”
“It’s not that simple though is it? You didn’t want to put your career on hold to have a family and she just wanted that with you. You can’t stop loving someone just because they’ve decided they don’t love you back anymore.”
“That sounds like you have experience in that area.” Iris let out a solitary laugh and took a swig of coffee.
“There was someone, once, briefly, in university. I thought he was going to be the one. That we’d finish university and get good jobs, move in together and eventually get married. And then we graduated and he essentially told me that it had been fun but daddy had found him a prestigious job in London and I just didn’t fit into that picture. Even though he pretty much broke my heart, it still took me a long time to see him as the classist, elitist scum he really was. I hope he rides his father’s coattails into bankruptcy, a wife who cheats on him relentlessly and hopefully a coke habit that becomes his undoing. Or at least something as equally cliché.”
“You’ve not thought about that at all, have you?” Luca said, barely able to contain his laughter. Iris gave him a wicked grin and shook her head.
“No, never.” Luca smiled back at her and was about to say something when they heard a noise behind them.
The man from yesterday was back to open up the record office. He unlocked the door and went inside, closing the door behind him. Luca and Iris quickly finished their coffees and Iris put the cups in the bin next to the record office door. They stood outside for a few more minutes before the man came back and turned the sign on the door around from ‘closed’ to ‘open’. Luca opened the door and ushered Iris in.
After a brief conversation with the man at the desk, Luca quickly set himself up on a free desk and went about finding references to the name he discovered in the library last night. He found the same survey results as he did from the library but in more detail. He methodically went through the surveys and found a few documents with attached appendices that might contain extra information. He made a list of the first few reference numbers for the additional documents mentioned to check out.
“What shall I do?” Iris asked, hoping it wouldn’t be anything too strenuous.
“Uh, do you want to read through the documents and see what you can find or do you want to get the documents and I’ll read through them? It’s pretty boring unfortunately and going back this far means you’ve got to piece it all together from tiny bits here and there. I don’t know how much I’ll find but I’ll have to get to the end eventually, maybe this is it, who knows.”
“Well, I don’t speak Greek so I’ll get the documents and you can read them. Let me know if you find anything interesting.”
“Oh, of course not. I forgot. So here are the reference numbers for the documents I need. If you type those into the search here you can see if they’re digitised at all or hard copy.” He explained what to do to get a copy of the actual documents and she set about finding them.
The first few documents didn’t turn up anything helpful but the next one had a reference to a house built by the family with the name they were looking for. Luca read it through and did his best to translate it and explain it to Iris.
“It looks like the original house was built for the family to live in and the foundations were found when some demolition works were being done for a new shopping centre. There’s a reference to a courtyard floor mosaic that they found, it was of particular interest because it contained a picture of the boats the family had used for trade. The names of the boats were still visible and had allowed the archaeologists to tie them to certain trade routes from other documents found elsewhere. The Gift Giver was mentioned, so I’m definitely on the right track.”
“Oh wow, that’s a lot from a floor mosaic.” Iris said, astounded.
“Mosaics were the fine art of the day. The bigger and better the mosaic, the richer you were and the more status you probably had. And what better way to announce your wealth to your guests than to show it on the floor of your house.”
“Apparently so! Can you find out anything more from the other documents mentioned?”
“They briefly mention that some of the routes had gone to what is now Africa, some to Italy and others into Asia. It looks like the trade was very profitable for the family but again, they didn’t go out of their way to be famous, or whatever the equivalent was in their time. They have a couple of streets named after them and a fountain that they paid for. The fountain is still standing in the centre of the shopping centre according to this document. It was one of the few things that survived the war relatively unscathed.”
“Oh, that’s cool. Can we check it out later? It’ll be interesting to see something that our ancestors would have seen, that they might have actually touched.”
“Sure, why not. I’m not getting much more from these documents. Let’s try the next five or so on the list and then maybe we’ll call it a day. We can always come back tomorrow.”
A couple more hours passed and Iris had spent half of it playing games on her phone while he poured through more documents. She’d wrongly assumed he wouldn’t be much longer when he said five or so documents. She was thankful she’d remembered to charge her battery pack last night and that she’d remembered to put it in her bag this morning. Her battery was still comfortably at 94%, even after what felt like a thousand rounds of candy crush and that new puzzle game she’d downloaded.
“No.” He said all of a sudden. “I can’t find anything else to take us back further. I think this might be the end. We’ve got the ship names and we’ve matched them to trade routes. We know who owned the boats but I can’t seem to go back any further than him. I’ve found his wife’s name but it doesn’t look like she came from a family with much prestige. I can’t find any records on her parents or siblings or anything like that.”
“Ah well, we’ve gone as far as we can, I guess. At least we’ve found the fountain, that’ll be a great prize at the end of the rainbow! So to speak. I’ll make sure to get some good pictures of it for my mother. And I guess we can both say that our family paid for this fountain. Not many people I know can say their family paid for a thousand-year-old fountain. Shall we go see it then?” Her stomach growled as she talked.
“And get some lunch?” He said, leaning back in his chair.
“What makes you say that?” She said with a cheeky grin. “And if it’s in a shopping centre, maybe I can do some retail therapy while I’m there.”
“Well first, I saw you eat the things you put in your bag from breakfast a couple of hours ago. You’re not supposed to eat in here by the way. So, I’m assuming you’re hungry again. And second, what will you buy in the shopping centre?”
“That’s not how retail therapy works! You find out what you need to buy when you get there. But I do need a thank you gift for someone in work and I will buy a few fridge magnets. I have a nice collection going on my fridge of places I’ve been. I even make my friends and colleagues buy me them when they go somewhere I haven’t been.”
“Really? Why would you want a magnet from so
mewhere you haven’t been?”
“Why not? It’s something to look at and maybe somewhere I’ll visit one day. Plus, they help to keep my take away menus all nice and neat on the fridge.” He squinted at her as he smiled and she shrugged. “In all seriousness, it’s something my parents started when I was a kid. My mum used to travel for work sometimes and she’d bring me back a magnet so I could see where she’d been. Back before the internet became what it is now.”
“That makes sense I suppose. We never really travelled when I was a child but I can see how even small pictures of new and distant places would be interesting to look at.”
They put back all the hard copy documents they’d been looking through and packed up their things. They thanked the old man at the desk as they left, then headed towards the shopping centre to try and find the fountain that had been mentioned in the documents.
Chapter 26
They stopped at a café along the way for lunch and sat at a table outside, under a large umbrella. There was a cool salty breeze coming in from the sea as they waited for their food to arrive, which took the edge off the heat that had been building all day. They didn’t talk much while they waited for their food to arrive. They’d already discussed everything that had been found out this morning, as they’d found it.
After they’d eaten and paid for their meal, they set off towards the shopping centre. After about 15 minutes of searching, they eventually found the fountain, right at the centre of the shopping centre on the ground floor. It wasn’t as hidden as they were expecting it to be. Mainly because it was far more significant than they were expecting it to be. The substantial piece of black marble was ornately carved into a fountain. It had marble orbs around the outside and a solitary figure of a woman in the middle. On closer inspection, the woman was holding something and the swirls of marble connected to the orbs were coming out of it.
“I think it’s a jar the figure is holding.” Said Luca “But what’s coming out of it?
“Wait, is it… no, it can’t be.” Iris said, tilting her head to get a better view.
“What?”
“Is the fountain of Pandora?” Iris asked.
“Hang on, there’s a plaque over there.” Luca moved around the side of the fountain to a small bronze plaque attached to the front of the fountain’s edge. “Yes, it is Pandora. Paid for by the family we’ve been researching. Wait, it says something else as well. There’s a smaller plaque underneath that says some repairs were paid for by another family when it was moved after the war and that they’re the descendants of the family that originally commissioned it.”
“So that would make them related to us then! What’s the family name?”
“It’s Psomas.” He said, standing back up properly.
“No way! That’s the family I was telling you about! That claim they’re related to Pandora!”
“No, really?”
“Yes! I’m sure it is! Hang on, let me see if I can find the story online again.” She pulled out her phone and quickly looked it up. “Yes, here it is.”
“So, we are actually going to have to go and see these crackpots?” Luca asked.
“What makes you say they’re crackpots?”
“How else would you describe them?”
“They could be right?” Iris suggested with a shrug.
“Yeah, ok.” He said reluctantly. “Let’s go and see them and see what they have to say. I’ll reserve judgement until afterwards. But I just can’t see how they could have found documents supporting their claim that far back. Everyone knows Pandora is a myth and even if it was real, she’d be from the beginning of time. Pandora was the first woman according to the myth. There’s no way there are documents from that time and it’s not like we can DNA test them either.”
“True but let’s just see what they have. You might be pleasantly surprised.” Luca snorted with more than a touch of indignation at the thought.
They headed back towards the library, where yesterday they had passed the street they were now looking for. They eventually found the house mentioned in the article Iris had found and rang the doorbell.
The door was quickly answered by a very old woman, who must be at least 80 and couldn’t be more than 4 foot tall.
“Who are you? What do you want?” She said in Greek.
“Hello.” Luca said with very limited Greek. “We come to see Pandora?”
“Pandora. You Italian?” The old woman asked.
“Yes I am but she is British.” He said, gesturing to Iris.
“You speak Italian?” The old woman said to Iris in Italian.
“No, she doesn’t.” Luca said, replying in Italian.
“English it is then.” Said the old woman and now Iris could understand her too. “What do you want to know about Pandora? It’s late, we’re having dinner soon.”
“We’ve been doing some research into the fountain.” Luca said. “We’d be interested to know how you know your family commissioned it?”
“What’s it to you?” The old woman asked.
“Well…” he started but before he could finish, Iris interrupted him.
“We think our ancestors paid for the fountain to be built. So, if they did, maybe our ancestors are the same people. Maybe we’re related.”
“So you can say you’re Pandora’s too? Pfft, no thank you.” The old woman retorted.
“No!” Said Iris. “We’re not interested in Pandora herself; we just want to know more about our family tree.”
“We’ve been able to trace it back to the ship the gift giver but no further than that.” Luca piped up.
“And you’ve heard the story, have you? About the box?” The old woman asked.
“The gift giver box? Yes, we heard something but we assumed it’s just a family myth.” Said Iris. The old woman looked pensive for a moment.
“Come inside and I’ll tell you.” She pointed at a little metal post box type thing fixed to the wall with a heavy-duty chain. It had the euro symbol on it so after Luca had rolled his eyes, he put a 20 euro note in the box. They looked at each other before he nodded hesitantly. The old lady stepped back then he went inside first and Iris followed, into a small hallway with floor to ceiling family photographs and portraits. There were colour photos closest to the front door and paintings or sketches closer to the back of the house.
“Come and sit down.” The old lady motioned to them to sit on the sofa that had seen all its best days before Iris was born.
Chapter 27
“I’m Lydia. What are your names?” The old woman said.
“I’m Luca and this is Iris.”
“So, how far have you managed to get back?” Lydia said.
“We got to the 8th Century in Italy and then we found the ship name and owner, so we came to Greece to find out more. We found the details of the fountain that was paid for by the family that owned the ship but that’s about it. We can’t seem to go any further back than that.” Luca said.
“We did see the second plaque on the fountain though, that says your ancestors paid for the fountain and you paid for the repairs. So, since I found a news article about your connection to Pandora, we figured we’d come and see you ask we appear to have shared ancestors.” Iris added. Lydia looked at them, the scepticism showing on her face.
“We were hoping you’d share what you had from the 8th Century back. Anything that could help us find a few more generations if you can.” Iris explained.
“We have some shipping records about the boat you mention. You can see those. They name the owner and the owner before that, his father. But I don’t think that’s what you will be most interested in.”
“No? What would capture our interest then?” Luca said, his impatience starting to show through his composed exterior.
“The scroll.” The old woman said, getting up from her chair.
“Scroll?” He said.
“It is an old document, written by the first owner of the Gift Giver’s mother. In it, she has docum
ented some transactions by her family. There are mentions of her brother and her father. I think they were farmers or traders of some kind as well. Her marriage was probably a transaction as well.”
“So, you’ve got what, one more generation from her? How does that get you back to Pandora?” Luca interrupted.
“The name of her father that is written on the scroll is mentioned in another document we have, that lists him as the son of a politician. The politician appears to have been disgraced in some way, maybe how they fell from power to become traders or farmers.” Lydia continued, as if Luca hadn’t said a thing.
“And the politician?” Iris asked, trying to sound friendlier than Luca.
“He came from Athens. My son went there a few years ago to see what he could find about him. He found a few records but nothing much on him, except for the story.”
“The story?” Luca repeated.
“Yes, he found a book the man had written on his family stories. Some of them were crazy, the fiction of their time was all about the gods. But this one story stood out. It was about Pandora and the jar. It said that she had married Epimetheus and the gods gave Pandora a jar but told her not to open it. Epimetheus had the key to the jar and curiosity got the better of Pandora. She let out all the evils of the world but trapped hope inside when she closed it again. It also said that they eventually had children but that Zeus had made a great flood, this is pre-Christian times of course, and that Pandora’s daughter Pyrrha and her husband Deucalion were the only two people left alive. It was then up to them to repopulate the earth. They were told to use their mother's bones, but it was actually rocks they needed which turned into people, and they had children of their own, three sons and three daughters.” Lydia told them. From her tone, she’d clearly said this exact story more than a few times before.
“Everyone knows those stories, they’re common Greek myths.” Luca said with a sigh.
“Yes, you’re right, they are. But there’s more that hasn’t been talked about.” Lydia said with a knowing smile.
The Bedside Cabinet: The Cabinet Mystery Book 1 Page 11