The Gold Letter

by Lena Manta

  Chrysafenia returned home exhausted and with empty hands. She had searched the street, and even dared to go to her daughter’s friend Persa’s house, but Smaragda had disappeared. The last house where she looked was her mother’s, but her daughter hadn’t sought shelter even with her grandparents. When she left them, they were very upset.

  “I didn’t find her,” she announced when she returned home. “It’s as if the earth opened up and swallowed her.”

  “You shouldn’t have gone looking!”

  “Pericles, I don’t have the courage to quarrel with you any more tonight. I will find my child, and I’ll bring her home. And if you don’t like it, you’ll have to leave yourself!”

  “Do you hear what you’re saying?” her husband said angrily. “Why are you driving me out?”

  “You drove our daughter away—I’m just paying you back. And if you want to act tough, do it where it’s due, don’t take it out on the innocent!” She looked around before asking him, “Tell me, did the oldest one come home?”

  “Just after you left. She said she was at the cinema and had a terrible headache. She’s already in bed. As for what you said, I know my duty, and tomorrow, as soon as God makes the sun come up, I’ll do it. I don’t need your advice!”

  His wife gave him a look full of bitterness and tiredly climbed the stairs. She went to Hecuba’s room and found her sleeping deeply. She shut herself in her room, and burning tears fell from her eyes. Without knowing why, she looked for the small metal box that was hidden away in her wardrobe. For the first time in years, she held the tiny gold envelope that Vassilis had once given her in her hands. The pink glow of the lamp on her bedside table fell on the gold letter, making it shine.

  “Yet again,” she said and put the necklace on. She felt it burning her skin.

  Inside the small locket, beside the gold tablet with the words I love you, it carried the tears of the third generation too.

  When Simos got home, he was white as a sheet. While he was walking back, a sudden squall had come up, but he didn’t notice the rain. His head was on fire, ready to burst. He had to speak to his family and then persuade Smaragda that he wasn’t responsible for what had happened. His mother was the first to run to him, and behind her, his grandmother.

  “Simos!” Lefkothea exclaimed anxiously. “What a state you’re in—you’ll catch pneumonia!”

  “My dear!” his grandmother said, and her eyes filled with tears. “What happened, my boy?”

  Without waiting for an answer, they took him by the hand to his room and began to undress him. They rubbed him with a dry towel and cologne and dressed him in warm clothes. Lefkothea ran to make him a hot drink, and Roza watched in surprise as he slumped in her arms and cried. She stroked his head and spoke softly to comfort him. At that moment, his father came into the room.

  “What’s going on here?” asked Vassilis sternly. “Simos, what’s happened?”

  “I don’t know anymore myself,” said Simos, and shamefacedly got up from his grandmother’s embrace, wiping his eyes. “It seems like a nightmare.”

  “Explain, so we can understand.”

  “I spoke to Smaragda on the phone the day before yesterday. She wanted to meet before we came to ask her parents for her hand.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know; she wouldn’t tell me on the phone. We agreed to meet at the apartment.” He paused for a moment as his mother came in with a steaming cup in her hands. “I opened the door to wait for her. Instead of Smaragda, I found her sister stark naked in the bed!”

  “What did she say she was doing?” Vassilis asked. “What do you think, son? Do you understand?”

  “Before I could ask for an explanation, Smaragda came into the apartment. Just then, Hecuba grabbed me so suddenly that I lost my balance and fell almost on top of her. You can understand what Smaragda saw, and how easy it was for her to misunderstand.”

  “Christ and the Virgin!” Roza exclaimed. “Didn’t you explain to her?”

  “I tried. I ran after her and pleaded with her to believe me, but . . .”

  “OK, but what business did this sister of hers have in the apartment and moreover in your bed?” Lefkothea asked with the tea growing cold in her hands.

  “Hecuba is horribly jealous of Smaragda. She admitted that her aim was to separate me from her sister. But I don’t have any evidence, and Smaragda won’t believe me. She saw us. How can she deny what her eyes saw? She told me that if I loved her even a little, I wouldn’t say a word about all this to anyone. She’s probably trying to protect me from her father. Imagine him finding out the story from Hecuba’s side! He’d destroy us, and he wouldn’t be wrong!”

  “But we can’t leave things like this!” Roza burst out. “You are innocent, and you must tell the truth. What happens to Hecuba doesn’t concern us.”

  “But Hecuba threatened to say I raped her if I told. Do you understand? Will we go to court now? No matter what happens, there’ll be a scandal. They’ll drag us all into it!”

  Roza approached her son. “The time has come to pay for old sins, my son. My sins. What I did to Chrysafenia in Constantinople has come back to haunt us. I don’t mind paying the price for my misdeeds, but you’re all paying too!”

  She bowed her head and fled the room with a heavy step, her heart beating erratically.

  Pericles rang the doorbell of Vassilis Kouyoumdzis’s house the next morning, and when the maid led him into the sitting room, he found the entire family there except for the guilty party. Angry, he met the eyes of the man who wasn’t only nearly his in-law but also a rival in love. With some difficulty, he stifled his urge to grab Vassilis by the neck and demand an explanation on his daughter’s behalf. Their lips were sealed, though, because Simos, who was burning up with fever on the floor above, had asked them not to speak. He would do as Smaragda had asked. He’d take his secret to the grave. Meanwhile, Pericles was getting more and more irritated, and finally he left before he lost his self-control completely. More than anything, he was desperate to avoid a scandal; if he decided to pursue this through legal channels, he couldn’t avoid defamation. A silent agreement was made at that moment. Neither Vassilis nor Pericles wanted to continue something that would cost them both their good names.

  Back at home, Chrysafenia opened the door and found Renos, who’d taken the initiative to come without telling Smaragda. He explained in a few words how he’d encountered her daughter, and Chrysafenia, relieved, followed him to his place.

  At first, Smaragda was angry with Renos for going behind her back, but then she softened and fell weeping piteously in her mother’s arms. Chrysafenia joined her tears to those of her daughter. She let her cry as long as she needed to and then asked Renos to leave them alone to talk.

  “And now I want the whole truth, Smaragda!” she said to her intently. “Pull yourself together, and tell me what happened yesterday!”

  “I can’t tell you, Mama. It’s better if you leave me. Go now, and I’ll make my own way from here on,” she whispered, ready to cry again.

  “My girl, I can’t leave you. I can’t! I have to find out. What happened with Simos in the apartment? Kali—from what I understand, he was with another girl?”

  Smaragda bowed her head, ready to cry again. “Leave me, Mother,” she insisted.

  “No, I won’t. You’ll tell me! Was he with someone else?”

  “He was with Hecuba!” she shouted. “Are you happy? I went into the apartment and found Hecuba naked in the bed with him on top of her! What else do you want me to tell you?”

  Chrysafenia brought her hand to her heart as if she’d been stabbed. “Smaragda, what are you saying?”

  “The bastard was carrying on with both of us! Hecuba told me he loved her and was going to marry her!”

  “But that’s not reasonable, my dear. He didn’t seem like that sort of person when I met him. The love in his eyes couldn’t have been false. Anyway, wouldn’t your sister have said something at that moment?”
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br />   “Maybe that’s why she betrayed us to Father. She wanted him for herself.”

  “Yes, but your father would never have given his approval. She would have undermined her own plans.”

  “Do you expect logic from her, Mama? Hecuba has always been jealous of me, and I never knew the reason why.”

  “This doesn’t add up, Smaragda. If you were supposed to meet him, why would your sister be there at the same time?”

  “Maybe she did it to hurt me. Maybe they didn’t calculate the time well. I don’t know and it doesn’t matter. The image of them in the bed will never leave my mind. Hecuba can have him, and good luck to her! I’m finished with him, but—”

  The girl bit her lips so savagely that her mother thought they’d start bleeding.

  “Smaragda, what else is happening, my child? Tell me so I can help.”

  “I can’t, Mama. I can’t bear to tell you.”

  The lowered eyes, the way she held her body, the trembling . . . Chrysafenia looked at her daughter, and with an unsteady voice she spoke to her again.

  “My girl, look at me, please. Are you pregnant?”

  Smaragda’s positive reply took her breath away. For a second, she thought she would faint. A buzzing filled her ears, numbing her brain. She took deep breaths to recover.

  Outside the door, with his ear glued to the wood, Renos didn’t miss a word. Everything would be easy for him from now on.

  Simos welcomed his father into his room the next day with eyes almost black from anguish. The fever had left him, but he felt exhausted.

  “What happened, Father?” he asked as soon as Vassilis sat down opposite him. “Did Sekeris come?”

  “Yes, yesterday evening. I didn’t say anything, as you asked me, and he seems to have no idea what happened, just that you were with someone else and his daughter doesn’t ever want to see you again.”

  “As I expected,” Simos murmured sadly.

  “Naturally, after what happened between you and his daughter, he should have demanded satisfaction and restitution, but the girl doesn’t want you anymore. From what I understood, he doesn’t intend to pursue a legal case because, like me, he doesn’t want a scandal. But what will you do? Will you give her up so easily? You love her, don’t you?”

  “Sometimes, Father, love isn’t enough. Fate has to be on your side.”

  “You’re telling me this?” Vassilis sighed bitterly.

  “Yes, of course. I forgot. Grandmother told me you once loved Mrs. Sekeris—her mother—and before that, Grandpa loved her grandmother.”

  “Yes. But it seems that, in the end, our two families should never have met.”

  “Did you really love her?”

  “Very much. But I was young, like you are now. All the obstacles seemed impossible to overcome. I gave up. And there was only a gold letter to remind her of that love.”

  In answer to his son’s silent question, he explained the history of the jewel his father had designed for the elder Smaragda, and which he himself had made for Chrysafenia. Simos looked at him as if he were lost.

  “And where is the letter now?” he wanted to know.

  “Chrysafenia must have kept it. Perhaps she should have given it to her daughter. It brought no luck to either of them.”

  “And Mama?” the question came now. “Don’t you love my mother?”

  “Very much, but differently. I was able to lose myself in her arms. The pain faded. And I have never regretted marrying her. I’ll say the same to you too. You’re young, Simos, with your whole life in front of you. One day, a girl will appear for you, and you’ll forget this love that wasn’t your luck to live and grow with.”

  “Never!” Simos answered passionately. “Do you hear me? I’ll never forget her. And the way we separated will be a thorn in my side forever. I looked so disgusting in her eyes.”

  “I understand you, my boy. But the best thing you can do now is to leave and do your military service. You’ll be away for two years, and that will help you forget and go on with your life. Listen to me—I know something about this.”

  Hecuba, certain her secret was secure, didn’t expect to see her mother charge into her room. Chrysafenia grabbed her, and before the girl could object, she’d already managed to give her a couple of hard slaps to the face. With one hand, she held her fast, and with the other, she hit her wherever she could. Hecuba shrieked, but there was nobody to hear or save her. Kali didn’t dare intervene.

  “Slut!” Chrysafenia roared. “How could you do that to your sister? What did she do to you, you wicked girl, to make you destroy her?”

  Hecuba managed to escape from her mother’s hands and looked at her without a trace of shame or remorse. “You always loved her more. But I’ve fixed you both up nicely!” she howled, beside herself.

  “Your father will find out everything!” her mother shouted.

  “I’ll tell him that Simos raped me, and then we’ll see what happens!”

  Chrysafenia threw herself at her daughter again. The fresh blows came just as hard, and Hecuba felt tufts of her hair being pulled out. The two women fell to the floor, rolling around. Kali realized that she couldn’t delay any longer, and she rushed into the room to separate them. Panting and scratched, like wild cats that haven’t sated their fury, they looked nothing like mother and daughter. Kali took Chrysafenia by the arm to lead her out, but she shook the woman off and turned to her daughter.

  “For me, starting today you don’t exist anymore!” she said, trying to control her breath. “And you’ll leave this house. Papadakis asked for your hand. You’ll marry him, whether you want to or not, and you’ll follow him to Crete. God help the man! And may God forgive me for tricking him. He thinks he’s getting a girl, and we’re giving him a witch. If you dare object to this marriage, I’ll tell your father myself what you’ve done and let what happens happen. What else do I have to fear?”

  She smoothed her hair and left the room with her head high. That evening, she told her husband that Papadakis had proposed and Hecuba had accepted, which improved his mood. He called her in to congratulate her without noticing the poisonous looks mother and daughter exchanged. Chrysafenia showed her disdain for them both with a single glance. One had destroyed her own sister, and the other had written off his own kin without a second thought. She felt something deep inside her catch fire. She wanted to open the door and flee, to take her daughter in her arms and disappear with her forever, but the thought that there were still two younger children who were not to blame held her motionless and trapped. The “must” in her head was well established and defeated the wants of her spirit.

  A game of roulette: that was what all their lives were like during that time. The ball ran over the numbers, and Fate, croupier at her casino, watched the players blankly as they agonized about the peculiarities of the little white ball that would determine their future lives.

  Chrysafenia didn’t dare tell her husband about their daughter’s pregnancy. Hecuba was preparing for her wedding. One day, Nestor burst into the house to say that the news from Switzerland was bad. Melpo’s condition appeared to be terribly dangerous, and he had to leave. He was going to take his parents with him because Yvonne was ready to collapse from tiredness and needed all the help they could give her. Again, Pericles arranged all the travel papers.

  And so, Chrysafenia’s hopes that Smaragda could stay with her grandparents evaporated. She remained alone, knowing the truth and trying to find a solution at the same time as she tried to give courage to her brother and her parents, who cried inconsolably over young Melpo. Even when her mother asked her about Smaragda, Chrysafenia managed to appease her with lies.

  Chrysafenia said nothing to Smaragda when she went to see her at Renos’s; he had become the girl’s guardian angel, treating her with exceptional courtesy and kindness. The girl had been through enough; it wasn’t necessary to burden her with anxiety about the health of her beloved cousin. She tried to discuss the possibility of terminating the pregnancy, but Sm
aragda refused, and Chrysafenia didn’t know if she felt relief or despair. She decided to tell her daughter everything about their past connection with the Kouyoumdzis family. Perhaps if Smaragda understood that this union had been doomed for three generations, it would soothe her spirit a little. Chrysafenia went back many decades, speaking about the love between Simeon and Grandmother Smaragda, about the gold jewel he had designed but never made. Then came her turn. Her young love for Vassilis, the vows they made, and the stolen kisses in the foyer, with the little candle as their only witness, the locket he had finally made for her and given her as a symbol of their love. When she had finished, Smaragda looked at her mother as if she were seeing her for the first time. Chrysafenia took the locket from her neck and showed it to her.

  “I had it locked in a box for years,” she revealed, “but when I heard about you and Simos, I felt I had to wear it. Perhaps I should have given it to you. We share the same fate, my child.”

  Smaragda buried herself in her mother’s arms.

  “No, Mother. Keep it. At least I have his child to remind me how naive I was.”

  “But we must make a decision, sweetheart, mustn’t we? You can’t stay forever in Mr. Karapanos’s house. I thought of taking you to Grandmother’s, but she left to see Melpo.”

  “How is she?” Smaragda asked.

  “How can she be, daughter? She’s fighting for her life, the poor thing, but her mother will soon collapse with exhaustion, so your grandparents have gone to help her a little. Who would have thought we’d have such troubles? I didn’t tell them you’d left home.”

  “Good! Grandma and Grandpa wouldn’t have been able to face it right now.”

  “So what will happen next, can you tell me?”

  The answer Smaragda didn’t have was given by Renos the same evening. He waited for hours until Pericles left the house and then entered. He knew everything he needed to know . . .