Green Neon

29 Polterabend - a wedding eve party

The three of them sat more or less comfortably on the warm rock for a long time. The conversation - as is usual when two little brothers sit in the dark with their respected big brother - moved away from politics to the one really important topic: women.

Tom reported on his great love and the difficulties that Sophia and he had to struggle with. Big brother had some advice here too. He told them about his wife, whom he had to meet secretly for years, and he was never caught - probably good training for his current stint in the underground. His parents had their eye on a distant cousin for him, but he prevailed at the crucial moment.

His mother was easier to convince than his father. Then she played a trick on her husband making him think it was his own idea that Petros' childhood sweetheart was the right choice.

"Don't push it," big brother advised Tom. "If you really love her and if she loves you too, just wait and see. Meet secretly as often as you can, but always be very careful, and when you're sure you want to stay together, talk to her mother."

Tom didn't really like that advice. Waiting wasn't one of his strengths. But he knew Petros was right, of course. He confessed that secrecy no longer worked, and in his mind's eye Sophia's father, sitting in his VW, stared at him intently. That he had kept his observation of Tom that night to himself still worried Tom, but Petros said:

"Things change faster in the city than in the villages. Maybe her father isn't as strict as you think, and he's just pretending he didn't see anything. Maybe he also thinks you won't be here soon."

Tom remained skeptical:

"Do you really believe that? Sophia's parents behaved very differently not long ago."

"You are going to make it. Do not worry," Petros replied, adding in his clumsy English like he had done before, "let's go swim, boys."

They carefully climbed down into the bay and felt their way to the water. The few fish that weren't sound asleep rubbed their eyes in amazement when the three men visited them. The water was lukewarm and nothing but the distant lights of a ship indicated that there were more people in the world than these three. They swam out, very quietly so as not to disturb the sleeping fish, and after a while they turned onto their backs and floated motionless on the surface. In this position, their muscles hardly hurt. When they swam back to the beach after what seemed like an endless float, the two boys had forgotten their pain.

When they got up the next morning, they were reminded of their water sports experience all the more brutally. They could barely sit up, and their abs felt like someone had kept dropping stones on them in their sleep. At breakfast, they used all their powers of persuasion to convince Aunt Kyra to accompany them to the farewell dinner. She was torn. In the end, Petros tipped the scales:

"Kyra, you should listen to the boys. If it weren't for them, I would never have gotten into the water, and I wouldn't have seen the stars either. You should go out again sometime."

Nikos and Tom didn't know what to do on their last day on the island, and here too Petros had the right advice:

"I know the muscle ache you get after water skiing. Don't think I got my muscles without pain. You need to train, and it'll go away much faster. Swimming is good. It would be even better if you just went water skiing again. That hurts, but it makes your muscles grow."

What to do when big brother gives such painful advice? "Endaxi," they said, and a short time later they were on the bus. Basilis was happy to be persuaded to do a few more laps. Nikos generously yielded to Tom, who feared his sore muscles would fail him if he used them like the day before. In fact, they screamed loudly as he hung behind the boat. After the first few meters, however, they relaxed, and although he skied only half as long today, he probably skied the same distance, because he swung from side to side behind the boat. Then it was Nikos' turn, and you could tell that fun quickly replaced the pain.