Green Neon

37 Fear

A light morning breeze blew in from the sea through the city's street canyons. Before nine o'clock Tom was strolling through Piraeus. He loved this time when life awakens. The big city fascinated him, everything was different than in Hohenberg, more adventurous, more exciting. He almost felt at home.

In the subway he let his thoughts run free. As always in the rattling carriages, he fell into a doze, a pleasant feeling that could easily have lasted another hour. Almost reluctantly, he snapped out of his daydreams when the train arrived in Monastiraki.

Sophia and Georgios were already waiting for him, and together they went to the bus station, where Georgios queued up in front of one of the ticket counters. Tom strolled over to the hawkers with Sophia and bought cigarettes and matches from the disabled man on the skateboard. Sophia gave the man a few extra coins.

"Thanks. Bon voyage, beauties. Where are you going?"

"We're visiting a friend in Agios Andreas." Sophia pointed to the skateboard. "What happened?"

"I tended sheep with my brother. I was six, he was eight. There was a landmine. I'm alive, he's not."

Sophia translated what he had said for Tom who was overcome by a mixture of anger, sadness and pity. He took a 100 drachma note out of his wallet and felt ashamed when he gave it to the young man. He was almost glad that the bus was only moving at walking pace so that he had a silent half hour to repress the memory of this brief encounter. The scent of his girlfriend nuzzling up against him reminded him that they were out to have fun, but he felt bad about the man.

Nikos had made a real effort to do something special for their last day together. No sooner had the three arrived at his uncle's house than he presented them with a pair of water skis that he had coaxed from a distant relative for a day. On top of that, Yannis had gotten a dinghy with a powerful American outboard motor. Sophia wasn't very enthusiastic. She feared the boys would be out on the water all day. She politely blocked their attempts to persuade her to give it a try.

Tom and Nikos introduced Georgios to the secrets of water skiing. Yannis boarded the boat, paddled out a few meters, and Nikos squatted down in the water on his skis. Yannis started the engine, drove off slowly, and when the rope tightened, he accelerated. Nikos was unprepared for the boat's pull - it was much faster than Basilis' boat. He promptly landed in the water, which caused Sophia to mock applause. Georgios grew very still.

The start went well on the second attempt, and Nikos raced through the bay in rapid arcs. In the meantime, the village youth of Agios Andreas had all gathered on the beach, and when Nikos only held the wooden handle with one hand and waved with the other, appreciative cheers broke out.

Meanwhile, Tom and the siblings sat down in the sand and talked about their experiences of the last few days. Sophia was especially kind at home and helped her mother whenever she could. After all, unlike her father, Sophia's mother tacitly accepted that Sophia and Tom continuing to meet.

Then it was Tom's turn, who had been forewarned by Nikos' mishap and therefore made a dream start the first time. Water skiing was much more fun with high speed. On Mykonos they were always close to going under because the boat was so slow. Behind this one they literally flew over the water.

Finally, Georgios proved his talent and after a few failed attempts, he also managed to keep standing on the skis. When he came back, Yannis asked Sophia to take the boards. She smiled at Tom, then at Nikos, then at her brother, who was sitting in the sand quite exhausted. She strode to the water, grabbed the skis, and imitated what the boys had shown her.

The first launch jerked her forward, she let go of the grip and fell headfirst into the water. Spluttering, she swam to the end of the rope, tried again, and this time it worked. Tom felt great pride as he watched her dash across the water. It must have been a real struggle for her to go out to sea, and now she looked as if she had done nothing else in her life.