The Island of Screams

4 Three continents

The legendary Grundig C 100 - Tom's gift to Stephanos and his attempt to appease Sophia's dad

Tom and Nikos arrived at the hotel just after midnight and went straight to the roof terrace. Mr. Tsikos placed the half-full bottle of ouzo from the night before on the table. The only other late guests were the four Australians who had Dutch beers in front of them. One of them waved to Nikos, and so Tom and Nikos marched over with water, ouzo, and glasses.

Randy, who was about the same height as Nikos but probably 20 pounds heavier, had messy brown hair and was obviously the Australian students' boss. He invited them to sit down and introduced his fellow students. Manny was a little shorter, had dark hair and round metal glasses like scientists used to wear. Sandy, who got his nickname because of his blond hair, beamed at Tom and Nikos with blue eyes. Rudy was a short, muscular man, a little older than the others, and his black hair was as disorderly as Randy's. Tom estimated they were 21 or 22 years old.

They appeared to be wearing an "art historian expeditionary uniform", as all four sported cut-off khaki pants, and a tan shirt that looked vaguely like a boy scouts'. All that was missing was the scarf, Tom thought.

The students eyed the ouzo bottle curiously. As good Australians, they usually drank beer, at least in the evenings. But when Nikos added the cloudy shot of ouzo to his and Tom's water glasses with some theatrics, the neon writing "me too" appeared on four foreheads. Tom was glad of this harmless text. Most of the time he saw something else. Nikos fulfilled the students' unspoken wishes and filled four more glasses.

In the next two hours Tom and Nikos learned a lot about art history. They admired the Australians' drawings, sometimes just a single pillar, sometimes whole statues. The Australians complained how awful they found studying at Oxford and how much they missed Sydney. From a purely climatic point of view, they liked Greece, but they had hardly met anyone because they had been working all the time.

Now they wanted to relax for a few days and then visit Delphi and some sites in the Peloponnese. They still had a long list of things to szudy, photograph and draw. And they hadn't yet swam in the sea even once. This was the hour of Nikos, the problem solver, who explained the way to the beach in Vouliagmeni and advised them to go there tomorrow.

"In the evening there is a welcome dinner for Tom and his friend Dave. Dot you want to join us?"

Tom inwardly sighed and thought about how to get Christina to understand that they would need four more chairs. This sounded like the next awkward early morning phone call! As Nikos continued to lecture, Tom's gaze fell on Sandy's hand, which was resting in Manny's hand. He couldn't tear himself away from this sight.

When he finally did, Sandy's blue eyes smiled at him mischievously:

"You can be glad that we're staying in the rooms next to yours, otherwise you would certainly have gotten into trouble with the noise you made."

As he sometimes did in this country, Tom wished for a hole in the ground to sink into.

"We were noisy?" he stammered.

"Don't worry, that's how it started for us too."

"What started for you like that?" Nikos asked. Sandy gave him his favorite toothpaste-commercial smile:

"I just told Tom that Manny and I are a couple - and that we hardly heard you last night."

Nikos laughed. He shared the last drops of ouzo fairly among those present, and after this nightcap everyone went to their rooms.

Tom tried to brush his teeth without looking in the mirror. He couldn't, and the new Tom was grinning at him again:

"Remember, once is never, twice is relationship."