On my Honour, it Really Happened.

I hate living in Paphos, it’s a living hell, especially for my people. I live in poverty, death’s door. No food, no water, no nothing. So I make my living as a burglar, a thief, a criminal. And I’m an orphan, I hear that my parents were murdered. But this isn’t their story, it’s mine. As I said before, I’m a criminal. So what? It’s my way of surviving, stealing things from people’s houses. Everyone who lives here has their own unique way of surviving on the streets. Being 16, I am nimble – I can get away fast. Actually, I’m known as the best thief in town, well, in this part of town.

One day, a boy, about my age, came up my alley. He was dirty and his hat and nack scarf were black. I looked into his eyes, and saw something I hadn’t seen before; it was loss. He reminded me of someone. Maybe I was looking in a mirror, who knows. “Please you are the master Teuvo, sir?” he asks. “What’s it to you?” I reply. The boy takes a step forward. “My name is Alexios, and I’m looking for something which could be hard to find… it would be a great challenge. Will you accept? I hear you’re the best?” he asks me. Somehow I like him, am drawn to him, somehow he speaks to me. He seems mysterious. A bit like a spell, if you believe in such things. Which I don’t. Well, I didn’t… I hear myself saying, “anything, I will try my best to give it to you.” What has come over me? “Fine. Well - - I am looking for love.”

Love – it dawned on me that I had never been in love myself. Had I ever loved? I nod at the stranger, hoping that he will take my answer as a yes. He suddenly turns and runs down the alley. I look up at the night sky and see the stars twinkle, winking at me. Had there been anyone there a minute ago?

By night these stars are my map, by day I use the network of roads in my head. I scramble up one of the houses that create the square, which I’ve been living in for the last four days. I stand on the roof top and look up at the sky. I find what I’m looking for. That strange-shaped star above the girls’ boarding school, a holy place full of religion. None of my business… but there she will be. Right by the place where they mark the birth of Aphrodite, that older holy place. The Goddess of love, and religion, side by side. St Toves they call the school, all the best girls of Paphos go there. I climb over the roof and leap to another house. I don’t make a sound. I absail down a wall. The light is on and it sounds as though they were getting ready for bed. Best leave it for while.

I wait for half an hour, then slip down the wall. As I get into the dormitory, I see beds upon beds. Girls’ names carved on the top. Aspasia, Kallisto, Roxanne Harmonia, Phaedra, Praxis, Erato. There are so many. I creep silently down the aisle and look from bed to bed for my prey. I go to the bed that has the name ‘Klytie’ on it. I shake her gently to get her up. Shall I do falsetto, to make her think I’m a nun? It’s quite dark. Do they give them sleeping draughts? She mutters; her eyes flutter open at last. She stares fully at me just as the moon appears from behind a cloud and shines its light into the room. She doesn’t see a nun now, but still, she does not scream. “Get up, don’t say a word,” I whisper. “What do you want?” she breathed. I still whisper. “I’ll tell you outside. Not here. Just come with me.” And she does, ever so quietly. I hadn’t imagined it this easy. She obeys me, walks around the bed, holds the bed frame as she does. I wonder what that’s all about. She takes cautious steps, and feels the air with her hands. She reaches for a cane and grips it. Now I realise. She must be blind. He could have said! But no matter. It makes it all the easier in a way. What’s the name on that bed over there? I whisper a little explanation – as I said before, I’m ingenious. “Aspasia is ill; she wants you!” “Oh! Is she!” she says, as if she’s not really surprised, and follows me. I guide her... it’s seems to be me, rather than she, who is getting confused.

“This way, Klytie, come on.” I am careful to keep whispering. “Why are we going outside?” “Because she’s had to go to hospital.” “Oh! Has she!” In the dark, it looks like she’s smiling, nodding. “Hang on, wait here,” I scamper across the room to the door, leading to the corridor. But Klytie is already coming towards me, I can hear her footsteps. Who’s leading whom? “This way,” she beckons. She gently lets her cane swing back and forth, like a pendulum. I follow her out of the building, and find myself in a square with a fountain in the middle, with the water lit up. She strokes it over and over and smiles, smiles… her lips move… who is she talking to? Gosh, she knows her way around. I must take control now, I think, and come up with another pretext. “Er… the carriage’s axle is broken, so we have to walk.” I hope that goes down a treat. She nods – that smile still on her face. “That’s ok, it’s probably easier for me to walk anyway.” Glad you say that, I think in my mind. I pull her out of the main gates, and gently lead her down the alleys, but just before we get to my square, I decide to face it, to tell her the truth. “Klytie,” I begin, I have no clue how she will take this. “Um, I’m taking you away from your school… from your old life.” Do I say this because I am annoyed that she just seems – well, too calm? I go on, “not to hurt you, but because, well, I have been asked to.” “I know.” “Pardon? You know – what?” “I asked you to.” My head reels. Honestly. Women!

I felt so fed up and confused I was almost angry. I made her sit down by the well right there and told her to explain what she meant. And she did. I don’t know if you believe in magic, well, I didn’t. She was blind, as I said – but since she was little, whenever she sat by Aphrodite’s fountain, she found that she could see, she said. Not everything, just certain things that are real. She had seen Alexios there some weeks ago and had given him some water from the fountain. From a golden chalice, which belonged to it. Then she had also seen me and pointed, to show me to him. “Teuvo, they call him Teuvo,” she had said to him. But then her overseers had whisked her away, telling her to stop visiting that heathen place and gesturing about in it, or some such words they used. He had called after her, “what’s your name?” she said. “Klytie!” she replied, amid the scolding of the nuns that the whole world did not need to know her name.

And then Alexios just turned up at my door. “I’m looking for love.” “I had this dream I can’t forget.” “Find Klytie at the school, make an excuse, get her to come.” And he disappeared just as suddenly, as if he was a mist. Why couldn’t I resist him? I, the devil-thief they call Teuvo? It was like a spell, a wave. He comes, “I have a challenge for you…. You’re the best…” and all that. And I am. But all the time the hero was sent by the girl’s dream, which she had made him see. She, or was it her patron, that Goddess? That thought is more scary. But well, she wouldn’t get ME.

I couldn’t be angry with her for long… she couldn’t see, but her eyes made me shiver the way they shone. Well, I handed her over; it wasn’t long before Alexios showed up. This time I saw him distinctly; I was just looking at a mirror I’d stolen, for a Mr Padoukios, I think it was. And when they saw each other… you should have seen it… but there’s such a thing as privacy. Oh, and did I mention? The next day, the headlines carried it.  Blind Girl Disappears Without a Trace. Is it Teuvo’s Work? Read all about it! When all this dies down, I think I’ll visit that fountain again one night. See if I have a dream…