Penthesilea's Wish [Vol.2]

Chapter Nine

Later, by midmorning the two researchers from California were still sleeping heavily when the unfamiliar phone buzzer warned them once again that they were in a different world. It was 11:00 AM, Athens time, as Nicasio could see from a plastic clock next to his dorm key on the night stand. He found it somewhat whimsical that the clock was shaped like a miniature Greek temple. He reached over and touched Daniela's forehead with two fingers and ran them down playfully to the end of her nose. He picked up the heavy phone on the third annoying buzz.

"Yes? Oh . . . hello. Yes, thank you. You must be. . . Theofilos?"

Daniela could again clearly hear the voice on the other end of the line. This time it wasn't the professor's, but the accent was still American and actually refreshingly 'West coast.'

"Yeah, that's me, Nicasio. Just call me Theo. Listen . . . I know you're both still tired, so I'll be by to pick you up around noon or after. That way you can just kick back a bit longer. Sleep or whatever. . . OK guys"

Nicasio smiled and Daniela disgustedly put the bed sheet over her head.

"Well are you sure, Theo? I mean that won't make us late anywhere we're supposed . . ."

"Relax people. I call the shots over here for my American friends. Just enjoy the morning a little longer. I'll get you down stairs for breakfast in a while and you'll meet the director of the facilities. That will take place over in the Blagen Library around one thirty or so."

"OK, Theo. Thanks. So see you around twelve then."

Nicasio hung up the phone and slid back under the bed sheet next to Daniela, kissing her on the top of the head.

"So," he said in a renewed, playful voice. "That gives us a little more time . . . to maybe . . ."

"Sleep Nicasio!"

"Are you still upset with me?"

"Sleep."

"Dani? Come on. What happened to the Tiger Lady last night?"

"You mean this morning? Just go back to sleep, OK?"

"Alright, grumpy tiger lady. So . . . have it your way then . . ."

He slid back out of bed and headed into the bathroom for a shower.

"But remember," he retorted from the doorway. "You have only an hour more to rest. After that . . . I start briefing you about your research . . . why you're here. There'll be no more time for . . . funny business. Got that, Angelina? Strictly serious stuff. No more . . . pleasure with business. You got that?"

"Perfect . . . I'll be ready. Will you?"

"Fine then!"

* * *

At 12:15 PM there was a knock on Nicasio and Daniela's dormitory room. Opening it they saw a slightly built young man of perhaps thirty years of age sporting a black leather jacket and jeans. He wore his hair long and pulled back into a ponytail. His dark eyes were sunken into his skull, piercing and lively. His several days of unshaved beard and pronounced dark eyebrows gave him a Rasputin demeanor but when he smiled and turned up the lights on his gregarious face, both the Americans found their Greek counterpart immediately approachable and warm natured.

"Yes, I'm Theofilos. And it's my pleasure to welcome you to Greece . . . and formally to the American School of Classical Studies."

He held out a hand to each of them and once again Theo's incongruous California accent seemed strangely out of place. Nicasio responded to Theofilos' warm gesture and shook his hand. For an instant it appeared to Daniela that the two could have been long-lost cousin—both having Mediterranean features and being close to the same age. Though Nicasio's Greek counterpart had a touch of gray in his long hair.