Penthesilea's Wish [Vol.2]

Chapter Thirty-one

While Professor Vasiliou disappeared downstairs for the towels and soap, Daniela returned to the guest bedroom and perused it further. The view from the center window was like the twin dormer in the professor's office. It afforded a panoramic view of the mountains on one side and the distant sea on the other. She opened out the double windows to let the breeze engulf her face and hair. It was a smell of pine, fresh earth and some indiscernible flower, perhaps citrus blossoms.

A small desk was in the corner of Myrsini's room which featured several drawers. She quietly opened the top one, feeling a strong but guilty sense of curiosity. Inside there was a sheath of papers stapled together like a thin book. It was obvious that the binder had been made amateurishly by a child, using pages from a computer printer. The little booklet was titled The Amazon Princess and featured the author's name as Myrsini Otrera.

Leafing through the pages Daniela could see it was typed out with alternating sections in English, Greek, and what may have been Turkish. There were many pictures of Amazons clipped from the Internet, mostly from paintings, pasted in among the blocks of text. Some of these images Daniela had actually seen at the Blegen Library, painted originally in the 18th and 19th centuries by French, Russian and British painters inspired by the classical Amazon motif. But there were still others which seemed more contemporary. Some illustrations created in the "New Age," fantasy style rendition, were obviously popular among teens and children. These images also added to the plot of a little girl growing up as an Amazon princess. The booklet was heavily worn and tattered on the edges of the pages, indicating from its folds and creases that it was not new and had endured many readings and stuffings back into the drawer.

In this same drawer were other pictures of Myrsini from different times and places. Again they were at different stages of her childhood. Dancing on a brightly colored carpet at perhaps age four-again on horseback, though slightly older than the photo framed on the wall. There was a suntanned picture near the Mediterranean with a hotel in the distance, and one of her included in a group photo of martial arts students. They all sported new green belts and proudly held their certificates. There were also numerous images of Myrsini in a blue uniform with other children the background, always the same large institution-looking to be a school situated in some dark green forestland with acres of lawn, possibly central or northern Europe.

Daniela persisted in her curious search, also finding photos of her with Dr. Vasiliou and several other women taken at what appeared to be a medical facility with high tech equipment and lab tables in the background. There were photos at Disneyland, and beaches recognizably on Daniela's own southern California coast. These last pictures were obvious indicators that both the professor and this little girl had visited California fairly recently.

The last picture, which piqued Daniela's intense interest, was at the very bottom of the drawer. It showed Myrsini in her most mature photo-she was still a girl of ten or eleven, but now posing stylishly in front of the Golden Gate Bridge. The picture was taken in daylight, using a flash to highlight her facial features. It looked to be professional. The big city Daniela knew so well was behind her, just before dusk. It was a city known for all its moods of light and dark and the photo did it great justice. There was a strange déjà vu sensation as Daniela focused once more on the exuberant features of the little girl. It was a foreign face, and full of budding refinement, with such wise, hopeful eyes. It suddenly dawned on her that this face was the girl in the hallway painting-the astounding Amazon girl on horseback, just much younger. The painting was an obvious projection of Myrsini, willfully transported some ten or more years into the future, while at the same time transcendent from the distant past.

* * *

After Theo had dropped Nicasio back at the American School in Athens, safe from their island trip that evening, he bid him well for the remainder of the weekend. Theo also assured him that Daniela would be in good care with the professor for the following days. Nicasio thanked him for an amazing tour of Andros, and his gracious company. Upon entering his dormitory room he immediately opened the computer and searched for any and all websites linking to the Universitad de Sevilla. At the same time he opened his Blackberry and found professor Simons had tried to reach him a number of times, as he expected, through calls and messages received since the midday. Knowing it would be now late morning in California, he dialed him up while preparing for a quick shower and some serious web searching that night.