Winter Hearts

In Which Siana Meets Her Cousins

After Mikhalis left, Siana quickly changed out of her soft slacks and boots and put on some leggings and joggers. She knew she would be getting sweaty but needed to keep warm, so she pulled a body-fitting long-sleeved top over her body tank, then a thin windcheater.

Tying her sneakers on tightly, she grabbed her bubble jacket and looked for the set of keys she knew would be hanging in a cuckoo clock they had by the door. There was no cuckoo and it wasn't a clock either, it just had a faux face which opened to reveal hooks for keys to hang. She smiled.

Her father had let her buy the ugly thing when she was younger and now insisted that she should live with it.

She got the keys out and carefully closed the door. In Greece, vestiges of the old times remained and the afternoon siesta was still a must for many people. Nowadays, she found more and more younger people used that quiet time to do things unbothered by their adults.

She ran down the three flights of stairs to the lobby and turned left outside to access the door that led round the building to the back yard. Unlocking it, she found a small open air shed that housed a few old and rusting bikes. Her dad kept them for guests to borrow and also for her to use to get around town. She pulled out the largest one, which was now a little low for her. It was teal, with a white seat and girly handles, a little old school and heavy, but she preferred it over a new one. It reminded her of happy days.

She locked up and pulled it out into the street. She put on her jacket and pedalled straight down til she got to the esplanade and headed down towards the pier. There was no traffic, but she knew there were many errant drivers who didn't really watch where they were going, so she kept to the sides, avoiding the gutters and badly parked vehicles. She turned right at the pier, following the central main street down past the main church and out towards the school that was on the outskirts of the town.

Here she crossed the highway and cycled towards the gate entrance. She could already see the tall, blonde Panos towering over the rest of her stocky, dark-haired cousins.

He saw her and opened his hands, italian gangster-style, as if to say, "Where have you been?"He lifted his chin up, hoodlum-style. His face reminded her of JRE's stank face he did on youtube whenever he saw something he loved.

She laughed and swung her leg off the bike, running to a stop and parking it against the kerb with the pedal. She ran in the gate up to the boys. Panos stepped forward and took her into a bearhug.

"Hello Cousin!" he yelled in Greek, putting her into a headlock, smothering her with his jacket. She came up spluttering.

"Nice bouffant jacket."

"Panos stepped back and smoothed front of his pillowy jacket proudly.

"My mama wants me to keep warm," he beamed.

She turned to hug Yianni and Dimitri, who were a few years older than her. They both had pale skin and black eyes and hair, although she knew that in the summer they tanned to a dusky olive colour . By contrast, Panos was pale but with a shock of straw coloured hair, like his mum's. She marvelled at the differences between them.

She remembered a young Panos boasting at a family gathering that the original Greeks were mountain dwellers with blonde hair, and that they only became darker because of migration from the middle east and asia minor.

Her dad and Stavros laughed good-naturedly, calling themselves tainted. It's funny how people thought of themselves as unique to others.

Dimitri rolled a basketball between his hands, looking her up and down.

"You been practising back there in China?"

She smacked him, laughing. It was a running joke between them, that people everywhere seemed to think all Asians were Chinese. He himself was like that until she taught him better.

They were only little when he had called her Chinese, and she had turned on him with a glint in her eye and said, "You can call me Chinese. After all, in Asia when they talk about Europe, they think everyone's French or German. If they talk about the Mediterranean, they think of Italy. So, I suppose it's okay."

Panos and Yianni had laughed at Dimitri, patting her on the back and then pretending to kick him. He got the hint very quickly, and they soon became her backup whenever the local kids brought up her asian heritage in a rude way. She didn't mind so much. It was highly unusual at the time, for a local boy like her dad to marry outside of the country, let alone outside of the village.

She had grown up surrounded by a caring community, even though they needed a little educating sometimes. The result of it was, she was welcomed and recognised here when she returned, but she knew that they still had misconceptions about Asians, and had very little knowledge about the cultural and racial distinctions between Asian countries and peoples. Well, she couldn't expect them to, just like she wouldn't expect her Sabahan relatives to know all the history and culture of Greece. So she was happy to explain when needed, but she didn't take it personally when people spoke out of ignorance.

"Yes, I have been practising. You know, I have these new things that help me run. They're called shoes." She kicked the side of his leg. He yelped.

"Oh, you still crying when girls hit you? You must cry all the time."

Yianni and Panos laughed, nodding.

"It's true, he's always whining!" Yianni snickered. Dimitri threw the ball at him.

They played two on two, trying out flashy run ups and shots, all the while chatting and ribbing each other. She loved this, the verbal sparring and the joking, the put-downs and the laughing. She loved moving, especially after cramped travelling, testing the limits of her body and her endurance.

She began to sweat, and had already stripped off her jacket. She took off her wind cheater and felt the chill air on her neck. She knew she couldn't stay like this for long as the evening air was getting colder and a sea wind was coming in from the bay.

They played a little longer, then the boys began to look at their watches.

*the pic in the header is the view of the actual school in the outskirts of itea, seen from the road as you leave the town:)