Winter Hearts

Eleni

Siana, stared, dumbstruck, wondering for a moment, if Eleni knew who she was.

Of course she does, she took video of you, she thought, as she gathered up the gum, leaving her money in the tray. Siana figured she must know she is Panos' cousin. The older lady who was counting out change, looked up to see Siana staring, then turned to look at Eleni, who was staring back at Siana in surprise.

"Do you know each other?" The lady asked, in Greek. Eleni couldn't answer, seemed to be waiting for Siana to speak. Then, Siana saw Eleni look past her to see, presumably, the boys in the distance, on the pier. Her jaw dropped as she gasped and turned red. This alarmed the lady.

"What is it, sweetie?" The lady looked back at Siana, worried. "Is this about the trouble in Itea? "

Siana felt a spike of anger when she heard that. Had Eleni claimed someone had made trouble for her at work? Siana cocked her head, looking at Eleni in questioning. To her surprise, she saw Eleni drop her eyes and shake her head.

"I still haven't gone back to see them, Ma," she said quietly. The lady sighed, exasperated. She stood suddenly, pushing her chair back in the tiny space and standing to open the little door in the back. "Come round the back."

Siana straightened up, turning to look at Min, who was eyeing her curiously.

"She's the one who took the footage of us by the sea," Siana said quickly as she went round Min to go to the back. Min scurried after her.

"If you need me to tackle her, I'm ready," Min whispered as they approached the tiny space round the back, where the pavement was closed off from pedestrians by the boundary of ice cream fridges, standees and shrubbery.

"Go for the hair, I'll take the legs," Siana whispered back, feeling more nervous than her bravado let on. Although Eleni looked remorseful, she wasn't sure how her mother would react to her child being confronted. She waited til Eleni emerged from the back of the kiosk, her head bowed. She looked at her mother, who nodded and gestured towards the girls. When she spoke, it came out all in a bluster, as if she didn't trust herself to do it unless she just went for it.

"I've deleted it. I only shared it with Stavros, and he deleted it too. Noone else has seen it, I swear," Eleni said, at last looking at Siana worriedly.

"Why did you run? You could have shown Panos you deleted it. The only reason they haven't come looking for you is that they know you didn't disappear for unknown reasons, and they know why you ran," Siana felt exasperated. All this had been hanging over their heads for so long, when Eleni had already done the right thing anyway.

Eleni's head snapped up in alarm. "Would they come looking for me?"

Siana looked at her in surprise. "You mean George and Panos? They would have, if you had disappeared without a word. To see if you were alright." Seeing Eleni's fear, she realised that she might have gotten it all wrong, thinking that Panos and George might come after her to strong arm her into deleting the footage, like gangsters or something. Well, she guessed that they pretty much did that to Stavros, and Eleni would have witnessed that and gotten afraid.

"But they knew you had left on your own volition, so they thought you would be okay. They're not... they're not really like that, you know. They're good boys, they were protecting me," Siana said, sombrely.

"I know, they're been nice to me," Eleni said, forlorn.

"Didn't Stavros get in touch with you about them?"

Eleni nodded. "Yes, that is when I deleted it, like they asked. I mean, I meant to keep it, but just for myself, you know," Eleni's eyes shifted. "I just couldn't believe, there in front of my eyes, there was Leo."