Flying French Fries | ✔

Another sleepless night

"How..." Nick wondered out loud looking at the picture. "My mum and Anna barely spoke... and the picture, it's ancient." Helen remembered what she had heard when inspector Anthie was talking to Nick's mother, however, she preferred not to talk, it wasn't the greatest time to reveal this well-hidden path. "Who is the guy in the middle?" Helen asked.

The picture had faded colours, it seemed that it was taken in the ending of the eighties. Three young students at the time were smiling as they sat in front of the Philosophic school in Thessaloniki, the old neoclassical building that was the landmark of the whole campus. On the left, there was a young woman that if it wasn't for her eyes she couldn't be miss Anna. Her face was full of energy and passion, it seemed like she was another woman. On the right sat Nick's mother, a lot thinner at the time, with her hair cut on her shoulders, the same way her hair is now.

In the middle sat a man unknown to them, Nick had never seen him in his entire life, but from the picture, he could see how close they were with his mother. He had brown hair and a fringe, while he was holding his mother by the shoulder and Anna by the hand. "This guy must be the key to all of this" Nick pointed out, as Helen went back to the papers. "Only if we knew his name..."

"Andreas Zachos" Helen said, reading from one paper. "How..." Nick started talking, but he was quickly interrupted. "The three papers are the fortunes of your mother, miss Anna and probably the third one is that guy in the picture," Helen said in a hurry. "This is getting creepy..." Nick said and it's getting pretty late, campers are starting to return from the beach. "We shall go then," Helen said as she started picking the papers from the ground. "What are you doing?" Nick asked as Helen was placing the slide and many other papers in her backpack.

"This might be our only chance to get in here," she said. "They might remove the trailer, we cannot risk losing these clues." "What about the box?" Nick asked. "Can you leave it in Jim's trailer?" Helen asked. "I suppose so..." Nick said as he opened the window they had entered from. "Bye Miss Anna," he said as he jumped.

...

Luke Nick and Alex met them at Nick's trailer, his family hadn't arrived from the beach yet so it was quiet. Luke stared at Nick with a face of disgust. "So what did you do all that time?" Jim asked them. "We were at the beach for at least two hours..." Helen took a glance at Nick, so they would design who would speak. "Nothing special," Nick decided he was the one to speak. "We sat on our phones, played some cards..." he pointed out the pack of cards left on the table. "...we weren't in the mood of going to the sea I guess"

"Alex has some awesome news," Jim said excited, mostly looking towards Nick. "We can go to the Cage tonight!" "I have a friend that works there," Alex said, looking as excited as Jim. "He can get us inside from the faculty door, tonight we're going out! I'll see you guys at nine," he announced and waved them goodbye as he mounted his bike to leave.

"Will you go Hel?" Luke turned to her. "Probably yes, don't forget that I am shipping Christine with Alex," she said laughing. "I'll see you three there, I suppose." Helen also stood up and started walking towards her trailer.

"I told you I would find us a way to get in again, without paying our butts off to Chris and George," Jim said happily. "I'm not sure I want to go," Nick said with a gloomy attitude. "Sure you do, remember what I've told you, you need to cheer up bro," Jim said and stood up. "Come on Luke," he punched him lightly on the shoulder. "Get off your phone and let's go hit the showers, I can't stand the salt on my face."

Nick was now left alone. Maybe Jim was right, he had to get over her, and the only way was to start his life again. He plugged his earphones in and opened his phone, played some playlist and then opened his Instagram. He found Danae's profile and pressed unfollow. He couldn't live the moment when the past was still haunting him