Michelle Vernal Box Set

by Michelle Vernal

  “I will be alright, I think.” His voice dripped with brave stoicism as he added that she could come by and visit him at Eleni’s tomorrow if she liked.

  Annie rolled her eyes. Only he could think about that kind of bedside care in his current condition. Still, it was a good sign. She felt a stab of pity for his lady friend in Brazil. She would have her work cut out for her to try to keep him on the straight and narrow, especially with all those young Rio de Janeiro sun worshippers strutting their stuff up and down the beach.

  Spiros, who had his arm around his mama’s rounded shoulders, had handed Nikolos to her as a distraction. He held his free arm out to Kassia and Mateo. She walked towards him and rested her head on his shoulder as he pulled them in close.

  The sun sat low in the sky and she shivered. Wanting to be useful, Annie decided Alexandros could probably do with a blanket wrapped around him and that a cup of hot sugary tea for them all would go down well. She headed up to the house and fetched a blanket from the hallway cupboard before she made the one-size-fits-all mugs of tea and placed them on a tray. With the blanket draped over her shoulder, she carried the tray carefully back down to the road.

  The local doctor had arrived in her absence and was busy examining Alexandros when she passed the steaming brews round. She had made a cup for the car’s driver too because it was obvious the poor man was in a state as he stood to one side of the huddle around Alexandros. The doctor brushed the dust from his pants before he pronounced that Alexandros’s arm was almost certainly broken in two places but an x-ray would be needed to confirm this. Apart from that and a badly bruised ankle, he would live. The crowd, satisfied that there was no more drama to be wrung out of the accident scene, dispersed, and his brunette friend crouched down and kissed him on his cheek. “You’re so brave.” She promised to pop by tomorrow to check on his progress. The familiar twinkle sparked in Alexandros’s eyes as he watched her wiggle away, her tight shorts a welcome distraction from the throbbing of his arm.

  Annie turned her attention to the German driver, whose face beneath his mahogany tan was white. The accident had been unavoidable and could have been so much worse but despite this, he still looked as though he had been given a death-row reprieve as he drained his tea and handed it back to her with a grateful nod. He went back to his car but returned a few moments later with a piece of paper, upon which he had scribbled his details, and handed it to Spiros. He took it and gave the man a reassuring pat on his shoulder. “He is going to be okay. This was not your fault.”

  They then heard the unmistakable wail of a siren. Annie expected to see an ambulance careen round the bend at the end of the street; instead, the flashing blue light that appeared came from a motorbike.

  Spiros, sounding not unlike his brother, groaned. “It would have to be Dimitris.” They all held their hands over their ears as he roared up alongside them, only then turning his siren off. As he got off his bike and put the stand on, Annie couldn’t help but think all that noise had been overkill. Then, as she watched him take his helmet off and saw that he left his dark aviator glasses on, she’d have taken money on his being a fan of American cop shows—if it had been appropriate. Helmet in hand, Dimitris raked his fingers through his hair before he swaggered over to the scene with notebook in hand and pen at the ready. He fired off a sentence in Greek to Spiros and his reply was equally rapid-fire. There was much hand gesticulating and glances over at the poor German, who looked like he would rather be anywhere but standing where he was at that precise moment in time.

  The officer took off his glasses and fixed him with an eagle’s stare before he told him in stilted English that he would need to follow him down to the station once the ambulance had arrived and the road was clear.

  Annie overheard Spiros tell the poor man, who now looked as though he thought he was going to be starring in the next episode of Banged Up Abroad, that it was just a formality for insurance purposes and that once he had filled out the necessary forms, he would be free to go on his way.

  A moment later, they heard another siren and this time it was the ambulance that hurtled down the hill with its siren blazing. The Greeks were nothing if not dramatic, Annie thought as it screeched to a halt and two paramedics leaped out and charged over. The doctor spoke to one of them as the other crouched down next to Alexandros and checked him over. Satisfied it wasn’t life and death, he stood back up for a bit of a confab with his fellow medics. The little group watched as the taller of the two medics opened the back of the ambulance and pushed a stretcher out to his partner, who grabbed the end and lowered it to the ground. Alexandros refused to be rolled onto it, so he did a bit of a shuffle and then lying down, was lifted into the back of the ambulance.

  “I will go with my Alexandrosaki mou, my agoraki mou.” Mama hitched her skirts up in anticipation of climbing into the back of the ambulance. At the sight of her dimpled knees, Mateo laughed and pointed.

  Obviously not traumatised then, Annie thought with a smile.

  “No, Mama. I will go with my brother.” Spiros’s tone brooked no argument. Mama opened her mouth to argue but then, at her son’s expression, decided not to.

  “We can follow behind in the car.” Kassia turned to Annie. “Do you think—”

  Annie cut her off. “You don’t have to ask. You two go—the boys will be fine with me.” Kassia flashed her a grateful look as Annie held her arms out for Nikolos, and swung him round onto her hip. Then, with Mateo firmly in hand, she shooed the two women up to the house. She stood with the boys and watched as one of the paramedics closed the back of the ambulance and headed round to the driver’s side. Their departure was just as noisy as their arrival, and Annie whispered to Nikolas that they probably wanted to get his uncle dropped off at hospital quick smart so they’d be home in time for their dinner. Dimitris also opted for siren on, although this time he set a slightly more sedate pace in order to let his German prisoner follow.

  With the street now empty, Annie saw that the sun was getting ready to set. She had better phone Georgios and tell him she wouldn’t be in to work. “Come on, boys. Let’s go and see what we can find for your dinner, shall we?” Nikolos wrapped his pudgy little hand around one of her curls and pulled with a gleeful giggle as Annie yelped and tried to disentangle his fingers to no avail. Mateo looked on enviously and then with the homemade kite that had caused all the bother in the first place, he ran up the path.

  Mama and Kassia were just coming out as they reached the front door. Kassia had changed from her shorts into jeans and a light sweater and Mama was swaddled inside a cardigan.

  “Are you sure you will be alright here on your own? I can bring the boys with me.” Kassia unlocked the van doors.

  “Don’t be silly. You don’t want to cart them all the way to Heraklion. Besides, you could be hours. You don’t know how long it will take them to see to Alexandros. I am perfectly capable of giving them dinner, and getting them sorted for bed. Please don’t worry.”

  Kassia gave her a wan smile. “Thank you.” She went to the passenger side, helped Mama up into her seat and pulled the seatbelt out for her. “I’ll phone you from the hospital when I have an idea as to how long we will be.” She gave Mateo a quick hug and a kiss before she stroked Nikolos’s soft cheek and gave him a kiss.

  “Drive carefully, Kas.”

  “I will.” She climbed into her seat and backed slowly down the driveway to the road and then with a toot they were gone. The journey to the hospital would be a chance for the two women to sort their differences out, Annie hoped, because surely the events of the afternoon would have put things into perspective for them and shown them what really mattered. Annie reached down and ruffled Mateo’s hair before she gave him a gentle push in the door. She’d ring Georgios and then see what she could sort out for their dinner. But first things first, she thought with a frown at Nikolos’s fist—she would find a way to release his stranglehold.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  “And the train went choo-choo
-choo.” Annie waved the spoon in midair as she waited for Nikolos to oblige and open his mouth so she could complete her rhyme. He didn’t. Instead, he continued to stare at her with his lips clamped shut tighter than a clam’s shell. She rubbed at the sore spot on her head with her other hand and winced. Still, at least it wasn’t a bald spot. It could have been if she hadn’t come up with the magpie technique to divert him. A bright and shiny object in the form of her gold watch dangled in front of his nose had been the incentive needed for him to release his grip from her hair in the end.

  With a sigh, she eyed the bowl of tomato pasta she’d hastily thrown together for the boys. So far she had only managed to get four spoonfuls into Nikolos and it was clear by the way Mateo swung a noodle back and forth that while he was having lots of fun, he wasn’t actually eating. She didn’t need to be Einstein to figure out that both boys preferred their Yaya’s cooking.

  She put the spoon back in the bowl. She decided that desperate times called for desperate measures. Besides, there was nobody here at the moment other than the Austrian couple upstairs to witness her poor parenting skills. She opened the freezer door and pulled out the tub of Mama’s homemade ice-cream and filled two bowls. Then, feeling a stab of guilt at the quality of her nutritional choices, she grabbed a pear from the fruit dish and sliced it into quarters before she placed them in the ice-cream. Mateo clapped excitedly at the unusually large dessert headed his way and Nikolos followed suit and giggled as she put his dish down on his highchair tray. The pears stood like sentry soldiers; he frowned, bottom lip pouting before he plucked them out of the frozen dessert and flung them onto the ground.

  “Don’t say I didn’t try to give you your five plus serving of fruit and veg a day.” Annie sat down again and watched as Mateo shovelled his down as if he hadn’t seen food in months.

  Oh yes, it was true, she thought as he looked up from his feeding frenzy to fix her with a smile of glazed delight; the way to a man’s heart really was through food.

  An impatient grunting sound came from the highchair and Nikolos banged his hands down on his tray to get her attention. As she scooped up a spoonful of ice-cream for him, he lunged for it but she held it out of reach. “No way. I don’t think so, buddy.” This time she’d get to say her piece. She started her choo-choo-chooing all over again and steered the spoon in the direction of his open mouth. “Down the little red lane,” she finished with satisfaction.

  The boys played under the table while she cleared the dishes away. Mateo pushed a toy car around and Nikolos watched him with a pillow behind his back as he stuffed his plastic key-ring set in his mouth. Annie kept a watchful eye on her phone as she scraped the remnants of the barely touched pasta dishes into the bin. There was no word from Kas yet but then doing a quick mental calculation, she figured they’d probably only just arrived at the hospital.

  She stacked the dishes into the dishwasher and set it to run. Annie smiled to herself as she thought back on how sweet Georgios had been when she’d rung him to tell him what had happened. He had told her that the family must come first and that she wasn’t to come in to work tomorrow either if they needed her. She’d assured him that she was certain they would manage just fine without her and that there would more than likely be a queue outside the guesthouse in the morning of shapely volunteer nursemaids. She picked up the cloth to wipe the bench down and recalled his concern for the shock Mama had suffered. It had been touching. The cloth hovered mid-wipe as an idea began to take shape but it wasn’t given the chance to form because a war cry went up from under the table. At a quick glance, it appeared Nikolos had tried to do a snatch and grab of Mateo’s car, for which he had received a thump. Oh dear, she thought. She dropped the sponge and got down on her hands and knees to crawl under the table before Mateo could go round two.

  BY SEVEN FORTY-FIVE that evening, Annie had tucked Mateo into bed after a fifteen-minute search for the elusive teddy that he had informed her he could not sleep without. She had found him tucked down the side of his bed and with a sense of victory, placed him in the little boy’s arms before she planted a kiss on his forehead. Nikolos lay on his back in his cot and gurgled at the mobile above his bed and sporadically reached up to pat at it. Butter wouldn’t melt, she thought as she kissed her fingers and touched them to his satiny cheek. Seeing them both lying in their beds, sweet smelling and rosy cheeked, was like receiving an award for a job well done. She turned the light out and told them to sleep tight, tacking on another of her remembered childhood adages, “And don’t let the bedbugs bite,” before she tiptoed out of the room. She left their door slightly ajar and wandered back to the kitchen. She could do with a drink now that she was off duty, so she headed for the fridge. Spotting a half empty bottle of wine next to the milk, she helped herself to a glass.

  She savoured her first sip and enjoyed the tingling on her tongue for a moment. It had been a busy evening and Annie was relieved she’d gotten through it. In the last few hours, she had been a cook, a cleaner, a UN peacekeeper, a hostage negotiator, a nurse (after an unfortunate incident involving Nikolos and Adonis’s tail), and a caregiver. She had been on a search-and-rescue mission for Teddy and she had, upon removing Nikolos’s nappy before she popped him in the bath, been piddled on. Yes, indeed, there was a first time for everything and all this in the space of three hours! Annie let out a long, slow exhalation. She took her hat off to Kas being a mum on a daily basis—she really did—and quite honestly, an extra set of hands could only be a good thing. Surely she and Mama could find a way to work together without stepping on each other’s toes? She racked her brains for the saying that tickled its periphery. It takes a village to raise a child sprang to mind and she thought how true it was. “Hats off to all you single mothers.” She raised her glass to the empty kitchen.

  Kas had telephoned her half an hour ago and Annie had held her wet T-shirt away from her chest as she kept one eye on Nikolos happily splashing in the bath with his brother as she listened. They would be on their way home from hospital shortly with Alexandros. He’d had a cast put on and his ankle strapped as well, having been thoroughly checked over and given the all-clear to go home. It was good news. He really was going to be okay. She rang off after she’d assured Kas that the boys were fine. “They’ve been fed.” She added that after their bath, they’d be off to bed. She decided not to mention that there was an ominous brown pebble currently floating past Mateo, merely saying that she’d better go because it was time for them to get out before the water got too cold.

  ANNIE WAS TIPPLING on her second glass of wine by the time she heard the van pull up the drive. Between sips, she had whipped up a plate of cold meat sandwiches and filled the kettle in anticipation of them all having had no dinner. As a succession of slamming doors followed, she got up and moved down the hallway to hold the front door open for them. Spiros glanced in her direction briefly to greet her but quickly returned his attention to helping Alexandros, who managed to toss her his customary cheeky grin as he brushed past. He was still awfully pale, though, she noticed. With his good arm draped round his brother’s shoulder, he hobbled down the hallway to the kitchen. Mama waddled after them and paused to pat Annie’s cheek and tell her she was a good girl before she followed her sons.

  Kassia locked the van and as she stepped into the light, Annie saw how washed-out she looked. “You okay?”

  “Yes, I am now.” Her smile was reassuring but Annie wasn’t fooled, taking in her over-bright eyes that said otherwise. She hugged her friend and they clung to each other for a moment. All the unspoken sentiments of what could have happened—of what might have been if Alexandros hadn’t happened to be standing on the sidewalk at that particular moment in time passed between them until with a final squeeze Kassia released her. “Thank you for watching Mateo and Nikolos.”

  “I loved it and they’re both sound asleep now,” Annie said proudly. She’d spare her friends the finer details of her evening. “Come on, let’s get you inside. I made some sandwiches if you
are hungry.”

  “Actually, I’m starving.” Kassia sounded surprised as she locked the door behind her. “I will just check on the boys and then I will come through. You go ahead.” She gave Annie a gentle push in the direction of the kitchen.

  Annie found Mama seated next to Alexandros, waving a sandwich under his nose not unlike she had done a few short hours ago with the spoon under Nikolos’s nose.

  “You need food if you want your body to heal, Alexandrosaki mou,” she bossed. Now that she was over her fright, she was back to being the Mama they all knew and loved. Annie sat down opposite her with a fond smile.

  He would not get any peace from her until he did as he was told, so Alexandros frowned and took a small bite of the sandwich. As he chewed mutinously, Annie caught a flash of what he would have looked like as a small boy. She could see Mateo in him and she wondered whether he would take after his uncle in personality as he grew, too.

  “The same goes for you, Mama-mou.” Spiros passed the plate over to his mama as Kassia joined them at the table.

  “Mateo is snoring again and Nikolos has his thumb in his mouth, sound asleep.” She smiled and sat down, pushing her hair away from her face as she did so.

  “Kas, do you want a glass?’ Annie lifted her wine glass. “Anybody else?”

  Spiros nodded before frowning at his brother. “No, Alexandros. The doctor said alcohol doesn’t mix with the pain medication he has given you. A water will have to do.”

  “Mama?”

  “Tea, Annie, please.” The old woman leaned over to stroke her son’s cheek. “You must listen to what the doctor has told you, Alexandrosaki mou, and be a good boy, yes?”

  Annie smiled as she heard him answer, “Yes, Mama.”