by Lena Manta
“Come to your senses, woman!” he shouted. “You knew they were looking for an apartment. So, one day they were bound to find it.”
“Yes, but before then I’d hoped to separate them,” she admitted.
Kyriakos looked at her with pity. “Evanthia, you were never naive or stupid. How did you get it into your head that two people who are in love would separate because you created a battle of wills with your daughter-in-law?”
Evanthia thought for a moment. “You’re right,” she murmured. “How stupid I was! I made war with her instead of making him see how unsuitable she was.” And with renewed hope and shining eyes Evanthia began pacing the room.
“Evanthia, you’re making me nervous,” Kyriakos said sternly. “These things you’re doing are unnatural. Leave the kids alone. Can’t you see how in love they are? How happy our son is with his wife? What’s wrong with you?”
His wife gave him a disdainful look in reply. Then she left the room. It wasn’t long before Kyriakos heard the front door close behind her.
Fokas and Julia moved into their own apartment a month later. On their first night in their new little home, Julia felt as if she were dreaming. She prepared their evening meal with enthusiasm and when Fokas saw the red stew, he smiled.
“Should I dare to try it, or has my mother been by?” he asked and Julia laughed aloud.
Later, lying in bed with the curtains open, they admired the moon, shining down on them like a small offering to their happiness.
“Isn’t it wonderful?” Julia asked as she gazed enchanted at the silver disk in the sky.
“You’re wonderful, my darling,” Fokas answered, and his eyes shone in the darkness. “I’m proud of you and all that you’ve managed to do since we were married. What do you say we go to the village for a few days?”
“How did that idea come to you now?” Julia wondered.
“I was thinking that it’s been five months since you left—maybe you’re missing your sisters, your mother?”
“Everything is fine back there. My mother writes to me and I write to her. Besides, you can’t be absent from your work like that without a reason. Don’t worry about me, Fokas, especially now that we’re living by ourselves, I’m completely happy. I don’t miss anyone!”
Fokas took her in his arms and, for the first time since their honeymoon, Julia felt completely free to enjoy his love, without fearing an invasion by Evanthia and her sick attachment for her son.
As it turned out, Julia had no reason to fear any intrusions—or even visits—from her mother-in-law. Evanthia never set foot in the apartment, not even when Julia invited her one Sunday for a midday meal. Kyriakos showed up alone, and neither his son nor his daughter-in-law asked where Evanthia was. They understood that her anger continued unabated. When Kyriakos went home, he avoided any discussion with his wife and pretended not to notice her irritated mood.
The next day, Evanthia appeared at her son’s office with a box in her hands.
“Mother, welcome! What are you doing here?” he asked cheerfully.
“I came to see you,” she answered. “Am I bothering you?”
“Not at all, although you could have seen me yesterday when we invited you over with Dad,” Fokas replied innocently.
“Didn’t your father tell you that I was indisposed?”
Fokas shook his head and smiled again. “He must have forgotten,” he said flatly, indicating that the ruse was up. “In any case, I don’t want to put pressure on you. Maybe it will take a little more time for you to understand and admire Julia.”
“If you’re going to spoil my mood by talking about your wife, I’m leaving.”
“OK, OK. Tell me why you’ve turned up so early in the morning at my office.”
“I made a few cheese pies and brought them for you to eat. You always liked my tiropites!”
“I haven’t even had coffee yet and I’m supposed to eat tiropites?”
“Oh, I see—now that you’ve left home with her, my food isn’t good enough anymore?”
Fokas shot his mother an indignant glance, then took the piece she held out, eating it with fast bites. “There! Are you happy now?” he asked with his mouth still full.
“Let’s say . . . yes.”
“There’s something not quite right with the tiropita,” Fokas observed. “The taste isn’t like what I’m used to.”
“Well, maybe it’s the cheese. I changed grocers and the new one gave me a different one . . . it’s not like the one I used to buy.”
“So go back to the old grocer. And now that we’ve exchanged opinions about cheese and grocery stores, I’d better get back to work.”
Evanthia left smiling with satisfaction, leaving Fokas to wonder. This wasn’t a usual visit, but he couldn’t understand what she was up to. Two hours later he was taken to the hospital with terrible pains in his belly, and Julia, notified by his office, ran like a madwoman to find him. She called her father-in-law from the hospital, and he arrived in record time, his face distorted with agony. The doctors diagnosed severe poisoning. They had pumped out Fokas’s stomach, but they wanted to keep him under observation for a day. When they’d asked him what he’d eaten, the first thing he remembered was his mother’s cheese pie with its strange flavor.
Kyriakos arrived home certain that his son was in no danger, but with a nasty suspicion that seemed inexplicable to him. He found his wife in the kitchen washing dishes. He noticed the baking tray she was holding in her hands.
“Did you make a tiropita today?” he asked in lieu of a greeting.
Evanthia looked at him in surprise. “What made you ask that?”
“Did you make it or not?” he insisted.
“Certainly not!”
Kyriakos looked at her now with a dubious expression. “I’ll ask you one more time and I want the truth! Did you make a tiropita and take it to Fokas this morning?”
“Well then, yes! Is it forbidden to take a little food to my son?”
“And where’s the rest? From what Fokas told me you only brought him one piece.”
“So you’re cross-examining me now?”
“Our son is in the hospital! Do you realize that? Tell me what you did!”
“My God!” cried Evanthia, pale as a ghost. “What happened?”
“What happened was what you fed him! Have you gone mad, woman? Did you try to poison our son?”
Evanthia collapsed on a chair and put her head in her hands.
Kyriakos sat down opposite her. “Tell me, Evanthia, what did you do?” he insisted.
“I did it for his own good—I didn’t know, I swear . . .”
“Leave off the swearing, for heaven’s sake! What sort of good was poison?”
“But I didn’t want that to happen.”
“So why on earth did you do it?”
Evanthia looked tearfully at her husband.
“I went to one of those . . . She gave me something to feed him to stop him hanging on the skirts of that useless creature.”
“God, you’re not in your right mind! Where did you go, precisely?”
“To a gypsy.”
“So you went that far. You ran to a so-called witch to destroy your son’s marriage?”
“It’s her fault. Who knows what she gave me? I’ll sue her!”
“Yes, bravo! That’s what you should do. So we can look more ridiculous than ever and get mixed up with the police? Go and see a psychiatrist before we get into a bigger mess. Maybe he’ll help you. Electric shock, pills—there must be some way to make you recover.”
“So you’re saying I’m mad?”
“How do you want me to characterize you after your latest achievement? Enough. No more. You’re becoming dangerous.”
“Me? And what about her, that slut who seduced him, what’s she? She took our son and we’ve lost him. He doesn’t even come home anymore!”
“His home is where he lives with his wife, and if you hadn’t shown such unjustified antipathy toward the girl, everything would ha
ve been all right.”
“And I tell you that she gave him something and made him blind.”
“At least that’s better than what you did. You nearly sent him to the next world. I prefer him blind rather than dead! From now on if I find out that you’re still carrying on, I’ll go to the police myself and tell them about what you did today! This is the last time I’m telling you this: leave those kids alone!”
Kyriakos went out, slamming the door behind him and leaving Evanthia alone with her thoughts.
The day they celebrated their first anniversary, Fokas bought his wife a beautiful bracelet, and Julia organized a small informal party at their house, inviting two couples that were their close friends. On her sideboard was a vase of flowers that her father-in-law had sent early that morning. No dramatic change had taken place in the relationship between mother and daughter-in-law during the last few months, but there wasn’t the same tension that had been there at first. Indeed, under pressure from Kyriakos, Evanthia had invited the couple over one Sunday and she seemed quite calm. Her husband didn’t take his eyes off her, to preclude any unpleasantness, but at the end of the visit he had to admit that his wife had appeared to be the perfect hostess.
When Julia returned the invitation two weeks later, and Evanthia accepted, everyone breathed more easily. Evanthia even spoke politely about the apartment that she was seeing for the first time and generally kept her behavior at an acceptable level.
In the beginning Julia didn’t pay any attention to the charming man she kept running into wherever she went. When she saw him at some shop, she assumed it was a coincidence, but when she found him standing opposite her house she realized that something was going on. She said nothing to Fokas because her instinct warned her not to, but she decided to be more careful.
The first day that flowers arrived at the house without a card, she knew they were from him. She threw them in the garbage but the same thing kept happening every day. And every day when she looked out the window at the street, the man was there. Once or twice he’d even smile cheekily at her. Julia began to be really anxious. If Fokas found out there would be quarrels. He was very jealous; she’d noticed that at the beginning of their marriage. She didn’t know what to do, nor could she ask anyone for advice. She stopped going out unless absolutely necessary, for fear that the man would approach her and someone would see them, something she didn’t manage to avoid in the end. One day, when she went out to do the shopping, she turned pale as soon as she left the house and saw him crossing the road and coming toward her, smiling.
“Good morning,” he said warmly.
“What do you want, sir?” Julia asked, making up her mind to put things in their place once and for all.
“You must know what I want,” he answered. “My name is Kimon Alexiadis and I’m enchanted by you!”
“I think you must be out of your mind, sir! You don’t even know me.”
“But I’ve been following you for such a long time. From the first minute I saw you, it was impossible to stop thinking about you!”
“Do you do this often? You see a woman, just by chance, and begin annoying her?”
“Since when did admiration become annoyance?”
“When the object of your admiration is a married woman. Since you’ve been following me, you must know I’m married.”
“So? What does that matter? Is it forbidden for a man to admire a married woman?”
“I don’t know about you, but for me, yes! Please stop bothering me, stop sending me flowers, and stop turning up all the time wherever I go. Otherwise I’ll be forced to tell my husband and you’ll be in serious trouble.”
“Julia, I’m not some cad. Don’t you understand? I’m in love with you.”
“You’re clearly crazy. Leave me alone!”
Upset, Julia turned around and hurried back into the house. Let the shopping wait! She was dealing with a madman.
Any hope that Kimon Alexiadis would come to his senses and stop disappeared when the bouquets kept arriving, accompanied by fiery notes. Julia, her hands trembling, tore them up into a thousand pieces and threw them into the garbage. One day the wife of one of Fokas’s colleagues, who had come for a morning coffee, witnessed this. She rolled her eyes when she saw the flowers arrive and Julia turning bright red. Then she let out a whistle of approval and smiled knowingly.
“What’s this I see? So that sort of thing is going on?” she asked.
Julia looked at her guest in despair. Eugenia was the last person who should find out about this. She was quite a bit older than Julia, but superficial, and listening to her talk, Julia had often asked herself if Eugenia was completely correct in her behavior toward her husband. Simos was a very low-key person; he spoke very little and was still in love with his wife after six years of marriage. They had a little boy who was looked after mostly by Eugenia’s mother while Eugenia went wherever she wished. Julia crumpled the note up and put it in her pocket. Then, as usual, she threw the bouquet into the garbage.
“What was that?” Eugenia persisted. “Do we have a secret admirer?”
“He’s a stupid man and nothing more,” Julia said firmly. “A man who harasses a married woman who has given him no excuse can only be stupid.”
“And why is he ‘stupid’? Is he handsome, at least?”
“What difference does it make if he’s handsome or ugly?”
“Oh, I get it! He’s handsome.”
“So?”
“It’s different if a handsome man flirts with you. It’s flattering.”
“Do I look to you as if I’m flattered? Do you know what would happen if Fokas found out?”
“Why would he find out? Has my husband found out anything? My dear, men are very easy to fool.”
“But I don’t want to fool my husband. I love him.”
“Hmm. You’re really naive! A little adventure is always welcome.”
“Eugenia, I’m sorry, but I don’t see it that way.”
“You can take the girl out of the country, but . . .”
“Are you calling me a simple villager?” Julia was beginning to get angry.
“Don’t take it the wrong way. Anyway, you are from a village, right? Things are different there.” Eugenia was speaking more softly now.
“But it’s not a question of what’s acceptable in the city versus the country. I love my husband. Why can’t I make you understand that? I’m not interested in this man or any other.”
“A pity.”
“Instead of feeling sorry for me, can’t you give me any advice about how to get rid of this nuisance?”
“Oh I can’t help you with that. I have all sorts of advice if you want to keep him, but not for getting rid of him.”
“Please, nobody must find out about this business!”
“Don’t worry. For secrets like this there’s nobody more discreet than me. But I advise you to think it over.”
Julia’s warning expression put a stop to any more discussion on the subject, with no solution on the horizon.
That night Fokas’s company held a party for their tenth anniversary. Many of their clients were invited, as well as a lot of people from the sophisticated circles of Thessaloniki. Julia was quite anxious about the evening because she had never been to a party. Eugenia’s presence was something of a relief for her; at least she’d have someone to talk to while Fokas was busy mingling.
When Julia saw Kimon staring at her from the other side of the room, she looked around in a panic. Fortunately, Fokas was off talking with some people. She felt trapped and wanted to run away but knew that was impossible. Suddenly she felt like she was about to faint. Eugenia, standing close by, noticed her friend’s distress.
“What’s the matter with you? You look as if you’ve seen a ghost,” she asked. “Do you want me to call Fokas?”
“I need to get out of here.”
“Why? What’s happened?”
“He’s here,” Julia explained.
At that moment Eug
enia laughed aloud. “You don’t say! Who is it?”
Julia looked at her reluctantly. Maybe her help was needed. Discreetly, Eugenia turned and saw Kimon. She turned quickly back to Julia and rolled her eyes.
“Is that the one who’s chasing you?” she asked. “That’s Kimon Alexiadis!”
“Do you know him?” Julia asked in surprise.
“The whole of Thessaloniki knows him! He’s loaded. And I can tell you that your husband knows him too. He’s a client of the office and right now he’s building another block of apartments and they’re designing it.”
“My God, it’s all over! What am I going to do now?”
“Hey, what can I tell you? And you’re saying no to that man? You’re crazy.”
“Eugenia, do you know what you’re saying?”
“Do you know how lucky you are? He’s really loaded. Imagine what he can offer you—furs, travel, jewelry.”
“Eugenia, pull yourself together!”
“Just look where the good luck goes! If he wanted me and I told you, I wouldn’t think twice.”
“You don’t think much at all, Eugenia. The problem is that he wants me and I don’t want him.”
Before Eugenia could respond, their husbands returned and the conversation stopped. Fokas immediately noticed the change in his wife’s appearance.
“Julia, what’s the matter? You look pale. Are you tired?” he asked her anxiously.
“The truth is I’m not used to standing for such a long time, especially in high heels,” she explained.
“So let’s find somewhere to sit for a while,” Fokas suggested. “Unfortunately, we can’t leave just yet. You see Mr. Dellis has been calling over to us every few minutes to introduce us to some people, potential clients.”
“It doesn’t matter, I’m fine,” she whispered as she saw Kimon approaching their group.
“Good evening!” he greeted them cheerfully.
“Mr. Alexiadis!” Simos called out warmly, holding out his hand.
“I see that tonight you have the privilege of escorting the most beautiful women in Thessaloniki,” Kimon observed and the two men hurried to introduce their wives.
Julia looked like a martyr as she held out her hand to Kimon. Smiling, he bent to kiss it. The young woman relaxed when the men immediately began to talk about business but she felt her heart stop when Fokas and Simos excused themselves to chat with Dellis.
