The Tractor and Other Stories

by Sara Alexi

  ‘Whatshisname?’ Dino prompts.

  ‘Yeah, you know, the guy with the uneven ears.’

  ‘Oh, the deputy mayor, that whatshisname.’

  ‘Yes, him.’

  ‘Hmm. I cannot imagine why Adonis would be down there. I mean, that’s his land, yes, for all it’s worth – but it’s so small it’s good for nothing anyway. Do you think he’d been talking to the deputy mayor? Are you sure? Adonis has no time for politics.’

  ‘No. There was nothing to indicate they had been together. It just seemed odd. Maybe I was mistaken. Maybe it was neither of them … How’s Adonis’s house coming along, anyway?’

  Nearly all the lights have come on around the harbour now. Maybe she should put hers on too. She still cannot believe her luck. It was all in the timing – she had the cash just as the hotel’s previous owner decided to retire – and it could not have gone more smoothly. Yes, she should put the lights on, so the guests will feel welcome when they return from the bars and tavernas. She stands.

  ‘Where are you going?’

  ‘To put the lights on.’

  He is on his feet before she has finished her sentence.

  ‘I’ll do it … As far as I know all work has stopped on his house. He is out of money – again.’

  ‘Is he still with Anastasia?’

  ‘You know, I think he is serious about Anastasia. I think if his house was finished he would be even more serious. It cannot be easy living in one room with his mama … Just a second.’

  He steps back inside, and the thump-thump of his bare feet on the wooden stairs repeats itself after the lights come on and he resumes his seat.

  Michelle tops up his glass and the bottle is empty.

  ‘I wonder if it was the deputy mayor. He looks shifty, don’t you think?’

  ‘You know what I think? I think you should come inside with me. I think you need a foot rub, a massage perhaps?’ He slips off his chair, his hand sliding to her waist, and it is the most natural thing in the world for Michelle to follow his lead.

  Early July

  ‘How are you?’ Michelle calls. Sophia is shelling peas in a colander on her lap, her feet up on a donkey saddle that has seen better days, and she has not noticed Michelle’s approach.

  ‘Oh, hello. How’s business?’

  ‘Great! We’re booked up and there’s still another couple of months to go. You fancy a walk?’

  The colander is placed on the windowsill and Sophia slips on her shoes.

  ‘You know, the last time I was here I think I saw something strange down by the dump.’ Michelle is no longer sure it was Adonis, or the deputy mayor. It seemed a long way from the town for anyone to be hanging about.

  ‘You can see the dump from here, you know, if you go up on that outcrop.’

  They both begin an idle walk in that direction. Sophia walks with one hand on her substantial bump until they reach the summit, then stops and turns. Michelle follows her lead.

  ‘Well, would you look at that!’ Michelle exclaims.

  A large ship is moored in a bay down past the dump, against a crumbling jetty. There are several men onshore and even from this height they can just hear the shouting as a cement lorry is carefully backed off the tailgate of the ship onto the pier. Michelle and Sophia watch the activity for some time and then walk on around the hill and back to Sophia’s house, where they drink coffee and while away time talking about the baby until all thoughts of what they have seen are forgotten.

  Late August

  A group of men has gathered outside the hotel, along by the clock tower, on the wide harbour walkway. They are suited and look rather serious, and they are shouting at each other.

  ‘What’s going on?’ Michelle is standing on the hotel steps. Dino has just returned with the sheets from the launderette. The season will be over in another two weeks, and Michelle will not be sad to see an end to the constant task of laundering sheets and making beds for another year.

  ‘It’s unbelievable.’ Dino puts the sheets on the table just inside the door, knocking a stack of maps onto the floor.

  ‘What is?’

  ‘The dimos have brought over a desalination unit and they have installed it, ready to pipe up to the reservoir.’

  ‘Really? They’ve been talking about that for years, haven’t they? Let’s face it, the tanker delivering water every day was archaic and probably very costly. It makes so much sense to use seawater instead. So why are they shouting? It can only be a good thing.’

  ‘As if anything ever goes straight, round here.’ Dino stands next to her on the steps looking at the crowd of men.

  ‘So what’s happened?’

  ‘It turns out they have flattened a piece of private land and poured concrete on it, without the owner’s permission. That’s what all the shouting is about.’

  ‘Oh, you’re kidding me!’ Michelle gasps, but then starts to giggle. ‘Actually, why does that not surprise me? So what are they going to do? Can they dig up the concrete?’

  ‘I doubt it. I imagine it’s pretty thick.’ His arm is around her shoulders.

  They stand and watch as the men head down an alley by the clock tower that leads to the government offices.

  ‘Dino,’ Michelle puts on her seductive voice.

  ‘What?’ Dino asks cautiously.

  ‘Go and see what’s happening.’

  He doesn’t need to be asked twice. His youth shows as he takes leisurely but quick strides around the harbour edge and then up the alley, following the suited men. Several other local men are following as well. After an hour, Michelle becomes impatient and she too walks past the cafes and into the courtyard around which the town council offices are arranged. The offices are housed in an old Venetian building where Michelle pays her water bill, and which always makes her feel as if she has suddenly stepped across to Italy.

  The noise of men arguing leads her to one of the larger rooms, where important announcements are made and court cases tried. Several black-clad local women are hovering in the doorway, as if they dare not go in. But a courtroom used to be Michelle’s place of work, before she moved to Greece, and so she strides in with confidence.

  She stares and blinks as if the contrast of the sun outside and the shadow inside are playing tricks with her eyesight. But it is no trick. There at the front, on a raised platform, next to the mayor and the deputy mayor, stands Adonis.

  She spots Dino, who beckons her to his side.

  ‘You won’t believe this! It looks like it is Adonis’s land that they used for the desalination unit.’ He is grinning.

  ‘Oh! Poor Adonis. And why are you grinning?’

  ‘Listen.’ He looks back at the shouting throng.

  ‘My Greek’s not good enough, tell me.’

  ‘The deputy mayor is telling the mayor that the fault is theirs and Adonis is saying he wants the unit and all the concrete removed.’

  ‘But I thought you said the concrete would be too thick to dig up.’ Everyone is shouting, and no one seems to be listening to anyone else. The effect is a little intimidating, but rather comical too.

  ‘That is what they’re saying, but Adonis is adamant. The deputy mayor is almost siding with him, which is odd.’

  Michelle recalls the sight she witnessed. Maybe it was Adonis on his land, and perhaps it was the deputy mayor she saw walking away. But if that was the case, why has such a thing happened? After all, she saw them – if it really was them, and she cannot be entirely sure that it was – long before the concrete was poured.

  There is a sudden strained silence over the men at the front and the crowd hushes. A man in the grey suit has taken centre stage and he is tapping on a calculator. He shows it to the mayor, who first goes red and then blanches.

  ‘He’s just calculated how much it would cost to dig up all the concrete that has been laid and remove it,’ Dino whispers. The silence does not last long, and soon the shouting begins again, and this time it seems they are arguing over the cost of dismantling the
equipment and moving it to another spot.

  Then Michelle watches as Adonis cups his hand over the deputy mayor’s ear, and the deputy mayor leans in turn to the mayor and speaks earnestly for a few minutes. The mayor nods, and he looks relieved. The mayor then raises his hands and calls for silence.

  ‘I believe we have a solution,’ the mayor says.

  Late September

  Before Michelle leaves the island she wants to say goodbye to Sophia. The baby will probably come whilst she is away and she wants to make sure Sophia has her mainland number so she can ring and tell her the news.

  As she arrives, Sophia comes out of her cottage with two cups of cold coffee.

  ‘You know, Yannis’s mama and baba still have water in the well,’ she says. ‘That’s pretty unusual for this time of year. It’s normally dry by now, like ours. But, come November, the rains will fill it again.’

  ‘Oh, that’s nice and cold,’ Michelle says, taking a sip of her coffee.

  ‘It comes out like that, ice cold.’

  ‘I take it you heard about the situation with Adonis’s land?’

  ‘Oh no. You know what Yanni is like, he just has no interest in other people’s business. Which is noble and good, but I do like the occasional juicy piece of gossip, so tell all.’ Sophia rests her cup on the curve of her huge belly.

  ‘Well, there was all hell going on about how they would have to remove the concrete slab off Adonis’s land, and then up sparked the deputy mayor and – well, the long and the short of it is that Adonis has agreed to rent the land to the dimos indefinitely, but because the whole thing was done without his consent they agreed to a price that was way more than it’s worth. Half the island is against it and other half thinks the dimos has got what it deserved!’

  ‘Oh my goodness! What does Adonis think?’

  ‘I have no idea, but what I do know is that Adonis is no longer building his house with his own hands. No, he is employing other people to do it for him now.’

  Michelle stays for a good couple of hours, and then with kisses and hugs she takes her leave for the winter months.

  ‘Call me when the baby comes,’ she shouts as she leaves, and Sophia waves the piece of paper with Michelle’s phone number on it in reply.

  Two days later, the hotel is locked, and Michelle’s and Dino’s suitcases are waiting to be loaded onto a water taxi and taken across to the mainland.

  Adonis comes running, out of breath, and Dino slaps him on his back as he stands trying to catch his breath.

  ‘You going, then?’ Adonis asks, a teasing accusation.

  ‘What do you think? You think I want to stay in this godforsaken hole over the winter when the population drops to a handful of locals?’ Dino teases in return, and the two shake hands and hug each other tightly.

  Michelle looks at Adonis through narrowed eyes. She really does not know what to make of him. They have never really got on. Adonis is so protective of Dino, and he has never been happy about his old schoolfriend being in a relationship with this foreign older woman.

  ‘Michelle,’ he says stiffly, and holds out his hand for her to shake.

  ‘Adoni,’ she answers, with a cursory shake.

  ‘So, get off my island, you two. But Michelle, I want you to promise something.’ he says.

  ‘What?’ She does not trust him at all.

  ‘Now I have a house, I can have a wife if I choose,’ he says.

  ‘So?’ She looks at Dino to see if he understands what is being said, but his face is blank.

  ‘So, promise to come back for my wedding.’

  Dino blinks and a slow smile creeps over his face.

  ‘Anastasia said yes!’ Adonis confirms, and Dino gives a whoop of joy and slaps him so hard on his back that Adonis staggers forward into Michelle. His face is so close to hers she can see flecks of gold in his dark irises, and before he stands up straight he gives her a very knowing wink.

  The Visit

  He has been cleaning all day, and stands back to survey his work; he knows, however, that she will not be impressed. The chipped marble is grey in the sunlight that slants between the branches of the orange trees and through the windows, forcing shafts of light into the room. His mama is not going to look favourably on the house. She will say it is nothing more than a barn, an apothiki, and technically she will be right. The house is little more than a dwelling fit for goats nestled into the heart of an orange grove. It feels isolated, but it’s actually a very short distance from the sea, and even closer to Stella’s hotel, where Loukas works. As far as he is concerned, it is home, and he loves the fact that he can be back within his own walls within minutes of finishing his shift, drifting off to sleep to the sound of the cicadas and the rustling of leaves. He wakes to the sound of goat bells and cockerels crowing, and the shade from the surrounding orange trees keeps the place relatively cool.

  In fact, his life could not be more perfect, but he cannot deny the nervousness he feels at his mother’s impending visit: she might not see it the same way.

  Serving at the beach bar with its palm-leaf roof is such a pleasure it almost cannot be described as work. But how will she see it? A waste of his years spent at college, no doubt. From where he stands behind the bar, he can see the dazzling sea glistening away into the distance in one direction, and the wide sandy beach running all the way to Saros town if he turns his head to look the other way.

  And then there is Ellie. Beautiful, funny, quirky, sexy Ellie.

  He stops wiping the sink to look out of the window. He was nervous when he first brought Ellie here. She might have told him it was not fit for sheep, walked away – from it and from him. But no, beautiful Ellie ran around the outside, the fingers of one hand trailing against the wall until she reached the door. Then she stood in anticipation, her face glowing, her eyes wide with excitement, and she stepped in as if anticipating a wonderland inside, instead of the earth floor, and the rough, unrendered walls.

  ‘Oh, it’s gorgeous!’ she exclaimed. ‘I love the sink!’ and she ran her hands over the old, worn marble and gazed out of the window above it. He stood behind her, his hands around her waist, looking up through the dense leaves to the tiniest spots of blue here and there.

  Turning his back on the window now, he looks critically around the room. Together they used mud bricks to build the wall that divides the bedroom from the rest of the space. They painted the walls the palest of blues from a large tin of paint he found discarded in one of the storerooms at the hotel. Stella gave them furniture, too – a sofa, a table and chairs. The dresser came from Marina who owns the village shop, and the little tabletop stove is on loan from Fillipos who works at the village bakery, where Loukas used to work. And the bed – well, that has been the only real expense so far. The chimney was added after they built the wall, using more of the plythra bricks from a collapsed building a few fields away. To start with, they made a hole in the wall, hoping the whole place wouldn’t collapse. But they worked with enthusiasm and the belief that, united, they could conquer the world. Ellie mixed the mud and he laid the bricks, one on top of another, interlocking them into the wall as he went, building the chimney up the outside of the wall, hauling the last rows up a ladder.

  Now the inside of the chimney is baked by the fires they have lit, and the outside is rendered and whitewashed to match the rest of the house and to protect the sun-hardened bricks from the rain in the winter. The whole thing looks like it has always been there, always lived in, always a home.

  He blows air through loose lips. How lucky is he! Ellie, the house, the job – it is all so perfect.

  Except, his mama is coming from Athens …

  The house is one thing, but he and Ellie living together as a couple is another. It feels almost too big to face.

  Firstly, Ellie is not Greek. His mama is bound to have much to say about that. He is well aware how she bundles all foreigners into one category in her mind, and he also knows her opinion of female tourists. Maybe, once upon a time, the
foreigners’ ideas were more liberal than those of the average Greek, but not these days. These days they are just people, like them, no different. They are just looking for some sun, a little relaxation, a friendly face. No, the problem will be the whole Orthodox side of things, as she sees it. He can hear her already.

  ‘You are living with a woman and you are not married?’ Then she will cross herself three times. ‘You see how already her English ways have driven you from the right path? You are an Orthodox Greek. You were born one and you have been brought up to be one. Yet this girl, in only a few months, has led you so far from the path you know to be true. An English girl! Bah! Why? Why are the Greek girls not good enough for you? Eh? Maybe it is because they will not live with you like heathens?’

  She will drive him crazy.

  Loukas sits at the rickety wooden table and moves it a little to the left and towards him until it is level enough for the whole structure not to rock.

  ‘Maybe I should broach the subject of marriage with Ellie,’ he says to himself, not for the first time. It is not that Ellie does not love him or that he does not love Ellie. He does – oh, how he does.

  His eyes glaze over as he recalls her form under the sheets when he came back from work last night. The curve of her hips, the dip at her waist as she lay fast asleep on her side. No, there is no question that he loves her. Did he not ask her to marry him within twenty-four hours of knowing her? But then he did not know her history, and he is not sure how she would react if he were to ask again in all seriousness.

  A glimmer of hope lifts his chin, but it sinks again at the thought of all that Ellie has endured. Poor Ellie! There was a scandal when she was still at school, and her name was dragged through the papers. Her teacher was seducing girls in his care, and poor Ellie, too young and innocent to know better, got involved in it all, and thought she was pregnant by him. Thank goodness, that was not the case, but the experience has made the girl understandably wary of relationships.