Based on true events – a story in sequels
In the previous one: Telemachus arranged the engagement and marriage of his sister, Helen, because if he did not marry her, he could not marry.
A Sunday in Eleni's room
When he came to visit his sister, he would sit next to my father and they would talk. I believe that already at that moment he had decided to marry me. But he didn't know how to express it or say it because his sister was still single. Of course, I was young and he didn't know what my opinion would be on such a proposal, but mainly the problem was how he could have conversations and make proposals to my father or mother when his sister was single.
If he didn't marry her, he couldn't marry either, and don't think that his older brother who had married earlier was the norm... This simply had to happen because there was an opportunity for both marriage and money - because no one had money at that time. The rumor spread throughout all the villages of the Peloponnese that Telemachus' brother had received a dowry of forty thousand drachmas. At that time, it was a significant amount of money and he became rich and gained fame. This was due to the fact that Aristi's uncle had sent the money from America to his nieces so that they could get married at a young age and quickly.
Aristi was a much sought-after bride at the time with such a dowry, but she also had a flaw for marriage, she had been born with a huge purple birthmark that covered half of her face. She always parted her hair on the left side to cover it, but it was hard not to look at her and so it was not easy for anyone to marry her. But this family accepted her and Pagousos married her. Maybe at that time the girl could have fixed her skin somehow, but who cared? Children grew up the way they were born because they were born that way, here they didn't care about health problems, would they look at aesthetic problems? Even when she died, that's how she was. We never talked about it.
Now to our topic, after Helen's engagement, she found her lover, she liked the situation and one day she got up and left. She closed the room she was staying in and went to live with her fiancé in his mother's house, as the house he was building on the plot of her dowry, in Galatsi, was not yet ready. Telemachus had taken full responsibility for both the marriage and the house. He built two rooms, built a paddock, took care of her. But even beyond these arrangements, Helen had a loving relationship with Telemachus and loved him very much. He was her support, and she would even give her life for him. However, Telemachus also had a weakness for her, it hurt her.
But you see, neither Aristi nor I interfered in their family affairs, nor in their property. Whatever my father-in-law wanted, he did and no one told him anything. When my husband said he was giving up his inheritance to take Aristi's dowry and marry Eleni, I was not interested, I never even asked what he would get, it was none of my business. These were men's jobs. That's why I tell you that both daughters-in-law who joined the family were very good, reasonable and unifying. In other cases, the opposite happens.
The result was that when Helen left and left the room, Telemachus did not vacate it. He left it furnished and when he was not on duty, he would come and change and put on his uniform there. He slept on duty and could have stayed there if he wanted, in his uniform too, but he continued to pay the rent for that room. This did not arouse suspicion in either me or my father. If he was paying the rent, why should my father care? But later I understood why he kept the room.
I understood it one Sunday in '49. From the moment the Dodecanese became Greek, my mother would take either one of her daughters or the other, and always my little brother, because he was the youngest and she didn't trust him to leave him behind, to take us to Kalymnos. That summer it was my sister's turn and she left me with my father and uncle to look after them.
Every Sunday my father and uncle used to go to a cafe in Plaka, which was Kalymnos - they went to meet their compatriots and talk. It was summer and the yard was completely empty because one neighbor had gone to Markopoulo and the other took her children swimming in the sea every weekend. I was left alone in the yard with no one around, not a soul, with nowhere to go and nothing to do.
My father had left a little money, so I went and bought an ice cream stick. I sat outside, in front of the courtyard door, and ate it and was satisfied. After I finished it, I had nothing to do, so I said to myself, “I’ll go to Eleni’s house,” which lived a little further down, where she lived with her fiancé. And I set off. They were in their courtyard and as soon as they saw me, they cheered. But Telemachus was also there in uniform, because he had come to eat for lunch, as it was Sunday.
They asked me: “How did you get here?” I told them: “I was alone, I didn’t know what to do, so I said to myself, I’ll go and see what Eleni is doing.” They were all very happy to see me and I think they even made me a coffee. After we finished, Telemachus says: “Do you want to go for a walk?” he meant Eleni and me, because his son-in-law had to work in the taxi. And Eleni says: “Take us!” Telemachus wanted to take us to a movie theater, in the center of Athens. He wouldn’t pay for his own ticket as an officer, but he would pay for ours.
I had gone to the movies once before in my life, again with the exact same group. Because during the last Carnival, before Eleni got engaged, my mother had said to my father: “Shouldn’t we invite the kids to come eat with us?” she had hurt Eleni, she was protective of her, and by “kids” she meant both Telemachus and Eleni. Besides, my father had appreciated Telemachus for his behavior towards his sister, so he too said: “We should invite them.” The love my parents showed to those kids was not ulterior, because I was so young that even they didn’t know what would happen. After the Carnival meal, Telemachus took us to the movies to thank us.
Telemachus then said: “I’m going to go change for a moment, take off my uniform and put on my civilian clothes for the cinema.” And I said: “If we’re going out, I’m going to go change too, because I’m wearing an old skirt and an old shirt. I’m going to put on my good dress!” Telemachus left first and then I left too, about ten or fifteen minutes later. When I went outside, a little further down the street, he was sitting and waiting and I realized that he had been waiting all this time.
"Well, you haven't left yet?" I ask him.
“I got into a conversation with an acquaintance and he delayed me,” he tells me. Eventually, we ended up walking together on the same street to the same house.
On the way, he says to me: "How about we go for a walk together?"
“But what will happen to Eleni?” I ask him. “Eleni is waiting.”
"Forget Eleni," he says, "it's my business."
"I don't know," I tell him. "It's not that I don't trust the two of us to go for a walk. But it seems rude to me to say that we're all going together and now you're suggesting that we go just the two of us. I don't know."
"Please," he tells me, "I couldn't have it any other way. I want the two of us to go," he tells me emphatically.
"I'm thinking about your sister," I tell him.
"I told you I'd deal with it," he says.
I tell him: "Since you want it that way, let's go." Because I had realized his interest and his proposal had begun to intrigue me.
Telemachus was a very handsome man, a man whose entire presence showed his power. These gifts were missing in my family. My father was a good man, but he also lacked the power of presence and tenderness towards his children. At that time, people had children without knowing why they did them. So, this man was not indifferent to me.
I fought inside my conscience because I was thinking about his sister, but it wasn't that I didn't want to go out. I also didn't want to offend him. I was a strong girl, I had proven it in my childhood, and I wasn't afraid, because I knew he was a civilized person. So, what would happen if I went out with him? Would he eat me? We would just find somewhere to sit. I told him: "Since you're taking care of your sister, okay."
(goes on)
photo by abigail2resident, https://pixabay.com
