CHAPTER 3
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EVA
“Hang on a second. I’ve been sitting here all day, filling out about a million application forms, and you get offered both a job and a two-month vacation on your first interview?” With her fork dangling in the air, Robyn looked at me in disbelief. I winced.
“I know it sounds like that, but it’s not like it’s a vacation for me. I’ll be working.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, my bad. People only go to a beautiful Greek island to work their asses off every summer, not enjoying it one little bit. How could I be so stupid as to think otherwise?”
I wasn’t about to argue with my roommate. After all, on paper, it did seem ridiculous. She probably had every right to be a little envious. I stabbed a piece of pasta with my fork and popped it into my mouth.
“I’m going to pay the rent upfront for the next two months,” I said, by way of appeasement. She rolled her eyes but said nothing.
“You know, this woman that I’m working for? Mrs. Mikou? She seems like she’s going to be pretty hard work.”
Robyn nodded, but she wasn’t convinced, not by a long shot. I knew she really wasn’t mad at me; more frustrated by her own struggle to find work. She’d been trying everything to find a new job. Since leaving college, she’d been stuck behind the cash register in a clothing store, working for a guy she couldn’t stand. On the wall of her bedroom hung a first-class honors degree in Biology, but her dream job was still eluding her. I wasn’t sure if she even knew what her dream job was anymore.
After dinner, I called my mom. She was thrilled to hear my news, but at the same time, she was concerned about the offer. “It’s pretty strange, you know, that this woman would just want you to come along, no questions asked,” she said. “What’s her name again?”
“Maria Mikou,” I replied, sure that at that very moment, Mom was searching for the name online, no doubt for any news stories about hapless physical therapists being duped into going to beautiful destinations, never to be heard from again.
“And you start the end of this week?”
“Yes,” I replied. “But I don’t know. I’m not convinced she’s moving her knee enough. I’m going to call around tomorrow and see that she’s actually doing her exercises.”
Since my meeting with Maria earlier that day, she’d been on my mind. I had a feeling that nobody dared tell her what to do. Nonetheless, she needed to keep her knee moving. So, the following morning, I made my way back to the beautiful apartment tower in downtown Houston. This time, the concierge recognized me and congratulated me on my success. I hadn’t told him anything but didn’t ask where he’d heard I had gotten the job, either.
Maria Mikou was surprised to see me as I’d arrived entirely unannounced. “Don’t tell me you’ve changed your mind!” she cried as Anna showed me into the large botanical garden she called her sitting room.
“Not at all,” I assured her. “I’m looking forward to it very much. I came to see how you are, and to make sure that you’re doing your exercises. I’m sure you’ve been told plenty of times since your operation that you have to move it every hour.”
“I moved it this morning when the nurse came to see me,” Maria said, obstinately. Gently and patiently, I explained that a knee replacement operation was unlike most other surgeries.
“Usually you’d be instructed to rest completely and allow wounds to heal,” I said. “But knees are different. They have to be moved. Every hour.”
“Every hour?” Maria was horrified. “It’s too painful!”
“But necessary,” I insisted. “And I need to get you moving, especially if you’re going to Greece on Thursday. It’s so important that the knee doesn’t freeze up because once it does, it’ll never move again.”
Despite her protests, I managed to get her to her feet. I got her to walk toward me, but I noticed she was lifting her hip, rather than bending her knee. “No hip-hitching,” I said. “Your right knee has to bend in just the same way as your left does. I know it’s painful, but you have to try.”
“Oh, do you now?” she snapped. “How many knee-caps have you had replaced?”
She had me there, but I was determined to stick to my guns. I could see that she was trying, even though she was in a great deal of pain in doing so, and I held out my hands to assist her. She gripped them tightly, closed her eyes, and pursed her lips as though she was sucking a lemon, now determined to try and take a few tiny steps.
“While you’re walking, tell me about this beautiful place,” I said. “I’ve never seen a garden inside an apartment before.”
“I need to rest,” she panted, and I guided her back to her seat. I sat on the footstool, holding her leg in my lap, and I slowly and gently began to move the joint. She gritted her teeth as she allowed me to work, but gradually, she relaxed and started to talk about the apartment.
“My husband bought it for me fifteen years ago,” she said. “And then he dropped dead a week later. Weak heart.”
I was horrified. “I’m so sorry. That must have been awful.”
“It was a shock, yes,” Maria sighed. “And I was very sad and very alone. I have no family here in Texas, and I was ready to go straight back to Greece, but then I was given a reason to stay.”
She smiled at this, and I saw how beautiful she was. She couldn’t have been older than fifty when her husband had died, and I wondered why she’d never married again. Reflected in her eyes, though, was a great deal of sadness, but I’d already seen a little of the fire burning inside her too, and I imagined she wasn’t easily defeated.
“It must be hard for you to be so far from home,” I said. “My family is too far away from me, and I miss them like crazy. It sounds like yours are on the other side of the world.”
With a slow nod, she gazed over my shoulder into the distance for a few moments before turning her attention back to me. “I’ll be back overlooking the ocean in just a few days,” she said, beaming.
“Is your house close to the sea?” I asked.
“I have a beautiful house that overlooks nothing but the beautiful waters of the Aegean,” she declared. “My nephew, Nikos, he is a good boy. He has looked after me very well. He bought me that house with his very first paycheck.”
“Wow,” I said. “I’m impressed. That must have been one hell of a paycheck.”
“It was for a novel,” she explained. “What do they call it? The cheque they give you for a new book?”
“An advance?”
She clicked her fingers. “Yes. An advance. With that, he bought me my house. Every penny he spent on me. Ah, my boy. He is the best young man. And so handsome. You will meet him soon.”
“He sounds wonderful,” I said.
Again, the sad look settled across her face. “He’s my reason to go on,” she said. “When I was made a widow I was done with the world. Enough. And then my brother died. And his wife. I lost all three in two years. But I was given Nikos. He came to live with me when he was sixteen.”
I didn’t know what to say. It sounded as though she’d suffered as much as anyone possibly could. And yet she still smiled, and her face came alive when she talked about Greece. She began to tell me about Santorini, and the way she described it, made me excited to leave with her in a few days’ time.
“Every hour, you need to do these exercises,” I told her before I left. She grumbled at me, and from the way she reacted, I knew that I couldn’t have been the first to tell her this. I promised to come by the next day too, and she seemed quite pleased at hearing this. In reality, I was happy to do it. I found her fascinating, and I hoped that she would recover quickly.
Robyn soon forgave me for bailing on her for the whole of the summer, and the time soon came for me to meet Maria at the airport after visiting her every day at her apartment. She arrived in a wheelchair, wearing oversized designer sunglasses and a wide-brimmed hat. As soon as she saw me, she lifted both her arms, wildly waving at me.
“Eva!” she yelled. “Here! Here!”
I’d taken a cab to the airport and was now pulling my huge, brand new suitcase, behind me, heavy from all the new summer clothes I’d hastily purchased with the last of my savings. I had to confess that, in the back of my mind, I was wondering what a handsome, successful author like Nikos, Maria’s nephew, might like to see a woman wearing in such a beautiful place as Santorini. Granted, it was a little silly, not knowing the man from a bar of soap, but I was nonetheless intrigued by the little that Maria had told me about him.
A summer romance certainly wouldn’t go amiss. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d even had a date. Of course, I was going to Greece to work, but a handsome Greek stranger to turn my head would be very pleasant indeed.
Maria was traveling with her long-suffering housekeeper, Anna, who’d begun to smile every time she saw me rather than scowl. I saw the large mountain of luggage her employer had brought along and wondered if the poor woman had been tasked with taking them all down in the elevator by herself. I looked around for a cart to pile them on, but Maria laughed and patted my hand.
“My dear, we have help for that,” she said. “You don’t fly first-class and then carry your own luggage. Relax.”
“First-class?” I gulped. “What?”
But it was true. On checking in, I was presented with a ticket for a seat at the front of the plane, a mysterious place where I’d only ever fantasized about sitting. I didn’t dare look at what it must have cost. Someone took all the luggage, and as Maria was in a wheelchair, we were swiftly escorted to the front of the line; then through security, before being taken to the first-class lounge where we sat down, sipping expensive French champagne until it was time to board our flight.
As much as I felt like a fish out of water, Maria Mikou looked to be completely at home. While I marveled at an airplane seat that became a bed at the touch of a button and was stunned at the knowledge that I could drink as much as I wanted without charge, Maria barked orders to Anna for more cushions. Then she instructed her to activate subtitles for the movie she wanted to watch. It was a struggle that soon ended as the air hostess relieved Anna from the task, much to Anna’s relief.
Once in the air, I unbuckled my seatbelt and insisted that Maria still exercise her knee, despite her complaints. “Why won’t you let me enjoy the flight?” she asked. “You are a physical terrorist!”
She made me laugh out loud, although she wasn’t joking. I found her smart play on words humorous, and I felt sorry to be ruining her trip, but it was vital that she keep up with moving her leg as much as possible. Anna seemed happy to sit in her seat, a large set of headphones now covering her ears, finally getting a little peace while enjoying her own first-class ride to her home country. I realized that despite her bossy demeanor, Maria must have thought very highly of her housekeeper if she paid so much to have her fly with her. She could easily have seated us both in coach while enjoying being waited on hand and foot by the friendly airplane staff.
Maria slept for most of the journey, so I wasn’t able to coerce her into moving her leg much. Instead, I settled back in my comfortable seat, slipped some headphones of my own over my ears and thoroughly enjoyed my flight. I, too, dozed off, and it felt like only a few minutes later when the captain announced we were about to descend into Athens International Airport.
Excited, I sat up and looked out of the window. Below me was Greece, and I had to pinch myself to be sure it wasn’t a dream.