YANNIS (Cretan Saga Book 1) (65 page)

‘Then where are you going?’ Yiorgo repeated the question.

‘I came to see you, particularly Mamma. I’ll leave again tomorrow and get back to the island.’

‘How?’

‘The bathtub is still down amongst the rocks. I can go back in that.’

Yiorgo shrugged. ‘There are some caves up in the hills.’

Yannis shook his head. ‘How long could I stay hidden before someone saw me and told the authorities? I don’t want to be hunted like an animal. When I’ve seen Mamma and Anna I’ll get back as best I can.’

‘Where will you spend the night?’

‘In the stable, I’ve slept in worse places. I could do with some more to eat, though.’

Yiorgo handed him another small loaf and a jar of home made brawn.

‘Any tomatoes and olives?’ asked Yannis hungrily and Yiorgo produced them. His father and brother watched as he munched and chewed, sipping intermittently at the brandy.

‘When can I see Mamma?’ he asked.

‘In the morning. I think it might be wiser if we talked to Anna first and she prepared Mamma. We mustn’t give her too much of a shock.’

Yannis was forced to agree, anxious though he was to see her. ‘I’ll wait until you call me.’

He slept well, curled up on the straw next to the donkey, not stirring until long after dawn. When he first awoke it took a moment for him to realise where he was, then the donkey, stamping her feet, reminded him and a smile of pure pleasure spread across his face. He was at home. Impatiently he waited until he heard footsteps in the yard and the door was thrown open.

‘Anna!’

She threw her arms round his neck, burying her face in his shoulder. ‘Yannis, oh, Yannis, it’s so good to see you.’

Gently Yannis disentangled her hands and held her away from him. ‘I’d love to hug and kiss you, Anna, but it’s better not. I don’t know how infectious I am. No one seems to know and I don’t want to risk giving it to you. Have you told Mamma I’m here?’

Anna nodded. ‘I’m not sure she believed me. She kept nodding and smiling and saying “he’s a good boy, a clever boy,” as though you’d just returned from High School. You’ll see a great change in her, Yannis.’

‘She’ll see a change in me too, so we’ll just have to accept each other.’

Anna led the way across the yard and into the kitchen. ‘I’m so pleased to see you.’

‘I don’t think Pappa and Yiorgo are.’

‘They are really. They’re just worried in case someone sees you. If you were found here they’d probably take us all off for tests.’

‘Then we must make sure I’m not found.’

Yannis gazed at his mother, slumped slightly to one side in her chair. She looked far older than he remembered her. ‘Mamma.’

‘Come here, Yannis, let me look at you.’ Her words, although slurred, were quite distinguishable.

Yannis stood before her. She studied him for a long time before she spoke again.

‘You look well enough – considering.’

‘I am – considering. How are you?’

‘I’m useless.’ She pointed to her withered hand. ‘No more embroidery or cooking.’

‘You deserve a rest. You always worked so hard.’

Maria hardly seemed to hear him. ‘I have Anna. She’s a good girl. Sees to everything, even little Yannis. Maria’s gone. Gone forever. I couldn’t say goodbye to her. She wasn’t a bad girl, just unlucky, impatient, couldn’t wait. Babbis blames himself. Won’t take much notice of little Yannis. Reminds him of his poor Maria. Bad luck has hit this family. We’ve been cursed. First Yannis broke his leg; then you were taken away, then I became ill, then Maria. What’s to become of us?’

‘I’ll always be here, Mamma,’ promised Anna.

‘Yannis’s come back, Anna. He’s come to visit us now he’s better.’

‘Mamma, I’m not better. Not yet. I have to go back later today.’

‘Go back? Go back where?’

‘I live on the island. I’m a leper.’

Maria nodded slowly. ‘That’s what they told me. My Yannis, a leper.’ She sucked in her breath. ‘You’re still my Yannis; my clever Yannis. Who brought you over to see me?’

‘No one, Mamma. I floated over in a bathtub.’

‘Clever Yannis; always had good ideas.’ Maria’s head sank down and she appeared to be asleep. Anna turned to Yannis.

‘Come and sit over here and tell me about the island.’

Yannis smiled at her. ‘It isn’t a very pleasant subject.’

‘I want to know just the same. Everything Yannis. From when you were first ill in Heraklion and went to hospital there.’

‘Father Minos will have told you all about that.’

‘I want you to tell me,’ insisted Anna. ‘Tell me now, whilst Mamma sleeps.’

Capitulating to his sister’s wishes, Yannis related how he had first been diagnosed and the help the priest had given him, then his short stay in the hospital in Heraklion before being sent to Athens.

‘That was the first we knew, when Andreas and the priest came here. It was a terrible shock. Did they give you all the latest treatment in Athens?’

‘The treatment they gave us there was worse than you can possibly imagine. We were treated like criminals. Locked up, half starved, beaten if we protested.’

Anna’s eyes opened wide in horror. ‘I’m glad you’re not there now.’

‘I’m glad too. I wasn’t at first. I thought we’d been sent to the island to die. I suppose we were in a way. No one seemed to care until Father Minos came.’

‘What was it like when you arrived? Tell me truly, Yannis.’

Yannis smiled grimly. ‘Derelict, dirty, stinking – you name it.’ Yannis described the island as he had found it when he had first landed. He painted a sad picture of the crippled occupants, trying to live on decaying food and sheltering in derelict buildings.

‘It’s much better now,’ he assured his sister. ‘I’m sure Father Minos has had something to do with better food being sent over.’

Anna shook her head. ‘It was Pappa. He threatened to report to the government anyone who sent rotten food.’

‘I’m surprised they worried about that threat. The government doesn’t care. You should have seen some of the food in the hospital.’

‘I think they guessed Pappa has a reason.’

‘You mean the villagers know I’m there?’

Anna nodded. ‘Why should I suddenly start waving to an island occupied by lepers, or Pappa send out a goat and insist that the food was fresh? He’d never bothered before.’

‘Waving!’ Yannis clapped a hand to his forehead. ‘I’d forgotten. I promised Phaedra I’d let her know I was safely here by asking you to wave your red scarf.’

‘Who’s Phaedra?’

‘One of the women out there.’

‘Is she your girl?’

Yannis laughed. ‘Hardly. No girl is likely to look at me. We’re just friends.’

Anna did not believe him. He was far too insistent that she must go and wave immediately. She teased him for a few more minutes, then took her red scarf from behind the door and went down to the beach. As soon as she had left Maria opened her eyes.

‘You’ve had a hard time, Yannis.’

‘I thought you were asleep, Mamma.’

‘I was listening. I knew you wouldn’t tell me the truth as you would Anna. I’m proud of you, Yannis. You were always the clever one. I shan’t grieve for you any more. You’ve found your purpose in life. Ill or not, you were sent there to help them.’

Yannis looked at his mother. ‘Do you really believe that?’

‘There’s a reason behind everything. We can’t always see it, but you were needed there, and the only way you could go was to be sick yourself.’ Maria closed her eyes again. ‘You’re a good boy, Yannis. I often sit here and they think I’m asleep, but I’m really listening. I hear their arguments and I think “what would Yannis have done, or said?” and I let my thoughts drift away. I hear much more than they realise. You stay with your Phaedra. If you’re good friends now you always will be. Yiorgo, now, he never looks at a girl. Always busy on the farm. Loves the land too much to be interested in anything or anyone else. Anna, well, maybe, but not yet, poor child. She won’t leave me, but when I go there’s Babbis. It’s poor Stelios I worry over. He worshipped you, Yannis, tried to be like you in every way. Now he’s changed; he’s very bitter. Won’t talk about you. Father Minos tried to talk to him, but he wouldn’t listen. I think he’s frightened that he will have it and be sent to the island.’

‘I know how he feels. I hated that island. When I found I’d been sent there I was petrified. Gradually I realised it wasn’t as bad as the hospital had been. I’ve some very good friends there, usually we have enough to eat, and we’re not prisoners in one large room, watching each other decay and die.’

Maria nodded. ‘And you have your Phaedra. I don’t doubt that you’ve chosen the prettiest and cleverest girl on the island.’

Yannis shook his head. ‘You’re a crafty old lady, Mamma. You’ve gone far ahead of me. I would be lost without Phaedra; she’s been a good friend to me. She’s not particularly pretty, and she can neither read nor write.’

‘Then why don’t you teach her?’

‘Teach her?’

‘There’s probably a good few over there that have either never learned or have forgotten. Why don’t you teach them? Keep you occupied.’

‘Oh, Mamma, you always did want me to be a teacher if I wouldn’t become a doctor.’

‘So now’s your chance, Yannis.’

‘Maybe,’ Yannis agreed cautiously. ‘In the winter.’

‘Have you got your books, Yannis?’

‘Most of them. I often wish…’ Yannis’s voice tailed off as Anna burst through the door.

‘Yannis, they’ve found the bathtub. They’re looking for you.’

Yannis’s face paled. ‘Who are?’

‘The fishermen. If they don’t find you they’re going to inform the authorities so they can start a full scale search.’

‘I must go. I can’t let them find me here. I’ll walk on towards Elounda and if they find me I’ll say I’m making for Aghios Nikolaos to see my girl.’

Anna’s eyes filled with tears. ‘I wish you could stay, Yannis.’

‘I wish I could too. Don’t cry. I’ll come again.’

Yannis turned to his mother who stretched out an arm to him. ‘Kiss me goodbye, Yannis. I may not be here the next time.’

Yannis hesitated. ‘Come along,’ insisted Maria. ‘You’re my son, Yannis, and I want you to kiss me goodbye.’

‘Oh, Mamma!’ Yannis cradled her head against his chest and kissed the top of her head. The talisman to ward off the evil eye that she had given him years ago when he first went to Heraklion bruised her face.

‘You still have it, then. Not that it did much for you, but it could have been far worse. Keep it always and it will keep you safe.’

‘Yes, Mamma,’ he promised. ‘I must go. Bless you, Anna and keep waving.’

Anna watched as Yannis left by the kitchen door and began to make his way up over the hills, using the track that led to Babbis’s farmhouse. At the ridge she saw him turn and look back, then he was gone from her sight. He moved as fast as he could, trying to take advantage of the sparse cover of olive trees, carob and vine. He could see his father and Yiorgo working hard a short distance away and wished he could stay and spend the day with them. He picked his way over the uneven ground towards them.

‘Where are you off to?’ asked his father.

‘I’ve come to say goodbye. They’ve found the bathtub. The fishermen are looking for me, so I want to try to get to Elounda before they catch up with me.’

‘Best get onto the cart then.’

Yannis looked at his father in surprise. ‘The cart?’

‘Be quick about it.’

Yannis scrambled up and laid flat as his father ordered whilst Yiorgo began to fork grass and vine cuttings over him. Yannis pushed his head clear. ‘I can’t breathe.’

‘Make a hole for your mouth and keep still.’

Yannis felt the donkey being hitched between the shafts and he began to jolt over the grassy track until they reached the flatter surface that served as a road between the two villages. For an interminable time Yannis jolted along getting hotter, and wishing he could push away the grass that was tickling his neck and making him itch. Yiorgo whistled tunelessly as he guided the donkey and Yannis began to feel quite light-headed. Abruptly the donkey stopped, backing into the shafts and jerking Yannis alert.

‘What’s the problem?’ he heard Yiorgo ask.

‘There’s a leper about. Seen anyone on the road, Yiorgo?’

‘Not a soul,’ replied Yiorgo truthfully, and smacked the donkey on the rump to make her continue.

‘Just a minute.’

The cart stopped. ‘Cover his foot up, Yiorgo. Word’s got round. They’ll be looking everywhere.’

‘Thanks.’

They moved again and Yannis pushed some grass away from his face. ‘Yiorgo.’

‘Keep quiet and stay hidden.’

‘No. I want to get off.’

‘Wait until we’re the other side of Elounda.’

‘No, now.’ Yannis threw off the grass and leapt down. ‘I’ll make for the hills.’

‘Pappa said to take you all the way.’

‘If you take me much further they’ll want to search the cart, then they’ll know I’ve been home. Mamma and Anna could suffer. Thank Pappa for me. Tell him you took me wherever you please. And Yiorgo – thank you.’

Without waiting for his brother to answer Yannis scrambled up the bank and down into the ditch out of sight. Yiorgo stood in the middle of the road and scratched his head, not at all sure what he should do. Yannis sat where he was until Yiorgo had rounded the bend in the road, then emerged and began to walk openly to Elounda. To his surprise he had reached the far side of the village before he was challenged. Once stopped a small crowd began to gather and before Yannis could explain or defend himself a stone flew through the air and landed at his feet.

‘Better move.’

A stick prodded him in his back and Yannis started his ignominious walk to Aghios Nikolaos. The whole way he was followed by men, women and children who jeered and threw stones at him at intervals that made him duck and weave. On the quay Yannis could see Manolis whittling at a piece of wood and breathed a sigh of relief. At least he would not have to wait around for the boatman to return before he could escape the hostile crowd.

Manolis scowled at him. ‘You, is it? I might have guessed when they told me to wait around. Get in. Up to the prow.’

Silently Yannis took his place and Manolis cast off. They were well away from the land before the boatman spoke to him. ‘Did you make it to your family?’ Manolis asked eagerly.