Eléni & M Move to Athens - Part 18

This new series has its history in the form of several short stories, several poems, and a 13-part series that is linked at the bottom via Part 17 of this series. Anthi Psomiadou has graciously agreed—I am positive—to appear as a fictional character also called, Anthi, as in the first series. Compared to the other four main characters, namely Athena, Patrick, Eléni, and M, Anthi has become an unpredictable one when writing about her. M, also the narrator, often feels lost before her, and so in love with her that everything else becomes secondary at best, even Goddess Athena.

Among all peoples, the Greeks have dreamt life’s dream most beautifully. Goethe

When I opened my eyes, it was just after dawn, the time when I usually read before getting up. But the only words I wanted to read were in Anthi’s dreams and thoughts. O Anthi! I whispered in her mind. Are you dreaming of us? Am I kissing your heart? Am I touching your belly?

“O M! I dreamt that we visited Athena’s temple in Delphi, each one on the back of an eagle, flying together, soaring in the sky between the clouds, free and in love. I felt your heart inside of me and my heart inside of you. It was a feeling that I had never felt before. O M! I do love you more than anyone else in this world, and it is so strange given that we have just met, and yet so beautiful that love can be so strong.”

O my Anthi! I wish that I could give you my heart. I do not want it if it is not you who loves it with your touch. Let us go to Delphi after Crete. Perhaps our Athena has devised for us something divine, a path to our union, or a temporary respite from our deterministic world.

“O M! I do hope so with all my heart, which is for you from now on and made from wood like yours. I do not think that it was a coincidence that we sat together under the olive tree when I made arrangements for this yacht. I was in love with you then too. We were already in sync without knowing it. I too love Eléni and could never hurt her. It seems that we can only be free in our dreams. Our Athena may have already given us this nightly life together. Tomorrow night, I want us to make love. I want to give myself to you, my M. A dream is the only place where we can be together, my love.”

O my beautiful Anthi! I will love every part of you, every lock of hair on your head, every finger and every toe, your elbows and your knees, your hands and your legs, your breasts, your breasts, your shoulders and your back, your ass and your thighs, your ears and your nose, your chin and your eyes, your lips and your tongue, your belly and your pussy, your pussy in all its glory. I love you but it does not hurt anymore as it usually did and does when we love someone very deeply. It hurt before we fell asleep, but now it feels serene. Our Athena has given us a semblance of a life without hurting anyone. I love you in my mind, and my heart is filled with everything that is Anthi, everything that is you, mon amour (my love). I will be yours every night.

“O M! I will be yours every night and every dream. I want every dream to be about us. I want us to live together at night, every night with the Moon and the stars. It will be our second life. Our minds will make up all that we need. We will be together, mon amour. I want to be yours every single night. Those few hours will be only ours, agápi mou (my love).”

We love you, our goddess, we both said to Athena’s mind.

“I know that you do,” Athena replied. “The night will be yours from now on until a better solution can be found. However, it does require your proximity to one another. I will look for a place not far from Anthi, or we will find Anthi and her family a place not far from us. Everything will be alright, my budding lovers. Love each other since there is no greater feeling under the Sun. I am happier knowing that my M and my Anthi will be finally together as they were meant to be. The olive tree whispered it to you but you did not hear it. Its rustling leaves already announced your forthcoming union. Go to Delphi when we return to Athens. Something special may happen there. It is not a promise. It is only a wish that may come true. Let us all awaken now and watch the Sun rise from the sea to the sky.”

Patrick kissed his Athena, and I hugged again both Eléni and Anthi in each arm, Eléni with my right and Anthi against my wooden heart. I squeezed them both and kissed their warm cheeks. I would have felt guilty of betrayal under normal circumstances. But I felt euphoric instead, knowing that I would love my Eléni fully during our waking hours and my Anthi completely in our dreams. I looked at each one of them with my mind, understanding that I will have to make a choice one day or one night, but thankful to our Athena for giving me, us, a reprieve, time, space and time to be in love without any aftermath.

Crete is beautiful. It is Crete. Anthi is beautiful. Anthi is the Sun. Athena Forever moved through the sea like a wave, Captain Chloros, often looking puzzled as to its new ability to surf and almost fly, unaware that our Athena was steering the yacht, not him. He even began to pray at some point when we were on top of a wave almost stationary as it propelled us forward with the ease of an eagle soaring in the sky. Glaukopis decided to perch on the Captain’s shoulder, seeing that Anthi was taken care of, looking at me and nodding its head up and down, as if approving of our union.

Why is our union so accepted by everyone? I thought at some point as the yacht sailed towards the finish line, the marina where our voyage had began. Even Eléni looked serene and smiling like she always did. I kissed her passionately, but it is Anthi that my mind mirrored and reflected in my heart. Did they see something that I, we, could not see? I even looked at myself in a mirror to find out if something was new. I still looked like Patrick but my face was beaming. I asked Anthi to do the same, and she saw herself blooming, which made all the sense in the world given the significance of her name. If flowers bloomed, Anthi bloomed as well, but her colours were unique in my eyes. I had never seen such hues of loveliness. Anthi was becoming more beautiful every day. Anthi closed the bathroom door and took off her clothes.

“Look at me as well as you can,” she said, smiling. “You will know what I look like when you make love to me tonight in our dream.”

I must have bitten my lips, as I took off my clothes. Anthi looked at me for a few seconds, ran a tissue across my mouth to clean off the blood, and kissed me. We remembered to put our clothes back on before opening the door to face our new world.

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Anthi Psomiadou has been instrumental in the continuous telling of this long story, adding her insights (Delphi in this part) and showing her steady interest in this fictional tale of a Greek goddess returning to Greece after being away for more than 2,000 years. It is the love of a man, actually two men, that brings her back to a world much changed in appearance but not in substance, though appearance is always misleading when sufficient time has elapsed. Thank you, Anthi!

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