Eléni & M Move to Athens - Part 23

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 22 of this series. Anthi Psomiadou has graciously agreed—this is probably the last time that I repeat it—to play the role of a fictional character also called, Anthi, as she already did in the first series, but in this series with the full and timely name, Anthi (Flowers) Kanéna (No Body). She smells better than any flower and her body is forever in my mind.

Hence we will not say that Greeks fight like heroes but that heroes fight like Greeks. Winston Churchill

Not only was I the only one awake in the house, but I was also apparently the only one awake in the whole world. It was the thought and feeling that I possessed, which also informed me that I was the one with the anomaly, not anyone else. I pinched myself in the left arm but did not feel any pain. It is how I understood that I was still dreaming. I was having a dream within a dream. I smiled when I realized it and even heard myself laughing. I returned to bed next to Eléni, kissed her, and tried to relax, thinking about Greece, thinking about Athena, thinking about Anthi, my beautiful Anthi, and within some unknown period of time, I found myself with her again, kissing her face and her neck, feeling happy and serene. Anthi was home for me. I felt it in my being. It is love that has made me Greek, nothing else. Athena was the lighthouse but Anthi was the sea. Anthi was suddenly everything that I wanted and needed. Unbeknown to me before leaving Montreal, Anthi was the reason why I decided to move to Greece. Eléni followed her mind and her heart, and I followed her and my mind. Anthi was still unknown to my heart. I simply needed to see her to have my wooden heart set aflame with love for her.

O Anthi, I called out to her, but she only moved her lips, as if talking to herself. I was not sure. I kissed her unrelentingly, everywhere. Her skin was hot and I felt enamoured with all of it, every Anthi surface, even within her nostrils. It seems that I tried to kiss her there as well, and between her toes. I was looking for skin that I had not kissed before. Anthi had become as indispensable for my life as what she referred to as the soul. She was my soul. I had no soul without her. I even tried to reason with myself, asking, how could I think all this within a dream. Consciousness is always required for such “deep” thoughts, and here I was having them within my unconscious. Was Athena responsible for this? She had to be unless it is love that can cause it. It is love that awakened a goddess gone for over 2,000 years. It could also be love that is causing all this unusual awakening. Is Anthi my soulmate? She does complete me when I feel her. I feel whole with her. Her smile alone can trigger something and everything, and not seeing her for a short period of time can cause a malaise, like the one I had away from her just making a salad. Quelle salade, vraiment (What a fiction, really)!

I put my ears, one after the other, against her heart and her belly, trying to listen to her inner being, reasoning that it is everywhere, not only the brain. I heard various sounds, including beats and waves. It was like a symphony. Anthi was an orchestra with special instruments. Teach me how to play them, I heard myself say to her. I kissed her again, on the mouth, and this time, she opened her eyes and I saw tears that I quickly licked and swallowed. (It is strange that tears appear as I write this.) Where were you? I asked her.

She smiled and replied, “In your heart. I was in a beautiful forest, with beautiful trees and so many flowers. I was looking for you for what seemed like hours. I saw an olive tree and I sat against its trunk, calling to you but feeling unafraid. I felt you but I did not know how, until Glaukopis suddenly appeared, perched above me, telling me, je t’aime (I love you). It is then that I knew that I was within you, that I was within your heart. I never felt so warm. I felt at home. And then you kissed me everywhere, even between my toes. I knew that it was you, loving me like you so love to do. And then you kissed my mouth, and I felt more alive, with tears of joy appearing in my eyes.”

O Anthi! You are both my dream and my reality. There is no struggle between them; there is no versus. They become one when I am with you. You are my unifying force. You are my soul. You walk around with it, and when you are too far, I do not feel myself and my heart weakens. It is a new feeling for me.

“For me too, my M, my love. What are we going to do?”

I hope Athena can help, or maybe the Fates, or maybe your soul will guide you somehow. I really do not know. The only thing that I do know is that I love you beyond any human measure and that I do not want you to be hurt in any way, even as little as a misplaced touch or a kiss in the eye. I am reminded by a saying from somewhere in the Mediterranean that implores the lover to take care not to blind his love with a kiss. Lend me your right ear, so I can whisper what M stands for. There is no reason to wait anymore.

“O M! I will keep it secret for as long as you want me to.”

M stands for … I whispered in her ear.

“I did not expect that, but it explains a lot. Does it, mon amour (my love)?”

It is a name with some history, I agree, but I never felt that it affected me in any way. I always preferred the initial. It was short and to the point. What point? Whichever was required. Maurice served its purpose, and so did others. But now you know my last secret. I have nothing to hide. My mind is yours as is my so-called soul.

“Je t’aime, mon M. Qu’est-ce qu’on va faire (I love you, my M. What are we going to do)?”

On s’aimera jusqu’à la fin (We will love each other until the end).

“Oui, mon M (Yes, my M)!”

The Sun sent rays all over our side of the world, some of them caressing our faces as we awoke to a new day of reality following the longest dream we had ever dreamed. I met Anthi again in the kitchen when we went to get some cool water. I wanted to eat her, settling for the water, being somewhat comforted by the fact that I will eat her tonight in our dream. She knew exactly what I thought. She had my soul, after all.

We were going to leave Crete later today to return to Athens and an even harsher reality. Athena had made some possible promises. We had made some of them as well. What did the future hold for us? At least we had our dreams.

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I thank Anthi Psomiadou for her steadfast kindness and support via her comments, suggestions, and insightful additions, which render this series of stories about several characters in Greece both more fictitious and more real, a seeming contradiction. It appears that as I write each new part, love is becoming the main theme, but between two modern characters albeit with the help of a character from Ancient Greece. Goddess Athena may have been the spark and even the flame, but Anthi is the fire burning in more than one heart.

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