Eléni & M Move to Athens - Part 27

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 26 of this series. Anthi Psomiadou has graciously agreed to play the role of a fictional character also called, Anthi, as she had played in the first series, but in this series with the specific name, Anthi Kanéna, having chosen it herself.

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. Aristotle

We both awoke a bit stupefied by our dream, meeting again in the kitchen for some cool water. We should sleep more than the usual too few hours, I told my Anthi in her mind.

“I know what you mean, my M. Our dreams are getting stranger and better. I wonder if we can have such dreams during the day if we take a nap.”

I like where this is going, my beautiful Anthi. We could ask Athena, though she always mentioned the night as our domaine, never the day, the latter being for your family.

“You are my family too, now. I could never live without you. I do not want to. I need you in my life. You complete me. And I have your soul, my M. I love you more every day. Even Delphine loves you already. You have a way about you. You are different from Patrick. I do not know him as well, but I can see the little things that separate you. He came to Greece to find Athena, and you came to Greece and found me. It was meant to be, my love. It is no accident. It took too many years, but here we are, together at last. Not ideally, of course, but we are standing next to each other and we make love every night in our dreams, where we live things that we could never live in reality. I wonder if it is not best this way, though I also want to touch you and be touched by you during the day. I feel happy around you. You make me happy, M. Σε αγαπώ. Je t’aime. I love you.”

O Anthi, tu es mon bonheur (you are my happiness). Sans toi, ma vie ne vaudra pas la peine (Without you, my life would not be worth it). I will accept anything to have you in my life. I made sure that no one was near and I kissed her belly, wondering if I could find myself there in one of our dreams. I was near her heart, so her belly did not seem out of reach. I then kissed her hands and asked her to be my life in our dreams.

“Yes, M! And you are my life too in our dreams. I feel that I am all yours and that you are all mine. You never miss any part of me, and I love to feel you inside. I felt you next to my heart, and I know that you saw something that you could not figure out. It was your soul, my love. You saw your soul. I love to have it inside of me. I feel safer with it. Part of you is always with me. You are in me, M, all the time. Only I do not know when it started thus, but I think that it began under the olive tree in Athens. Something happened between us, but we did not know it yet. O my M! Je t’aime et je t’aimerai toujours (I love you and I will love you always).”

We were all sitting in the balcony facing blue above and blue below, trying to figure out where we were going to go today. Crete was long from left to right and vice versa. Where do we go, Grandpa and Grandma? I asked after kissing and hugging them. They were used to it by now and seemed to appreciate my affection for them. They spoke and Anthi translated, adding details to make me love her more. I wonder if there is a limit to the intensity of love. Do we explode beyond a certain level? I should have blown up by now, but I was able to love her to no end.

“There is the Palace of Knossos from a pre-Greek Bronze Age culture, the Minoans, named after the legendary, King Minos. Knossos is near the city of Heraklion, Crete’s capital. It was abandoned about 3,500 years ago following a massive volcanic explosion that may have destroyed a large part of Crete, with the Minoans disappearing completely as a result.”

You will never disappear from my heart, I told Anthi in her mind. She smiled and blushed. It was the first time that I remember seeing her redden, or I did not notice it before.

“Why are you red, Mom?” Delphine asked.

“It must be all the blueness before us,” Anthi replied, whispering, I love you, in my mind.

“There is Agios Nikolaos, a charming small city on the north coast of eastern Crete, about 65 kilometres (40 miles) east of Heraklion. It borders Lake Voulismeni and a port overlooking the sea. The Diktean Cave is nearby, with its stalactites and stalagmites. And there is also a village called Kritsa, where local artisans display traditional crafts for sale.”

“What do you think, my Patrick?” Athena asked. “Where should we start today, my love?”

Patrick looked surprised. What a prick! “We could start with the palace and then visit the capital for today,” he replied.

“It sounds sensible, my love,” Athena replied, blowing him a kiss. “Does anyone prefer somewhere else?” Athena asked, smiling with love.

Why all this affection for Patrick, all of a sudden? I thought. He must have presented her with something that she quickly loved. We had the same tastes in music, movies, and literature. I could ask him, but I will ask Athena. She will not beat around the bushes. We all agreed to begin our exploration of Crete in Knossos and Heraklion.

We were eight and the car only fit five, so we rented a second car. Anthi drove one and I drove the other following her. We flew together last night and today we drove. We arrived to Knossos before noon. The six acres of the palace included a theater, a main entrance on each of its four cardinal faces, and extensive storerooms. Within the storerooms were large clay containers that must have held oil, grains, olives, and other foods. The palace had at least three separate water-management systems. Probably one for supply, one for drainage, and one for waste water. Aqueducts brought fresh water from about 10 km (6 miles) away, and water was distributed at the palace by a gravity feed through terracotta pipes to fountains and spigots. Due to its placement on a hill, the palace received sea breezes during the summer and had porticoes and air shafts. It looked very impressive.

Delphine held my hand at one point, surprising me a bit. She was almost twelve, not five. Anthi noticed it and smiled, lighting up my heart as she always does. Perhaps Delphine sensed some affection between her mother and M, I mean me. Eléni held my other hand, and I was thus again in the middle. It happens often now.

We walked around the palace, admiring what humans could already accomplish some 3,500 years ago. I wondered what Athena thought about it and asked her in her mind.

“It is similar in some ways to Athens but it is also very different. They were hardy people, the Minoans, but their luck had run out. It runs out for everyone with enough time,” Athena replied.

Our luck is running out too, my Athena. We are destroying Earth at an alarming rate, and it does not look like we are willing to stop it. We are running out of time.

“O my M! From the little that I read and saw, you may be right. If I could put all of you to sleep for a few hundred years, we could save Earth, but I cannot.”

Grandpa, Grandma, and Delphine did not hear the last sentence, as it was only spoken to our minds. We were saddened, knowing that she was right. I pushed both my arms towards me in a hugging motion, forgetting that besides Eléni, Delphine was on the other side. “I am sorry, my Delphine,” I apologized.

“It is OK, Uncle M. I love you too,” she replied.

I tried to keep a straight face but failed, feigning some dust in my eyes. I looked at Anthi and her eyes were shining like the Sun.

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I thank Anthi Psomiadou for her steadfast support per her many comments, suggestions, and perceptive remarks, which never go unnoticed as they impact some of my writing in significant ways. I am afraid to leave Greece, not Crete. I feel that my heart is invested in it to a somewhat worrying degree. Why Greece? I keep asking myself. I seem to know the answer, but it does not make sense.

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