Eléni & M Move to Athens - Part 5

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 4 of this series. Anthi Psomiadou has graciously agreed—she did—to appear as a fictional character in this new series as well. It would not have been the same without her.

Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is just opinion. Democritus

What is freedom? There are several definitions for it, but I liked Goddess Athena’s best when I asked her later in the afternoon as we were having tea in the beautiful garden, a little similar to Rigópoula’s from what I had seen in the photos that Eléni had brought back from her first visit to Greece (first 13-part series). But this one seemed much larger, with olive trees arranged in the form of a heart, and blue-and-white flowers at the centre arranged in the form of a smaller heart. There were other trees and flowers in the rest of the garden, all beautiful and healthy like the Sun. We were having our tea but Anthi was missing, and we all felt it, but we knew that she had her life, though she had promised to return on the morrow, not knowing that she will be with us later in the evening.

“What a question to start with, M! It may be the hardest one to answer since it is different for everyone. For Patrick, freedom is to be with me until he is no more. It hurts me more than it does him, but so is life. I cannot stop death.”

It is true. Freedom for me is being here with Athena, my love. Patrick spoke and the rest of us listened as if it was the first time.

“For Eléni and you, M, freedom is always being with each other. I know that you both suffered when Eléni was here and you were still in Montreal. But you are together again and I do not see any reason for you to be apart, not ever, until one of you is also no more. I will help the one who remains until oblivion comes again.”

I hope that I am the one to disappear first. I could never go through it again, I replied with tears in my eyes.

“Everything is going to be alright, M. I will never let you suffer again if it ever comes to that. Eléni already understands as we have a different link, being women, which we also have with Anthi, which should be here in a few hours. I made it easier for her to be here. Athena works in mysterious ways,” she finally said, laughing.

Even her laugh is beautiful and warms the heart.

“For Anthi, and I am also speaking to her mind, freedom is being serene with the world and herself. She is the only one who is Greek from birth, and this sense of freedom runs in her veins. I knew that she was dear to you, M, since the beginning. While you do not share the same ideas about existence, you share everything else. She is truly like the younger sister you never had, and she will always be your friend. She will always be part of us. I knew it as soon as I saw her that night with you, Eléni, by the statue of me that they erected. You were both so sincere, as much as my Patrick when he held my statue and would not let go for a very long hour. It is then that I really awoke from my long sleep.”

What about you, our Athena? I asked. What is freedom for you?

“For me, freedom is being able to sleep for over two thousand years and be awaken by someone’s love for me. There are certain truths that your science has yet to discover, but you are getting closer all the time. Patrick has showed me everything that he considers important and that I know you two share with him, and it is wonderful. I learned many things that I did not know. Wisdom is not knowing everything. Wisdom is understanding what we know and what we do not know. Your science is very good at that, but many of you are not good and are even very cruel. I have seen your history and it is too appalling and too distressing. Even Hades pales in comparison. Left to your vices, you have created many hells, and some of them unforgivable even in a thousand years. Patrick had to calm me as he knows best when I learned of all the carnage of so many innocent lives who committed no crime except for being who they were. If it was not for Patrick, I would have gladly returned to my sleep for another two thousand years, or forever. I never expected to be awaken. M and Patrick, you are an unexpected surprise. Why would you fall in love with a goddess from so long ago? Patrick gave me his answer. What say you, M?”

I think that Anthi is to blame. Reading her references to Ancient Greece in many of her pieces awakened in me something unexpected. I was always fascinated by the stories I had read and watched in movies, and I had also read about modern Greece. And here was a modern Greek woman referring to source words and bringing them back to life. I guess that I was smitten to some degree with the sincerity of her words, even if I did not agree with some of them. Now I stand corrected. She was right to use the word, divine. You are divine, Athena, and I do not think there is more divine than you. Is she listening to my words, Athena, my goddess?

“She is, M.”

Is she smiling?

“She is, M.”

I am happy. She has a beautiful smile. It is almost blue and white. When is she coming?

“Soon. We all miss her.”

So, I was right about you, Athena, my goddess, and I was right about my Eléni, though it took me a long time to realize it, and I am also right about Anthi. Is this some kind of superpower ((giggles))?

“I can make it so, M.”

Please, do not! I have enough things on my mind. But you were kidding.

“I was not ((giggles)). I was, my dear M, I was.”

Who could not love you? I love her too, Patrick.

I know, you prick ((giggles)). And I also love, Eléni, who came all the way to Greece to look for me. I am happy that you are both here. Maybe it is time that I start writing too. What about, though? You already write about trees, AI, French music, and pussy, of course. I’m surely not going to write about pricks.

Write about your Athena! There is so much that you know and will find out. She is the goddess of wisdom. Ask her questions, and with her permission publish her answers as what she tells you in dreams, for example, or some other approach. You will know best, and Athena will surely help you.

It was a rhetorical question, M. What a prick!

I hear a car outside. I feel her. Anthi is here. I am going to open the door. And so I went to welcome her back.

Glaukopis had been quiet all afternoon, perched on its olive tree, listening to us. But when he saw Anthi, he flew to her and rested on her right shoulder. Methinks that birds love her as much as humans and a goddess.

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I would like to thank the real Anthi Psomiadou for her continued participation as a fictional character called Anthi. I may need to select a last name for her at some point. Maybe she could suggest one in a comment, or we could always use Psomiadou. I will leave it to her to decide.

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Another great song by the legendary Demis Roussos!

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