she last provided nourishment for them all. Once again, bread, olives, cheese and tomatoes were as much as she could put together, but it was enough to revive them a little. Her head was heavy with thoughts and emotions but her heart felt lighter. Speaking with Nicos and Michalis earlier had done her good; they had brought a clarity and an element of pragmatism to the family’s fraught emotional predicament. She had been wanting to confide in Michalis ever since her aunt had begun telling her story, but then she had never imagined how events would develop, and what an impact they would have on her own life.
If Eleni had tormented herself with the thought that she might be the offspring of a rapist, Calli too wondered whose blood was running in her own veins.
Can a person change the perception of themselves halfway through their life and beyond? she wondered as she busied herself laying food and crockery on a wooden tray to take outside. Would her mother, having reached the age she was now, ever be able to refer to the woman she thought was her sister as Mama? And could Calli herself now start calling Froso Yiayia? Did it even matter what label a person is given, and does the love we have for them change according to that label? A host of questions competed in her mind, none of which she could answer. Is ignorance bliss, she continued to muse, when knowledge brings doubt and expectations? She thought not.
She picked up the tray and carried it out to the garden, well aware that these were questions without easy answers, needing consideration and discussion. She looked at Froso and her mother, two women with years of life experience behind them, yet they were all still learning. The learning process, she concluded as she stepped out into the garden, never stops; this summer alone was proof of that. Calli set the tray of food on the table and pulled up a chair next to her mother.
‘I went to see Thios Pavlis today,’ Eleni said, turning to her daughter. ‘We talked for a long time. He told me he has no doubt that I am his niece.’
‘Oh, Mama,’ Calli said tenderly and shifted a little closer to hug her mother, ‘it must be comforting, he is such a lovely man.’
‘I have never doubted that, not for one moment,’ Froso suddenly burst out, ‘but I wish with all my heart that I could wave a magic wand and change what has happened!’ She stopped as abruptly as she had begun, unable to fight back her tears. ‘If only Kosmas and I had waited until we were married, and never gone to that cave, things would be so different now. But we didn’t, and there is nothing I can do to change that.’
She reached for her cup of tea, took a sip and looked over its rim. ‘I loved you with all my heart, Eleni mou. You have been the joy of my life, and so have your children. You cannot imagine how I longed for Calli to love me as much as she did my mother, but it didn’t matter.’ Froso turned, her eyes tenderly on Calli. ‘These few weeks, this summer, while you have been here with me, my girl, have made up for a lifetime of longing.’
The three women sat together under the night sky, sometimes talking, sometimes lost in thought, until fatigue claimed them and once again they reluctantly went their separate ways upstairs to bed.
Calli fell asleep just as a dream took hold. She dreamed that the three of them, Eleni, Froso and herself, were in a small boat in the middle of a storm; the boat was in danger of capsizing, until a flock of seagulls gathered around them and, shielding them from the wind, guided them to safety.
18
Calli woke to the insistent buzzing of her mobile. The call was from Nicos. She had switched the phone to silent without turning it off, as she had planned to call him before she fell asleep. It was early – the clock on the bedside table showed 5.15 a.m. The sun must only just be thinking of rising, she thought.
‘Calli, are you awake? Can you hear me?’ he said, his voice fast and urgent. Without waiting for her answer he carried on. ‘I wanted to tell you that I love you, Calli, and I’m not going back. I’m staying here if you will stay with me . .