Back to Delphi: a Novel of Mothers and Their Sons by Ioanna Karystiani

Author:Ioanna Karystiani
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Europa Editions
Published: 2013-01-16T00:00:00+00:00

***

Damn it, another sunny day, again the sunlight drenching everything, summer with no reprieve.

And the city full of girls called Amy, Lena, Aliki, Violet, Marina, Chryssa, Sylvia, what might be the names of two girls who get out in the heat wave, stroll this way and that, are still out in the streets at nighttime and at a late hour are crossing small parks by themselves, one in the suburb of Lykovrisi, the other on Strefi Hill, girls who have thin arms that can’t throw a punch, thin legs that can’t land a kick, whose hearts must skip a beat or two as they lose their bearings in the pitch-black alleys, few are unmindful of danger, few are unafraid of the dark.

– Get me some kitchen gloves, thick scrubbing wire for the pots and, what am I telling you for, it’s all on paper on the table, it’s a bunch of things, I haven’t got the time myself, I have a delivery coming in today. Don’t you forget again, it’s not like you’re studying or anything, you didn’t even show up at the exams, I know all about it.

Viv had had enough of getting angry and pressuring Linus about his courses at the school, she had queried him a couple of times specifically, he’d made vague answers or none at all, you do as you bloody well please, she’d finally say to him, though her expression indicated she was giving him a bit of time to rethink his choices, it was just that she just couldn’t modify her style and speak gently, her tongue had a will of its own. As she handed him the note and the money, she stood watching him button his shirt and thread the laces in his shoes, he was wearing the red-and-white ones.

– I threw away the other ones, he said straightaway without being asked.

– Why?

– Fungal infection.

He let her see the reddening in the heels and in between the toes.

– Fungus, already?

– I sweat.

– Put some socks on.

When his mother lifted her shoulders to indicate his eccentricity was beyond her, he stood in front of her and said, slap me.

She picked up her bag in a flash, as if she hadn’t heard, as if she didn’t know what to do or was scared, and she fled.

Linus took to the streets a while later after soaping the red marker off his feet and, strangely enough, cleaning the bathroom, making his bed and washing the morning coffee cups.

Would he go to the supermarket to get the orders? He had the money and the list in his pocket, above him the sun zapping everything and around him the heat refugees, with bags and hats, guarding their eyes behind dark shades, looking dazedly for cool water in the kiosks or for some shade under the awnings of the shops, at 17 the silverware, at 29 the glassware, at 43 the frozen goods.

The girls, one by one in the to and fro of work, in twos looking for

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