Float the Goat by Katerina Nikolas

Author:Katerina Nikolas
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Greece
Published: 2018-08-28T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22

Voula Receives a Generous Gift of Poo

The news that Toula was to be married hit Voula hard. Her younger sister Soula was already off living the high-life in the picturesque backwater village of Astakos, having snared the successful businessman Bald Yannis from under her nose when the matchmaker brought him up to the bleak farmhouse in the high mountain village of Osta to take his pick from the four spinster sisters. She didn’t begrudge Soula her new found happiness, but with Koula locked up in a padded cell and Toula on the brink of departure, Voula contemplated a lonely mundane existence of plodding along and getting nowhere. Her daydreams of attending college and qualifying as a veterinarian had been shattered by her ogre of a father belittling her ambitions and forcing her to leave school to act as a farm skivvy. Finally free of his yoke she ruminated it was now much too late to pursue her dreams, even though she’d read every dog-eared book she could get her hands on in the village about animal welfare.

Toula attempted to comfort Voula as the two sisters sat in the walled courtyard under the shade of the almond tree, shelling fresh peas. “Look on the bright side, at least the cantankerous old malaka is dead and you won’t be stuck having to look after him.”

“Toula, I give thanks every day that our sadistic father was splattered falling from that helicopter,” Voula agreed, hastily making the sign of a cross.

The sisters might sound callous to an uninitiated observer, but in truth the four daughters of the fraudulent dead convict who’d thought nothing about stashing his dead sister’s corpse in the deep freeze, had endured untold suffering at his hands. Voula longed to escape from Osta, but was so destitute she couldn’t fathom a way to make a fresh start.

A sudden scraping sound alerted Voula’s attention. Opening the yard door she stared down into the trusting eyes of a pink and brown speckled piglet that pushed its warm snout into the folds of her skirt. “Look Toula, isn’t this just the sweetest thing you’ve ever seen?”

“Voula, it must have wandered off from the taverna. Old Poulios’ sow just had a litter,” Toula said. “We should take it back before he misses it.”

“Oh but the darling thing looks hungry, let me just make it a bottle,” Voula cried, quite entranced by this unexpected visitor. Five minutes later the warm body of the feisty piglet was nestled close to Voula’s bosom, playfully squirming as she encouraged it to feed from a baby’s bottle filled with fresh goat’s milk.

“I told you we should have taken it back,” Toula hissed as the hollering tones of Poulios yelling “Voula,” reached them.

Barging into the courtyard Poulios, the ancient owner of Osta’s run-down taverna, doubled over, panting heavily with his hands on his knees.

“Voula, there was a phone call for you from Astakos at the taverna. Yous brother-in-law said it was very important and you should call ‘im back right away.

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