The Last Resort (A Greek Island Romance Book 2) by Bill Kitson

Author:Bill Kitson [Kitson, Bill]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Independent
Published: 2021-05-30T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Weighty Matters

Stelios was being kept busy. He had undertaken several extra trips both to Acropoli and Sorgos, the latter becoming a daily ritual. During these he had ferried a succession of surveyors, site agents, foremen, specialist civil engineers and architects to and from Agios Petros along with representatives of the electricity and phone companies.

Their presence in the village gave the locals a foretaste of how life was about to change. Manolis, who over the years had closed the bar between lunchtime and evening, now stayed open all afternoon in order to satisfy the demands of the advance party as they conferred.

Maria too, found that the calls on her culinary skills were ever more taxing. This meant she was constantly re-ordering stocks and Stelios was kept ever busier ferrying these in from Acropoli. These were exciting times for the village, as Manolis remarked one evening when they were enjoying their customary night-cap. ‘There’s a buzz about the place these days. There never seems to be a minute to spare. Not that I’m complaining. I haven’t felt bored for a long time. I used to sit, wishing for something to happen. Nowadays, I don’t even get time to think. I looked in the store at the back of the bar on Tuesday and found I was almost out of coffee. I’ve never run short for as long as I can remember.’

Stelios nodded in agreement. ‘It’s the same with diesel for the boat,’ he told his friend. ‘I’m using four times what I used to. When I go to Acropoli nowadays the chandler actually smiles and greets me with, “Kalimera”. In the old days he used to look straight through me.’

Manolis raised his eyebrows. ‘I’ve never heard him say “Good morning” to anyone! But, it’s not only us, Xenophon was saying that Maria had spent six times her monthly amount on food and supplies in the last two weeks. He was about to complain until she gave him the takings. He was so staggered at the amount he couldn’t speak. He reckoned it would have kept them in food for nearly a year. He says if the tourists pay as well, he’ll be a millionaire in five years.’ Manolis smiled at the thought.

Stelios however pondered the statement and said, ‘They will. The tourists will pay even better. What’s more, if Hunter and Makepeace do their job, the flow of visitors will be nonstop. I don’t think we’ve even scratched the surface of what this will mean for the village yet.’ He paused and chuckled. ‘Mind you, I’d have liked to have seen Xenophon speechless.’

Manolis joined in the laughter. ‘If your theory’s correct we may never get another word out of him,’ he rejoined.

‘It isn’t going to let up,’ Stelios added. ‘I’m going to Acropoli in the morning to collect Andrew. The tug has sailed from Piraeus. When that arrives, there’ll be the crew to feed and water. Once the landing stage is completed, the first party of men and materials arrives and then it’s going to be nonstop until spring, when we will have to order supplies for the season.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.