In the Shade of the Monkey Puzzle Tree by Sara Alexi

Author:Sara Alexi [Alexi, Sara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Literature & Fiction, Literary, Travel, Europe, Greece, General, Literary Fiction
ISBN: 1495351157
Amazon: B00H146VT2
Barnesnoble: B00H146VT2
Goodreads: 19188530
Publisher: Oneiro
Published: 2013-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

Margarita’s mother’s dog runs to greet him as he turns onto his street.

‘Hello, boy. What are you doing out?’ Theo ruffles the back of the dog’s neck. It jumps up and Theo pushes the dreadlocks of hair aside from its eyes. ‘Bob Marley, they should call you. But we shall use the English. It makes a rhyme, Bob the dog.’ He laughs at the foreign words and brushes at his shirtfront where its paws were.

A smell of jasmine is carried on the breeze. Theo looks up to see the stars, but the trees and the street lights obscure the view.

The gate is open. He half-wonders if Margarita will be in his house, demanding that he leave. He shakes his head at his own nonsense. Even if she is, he will lose nothing as long as he can get his money from under the sofa cushion.

The dog runs before him. Margarita’s mother’s windows are dark, curtains drawn; it is very late. The dog is still bounding about and knocks over its water bucket, then waits patiently as Theo refills it from the garden tap. ‘Here you go, Bob.’ Theo pats the dog, which laps greedily.

Up the stairs and into the flat, the moon lights his room, its cold ambience doing little to temper the heat. Putting down the bag with the two empty beer bottles, Theo strips off his shirt and pulls tonight’s pay from one trouser pocket and tonight’s take from the other. Flipping up the sofa cushion, he straightens the notes in his hand and lays them besides yesterday’s. He counts and calculates that he can almost pay back his baba now. If he works another day, there will be enough to pay his way home and to add a bit to what he took, alleviate some of his guilt. He replaces the cushion and flops down on the sofa. It feels very lonely coming back to an empty house, no one snoring in the next room, no plate of food laid out for him on the kitchen table, no ironed shorts over the back of a chair for the next day. Maybe he was too hasty leaving the village. Theo drags himself up and flounders his way down the steps to his bedroom, to a single empty bed.

He can hear Bob the dog outside, sniffling and whining, occasionally barking. Theo listens a bit longer, the murmuring sound is there again, a cat, it could be anything, the sound muffled, coming up from the building below his room.

Tomorrow, he will investigate, see if there are storage rooms, see if there is an animal trapped.

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