The Explosive Nature of Friendship by Sara Alexi

Author:Sara Alexi [Alexi, Sara]
Language: ell
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781481875516
Amazon: 1481875515
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Published: 2014-07-20T04:00:00+00:00

No sooner had he left than Mitsos was wishing away the things he had said. He had always been terrible with words when emotions became heightened. He walked, his stomach heavy with food, his heart heavy with remorse. His logic disappeared, the thread of the argument became tangled in his mind, words would evade him and a feeling of injustice would escape him in sentences he would later regret. He had defended himself, and the cost was his delicate relationship with Marina.

Mitsos had flattered himself that she needed him, that she needed an outlet, someone to confide in. Whether she did or not, that privilege was now gone.

Cross with himself, he decided to make amends by putting even more energy into helping Manolis do whatever he was doing to make it a success for Marina and her child. If this scheme succeeded, she would surely forgive him his hasty words. Consequently Manolis and Mitsos spent weeks of concentrated energy working on the old boat. Occasionally they laughed and it was like old times, but mostly Manolis was silent, intense. After gutting the boat the two of them spent a week fitting knee-high boxes to line the inside. They used pallets and orange crates that they mostly found washed up on the shore, and a few Manolis produced from other dubious sources which met with disapproving glances from Mitsos, but no words.

The sun beat down on them as they laboured, the heat causing them to sweat more than the effort of flexing muscles. They drank gallons of water, and several times a day Manolis sent Mitsos to refill their bottles.

Towards the end of the week a rather nervous, plump girl came with huge padded cushions that she shyly told Mitsos she had made. Manolis told her she was a good girl and slapped her on her behind. She blushed, and then she smiled and began to arrange them for him on top of the wooden boxes, with more of an eye for Manolis than for what she was doing.

The radio from Manolis’ truck was taken out and installed in the boat along with two huge speakers from his house which he said he had won from a young bar owner in town.

The trial of the system brought the first curious children from the village. By the time it worked properly they had a good-sized crowd of youngsters hanging round the pier. Still Manolis divulged the details of his plan to no one. Slowly the villagers came in ones and twos. They declared Manolis and Mitsos had gone mad and began to come on a regular basis to see the work in progress, and to poke fun.

‘Are you planning on wooing the fish into the boat with music from the speakers?’ the butcher asked.

‘Or do you expect the fish to die laughing?’ the taxi driver called.

‘Do you think the padded seats will be comfortable enough to gut fish whilst you’re sitting up, or will you be lying down to do that?’ asked Yorgos, who owned a little land behind Mitsos’ house and struggled to feed his seven children.

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