The Gold Letter by Lena Manta

Author:Lena Manta [Manta, Lena]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781542042765
Published: 2019-06-24T16:00:00+00:00

Smaragda looked at her mother with eyes full of tears. The old lady was holding herself together with difficulty.

“And when, by God’s grace, do you leave?” Kleoniki asked.

“The boat leaves in two weeks,” Smaragda replied.

“Have you packed all your things?”

“Nearly. Ah, Mama, I think I’m being cut in two!”

“Stop that, silly girl!” Kleoniki scolded her. “What are you saying now? You’re going to your home.”

“My home is Constantinople, Mama, and you know it! I was born here, I grew up here, and you and my sister are here. In Greece, I’ll be alone.”

“You’ll have your husband and children. What do you mean, ‘alone’?”

“I won’t have you! But there’s no other way. We have no choice.”

Their worst fears had come true. Roza Kouyoumdzis made it her life’s purpose to destroy their reputation. She vilified the Ververis family, making up ridiculous stories that she told other women. The rumors, like flies on rotten meat, laid their dirty eggs, and the rot spread everywhere. Twice, Nestor heard fellow medical students carelessly slander his sister. At parties and ladies’ afternoon gatherings, it was a favorite topic of conversation: the doctor’s crazy daughter who’d pursued young Kouyoumdzis, driving the family to distraction—especially the young man, who didn’t want her.

Chrysafenia had locked herself in her room and given up school, where conversations stopped as soon as she appeared. Sly laughter and curious looks had become her daily martyrdom. She was engulfed by a wave of hatred for Vassilis’s family, as well as for the young man himself, who failed to put a stop to his mother’s disgusting gossip. And then there was his subsequent behavior. He sent her another letter, which she read scornfully, not letting the insidious pain beneath her heart rise and soften it. Her anger, however, didn’t reach the point of making her tear it up and throw it away as she had done with the previous one when he had announced the end of their relationship. She put it with the others, and in the same box she also kept his gold locket.

Fotis had surprised the whole family when he announced it that cold evening in March. They were moving to Greece.

“What are you saying, husband?” said Smaragda. “They still have a war going on there. Brother slaughtering brother!”

“Do you think I don’t know about the civil war, woman? But it’s in the mountains. It has nothing to do with Athens, where we’ll be living. Besides, we can’t stay here. That witch has left us with no choice.”

“But how will we just uproot ourselves?”

“Wife, do you know that every day Nestor and I have to hold our tongues so we don’t have fights because of Mrs. Kouyoumdzis’s monstrous lies! What do you want? Should we get arrested every day?”

“And Nestor’s studies?”

“I’ll arrange everything.”

Smaragda looked at her daughter, who had lowered her head, while tears flowed again from her eyes. She had lost a lot of weight, and every day she tried more and more to stop the tears, but she couldn’t.

“I’m sorry, Father,” she whispered.

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.