Read Online In the Shade of the Monkey Puzzle Tree by Sara Alexi - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Sara Alexi
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she ran after him, grabbed his trousers, tried to stop him going back in, then stood crying among the rubble until a neighbour picked her up and held her tight.
Everything around her in the street, all the houses grumbling and grating, stone on stone and dust rising where tiles and beams fall, the noise deafening.
Her house beginning to collapse, the front face peeling away, and those huddled in the street run backwards as it crumbles and the rooms are exposed. The kitchen table and chairs, a tea-towel handing on the back of the kitchen door, the chimney with the kettle still hanging over the fireplace, the flames still rising. Upstairs, her bed, unmade amidst the dust, for the world to see, like a doll ’s house. And from the doll’s house, a ghost emerges, his hair white with dust, his skin and his clothes white with dust and in his arms he carries a bundle of rags that includes her mama’s white dress, which has a stake of wood strangely deforming it so she looks like she has folded wings on her back and the little girl knows before she is told that Mama is with the angels.
Theo takes a serviette from the metal holder pushed to one side on the table and offers it to Tasia, his hand coming to rest over hers. She looks him in the eye and takes the serviette but slowly draws her hand away.
‘So we came to Athens,’ she says briskly, the tears gone. ‘Baba knew welding, so we went to the docks in Piraeus.’
‘ So Pireaus is home?’ Theo asks gently.
‘ No! I hated it.’
He is not surprised. Piraeus has an unshakable reputation of rough dock workers, dirty streets, dark little bars. The place is full of mangas in their black suits and black hats, with their dressed-up women in red. No place for a child.
She puts her elbows on the table, supports her chin with her hands, and looks out the window. ‘Besides, Baba got in some sort of trouble in Pireaus. The land where the house once stood in Kefalonia was sold to help sort things out, and we moved into Athens proper, where he ran his first kafeneio .’
Theo listens, encouraging her to speak. Her words flow unrehearsed, as if a stiff gate has been opened to allow a trickle of painful history, pockets of emotions, to be expelled. How lonely she must be with no mama and no family and only her baba around her. Who does she talk to?
For now, it seems it’s Theo, and with her few words, she has reached into his chest and taken such a firm grip on his heart that he cannot move.
‘ He had dreams. Athens was a new beginning for us. Things would be better than in the village, but he is not cut out for city life.’
She looks back toward the counter, around at the walls, the metal-topped wooden tables. Her face is drained of life. No doubt she watched his dreams being dissolved by the energy-sapping day–to-day realities of city life, his spirit broken by opportunities missed or never offered. A man who once stood tall and proud, with his own house and work, now making coffees in another man ’s shop, with no future to look forward to. The world must look an unfriendly place in her eyes.
‘ Shall I make you a coffee?’ he asks and they drink in silence before he sets out after the next job. Thoughts of the Tasia’s baba and his unfulfilled dreams do not dampen Theo’s spirits. He is determined to succeed, and sets off with long strides.
Chapter 6
Age 40 Years, 5 Months, 12 Days
‘ Hello! Any luck?’ Tasia asks when he returns. He shakes his head and she fills the briki . ‘It wasn’t the job for you, then.’
Tasia encourages every attempt and seems just as excited as him when the prospect looks good. She stands at the kafeneio door, waving him off on his quests. Equally, she commiserates his rejections when he returns with sloping shoulders, his head not held quite so high. She offers her own explanations why they didn’t take him on, their blindness, their obvious misconceptions, and her energy re-inflates him. She has a beautiful laugh and
Everything around her in the street, all the houses grumbling and grating, stone on stone and dust rising where tiles and beams fall, the noise deafening.
Her house beginning to collapse, the front face peeling away, and those huddled in the street run backwards as it crumbles and the rooms are exposed. The kitchen table and chairs, a tea-towel handing on the back of the kitchen door, the chimney with the kettle still hanging over the fireplace, the flames still rising. Upstairs, her bed, unmade amidst the dust, for the world to see, like a doll ’s house. And from the doll’s house, a ghost emerges, his hair white with dust, his skin and his clothes white with dust and in his arms he carries a bundle of rags that includes her mama’s white dress, which has a stake of wood strangely deforming it so she looks like she has folded wings on her back and the little girl knows before she is told that Mama is with the angels.
Theo takes a serviette from the metal holder pushed to one side on the table and offers it to Tasia, his hand coming to rest over hers. She looks him in the eye and takes the serviette but slowly draws her hand away.
‘So we came to Athens,’ she says briskly, the tears gone. ‘Baba knew welding, so we went to the docks in Piraeus.’
‘ So Pireaus is home?’ Theo asks gently.
‘ No! I hated it.’
He is not surprised. Piraeus has an unshakable reputation of rough dock workers, dirty streets, dark little bars. The place is full of mangas in their black suits and black hats, with their dressed-up women in red. No place for a child.
She puts her elbows on the table, supports her chin with her hands, and looks out the window. ‘Besides, Baba got in some sort of trouble in Pireaus. The land where the house once stood in Kefalonia was sold to help sort things out, and we moved into Athens proper, where he ran his first kafeneio .’
Theo listens, encouraging her to speak. Her words flow unrehearsed, as if a stiff gate has been opened to allow a trickle of painful history, pockets of emotions, to be expelled. How lonely she must be with no mama and no family and only her baba around her. Who does she talk to?
For now, it seems it’s Theo, and with her few words, she has reached into his chest and taken such a firm grip on his heart that he cannot move.
‘ He had dreams. Athens was a new beginning for us. Things would be better than in the village, but he is not cut out for city life.’
She looks back toward the counter, around at the walls, the metal-topped wooden tables. Her face is drained of life. No doubt she watched his dreams being dissolved by the energy-sapping day–to-day realities of city life, his spirit broken by opportunities missed or never offered. A man who once stood tall and proud, with his own house and work, now making coffees in another man ’s shop, with no future to look forward to. The world must look an unfriendly place in her eyes.
‘ Shall I make you a coffee?’ he asks and they drink in silence before he sets out after the next job. Thoughts of the Tasia’s baba and his unfulfilled dreams do not dampen Theo’s spirits. He is determined to succeed, and sets off with long strides.
Chapter 6
Age 40 Years, 5 Months, 12 Days
‘ Hello! Any luck?’ Tasia asks when he returns. He shakes his head and she fills the briki . ‘It wasn’t the job for you, then.’
Tasia encourages every attempt and seems just as excited as him when the prospect looks good. She stands at the kafeneio door, waving him off on his quests. Equally, she commiserates his rejections when he returns with sloping shoulders, his head not held quite so high. She offers her own explanations why they didn’t take him on, their blindness, their obvious misconceptions, and her energy re-inflates him. She has a beautiful laugh and
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