I tapped my watch. “I’m synced to the right time zone.”
“GMT, meaning Greek Maybe Time,” Alex said. “The bus will get here when it gets here.”
I tapped my foot like a thumper rabbit. When you’re used to everything running by the clock, delays irritate you.
“Stop that. You’re breaking my nerves.” Alex quieted my foot with his.
“Breaking your nerves? How dramatic.”
He chuckled. “It’s a direct translation of a Greek phrase. Something doesn’t just annoy you, it breaks your nerves. We’re never just busy, we’re running without arriving. Something isn’t messy, it’s a brothel. When you’re angry with someone, you say you’re going to eat them. Ask someone about the bus right now and he’ll shrug and tell you there are flowers and bees around his dick.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means he doesn’t care. Everything issiga-sigahere. Slowly, slowly. I guess you could call it a philosophy, a way of life. Live in the minute. Forget about the rest of the clock face.” He covered my watch with his hand and grinned.
Nothing siga-siga about the way my heart quickened at his touch.
“Alexandros!” Headlights flared in our faces as a rusty pickup truck pulled up beside us.
Loud voices. Warm greetings. Then Alex was throwing his backpack in the bed of the truck.
“Come on,” he said. “He’ll give us a ride to town.”
“What? With them?” I pointed to the two roosters eyeing us from wire cages.
“There’s a goat in the front, if you’d rather sit with him. He’s a mean one though. Yiannis just saved him from the butcher. His owner said he’s an inconsiderate, head-butting jerk.”
Yiannis shouted something in Greek and they both laughed.
“Yiannis says the timing is perfect,” explained Alex, as I climbed into the truck. “His mother-in-law is visiting. Nothing like a head-butting jerk and a couple of early morning alarm clocks to send her packing back to Crete.”
The roosters pecked at Alex through the wire mesh when he settled next to them. “Okay, okay.” He inched away. “Alarm cocks. That better?” Yiannis guffawed from the front seat while the roosters appeared temporarily pacified.
It was a bumpy ride to Chora, the main town of Folegrandros. Huddled atop a jagged cliff, its narrow lanes were closed to motor vehicles, so we said goodbye to Yiannis and his menagerie. We followed the sound of music down the alleyways until we got to the center, where it seemed the whole town was gathered. Three large squares, tables crammed into every nook and cranny. Food and wine flowed along with the buzz of conversation.
Someone called out to Alex, but before we could make out who, another man engulfed him in a hug.
“What’s going on?” Alex said.
“Dimitra’s son is off to do his military service. She’s throwing a party.”
“Pantelis? But I thought she didn’t want him to go.”
“She doesn’t, but you know how it is. This is her way of making sure everyone remembers she wanted nothing to do with it.” He paused when his eyes fell on me. “You brought a friend?” He grinned and smacked Alex on the back. “About time. Come. Eat.”
He crammed two more chairs around an already-crammed table.
“Yamas.” He toasted, raising his glass in welcome.
“Yamas!” Everyone guzzled their drinks, like they’d been waiting for an excuse to pour more wine.
“Alexandreee!” A high-pitched wail assailed my ears.
“Dimitra.” Alex stood as a pink-cheeked woman came running toward him.
“They are taking my boy.” She flung her arms around him.
“Only for a few months. He’ll be back before you know it. And look how happy he is.” He gestured toward her son, who grinned from the sidelines.
