“Hello, Joanna,” the man said in perfect English, much to Joanna’s surprise. He took her hand. “I am Markos. Your father was a great man. I’m sorry for your loss. We all mourn with you. Do you know the couple about to get married?”
Joanna shook her head. “No, Nick invited me. It’s how he persuaded me to come to Skiathos.”
Markos regarded Nick and said to Joanna, “Nick always finds a way to get what he wants. He is like a magician who is able to conjure the elements as he needs them. In America he would be called a cocky son of a bitch. Here, in Skiathos, we just give him the space to do what he wants. He doesn’t disrupt the waters too much.”
Joanna turned to Nick. “And here I thought you were a good boy,” she teased. “Is Markos trying to tell me you’re dangerous?”
“Unsupervised, maybe, yes,” Nick chuckled, shuffling forward. “Less so since your father passed away.”
Markos pointed to Nick jovially and said, “He and your father used to get in a lot of trouble. I had to go and bail them out of jail in Athens once.”
Joanna looked at Nick in shock. “Why? What did you do?”
He shrugged. “We may have had a little too much to drink one night. There may have been a speargun involved on a public beach, and then a fight with the locals.” He looked at Markos and held up his index finger sternly and said, “I didn’t need you, you know. I was moments away from talking myself out of that one.”
“Friend, you were already in jail. You can’t talk yourself out of it if you’re already locked up. You should know that better than anyone.”
Nick didn’t submit. “If you’re good you can. And I am. I almost had them drop the charges.” He pinched his index finger and thumb together and looked at Joanna. “Almost.”
Markos dismissed this with a wave and said, “It was your father who called me, Joanna, once he sobered up. He didn’t give me any details. He just said he’d pay me back. Of course, I couldn’t take his money. Not after all that he did for me. But when I saw them, I was able to put the story together myself. Shirts caked in blood— bloody knuckles, puffy lips. They caught something in the ocean, and went into the city for another drink while covered in fish blood. They scared some of the natives, probably got thrown out of a bar, and from there things got out of hand.”
“OK, OK,” Nick said, stopping him. “Let me tell it.” He turned back to Joanna. “So your father and I would drink on occasion. This time we traveled to Athens, needing to see something new for a change. We went to a restaurant and ordered some fish, and they apologized and told us they had none. This perplexed us, you see. We said, ‘We’re in Athens. You’re telling us you are all out of fish?’ They nodded and replied that that was correct. So we left— I think we paid for the drinks, but I’m not sure. We got back on my boat, got an underwater light, went snorkeling with my speargun, and then went back, fish in hand. We may have looked a little crazy— I think this is probably the case. From there, you can imagine what happened next.”
“Nick,” Joanna said, wide eyed, “You’re a Grecian redneck.”
“I don’t know what that means,” he said, cocking his head and contemplating her words, “but I’m sure it’s an insult.”
“No, no,” Markos said and winked at Joanna, “it is the highest of compliments. She means you are a great hunter. Like Hercules!”
Joanna laughed, wrapped her arm around his waist and said, “I’m just glad my friend Donna is not here. The things she would say about me. She’d be bursting to tell you the things I’ve done.”
“Like what?” Nick asked, genuinely interested.
She pantomimed zipping her lips up and tossing away the key.
“What side are you sitting?” Markos asked Nick. “Groom or bride?”
“Depends on what side you’re sitting,” he replied.
“I was thinking bride.”
“Groom then,” said Nick, and the two men burst out laughing.
Some greeters at the church door escorted the three inside to a row of benches in the middle of the church.
The sun was beating down outside, and the church was welcomely cooler and darker— though it was muggy and perhaps a little too perfumed with incense. They were one of the first people to be seated on the bride’s side. Markos and Nick sat on either side of Joanna.
“Shouldn’t the groom already be here?” she asked them both.
Markos shook his head. “No. In Greece, the groom awaits the bride outside. He waits there with his entire family, and then the bride comes, escorted by her family. Then the groom gives the bride a bouquet, and they walk together to the threshold. This is why, even though there are so many people outside, we are one of the first people to be seated. We are not with either family. We are guests. And after the couple comes in, then their families will follow and sit down amongst us.”
“I like that they walk together,” Joanna said. “It’s nice.”
“Yes, it is symbolic. The journey they make through life will be together, you see. And so before God, they walk together to the threshold to show that they are together in their bond and decision.”
“Are you married?” Joanna asked.
Markos shook his head and laughed out loud. “No, no woman will not have me. There’s a reason your father called me when he and Nick were locked up,” he said. “I was the only one he wasn’t embarrassed to call.”
