Mikra Anglia Page #7

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There's no room for all of us

on Andros any more.

You'll be better off without me...

...there...

I lost... I lost friends

on the destroyer...

...then others in the Middle East.

I lost the ships...

But I found a good job working

in a shipping office in New York.

That's where we're going

the four of us.

Others are also taking their families

and moving to England or America.

You'll like it there.

And mother?

She's staying here.

- Alone?

- She'll come later...

As soon as she's strong enough.

Are you punishing her?

You can leave, as many of you

as you like... go wherever you like.

I'm going to sea...

I'm getting my seaman's papers.

And yet it's the right thing for you.

Mersina...

My beauty.

Andros...

We have exhausted all the

options science has to offer.

I don't know what the professor

can contribute, but...

...if the patient doesn't cooperate

there's nothing more we can do.

I brought so much medication,

so many syrups...

...tonic injections from America...

She throws the pills

out of the window.

Professor, I've asked you to come

to the island as a last resort...

We'll take her to Athens...

to London...

I'll sell the house if necessary...

Dyscataposia, atony, hardship

in general, I would say...

But the patient isn't cooperating.

Inside her the only thing

that's getting stronger...

...is the spirit of denial.

Uncle Emilios!

Where have you disappeared to

all this time?

Uncle Emilios!

FROM SPYROS MALTABES

TO EMILIOS MALTABES

FOR LITTLE ORSA:

Give me the letters.

All 17 of them.

I'm tired.

I need to know...

...how much he loved you.

I must know if he ever loved me too.

Orsa...

What's become of you?

Calcutta...

27 September 1929.

Surabaya...

7 October 1929.

Lorenzo Marques...

13 March 1930.

Odessa...

2 May 1930.

All written in '29 and '30...

...before my marriage.

I had learnt to think of him...

...and to love him...

...since I was 12.

It was in November.

There was a bad storm...

...and I saw him...

He was 19...

...throwing off his white shirt...

...and diving...

...into the waves...

...for a bet.

I wanted to love...

...to love very much...

...to love for ever.

He loved you, Moscha...

He loved you...

You are loved...

In life...

...it seems the things you lose...

...are worth more...

...than the things you find.

The things you find are lost again.

The things you lost exist for ever.

Orsa...

The Maltabes Circle...

Damned floorboards!

It's the ceiling's fault.

It wouldn't let me forget him.

I could hear his high spirits...

...his words, his footsteps...

...when he took off his shoes...

...the muffled tomfoolery...

...your bodies thrashing

on the bed...

The floorboards.

Before the wedding...

...he was to make a down payment

on a house in Kastella...

...in Piraeus.

I told him I'm not leaving Andros.

That day when you had us

for dinner...

...and I went to fetch Nana...

Who was limping. I remember.

Before going to her house...

...I met him...

...for the first time,

secretly and alone...

...after ten years...

...for half an hour...

...by the sea...

...on the rocks...

SOS...

...that's what he wrote

with his hand on my breast.

SOS.

She asked to attend the service

because Saint Nicholas...

...is the patron saint of seamen and

all the men in her life were seamen.

Grandfather, father, uncles, husband,

son and the man she loved.

And she had the courage to name them

all to Moscha in just that order.

I don't care what some people say...

I love them both.

Do you have any photograph of hers?

In my mind, a lot...

Ever since I picked her up

off the street...

...adopted her child...

unknown father...

Last night I felt like telling Orsa,

before it's too late...

...and to Moscha of course...

...that they have a brother,

even though he's far away...

...but I didn't dare.

I made a mess of things

both here and there.

Spyros...

Spyros...

I finished it at dawn.

All alone on the waves.

Him too.

Neither of us

ever saw the ship up close...

Moscha...

...you're the only one

who isn't to blame.

Had he lived...

...what would have happened

with the two of us?

If only he had lived...

If we had studied...

...something...

If we had found a job...

Or if we had gone away...

...far away...

If we had talked...

If we had talked, Moscha...

...back then...

May!

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