August 14

Things can change rapidly. Last Friday mid-afternoon, Theodosia called. She was in the hospital in Athens with chest pains. We waited for a while; she was getting tests. I asked Christos if we were going to Athens. He indicated after we swam, but a few minutes later came to the door to say he alone was going to Athena. Kathy and I waited with Nikos, Sophia's husband. Sophia and the rest of the family had gone to be with Sophia's sister. We heard Nikos make or take some calls but he did not share any info with us. We went for our evening swim but Nikos did not go; he said he would stay to answer the phone. When we returned and prepared lunch leftovers for supper, Nikos said he would wait to eat with Christos. Finally in the evening Nikos came and said "Theodosia all right". We were relieved. At 12:30 when I turned off my light Christos had not come. Neither was he there on Saturday morning.

We were not too worried about that. We figured Theodosia was resting and we were not going to call her; she would call us when she was ready. But no one called. When we went swimming in the morning, Nikos did not go with us, which was unusual, especially since he had not gone the night before either. Kathy and I decided to walk in to the village to use the internet and get some groceries we needed and take a taxi back. We asked Nikos to write down the address for the taxi driver.

When we returned to the house at 2:00, Christos was not here. Nikos had obviously been on the phone with his wife and was all set to have us help him prepare lunch. With his limited English and my limited Greek, some of the potatoes got cut and some got sliced, but all got fried in olive oil. Then we fried a couple eggs and made Greek salad as usual. Nikos had cooked beans, his first choice for "healthy food".

Finally, needing at least a little information, I called the house in Athens. Christos answered. Trying to get information on the phone is much harder as one has no physical clues, which Christos gives in abundance. But I finally ascertained that he was coming back to Rafina definitely "simera" (today). Nothing about Theodosia. We got ready to go swimming and waited for Nikos. He was in the shower, rather unusual, as he usually showers off under a hose outside after swimming. He showed us where he would put the key to the house in case he was not there when we returned. We decided he must have an appointment. We went swimming. When we returned the house was all closed, we found the key, showered, made our supper, and as it was now dark we sat on the patio and played cards. Surely Christos would come soon. We half-joked about being left alone. My phone either had no more minutes or was not working properly so we could not use it. Suddenly I imagined that Nikos had showered in preparation to taking the bus to join his wife. We laughed; we were abandoned! About 10 we heard a car door and thought: Christos! But it was Nikos who walked in, said hi, and disappeared into his room. He had taken a taxi, something he never does. What was going on?

When Christos and Theodosia finally arrived about 11:30 p.m., we were standing on the porch much relieved to see Theodosia in obvious good health. She immediately explained that the chest pains had been from stress, that the hospital had done tests and taken x-rays and she had slept nearly all day Saturday. Christos went immediately into the house and that mystery was explained to us too. Nikos had been stung with something while swimming and his leg was all swollen, which information he had not shared with us. He had gone into town to the pharmacy to get something for his leg and that was the reason for his disappearance.
Stay tuned for the next chapter.