Free Girl Gone Greek by Rebecca Hall Page B

apartment, gather our belongings and return to the village.
    “We’ll meet my friends again, don’t worry, and probably Melanthi next time too, I think she must have been away this weekend,” said Kaliopi as we made our way to the railway station. As the train pulled in to return us to our weekday realities, I noticed a subdued mood had shrouded my friend.
    “You know how much I hate the village, with its farmers who don’t clean under their fingernails and shout at me when they come into the bank where I work. Athens is my home and I love her, but I can’t get a job there unless my bank transfers me. They won’t do that unless there is a vacancy. And as nobody wants to work in the hole of shit provinces, I am stuck there for the time being!”
    “At least you have me,” I offered as consolation.
    “Yes, I have you” she visibly brightened.
“Pame, pame, katze kato;
Come, come and sit down” Kaliopi patted the seat next to her.
    The train pulled away and I smiled down at Kaliopi who’d promptly fallen asleep on my shoulder and started to snore again, mouth ajar and dribbling ever so slightly.

School continued. The same issues with Dimitra and Konstantinos recurred, and I found myself having to dream up ever more innovative ways of dealing with them. One day, however, things took a turn in the opposite direction. I stumbled across them in a street near the school—kissing. “Ahem,” I cleared my throat.
    “Ah,
Kyria
Rachel.” Konstantinos didn’t look at all embarrassed. In fact he seemed rather pleased with himself. “Dimitra has a problem with her family.”
    “And you’re helping her how, exactly?” Blushing, Dimitra glanced away. “Besides, I thought you hated each other.”
    “Love ... hate, is this not the same thing?” Konstantinos asked.
God, so astute and cynical at such a young age.
    “Regardless,” I continued, “we’re not here to discuss love. You have class and should be in Mr Manos’s room right about…now” I peered at my watch. I pushed them on their way, but not without a last plea from this Greek Romeo and Juliet.
    “
Please
don’t tell Mrs Stella you found us.”
    I pretended to ponder this for a minute. “Hmm,
well ….” I trailed off, leaving the sentence unfinished.
    “Oh
Kyria
, we will be quiet in class from now on,” offered Dimitra.
    “And I’ll buy you a coffee,” added Konstantinos, winking at me. This thing with Dimitra was inflating his ego more than usual.
    “Konstantinos, winking at your teacher isn’t really appropriate. Save that for Dimitra.”
Ah, that got him.
He looked away, embarrassed. “But,” I continued more gently, “I’ll take you up on that offer of a drink at the end of the school year—thanks.” They beamed as they headed off to class hand in hand, leaving me to ponder the complexities of teenage strife.

    Not long after Ochi Day, another holiday came along. Although not an official public holiday, the schools didn’t open on 17th November and luckily for me, it fell on a Monday.
    It was a perfect opportunity for a long weekend, and another chance to educate myself about significant dates in modern Greek history. I felt proud of myself: wanting to know more about my host country rather than just taking it at face value. Kaliopi and I got up early on the Saturday and boarded the coach for Athens.
    “I’ve had enough of trains,” she stated. I could understand why: from my point of view, although the train was faster and cheap, the village station was at least twenty minutes out of town. My only experience of the train was the time I went to Athens for the weekend and whilst it was quaint, it was quite scary at night and early morning…not because of potential crime—more because of its isolated location. The station was pretty sinister, especially with the hooting owls and the screeching.
I hope they’re foxes and not wolves—or maybe that’s my overactive imagination again.
Having travelled by bus a short distance