Free The Gypsy's Dream by Sara Alexi Page B

had gone to see an old aunt in Athens once who had been put into a state-run old people’s home. She had said it was an old building but more like a warehouse, the room was so big. People in pyjamas or in a state of half-dress were wandering around not really knowing what they were doing, and she said no fewer than three people claimed that she had come to see them as they were desperate that she should go into their cubicles so they would have someone to talk to.
    She said that rooms had been built in the huge space with flimsy walls, enough to give each person s omething of a sense of their own space, each room with a bed and a chair. But none of the rooms had ceilings.
    Her aunt ’s was better than most because she had taken with her a small chest of drawers and her own bed linen. She had framed pictures of her family on the chest and on the chair and a little rug by the bed. But she did not seem happy or well. People had wandered in and out of the room while she was there as if they were lost. She didn’t venture to even ask about the bathrooms.
    But that was in Athen s. What happens here? What would happen to Mitsos if he fell up at his cottage on the side of the hill? Who would know? Well she would, because she would go and check if he hadn’t been seen for a day or two.
    And what will happen to her?
    ‘What? What is it?’ Mitsos ask.
    ‘ What?’ Stella replies.
    ‘ You just made the most weird sound and then you ask me ‘What?’ He chuckles and continues eating.
    When Stella had asked herself what would happen when she got old she very clearly saw herself without Stavros, and the th ought frightened her, made her gasp out loud. But not only was there fear. She also felt – she tried to pin the word down – ‘spacious’, which she thought was a silly word, even though it fitted somehow.
    ‘ And now you are smiling.’ Mitsos chuckles.

    Abby finds it almost unbelievable that she is alone in Greece. Dad had never even been abroad until he met Sonia. But lots of her friends have been all over the place. She is probably the least travelled among them.
    A dog barks down in the village and Abby tries t o spot which yard it is in. It is answered by another dog and a little flurry of barking spreads across the village before dying down again.
    Her friend Jackie, who is probably working at this very moment at the Malibu, took a gap year before university. S he said there were only two problems in life, deciding what you want to do and finding the money to do it. Abby had thought at the time that deciding what you want to do was the easy bit but now, just a year later, it seems so much harder.
    If Dad does not let her carry on in school then there is a whole world of choice. Travelling is obviously not so hard, maybe she could travel the world for a bit. Getting a job seems easy enough. There is lots of charity work abroad. In fact there seems little point in staying in England when there is a whole world to choose from. But there is the snag! The whole world to choose from. That’s a lot of choice.
    But the one choice she wants, to stay at school, go to University, seems to be denied her.

    Stella stops smiling at the thought of being old without Stavros. She has no right. Stavros saved her from a very unpleasant situation which was destined to last a lifetime if he hadn’t stepped in.
    School memories rush at her and she pulls her skirt over her knees and folds her arms across her chest.
    ‘ Are you ok?’ asks the ever attentive Mitsos.
    ‘ Fine.’ Stella jumps up and goes through and behind the grill to get the ouzo, the good stuff, and two glasses.
    She sits down again and pours and quickly takes a gulp.
    ‘Come on, what is it?’ Mitsos sits back, his belly extended, ready to talk.
    ‘ I just had a memory, I have it quite often.’ She glances at him. His eyes are kind, as always. She is brave and says, ‘Once, on my way back from school some kids followed me. Called me ‘Gypsy’, told me I was