‘Is there anything more, Mrs Spatoulas?’
‘There will be more warts?’
‘If you use the cream I have prescribed, in the way I have described, then no.’
‘I tried to tie a string around it. The string got caught on the door handle. I put a hole in my favourite dress.’
It was all Michalis could do to suppress a laugh. It had been a long surgery session. Longer than the hours he had written on a notice and pinned to the door. He knew the villagers were taking advantage, but he had expected that for the first few sessions. He was hoping it would tail off.
‘Hello! Hello! Am I in time?!’
As Mrs Spatoulas stood up from the chair, Michalis’s eyes went to the door of the studio and to Nyx, arriving in the room.
‘I have warts,’ Mrs Spatoulas announced to his sister like it was an accomplishment. ‘But the doctor says I will be cured.’
‘Are they infectious?’ Nyx asked, backing up against the wall a little so the woman had more room to pass. ‘Please say no.’
‘Not from two metres away,’ Michalis said, standing up himself. ‘Good afternoon, Mrs Spatoulas. It was nice to see you.’ He looked at Nyx. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘Not catching a lumpy virus, I hope.’ She pulled a face. ‘Listen, I know I am late. I know that we did not get to talk last night but…’
Nyx had left the sentence hanging in the air and Michalis had no idea what was coming next. What was this even about?
‘He is in your car.’
Still, Michalis was at a loss. He looked at his sister, confusion reigning. ‘Who is in my car?’
‘Papa!’ Nyx gasped. ‘What is wrong with your brain? I know we are a day late. I know we are not at the allotted time but… we are here.’
His father had agreed to the examination and tests? Perhaps Michalis’s pause outside the church that morning, a hand on the effigy of the golden tortoise, the memories of his mama insisting on a Sunday visit to worship, had worked a miracle. And then his initial pleasure evaporated. ‘Why is he waiting in the car?’ Michalis asked. ‘Why is he not here with you?’
‘Ela! Come!’ Nyx beckoned, now backing out of the studio and onto the courtyard.
Getting up and following his sister, Michalis walked out into the sunshine. It was another hot day and while he had been seeing patients he had also wondered what Lucie’s plans were. Before Miltos had arrived last night with some sort of half-car, there had been a moment, when he had been holding her hands, when something inside him had shifted. It was hard to describe, but those few short minutes of connection had felt warm and exciting and maybe like a sprinkling of opportunity…
Dodging a large, fat four-line rat snake that shot across his path and slithered off into the garden, Michalis followed Nyx to his car. ‘Why did you drive my car? Could Papa not walk?’
Nyx didn’t reply, just carried on striding forward and as Michalis rounded the raised bed of herbs, two grasshoppers leaping to another resting place, he realised that his dad wasn’t in the car. He knew this news had been too good to be true.
‘Hey, Nyx,’ Michalis began. ‘I do not want you falling out with Papa over this. You did your best, but he is so stubborn and he does not realise that we are only trying to help him.’
‘What are you talking about now?’ Nyx asked, flapping her hands in the air.
‘Well,’ Michalis began. ‘He has left. Got out of the car and walked back to the apartment.’
Nyx snorted. ‘What is wrong with you? He would not get in the car at all. He is not gone.’ She sighed and reached forward. ‘He is in the boot.’
Nyx pulled the lever and the back of the car opened. Dimitri was lying there, his hands tied together with, what looked like, latex gloves. And there was an apple in his mouth as if he were a roasted pig on display. There was also a very angry expression on his face. And Michalis didn’t blame his father at all.
‘Nyx! What have you done?’ Michalis yelled. He reached for his father then and, putting his arms underneath his body, Dimitri attempted to sit up.
‘What do you mean “what have I done”?’ Nyx scowled now. ‘You ask me to bring Papa here last night. He would not come. I had to resort to special measures today, like I said I would.’
‘He looks drowsy,’ Michalis said, as his father tipped forward, attempting to get out of the confines of the vehicle. ‘Did you give him something?’ He plucked the apple from Dimitri’s mouth and waited for a well-deserved onslaught of expletives. Nothing was forthcoming and Dimitri’s breathing was shallow.
When Nyx didn’t immediately reply Michalis knew the answer. ‘Nyx, what did you give him?!’
‘Just a mild sedative.’
‘In God’s name!’
‘I do not know what you are getting angry about. This was your idea!’ Nyx folded her arms over her chest.
‘It was my idea for him to see a doctor. It was not my idea to drug him!’
Nyx hissed a reply as Michalis aided his father to his feet and carefully walked him away from the car towards his surgery, untying the bindings around his wrists.
*
‘How are you feeling now?’
Michalis put a hand to his father’s forehead, observing the movement of his pupils. Dimitri slapped his hand away. A sure sign the man was feeling more like himself.
‘I am feeling like I wish I did not have children.’ Dimitri sent a glare across the studio to Nyx. Michalis saw his sister shrink further into the cushion on the cane chair. Her fingernails were in her mouth and she was chewing like she had when she was a child.
‘Papa, I am worried about you,’ Michalis stated.
‘Huh! Me! I would save your worrying for the person who drugged me, tied me up and put me in the boot of your car!’
Nyx got to her feet then, pointing a finger at Dimitri. ‘You should not have resisted! All you had to do was turn up for an appointment with the doctor, your own son, and there would have been no force necessary!’
‘I do not need an appointment with a doctor!’
‘No?!’ Nyx screamed. ‘Well, what is it with the night rides on your moped, the not turning up for work and the eating fish?!’
Dimitri scowled. ‘Eating fish is a life choice, not a medicine.’
‘Ha!’ Nyx said, turning to face Michalis then. ‘There it is! Did you hear it, Micha? Our papa saying the words “life choice”. There is definitely something wrong!’
‘Nyx,’ Michalis said firmly. ‘Please wait outside.’
‘I will not. Always I am treated like the baby. I am not a baby!’
‘Well stop acting like one!’ Michalis blasted. As anger got the better of him he stood, feeling his own blood pressure rising. He bit his lip. He shouldn’t have shouted at his little sister. This wasn’t her fault. He had started this. He took a deep breath.
Taking a step towards Nyx, he placed a hand on her shoulder. ‘Please, Nyx, I am sorry. Just, give me a moment with Papa.’
Feeling the reluctance through her skin, Michalis dropped his head a little and tried to meet her eyes. Finally, she engaged, gave a small nod and shuffled through the doorway and out onto the courtyard. Michalis pushed the door closed and turned to face his father.
‘Do not look at me like that!’ Dimitri ordered, throwing his hands up in the air. ‘I should leave right now after what that crazy girl has done to me.’
Michalis nodded. ‘Yes,’ he responded. ‘That is what you could do.’
‘Right,’ Dimitri answered. ‘Yes.’ He nodded and began to get to his feet.
‘But you could instead stay,’ Michalis suggested. ‘I could run a few checks and then Nyx will be off your back.’ He sighed. ‘And I will be off your back too.’
Dimitri shook his head. ‘Why do younger people always think they know more than people who have actually lived three quarters of their life already? Do you think we go around with our heads under a bucket, not seeing, not listening?’
Michalis shook his head. ‘I do not think that. But I do think that if there was something going on with your health you would not listen to your body and you would bury your head into a bucket.’
‘That is not true,’ Dimitri responded, his tone set to aggravated.
‘Come on, Papa!’
‘Come on what?’
‘When was the last time you had a check-up?’
‘I do not need a check-up. Everything I own is in perfect working order.’
‘Everything?’ Michalis asked. ‘No aching in your limbs if you stand for too long? No pins and needles in your hands? No rapid heart rate?’
‘Only when your sister is being particularly annoying.’
Michalis shook his head. ‘You are not taking this seriously!’
‘I cannot believe you think, after what happened to your mother, that I would not take care of my health!’
Watching Dimitri drop his head a little, his dark hair lightly speckled with silver catching the sunlight streaming through the open window, Michalis felt his father’s reverie fill the space. They had never discussed their loss, never laid out their grief, they had simply put it to one side and moved forward. Perhaps that was the biggest mistake and one they had both equally contributed to. Michalis had seen so much grief last year he knew categorically that most people reacted with an outpouring of some sort. But the Andinos just battened up the hatches.
‘I still miss her,’ Michalis whispered. He hadn’t meant to speak, to say what he was churning up internally, but there it was, the words spiralling around the room amid the humidity.
Dimitri lifted his head, his eyes moist, and gave a brief nod that seemed to signal his agreement. Then, he used his fingers to touch the corners of his eyes, as if spilling feelings you could clearly see would be a slight on his patriarchy.
‘So,’ Dimitri began. He stopped to clear his throat before continuing. ‘You really think if I let you do a few checks and make a few tests, Nyx will stop behaving like madness is in control of her actions?’
Michalis smiled then. ‘Well, I do not promise that her unique ways will completely disappear. But, I am sure it will give her one less thing to complain to you about.’
Dimitri nodded. ‘OK.’
‘OK?’ Michalis checked, a little taken aback. His fingers were itching to reach for the stethoscope…
‘If it will make you happy, son. And if it will quieten your sister, then let us waste no more time.’
Michalis smiled at his father and put the ends of the stethoscope in his ears. ‘OK, first let me listen to your chest. The blood tests might have to wait until whatever Nyx gave you is out of your system.’ He waited for his father to unbutton his shirt, then placed the metal circle on his chest. ‘Just breathe normally.’