* * *
As soon as the volcano tour boat arrived back at the dock
in the Old Port, Kathy hurried over to Happy Jack’s Scottish Pub. The watering
hole was popular with tourists as well as the English-speaking expat community
on Santorini Island. Every Tuesday was Karaoke Night, and on some Thursdays
there was Bingo Night, “fer the auld folks,” as Molly put it.
Molly was busy as usual. The slim, friendly, fifty-five year
old Scottish woman was serving drinks behind the bar. The front room opened
onto the street, with hanging plastic flaps over the windows to cut out the
cold—technically, it was a patio and smoking was allowed.
Kathy waved. “Hey, darlin’!” she called, putting on a thick
Texas drawl for her friend. “How ya’ll doin?”
“A’m daein fine,” Molly said. “Whit aboot yersel?”
Both women laughed. They never tired of hearing each other’s
accents, which they both cranked up to over-the-top extremes whenever they
greeted each other. Molly looked past Kathy, noting that Kathy was alone after
the tour, and she gave a sympathetic glance and whispered, “Nothin’ on the hook
today, eh? No nooner?”
“No, unfortunately, pickins were slim.” Kathy glanced
around and said in a lower and less affected voice, “Can I talk to you a
second?”
“Aye,” Molly said curiously, and followed her, tossing a
small towel to the sink.
Before she’d taken two steps, an Irish man who was a
regular grabbed her by the wrist and thrust his empty shot glass at her. “Just
a wee more, Molly, if you pr-pr-please.”
“You’re oot yer nut already, and hardly past noon! Get hame
t’yer wife, mate!”
“Just a wee wee wee—”
Molly yanked her wrist free and rolled her eyes at Kathy as
they continued to the far end of the bar.
Kathy said, “You know that sex education book that caused
such a fuss around here?”
Molly thought for a second, and then gave a crooked smile. “Our
Bodies, Our Friends?”
“Yes, that one.”
“What about it?”
“Do you know where I can get my hands on a copy?” Kathy
glanced at her watch—if she was going to pull this off today, she had to move
fast.
“What do you want that mingin’ book for?”
“Just a project for a friend. She’s a teacher. She’s doin’
some research on those kinds of textbooks.”
Molly didn’t believe a word of this, of course, because she
knew Kathy too well. Molly was the one who helped Kathy with the setup of Réka
at the now famous “reupholstered dinner,” as they called it.
“Well, I wouldn’t use that rag to wipe up British-made
scotch, it’s disgustin’, pure reekbeek...but there are some copies floatin’
around town, I think.”
“Where?”
“Try the public library, here in Fira. When the Greek
schools refused to take ’em here, the EU forced the library to put some copies
on their shelves, and threatened to cut off funding if they didn’t.”
“Oh. Okay, thanks.” Kathy hurried towards the door.
Molly grinned and called out, “But don’t tell the librarian
I sent ya!” She looked at Fionn, who was now engaged in a battle with the bar
stool he was trying to dismount. “I got a reputation to uphold round here.”
* * *
A few minutes later, Kathy entered the small, whitewashed
cube that was the Fira Public Library. She had only set foot in the tiny place
once, when she was looking for a novel to read, and she discovered that their
selection of English language novels was scant, a few dozen dog-eared copies of
paperbacks left behind by tourists.
A pudgy, bearded Greek man with his dark hair pulled into a
ponytail was arranging some books on a rack near the counter. Except for him,
the whole library appeared to be deserted.
When he saw Kathy, he said, “Hello” in English. From her
appearance he knew that she wasn’t Greek and assumed that she was a tourist.
“Where are your English language books?” she asked.
“You must have a library card to check out books, and only
for residents of the island.”
“I am a resident of the island.”
“Oh.” Now he looked embarrassed. “I am very sorry. You want
English books for adults?”
“Yes.”
He motioned to the opposite wall. “The farthest shelves to
the left, at the very end.”
“Thank you.”
“If you need any help, please ask.”
Kathy walked over to the bookcase he’d indicated and began
casually browsing through the volumes easily within reach, but cast her eyes
upwards, to the very top shelf.
There were books on bird watching, filmmaking, some
biographies of Hollywood stars...
She couldn’t remember the exact title of the book, only
that it had the word “body” or “bodies” in it...
There it was!
Our Bodies, Our
Friends.
There were three copies of the controversial book, sitting
side by side, with only the spines showing.
Kathy glanced over her shoulder at the librarian. He had
gone back to work on his display, squatting, arranging the titles. She had no
time for library cards or filling out forms today.
She stood on her toes, slipped one copy of Our Bodies, Our Friends off of the shelf
and then quickly stuffed it under her windbreaker, which was zipped up.
“Excuse me, Miss?” he said.
Kathy froze.
She slowly turned around, holding her forearm against the
book to keep it from slipping.
“Do you already have a library card?”
“Uh...no I don’t.”
“Would you like to fill out an application for one? All I
need is your name and address, and I can make one while you’re looking around.”
“Uh, no thanks,” she said, “I’m in a hurry today. I’ll come
back next week and get it.”
* * *
Within the hour, Kathy was back at the villa behind her
locked bedroom door, flipping through the pages of the book she had stolen. There
had been a couple of tense moments smuggling it out of the library, but she had
gotten away with it.
She was shocked by what she saw on some of the pages of Our
Bodies, Our Friends. She stared at what she supposed was meant to be an
artistic photo of two naked women in a 69 position, with the caption Same
sex couple enjoying each other’s bodies. Kathy turned to the next page,
which showed a photograph of two men in the same pose.
My god, she thought, what are they teaching the kids these days?
She looked back at the front cover. APPROPRIATE FOR AGES EIGHT AND UP.
Unbelievable, she thought.
Alexander’s home schooling schedule was tightly structured,
and Friday was Reading Day. On Friday nights, Spyro always quizzed Alex on his
comprehension of the reading supplement for the week. Gwen had set her lesson
schedule so that Alex would read the supplement the last thing on Friday
afternoon, before they went outside and played basketball, so it would be fresh
on his mind.
A few minutes ago, Kathy had sneaked into the den and found
that this week’s supplement was still sealed in the envelope, unopened, and
snatched it. Using an iron she kept in her bedroom, she steamed opened the
envelope and removed the booklet. There was an APPROVED BY AEI sticker on the
cover, done in bright green lettering like a GO traffic signal—the stickers
were on all the books that the Atlas Education Institute sent out in its home
schooling package.
How did Dinosaurs Become Extinct? was the subject of
this week’s assignment.
Kathy didn’t know, but she knew exactly how Governess Gwen
was going to become extinct, at least around here. With a devious smile on her
face, she carefully applied the green sticker to the copy of Our Bodies, Our
Friends.
Kathy held the book away from her and admired her handiwork—it
looked just like all the other reading supplements from AEI.
Spyro would go through the roof when he found out his
flawless Gwen had given Alexander this trash to read! His opinion of the young Canadian
would plummet to zero. He would think she had terrible judgment, and/or assume
that because she was gay herself, she was trying to push her progressive values
on his son. Spyro Leandrou was as conservative as they came.
Kathy carefully slid the book into the AEI envelope and
sealed it again.
Now all she had to do was return it to the den without
anyone knowing.
Chapter 27
That same evening, when they all sat down for dinner, Kathy
was so agitated that beads of sweat began to run down her stomach and tickle
her skin. In her nervousness, she thought she might burst out laughing. If the
bomb that she had anticipated setting off the first night was a stick of
dynamite, this one was indeed a nuclear warhead. Kathy was confident that it
would wreak total destruction.
One part of her was actually concerned for Gwen’s safety,
yet, as before, another part almost giddy with anticipation.
As it was a Friday night, the meal was longer than usual. Fenia
served an appetizer of marinated eggplant with capers and mint, which Spyro ate
slowly while he blathered on about the trip he was taking Alex and Gwen on to
Mozambique next week.
The appetizer was followed by a main course consisting of
leg of lamb roast seasoned with garlic and rosemary. Spyro consumed this dish
even more slowly, asking Alexander how his karate lessons were going.
Kathy kept waiting for him to realize that this was also
Friday, and Reading Day, but he seemed to have completely forgotten it. She
considered trying to say something that would remind him, in some roundabout
way, but she didn’t dare. She was so nervous she didn’t trust her own voice.
She also thought that Gwen had given her a few long,
lingering gazes while they were eating—but when Kathy glanced at her, Gwen
quickly looked away.
Was Gwen getting suspicious? First the “accidentally”
dropped five hundred euro note, and then the travel agency calling?
No, that was impossible. There was no way Gwen could put
those things together.
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