(The beginning of my book GODS AND GUARDIANS .... fantasy-reality literature.Titans, ancient Greek gods a prophecy, a love beyond all limits! This book is looking for a publishers or agents abroad)
“I’ve told you that ancient gods are unworthy
of speech”, Leonidas, or Leo as I used to call him, repeated to me once more
and turned his back to walk away from my side with an ironic, full of
depreciation look.
I
gave him a sincere, wide smile, one of those that made him so many times fret
and closed the book I had bought on TV sales
and spoke of the ancient gods and their relation to modern history.
Fairytales that charmed me and provoked my interest.
Since
I was a child I had a huge obsession for anything related to the deities of the antiquity. My love for them would start from Greece
and go till the Far East and the depths of all centuries. I didn’t know exactly
what was it that had driven me into this passion, though many times I recall my
mother talking to me since I was in the crib about the achievements of Zeus,
his intriguing but no so unjustifiable wife and the ones of his
countless children. Maybe that’s why I had finally decided to study archeology.
I couldn’t see myself in any other industry apart from this one.
I
raised my eyes and gave a gaze on Leo and his totally comfortable movements
till the sit in the opposite side. Definitely a lot of other women would gaze
along with me fascinated by his mysterious and tough looks. He was a young man
who would draw the attention of the opposite sex with every step he would take
and would dissipate it with his every word. I smiled wider and he gave me an
unsearchable glance. His eyes, wonderful with split edges and green like the
eyes of a cat, looked at me beneath his dark brown forelock that would fall
messy on his beautiful and at the same time masculine, triangular face. His
eyebrows were technically thin and upright, his nose straight and two rough
lips that would smile from slightly to never. He was thin and tall, neurotic
and self confident. Yes! He was my friend and faithful guardian.
I
turned my head and noticed that indeed most of the women that were in the
boat’s big room looked at him with particular interest. They were absolutely
right. Maybe if I hadn’t known him since I was a child I would be in their
position right now, if I hadn’t met Phoebus of course as none of them had that
chance.
In
the thought of the Italian cousin, my cheeks became deep red. Perhaps this was
because I had never seen a man more handsome than him. Him that I was traveling
to meet... My heart started beating hard in the breast and I took a deep breath
in order to come round. But before I could manage it, I observed Leo’s look
that stood cold for a few seconds on me and the turned and wandered outside the
window’s glass indifferently as if he could untwist something in the dark of
the night.
Why
was he accusing me for? He couldn’t read my thoughts though I felt like he knew
me like the palm of his own hand or even more if that is possible.
Leo showed up in my life when I was
in the tender age of seven years old. I hadn’t met my father because as my
mother had told me he had left this lad to travel in heaven and we couldn’t
follow him yet. Of course, she wouldn’t talk to me about him in general so I
initially believed that she was just hurt every time she mentioned him. Later I
understood that probably something else was happening. I don’t know exactly
what that was and if my father had died, I’m not even sure of that, but she
would show no real interest into the being that marked her life by offering her
me. The truth is that when I was younger I would ask various questions but as I
grew older the more I forgot. Maybe because by meeting Leo, the blank of the
male element that was missing from my life was in some way filled in.
I was living in my village located
on the fringes of mount Olympus when I first met him. It was a small, quiet
place, filled with people warm and joyful. My mother lived there from the
beginning. She had moved a little while before my birth from Athens where she
had lived the youthful years of her life.
I
was growing up calmly, with the love and protection small societies can often
offer. In these societies where life flows with slow and mild paces, anything
new comes as a sudden flurry to shake up everything. Like that, when my dear
friend with his foster parents came to live there, I learned it immediately as
it was natural. With no second thoughts I left the spot where I was playing
with sand and soil as the other children that accompanied me and ran to take a
look at the removal.
I
immediately had noticed the tall and thin boy with the straight
brown hair, short to the neck but longer in the front, that fell wildly
in the eyes trying to reduce of the cold gaze. He looked extremely interesting
because most of the boys I knew had always this look of a man who observes with
stupefaction, giggle and laugh at everything. So I remained to
stare until I realized that he at the same time had me as an observation
subject. With my little mind I couldn’t figure out the reason although I
quickly gave him a wide smile, one of the ones I used to give away at everybody
with no precaution. Then he had darkened even more and had turned his head
elsewhere like he probably did every time I irritated him.
He
was six years older though he never looked like that. He was always very
serious and mature for his age. He was in high school when I met him but he
went to university with me…
I
froze looking at him contemplating. He had chosen to postpone his studies
working as a guardian in a private protection company and returned to it when
it was definite that the time for mine had come. So the last two years we ended
up…fellow students and roommates because nonetheless I preferred him to anyone
else to be close to me. Together in the most times of my life and apart at the
same time.
I
sighed and looked at him with more intensity.
Leo
always had the way to walk on the same path as me but also keep a certain
distance. He was my friend, my roomy, my psychologist as he had the tendency to
listen to me endlessly speaking while he wouldn’t open his mouth to say a word,
and finally my guardian! He would stand by me always but at the same time he
would step aside when I made friends with others but him, when I wanted space
and time, when I tried to touch him… Even in the most difficult time he stayed
standing close to me without touching me, giving me courage just with his
presence.
The only times I can
clearly remember him spreading his long, neurotic and stable hands on me are
the ones I was in danger of something. The first time this happened was during
the first months of our acquaintance. Young, with absolute sense of freedom and
being indifferent to every danger I had climbed the stairs of the house and was
wandering how far I could jump every time in order to avoid the stairs
beneath. The first one was alright, it
was easy anyway, and so were the second and third but when I reached the fourth
one I got impetus to jump, then he came out of nowhere to grab and hold
me. This happened several times and in
various time periods. He was always around to prevent and restrain every fall
or accident. In the end I had figured it out and was trying to provoke his
intervention, having fun with it. I was jumping over ditches, climbing trees
and doing any kind of nonsense that came to my nonexistent mind, in order to
bring him close to me and protect me. Finally, one day when I tried to do it
again on purpose by letting my hands off the bike’s steering wheel and having just learned how to drive it
without training wheels he looked at me with a cruel look and indignation and
turned his head around on purpose pretending he wasn’t seeing. As it was
natural the bike leaned and I got a big scratch on my femur, blood on my ankle
and a tatty ego. This certainly was the last time I tried to challenge my luck!
So
in time he had managed things that to others seemed from curious to weird. My
good friend Anita, classmate and friend since primary school and permanently in
love with him, had several times mentioned our relationship as one of the most
enviable and bizarre incidents. But who could possibly
psychoanalyze Leo? He was neurotic, rude, dark and unapproachable while at the
exact same time faithful, calm, strong, discreet …
For a girl happy and kind of dreamer
like me, with no father since childhood and after the loss of the mother…with
just a few relatives and the only person that interests her miles away he was
like a gift from heaven..
Talking
about myself I could give a lot more characterizations but the most valid would be
the one of being spontaneous. I would say what I wanted to say, laugh easily
and could make friends in a second, I wasn’t thinking badly of other people, I
thought everyone in the world was kind and I wasn’t particularly serious or
mature, nor special. I didn’t stem from a noble generation and had no especial
luck. It was just me. Ordinary and continually happy. Anita had told me not a
few times that my sign of the zodiac was to blame for this.
Sagittarius!
I
would like to nestle down into the pages of my book once more but my friend had
pulled me away from it and right now I didn’t feel like reading at all, so I
got up to stretch. Leo did not turn his head towards me but I know he had seen
me getting up. I took a few steps on the red and brown fitter carpet of the
lounge and loafed at the people lying half-asleep in the airplane seats of the
ship. A company of young people turned towards me and observed me in interest
making admiration exclamations that were as welcome as never before, while
trying to look indifferent. After all, I want to be very beautiful now. When I
meet Phoebus, I want to steal his mind as he had stolen mine!
I moved a little more and opened the heavy
door that was leading to the deck. The night was starry and the humidity made
the smell of the sea, which was lying asleep underneath the paunch of the boat that was purring
contented in its course, even more intense. I leaned on the wet gunwale and my
mind ran to him. I remember him in my life since always. He would come during
summers along with his mother and stay in our house just for a few days. My
mother and his were related and from what we knew of she had been married to an
Italian and followed him to his country. Phoebus was their only child.
Of course I believe that they didn’t have to
have another one! They had given him the best anyone could have genetically
given to a child. Light, beauty, charm! His long, until the shoulders, straight
and layering hair, adorned unruly and daintily at the same time, with golden
color his beautiful head. Two big blue eyes that escaped the limits of blue to
be purple lighted in melancholy a flawless face with soft ankles, fleshy lips
and absolute symmetry of characteristics. A little older that Leo and a little
taller too, but thin with a perfect body. Calm, melancholic and serious, he
always had a smile to give to that indifferent little girl I was. Each smile of
his could surely make an amphitheater full of girls including me pass out at
once.
I sighed.
His
letter inviting me to go close to him was the most wonderful thing I had lived
the past few years. Despite the fact that I was a student and my life should be
full of happiness and revelry I had just experienced a tragic fact…I lost my
mother…This thought suddenly brought the darkness in me. It was six months
since mother decided she had to follow father’s path to heaven. And I would
have been alone if it weren’t for Phoebus and Leo….
With
the tip of my eye I got a movement on the other side of the deck. He had leaned
lazily as he always used to do on the wall and had his hands in the pockets of
his cotton pants. He wasn’t looking at me. He looked straight ahead in the
darkness of the fastening.
“It’s really beautiful here” I almost whispered
to him, still influenced by the previous thoughts…
“Hmmm” was the only answer.
I smiled. Frugal as always. “In how many hours
will we be there?”
“At seven am we will reach Bari” he informed me
with the same severe tone.
“What about afterwards?”
“Afterwards we will travel north to Rome and
from there to Tuscany. Phoebus’s castle is located inside a forest.”
“It’s in a forest! How great!” I raised my
voice in excitement. Bizarre and interesting place for someone to live in. “I
hope we won’t get lost” I supplemented with a light questioning. “But didn’t
you tell me; are you happy to see your friend?” I asked with quite an appetite
to tease him.
Leo
did not speak and looked at him facetiously. Personal conversations were
something like a big forbiddance X to him. He didn’t like talking about the
things he felt and never did. But I could understand a lot of thing about this
tightly reserved creature that accompanied me all these years.
Since
the first day they met, the two men of my life immediately showed they could
not stand each other. And I say this because that’s what they really looked
like doing.
The
two of them used to sit and talk. They kept a distance between them, looked at
each other the least possible but it was obvious they had a lot of things to
talk about. Leo behaved as he always did, he was distant and rigid and Phoebus
as well was typical and melancholic. I observed them with my childish eyes and
many times saw them observe me too in between their sayings that I would never
hear though. Despite all these I felt like they could understand each other
well and agree to what was important. I sensed that something connected them
even though they were pretty different.
Leo
was adopted. It was a common secret but he also knew because one day when I
told him his mother was calling for him he rushed into correcting me in anger
that Tasoula was not his mother. This had made me upset because inside me I
wanted him to be really happy thing he seemed to be not. On the other side,
Phoebus had both his parents and lived far better considering the economical
part. His clothes were always extravagant; he had studied music and never had
to work, while at the same time he had various structures in his possession
including a tower in Tuscany that he used like a music school.
All
these were the exact opposite in Leo’s life who had to work via the duration of
all our studies in Thessaloniki. He was carrying this burden since he was
really young. I never managed to understand where he found all that strength to
work through the problems without saying a single word, not even expressing a
complaint.
“When I’m with you I fear of nothing!” I teased
him returning to present, though I truly believed what I was saying. “I know
you will find the way though you already seem to know exactly where you‘re
going!” I noticed the certainty in his attitude.
He gave me a serious look, “Your beloved took
care of getting on my nerves with his recurrent instructions and then, there always
is the phone” he admitted nervously.
“Oh!!” I kept my teasing tone. “You really
believe he has an actual tower? It seems strange nowadays. I surely hear now
and then in gossip shows for people with a lot of money from abroad that live
in places like that but seeing in is something else,”
He
kept silent.
I
turned ahead and closed my eyes. I let the wet and cold atmosphere enter my
lungs with bulimia. To be honest I didn’t care if Phoebus had a whole palace. I
was so happy to see him again. The last time was when mother had died… he had
learned and came with the first plane to be with me in that difficult time. He
gave me his hug every time I bursted into tears and minded to wipe my tears and
console me. His big mauve eyes looked at me with sadness and tenderness and
that made the pain more sufferable, my loss less unbearable. He had taken care
of everything and stayed for two days with me before he took the plane back
home again. This departure of his was the most painful for me. But now he was
inviting me to go to his home! He was inviting me close to him for the first
time!
It took him so many years to do this and I
wonder why took him so long…
Leo
entered the interior of the boat as quietly as he had come out. I decided to
follow him and let myself fall asleep. I needed the sleep since due to the
excitement of the trip I was sleepless for two days already and I don’t think I
would like to get to Italy being worn.
I
got as comfy as I could on my seat and closed my eyes. The voices around had
now silenced and I could calm. I waited for a while till I started getting
dizzy and in the end sleep didn’t take long to touch me.
I sank slowly, with pleasure even to the most
unapproachable parts of my mind and it rushed into giving me a weird and scary
dream.
I
got in a scene wild and wonderful at the same time. It looked like a virgin
forest and sacred as the ones I watch on TV in documentaries or better in
adventure movies since there where ancient ruins all around. Nature was rich.
Tall and thick trees opened holes in the earth and sprouted in order to touch
the sky. Their branches forked and embraced making thick knitting that darkened
the sky, thick plants hanging from one another and the humidity covered
everything from top till the shooting ground that was covered in plants and
lichens. Between all these, white marbles, pieces and remains of another era
lied scattered here and there, like they had also germinated along with the
grass and the dull wild flowers. The light around was weak. I could not understand
if the sun was sinking or rising, but there was an atmospheric red color that
dyed everything with blood and made them look creepy.
I
was wearing a white silk dress that covered my body till the ankles but was so
graceful that I almost couldn’t feel it on me. Across from me in a little path
among the thick wooden trunks a sort of a procession was taking place. Many
beautiful young women dressed in red were walking one behind another in an
absolutely modulated pace. Their faces were severe but in none of them were the
characteristics obvious in fact. It was like I couldn’t understand them. At the
end of the procession there was a man. Or that is what I believe anyway. His
presence was powerful and dark while he was giving off something ominous that hurt
my guts. I stood still and watched groggy. He was very tall and thin, huge
while the same as the women ahead. His face was dark but curiously charming
with a magnetism that swallowed me though there was nothing there. Two dark
spots for eyes that seemed to be fiery eradicated everything else. He turned
his look on me and I felt like sinking and vanishing. A swirl pulled me down. I
tried to move in fear but understood that my parts were paralyzed. This made my
heart slam with force. My body was covered with cold sweat and I tried to move
once more but his look kept me transfixed. The more he approached the more I
was vanishing, the more intense was my need to get away…
I
woke up bathed in sweat. My scared eyes searched in the low lighting of the
night boat for the form of Leo. He had his head tucked and was sleeping as the
rest of the people around. I was breathless. This dream was one of the most
weird and scariest dreams I had ever seen. I don’t know what was it that had
scared me so much; the form of the man, his eyes devouring me or that peculiar
sense of danger? All together and nothing at all.
I drank a small mouthful of water from the
bottle I carried in my bag and wiped the sweat from my forehead and neck. My
tiredness and anxiety for the trip had psychologically affected me and that
probably came out from my subconscious. On the other hand if I lived in ancient
Egypt they would tell me that Bes, god of dreams, was using the theory of the
opposites and had sent me this dream to tell me that wonderful things will
happen to me and I should not be afraid. Perhaps that scary man was the
spectacular Phoebus and the fear I felt was the joy and happiness he would
offer me.
I
smiled to my own explanation despite the fact that something inside me was still
intensively reacting and pulled the sleeping bag until my shuddering waist. My
heart may have been pulsing in fear but I should pay no mind on dreams. Or at
least that’s what I wanted to believe. After all it was reality that mattered
and I needed to get a rest.
“Helen…”
Leo’s voice came to my ears from far and awoke me.
I opened my eyes and saw his fully green
looking at me with warmth. That made me blink in surprise but when I recovered
the centre of my attention, his face had the usual self-righteous and distant
vein underneath the disordered wisps of his hair. This is it, I thought
intimidated. This is Leo as I know him.
“What happened?” I asked while stretching my
hands to get rid of the numbness. “Are we there yet?”
He nodded in the affirmative and laid a plastic
cup of French coffee that smelled like heaven to me. “In a few minutes.”
I
grabbed the cup with longing and sipped a mouthful of the coffee that hot and
sweet as it was plummeted on my dry throat.
People
around had started rising and packing their luggage. They all seemed tired of
sleeping on the chairs of the boat and with no particular energy. But I was
different. I have always been different. The blood had already started
streaking inside me, perhaps because of the coffee or my joyfulness we had
finally gotten to Italy. Nevertheless, apart from my beloved, it was the first
real trip I ever had.
I got up with pleasure, despite my friend’s
bored look, I cared to wash myself and talking about this or that it was time
for us to debark.
Leo had his stepfather’s car with him. It was a
little Japanese car, many years old but as tough as a mule. We got in and set
off.
Bari
was a town still asleep. The sweet light of morning licked the buildings and
the wide streets, the few and bleary passersby on the pave walks. We got out of
the city quickly before I made it to see anything special and got into a big
motorway. I was chirping happily for anything I saw before me. I was impressed
by the hundred thousand acres of olive trees that scattered on the sides of the
road, the vineyards and wheat. The soft air that formed streets among them and
moved them in a sweet symphony, in a mystic soundless music, was making living
paintings for my eyes. All the signs were in Italian only so I often was forced
to quit the observation of the scenery to consult the map that I cared to
obtain before I left homeland.
My
friend was driving with consent and serenity. He was not speeding and always
had his eyes set on his course. He cared to make two or three stops in rest
areas that were situated on national way so we could stretch and take some
coffee or something to eat. As the distance was reducing my agony was growing
bigger. I wanted to jump over all these kilometers and get to Phoebus more
quickly. To kind Phoebus.
After
several hours of road trip and after starting to shut up in the end,
understanding that perhaps I was getting on Leo’s nerves with my verbiage, we
got into Tuscany. We had passed out of Rome and despite my intense desire to
stem the trip for a while and visit the city, the need to get to our
destination proved to be bigger. We got off the main street and turned right to
move east that is the backbone of the country. The growth became thicker and
our course started being uphill. A quarter later we saw the first sign “castel
de la foresta” which means “castle of the woods” and it was the one Phoebus
owned. We turned left and got in a provincial road that led straight into a
rich forest. We moved among impressive, tall trees that were meant to cover the
sky and make a heavy shadow beneath, full of strong smells of plants and
humidity. This place brought my dream in mind for a second, but I rushed into
driving away this thought and leaning on the window, took my face out on the
fresh air to enjoy the wild beauty of the landscape. For five to six kilometers
we moved on like that following more signs, inside this imposing, beautiful and
at the same time scary landscape that surrounded us, when we suddenly got to a
glade.
Then...we saw it.
A tall and old building, remain of many
years. It was totally imperious, aesthetic and dynamic, and in an absolute
harmony with the environment.
It was made of grey, green and ivory rocks. It
consisted of two departments that were pieced together in a central gate and
surrounded by a common external wall. From the one side, squared and tall stood
a building more like a nowadays structure with small skylights and windows. On
the other side, there were four cylindrical buildings in various sizes, the
biggest of which, in the background, trying to outreach the front ones in order
to highlight its beauty. It had faded green cones as roofs, decorated with
chimneys and countless windows to have enough of the rich Mediterranean sun.
The plants were spread on the external walls with bulimia to join their bodies
with them in an erotic bargain, constructing a cover of greenery. Amaranth,
yellow and pink flowers enriched the décor with colors and scents while small,
trimmed trees prowled the wall with symmetry.
I got out of the car bewitched.
“Now you can close your mouth” murmured my
friend next to me with irritation, “here comes Phoebus”.
Από τη Νίτσα Μανωλά 
Οι όμορφοι άνθρωποι φαίνονται από την διαύγεια του προσώπου τους, την λάμψη των ματιών τους και το χαμόγελό τους. Έναν τέτοιο όμορφο άνθρωπο έχω την χαρά και την τιμή να φιλοξενώ και εγώ σήμερα στο Pull UR Trigger. Μια υπέροχη Κυρία που μας έχει μαγέψει με τη γραφή της. Η Γεωργία Κακαλοπούλου γεννήθηκε στη Θεσσαλονίκη αλλά κατάγεται από το Δήμο Δίου Ολύμπου. Στο αίμα της κυλάει μια δόση… Κρήτης και Μικρά Ασίας εξηγώντας έτσι το μοναδικό ταπεραμέντο της. Δηλώνει … μυθοπλάστρια που αγαπά να φτιάχνει ιστορίες και που λατρεύει τα ταξίδια. Λατρεύει όλες τις τέχνες, μα την ψυχή της κέρδισε η συγγραφή αφού της επιτρέπει να απελευθερώνει το μυαλό και την καρδιά της χαρίζοντας σε εμάς μοναδικά ταξίδια.
Ν.Μ. Πόσο δύσκολο κατά τη δική σου γνώμη είναι για έναν καινούργιο συγγραφέα να αναδείξει τη δουλειά του;
{Μάσιμο}
{Τάμι}
{Ειρήνη}
