Christos Ikonomou - Something Will Happen, You'll See

Mother please tell brother Stelios the hero of Olympiakos that when I come I’ll bring him a ball and a uniform but I want him to learn to read and write tell him no more wasting his time. Hello brother Stelios Cretan hero of Vatolakkos you’ll live forever and always be a fan of OLYMPIAKOS down with Panathinaikos Stelios my hero we beat Panathinaikos and from their grief Michalis and our uncle Giorgis didn’t eat for two days they were so heartbroken .

Well father I learned you have a rifle and go out hunting so send us please a fowl .

Well mother I will come at Christmas but before I come I will have to see the beautiful bride father take care that the girl is pretty and from a good family. Take care that nothing goes awry .

Dear father and mother if I had money I would send you 200 drachmas for a cigarette .

I write you these few things and send kisses to you all and await your response. Give my regards to the neighbors and to anyone who asks after me. I await your letter. Your son Drakoulis .

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At the bottom of the pile I find several letters from America. My mother’s godmother had sent them from Nea Iorki, Broukli, Atlant Siri. It takes a while for me to figure out that the last is Atlantic City. They span just about a decade, from September 1958 to March 1967. As I flip through the pages Christmas cards and black and white photographs slip out from between the sheets, yellowed with age and of people I don’t recognize at all. I find an undated postcard, too, showing a big white ship, the Olympia, with three bands of color on its funnel: yellow on the bottom, then blue, then black on top. The blue band has a yellow emblem painted on it that looks like a star on a stem. On the back of the card are printed the words Greek Line — T.S.S. Olympia . Beneath, several lines that are almost impossible to read, as if they’d been written by someone with Parkinson’s.

My dear relations we borded the boat from America on March 12 eager to see you we arrived Lisbon today we have a terrible sea I am in bed all the time with injections to stop the vomiting the ships hospital is full of wounded people broken arms and heads Markoulogiorgenas’s girl broke her knee you wouldnt believe what we are going through waves like mountains hit our boat people cry and pound there chests I will write to you in detale from Athens when we reach there my husband Fotis regrets it he says Virgin save us that is all I write with love your koumbara Eleni Varipatakis .

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It’s almost two. I get up and pour myself a tsikoudia, put a few pistachios on a plate. My father is done with the laundry and now he’s wearing these orange plastic gloves and has gone over to the building site across the street and is filling the municipality’s recycling bags with plastic cups and papers. It’s about your father, Dina said the other night when she called. He’s not doing well, child. He wanders around the neighborhood picking up trash from the street and throwing it in that cycling thing, whatever it’s called. Then this afternoon he tried to climb into the bin. Jesus Christ in heaven, child. Stefanos was coming home from work and caught him just in time. Barba-Tasos, he says. Hey, barba-Tasos, are you nuts? What are you doing, you’re trying to get into the trash bin? Stefanakos, your father says, any man who lets his wife die like that deserves to go out with the trash. They can pick me up and recycle me, maybe I’ll come out a more useful man. You hear that? Have you ever heard such a thing? Then he just sat there by himself and laughed. Child, things aren’t right with your father. They’re not at all right, and I’m telling you now so you’ll do what you can. Because he’s a good man who’s had a tough time and everyone in the neighborhood feels for him.

The wind outside is stronger now. My mother’s clothes are whipping around on the line. A blouse with embroidery on the sleeves, her green jacket, a flower-print dress with narrow straps. Clothes that look like they’ve never been worn, clothes that no one will ever wear again. A tin can rolls into the middle of the street. My father crushes it with his foot, tosses it into his sack then goes over to the blue bin. He empties the sack and stands in front of the bin with his arms at his sides. I close my eyes. I wait. I count to ten. To twenty. When I open them I see him standing at the gate looking at me in confusion, his mouth half open.

• • •

The longest letter is from Atlant Siri, dated 4/27/61. It caught my eye right away not only because it was the longest but also because it was the only one in an envelope. A clean blue envelope tied with a red bow, like a package. Like a wedding invitation.

Dear Lefterio my golden girl I got your letter and was very happy and please forgive me for not ansering right away. I was happy about the progress our Vatolakkos has seen and all the things you’ve written about that have made your lives easier God willing next year my husband Fotis and I plan on coming since he wants to get to know Crete we will stay 2 or 3 months and then leave again .

And when I go to the fields where I used to look for radishes I can go by taxi now that they’ve built roads since these days I cant imagine walking Ive reached a weight of 180 pounds. Grace be to God we are all well write to me how the olives are doing is there a good harvest this year? How is everyones work going? Are the oranges selling well? Tell my dear relation your mother to please leave me one orange tree with some oranges on it unsold so if the Virgin wills for us to come we can eat fresh oranges which I have missed so much. And please ask her to plant squash in my garden and when I come I can gather the squash greens and cook them with black nightshade to eat because that is the only dish Ive been dying for here Lefterio since in America you cant find squash greens or nightshade either. They bring zucchini from California but by the time it gets here its so mushy it turns your stomach to look at it .

I saw Lefterio what you wrote to me about your aunt Stella that she and her husband left for Argentina but that was a mistake. Things are much better in Athens than in Argentina where great poverty has fallen the whole place is poor it would have been much better for them to go to Canada than to go there they will regret it and wont stay long before they leave. Poverty is a terrible thing my Leferitsa here too we have many expenses I have my son Thodoris in California studying at the university who needs 2,000 dollars a year and it will take him 4 years to finish so Stella did wrong to go to Argentina but thats how it is so many people talk of leaving Greece and its best for them to go anywhere at all they might as well go anywhere since there is poverty all over now even here in America many people are without jobs and stay home and live off the state which is why it is so hard today for a person to imigrate to America because things are not too good and every year there are fewer jobs and so Ill stop there .

On Saturday my husband and I went to see Eftychia Karatzakis and stayed there most of the day. She and her husband will leave on May 20 to go home to Crete. I asked her if I could put together a little package I begged her a thousand times but she said no because she says she has too many things and cant take anything else. In the end I started crying and asked if I could send at least one little dress a dress for my Lefteritsa who I love so much and she said yes and so I am sending you a dress Lefterio so you can wear it on the feast day of Agios Pavlos and go to church and remember your godmother who is in foreign lands .

I saw Lefterio that you wrote to me that I should take care to find you a husband even if hes old so that you can come here. My sweet one just as a blind man wants to see the day so too do I want to bring my people here to save them from the troubles of Greece because its true that here it is a real paradise. But if imigration was open the way you write everyone would pack their bags and come to America not just from Crete but from the whole world. Ever since I came I have been trying to bring my brother Spiros and havent been able yesterday I went again to the imigration office with my husband Fotis and they told me I have to be married for 3 years to have the right as an American to invite someone. And my aunt Maragkoudaina in Koufo asked me to make a place for her granddaughter Athina in my home and I answered her that I cant and my aunt got angry and stopped writing to me. There are strict laws Lefterio because if it was that way all of Greece would pack its bags and come here. I know my dear that life is very dramatic like you write to me and that your heart hurts and I tell you my heart hurts too because I love you so much my good little girl which I know you are and I know you deserve a good fate my dear sweet good girl but I think you will understand that I have only been here a short while and I am not yet an American. The law says that I have to be married to an American citizen for 3 years in order to invite one of my own people here .