Rosso

The old wood floor was creaking. The roof was leaking and the wood studs were significantly broken. The moisture of the Greek island didn’t help but continue deteriorating the buildings wooden joists. Pieces of the ceiling painting were collapsing little by little, day by day. The marble cornice had already cracked when this big cymatium piece fell on the street. The Department of Buildings gave them no option but to abandon the house. Rosso was its name, given by the locals. Rosso because blood had watered its walls. But it was still their inheritance. “We don’t care about your inheritance. The house belongs to the city now. Whatever remains of it of course. The house... The house... The house...”

Athena kept repeating these words in her head again and again. Like a broken gramophone. She could not keep her thoughts together. The last belongings needed to be grabbed and instead the only thing that filled her mind were these words. Heirlooms that dated at least three generations back. The house...The house...

“This little porcelain basin belonged to your great grandmother, Fanoula. I still remember her using that with diligence. No water supply network, people had to work hard and spend less”. Athena could not really tell if mama Marina just reminisced about the past or if she was accusing her for not trying hard enough to make things better, to preserve this legacy, to save the house. The house above all.

“You are not seriously taking this straw armchair with us!” Athena cried.

“It’s not an armchair, You ignorant thing! It’s a bergere and your grandma would kill if you ever tried to remove it from the glassed porch”.

Athena had no choice than to drag the bergere by its upholstered sides.

“I could not have done anything”, she thought. “The pediment, the corbel, the bracket, the raised marble panels in between the windows, all one by one kept falling apart”.

“You are destroying it!” mama screamed.

“Mama, no, I didn’t know, it would not be possible to know! The arcade was already dilapidated when the bricks started revolving with the wind ...”

“Which bloody arcade? You are destroying my bergere!”

Athena turned back and she noticed a thin dust line in the direction she was dragging the armchair, Heh the straw chair, no, no the bergere or whatever this thing was.

“Mama, the underside linen is loose! It's about to open!”

The “clumsy” daughter kneeled in front of the bergere and noticed something protruding through the underside stuffing.

“Mama there’s something black coming out of here!” Athena cried.

“Then take it out! What are you afraid of? We found the last rat corpses five years ago! Nothing here can bite you! Except me if you keep delaying the process!”

Athena pulled a little floss and the linen opened wide. A little black notebook fell down.

“Mama, look! someone hid a notebook here!”

“it’s not someone. It's my grandma, Fanoula”.

That was the first time that Athena noticed that mama’s eyes were filed with tears. Her voice though remained stable:

“Put it in your bag and let’s go home before it gets too dark.”

…

Athena could not help but wonder why mama lost hope. The past four days she did not want to go back to Rosso to collect the last heirlooms. She just keep flipping through the black notebook’s pages without saying a word. She circled phrases in the notebook that made no sense at all.

“Margaux, Mouton and Haut-Bailly, all three queens trapped in a wooden pall sea, all three queens reign for thee”.

“Nice! This black notebook succeeded in frustrating her more, if that’s even possible” Athena pondered. However, she could not hide that she was also thrilled that Fanoula’s black notebook was in their possession, no matter if she was referring to kings, queens and other meaningless medieval stories.

“Nonsense! Nonsense! Nonsense!” Mama was murmuring all the time. “Which sea can be a wooden pall? I think grandma had already lost her marbles before she even wrote that!”

“Mama! Wait!! The house is half built in the rock that subsides in the sea! At this portion of the house the cellar is located!”

“Do you mean the filthy dungeon with the rat corpses?”

“Precisely! If you can recall the cellar that stores the old wine bottles is made out of wood! So, this could be our wooden pall sea!

Without saying a word, mama waddled rapidly towards the rear kitchen. Athena was trying to restrain her laughter with the image of mama losing her slippers while cursing and trying to fetch an old book, buried between the spice boxes.

“Athena! Look! Here they are! Chateau Mouton Rothschild from Pauillac, Chateau Margaux from Margaux and Chateau Haut-Bailly from Pessac-Leognan! All French wines of the early twentieth century! They must cost a fortune by now! Athena!!!! That's it! That's what grandma Fanoula wanted us to find! Go get them!!!

Athena was willing to go back there just to keep mama at ease. She grabbed her coat and she left the house in a hurry, slamming the door on her way out. She kept hearing the same words in her head: The house... The house... But what if mama was right and that was the way the grandma Fanoula had found to help them?

Before even realizing it, Athena was already at Rosso’s threshold. She opened the old door in a haste and she rushed towards the cellar. It was so dark, and the fact that the house had no electricity was not helpful at all. She was sure though that the cellar used to have a small window, directly above the sea level. And there it was; a small wooden window, buried in dust, and sealed. Athena tried to remove the sheds, but they collapsed at her first touch. No matter the damage, now she could have some rays of light giving life to the small cellar’s features.

The wooden wine rack was laying at the end of the room. Athena approached carefully, still wondering if there were more than rat corpses there. She removed a wooden leaf and there were the three queens: Margaux, Mouton and Haut-Bailly. She slowly removed Queen Margaux and she placed her towards the light. The result was far more different than what she expected: the cork had completely rotted due to humidity, and the wine had fully evaporated; there was only some sediment left in the bottle. She then grabbed Queen Mouton and lastly Queen Haut-Bailly. All of them were in the same condition, completely gone. Useless. Their hopes had proven to be fruitless.

Athena could not hide her frustration. She gave a forceful kick to the bottles laying on the lower shelves. But when the bottles fell down, a few white porcelain fragments glistened in the ground behind them. Athena bent over the fragments; a second row of shelves was laying behind the wine shelves. With chalk was written on their fascia:

“mstkos”

Could that be the Greek word “mistikos”, that means secret? Athena grabbed one of the white fragments and she put it towards the light and screamed intensely! These were not porcelain...they were bones! Human bones! Athena ran as fast as possible to go back home. She could not spare one more moment at Rosso.

…

All this frustration for nothing. Athena held the black note book in her arms the whole night. She felt like it became an undetachable piece of her body.

“Still laying there like a potato bag?” Mama entered the living room wearing her slippers, a scarf on her head holding her hair and a mop in her hand.

“Mama, it was quite a shock. All these bones... And these letters, mstkos, what do they mean?”

“It means you better start helping me with the house chores as we are back at square one!”

Athena could not find the energy to stand up. She was keep hearing the same words in her head. “The house, the house”. She started flipping through the black notebook’s pages. All these scribbles on every page that made no sense. Suddenly, her eyes fell on a strange phrase:

Mpistikos Entered the Kingdom

“Mama! The letters from today, could they be ‘Mpistikos’? What does that mean?”

Mama entered frustrated in the room. “Mpistikos means ‘trusted’ in Greek. There was always a ‘Trusted’ or a ‘Mpistikos’ at places that served as brothels. This person was also called a Protector for the girls working there, and was supposed to protect them from the violent clients. However, in most cases, they ended up abusing these girls and taking all of their money”

“That’s terrible, but how this is related to Rosso? I thought that my great grandpa was an Ambassador and used the house as a consulate for a while.”

“I don’t know, Athena. I really don’t. Let's go to the City Records tomorrow morning to see what fish we can get!”

…

“Mama! Look at this one! The last 19th century population census shows that our family had three predecessors, three siblings: Panagioti , Michali and Maria.”

“Yes, Maria was Fanoula’s mother. And Panagioti was her uncle. But I don’t know a ‘Michali’...”

“Here it says that Michali was working at the Sheepwreck. Maybe he was working for the Navy?”

“No, Athena! The Sheepwreck was the infamous port brothel. Panagiotis married one of the girls in an attempt to save her from a life of abuse and poverty. Pretty little thing but lived a very tortured life, as Fanoula used to say. She also said that this girl, Lila I think was her name, made some terrible confessions before dying. She admitted she stabbed her Mpistiko in the neck with her hat pin when he attempted to rape her in her cellar, after she had tried to start a new life”

“Mama! Could this man, this Mpistikos, be Fanoula’s uncle Michali?

“Well, it could, but why bury the body at this place, covering the escape exit?”

“Wait, which escape exit?”

“Athena, as you said, your great grandparents were Ambassadors. At least your good great grandparents. They needed a secret escape exit in case of enemy invasion”.

“So why bury the body there?”

“Maybe Lila and Panagiotis had something more to hide... Come with me!”

Mama grabbed Athena by her hand, she was in such a hurry that she almost dragged Athena to the floor. Athena could never believe that her mother had such a hidden energy. She really felt like this Rosso mystery gave a meaning to her life.

In no time mother and daughter were at Rosso’s stairs. Without wasting another minute, they ran into the cellar. Thankfully, there was still light from the window that Athena broke. Mama did not even care to curse her this time, she bent over the place that Athena had found the bones and started removing the ground with her bare hands. And there it was: an old copper box buried in front of the escape exit.

“In case they had to escape in panic, they would need some money!” mama said in a proud tone.

She opened the box and she could not believe what she found:

“Athena look! Two golden English pounds! Each one costs at least $10,000. That gives us $20,000!”

“Mama!!!”

The two women took the road back home. Athena was silently thinking the whole way. At some point she looked at her mama and she said:

“Mama, I am not ungrateful. I really feel blessed that grandma Fanoula helped us find this money. However, is it enough? We cannot possibly save the house with this amount of money?”

“Well, my love, we still have five more bergeres and the entire black notebook to go through...”