Eléni & M Move to Athens - Part 3

This new series has its history in the form of several short stories, several poems, and a 13-part series that is linked at the bottom via Part 2 of this series. Anthi Psomiadou has graciously agreed once again to appear as a fictional character in this new series. The French subtitle means, A Foursome by Two.

How great are the dangers I face to win a good name in Athens. Alexander the Great

Our feast with Goddess Athena never ended as far as I know. Her beauty coupled with her wisdom kept us all enchanted, forgetting that we were mortals, and happy to be alive. We all loved her, feeling it together like un ménage à cinq (a household of five). Being a bird, however intelligent it was, Glaukopis did not count, especially that it was asleep on its olive tree, probably dreaming of Patrick and M, I mean me. I hope that it was not a nightmare, little owl. Anthi had to leave at some point to return to her life, but it seems that Goddess Athena wanted her to stay — we all did — and thus Anthi remained with the rest of us after calling her family to tell them that she would be very late. Patrick and M, I mean me, were sitting with three stunning women, each of us in love with one, and all of us in love with Anthi, and one of these to-die-for women was a real goddess. It happened yesterday and I feel it as if it is happening right now as I am writing about it. At least now I know how to call it, I know what it is. I was and am happy. There is no equal to this feeling. Love is only part of it. All you need is love could be easily replaced by all you need is happiness, though the latter is much harder to attain. And as the movie, The Hours (discussed in Part 2), intimated, we are often happy without knowing it, and it is only when we lose it that we know that we had it. The real Anthi is aware of it, as is my Anthi in this story, the Anthi who remained with us, knowing that no one in their right mind could abandon happiness, no matter what awaited them in their principal life.

We were not at all sleepy, and we were drinking both red wine and ouzo.

O ouzo! What a

booze you are! Happily you

are not tsipouro.

We were happy, as I mentioned, and all thanks to a goddess. Perhaps religion is a good thing, after all. But not the organized, strict, you-have-to kind. It has to be a religion that gives you a feeling of freedom, knowing that everything is going to be alright, choosing to forego all scientific facts in the name of happiness. It is a good deal. Unfortunately, I cannot unlearn what I know to be fact at around 99.9%. Science always admits that nothing is 100%, except for a number of absolutes like the weight of a proton and the acronym AI. It stands for a few other things but everyone knows that it stands for artificial intelligence. It is already building bridges in our genes. One could also worship a city, like Athens. Why not? It is big enough. It comes with a real goddess, and even I live there. Did I digress? I have no narrator to blame. Perhaps it is because of Anthi. You know that her name means “flowers” in Greek. So, I can rectify my previous phrase and say that we were drinking red wine and ouzo surrounded by blue-and-white flowers, plus a real goddess. I still think that I dreamt it all up. Come on! A real goddess? Goddess Athena? I wish! Who am I kidding? Some readers are so easy.

Yet, here we were happy with happiness. Two couples that will be living in a house I cannot even imagine. Goddess Athena and Patrick, and Eléni and M, my treasure and myself. Un ménage à quatre (a foursome) but only in the sense of two twos, with the occasional kiss from the goddess, which as I mentioned before (Part 2), was addictive. We do have one witness, but we normally need at least two. Eléni would be biased, so there is only Anthi. But she would be biased too now that she has become part of this Greek circle. I guess that you will have to take my word for it.

At one point, I wondered whether Goddess Athena could stretch time, since our feast was never-ending and the night still looked young. I looked at each one around the table, only seeing joy. It was as if every care in the world took a walk on Happiness Lane, a side street in Athens, where time stands still. I was in some twilight zone. Can Goddess Athena bring Rod Serling back? He was too young when he died. I began to see faces of individuals whom I always thought should never have died. My mind was flooded with my love for them. There were too many of them to list for you, but I distinctly remember Charlie Chaplin and Christopher Hitchens, and Demis Roussos, a Greek singer I used to listen to when I was a teenager bathing in the Mediterranean. I left you a link below to one of his many beautiful songs. Anthi, both real and fictitious, will surely concur about his greatness.

Even the food was varied and to everyone’s liking. A funny thing that Dr. Mehmet Yildiz would appreciate was that we were all eating a ketogenic feast at this divine table. Anthi had no choice, but she was overwhelmed by the wonderful tastes of the meats (beef, turkey, small fish), plethora of vegetables (no potatoes), best fruits (avocados, coconuts, lemons, limes, berries), and nuts that squirrels would die for, all divinely spiced or arranged by Goddess Athena herself with some loving guidance from Patrick. Anthi turned keto that endless evening, especially after seeing Goddess Athena approving of it as being a divine diet. I am laughing inside, Dr. Yildiz is surely smiling, and Anthi is probably saying something sensible in Greek. She may say so in a comment. It is always a possibility. It may be a Greek gestalt. I had also seen Nietzsche with his impossible moustache. How could I not?

O ouzo! Your pert

sweetness renders happiness

a reality.

...

Goddess Athena!

You make life bearable to

all those whom you touch.

...

Eléni, my love!

You put all the right spices

in our happiness.

...

How many flowers

do I need for a bouquet?

Anthi will suffice.

...

Hey, Patrick, you prick!

You may live with a goddess,

but I live with trees.

...

I would like to thank Anthi Psomiadou for her continued support as a fictional character called Anthi, who always looks blue and white in any day of the year, so I think, so I hold, so I will see.

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