Page 138 - Exile-ebook

138 AN EXILE OF THE MIND MAGGIE, THE FLOWER CHILD 139

flapping their arms. A gaunt anaemic
American at the pension I was
staying at explained that the women
bought blood for their sick relatives.
He was waiting to regain his strength
before returning to the crows to sell
more of his.
I arrived on Paros two days
before my 27th birthday to find
Russell camped out in the town
square surrounded by children. A
day later we found a newly-built
villa on the beach east of town with
the Aegean Sea slapping against
Our luggage taken up to the house. the garden wall. The rent was 400
drachmas a month (US$13.70) with
Mother Teresa, a driver delighted in a cow next door to provide milk for
telling me between swigs of slivovitz our morning coffee.
that to drive inebriated was to have The books were collected from
one foot on the pedal and the other the post office where they had taken
in the grave. up most of the space in the small
I volunteered to share his bottle to office. The postmaster had to sit on
lessen the danger of having both feet them to serve his customers.
in danger of burial. I was let out on Donkeys laden with goods twice
a country road with no idea of north their size passed by our window
or south. A toss of a dinar pointed daily. Their rumps tapped to get a
my direction. Heads, I’ll go one move on by black-shawled women
way and tails I go the other. Several on their way to market. There were
hours later I saw the familiar sights very few cars and we would walk to
of Skopje coming into view… again. Parikia town a kilometre away to do
Passing a hospital in Thessaloniki, our shopping.
several women in black began The immaculate houses of Parikia,
shrieking, “Blood, blood.” I turned
and ran as the black crows followed, A back street in Parikia.