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Dimitrios: Not sure. Cora told me he was going away for a while.
Thanasi: How is he?
Anastasios: Haven’t spoken to him.
Thanasi: You’ve been quiet. What’s going on?
The time stamp showed Anastasios didn’t respond. It was Dimitrios who chimed in next, with a note about work, and then, Thanasi again.
Thanasi: Leo? How are you?
Leo dialled Thanasi’s number,lifting the phone to his ear. Thanasi answered on the third ring.
“Hey,” Leo’s eyes fell on the view of the vines.
“You’ve been quiet.”
“I wasn’t near my phone.”
“How are you?”
Leo frowned. “Fine. You?”
“Fine? You sure? Cora told Dim you needed time to yourself.”
He had truly believed that, when he’d left. But now, he was glad for company, for the company of Mila, for the way she made him feel.
“It’s all good. You’re worried about mum?”
“I’ve never seen her like this.”
“Losing dad is a lot. Give her time.”
“You can’t seriously think time heals all wounds? You, of all people?”
Leo took his brother’s point. “I think there’s a big difference between losing a four year old and an eighty four year old. No one could have packed more into their life than dad. His death was a shock, to all of us.” He turned his back to the window right as Mila approached the doorframe, and something inside of him settled at the bottom of his gut. She looked at him enquiringly, then took a step backwards, as if to leave, but he lifted his hand, beckoning her inside, instead.
“But it’s not the same sort of tragedy as what happened to Val. It’s not the same wrench.”
Mila’s face softened with sympathy as she moved a little closer, staring at him as though she couldn’t possibly look away.
“That’s true,” Thanasi murmured. “Nonetheless, she’s devastated right now. She’s wandering around the house as though utterly bereft. I don’t know how to help her.”
Leonidas closed his eyes. “She has to want to be helped. Perhaps she’s not ready to heal. Perhaps, for now, she simply wants to exist in the darkness of grief, to honour our father with her devastation.”
“Perhaps.” Thanasi sighed. “You can be very wise when you want to be.”
Leonidas pulled a face. “We’ll see.”
“Will you come home soon?”
“Soon,” Leonidas agreed. “But not just yet. I can’t.”
“Can’t?”
“Can’t,” he agreed.
“What’s going on?”
