June 2012
Deity.gr
42 Charis Gantzoudis ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Petros got out of bed before the alarm went off. He had a quick
shower, went through his folder to make sure he didn’t forget
any important documents and went down to the kitchen.
Maria was waiting there for him. She said good morning with a
kiss and prepared his coffee.
“Are you anxious?” she asked
“Very much. The meeting today wil determine my future at
the bank.” he answered.
“You’l do just fine. You have struck many bargains like this in
the past.”
“It’s not the same. The current market situation makes
investors suspicious. I don’t want to think about what wil
happen if they decide not to invest the money in our bank.” he
answered while taking a quick sip of his coffee.
At age thirty eight, Petros, was a successful stockbroker. His
first priority was his job. Everything else came second. He
never went out of plan and expected everything around him to
be neat. He even put his clothes himself in the closet. He
wanted to be able to find his black or red tie, the white or blue
shirt instantly. Maria never dared touch his things and she
never entered the home office. They were married for 10
years. She often felt neglected but didn’t say anything most of
the time. The only time they had a huge fight was 8 years ago,
when Maria’s water broke and she had to go to the hospital by
herself because he was at a business appointment. Petros came
two hours later and saw his son in her arms. He cried but she
didn’t give in. For the next forty days she didn’t say a word to
him, but in the end she forgave him. Of course he loved her
and cared about her, but every success in work would give him
satisfaction. It caused him to fly in the clouds and feel
important and despite the complains from his friends, his wife
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and even little Nikolas, who only saw him for a few minutes
before being handed to Morfeas, he didn’t seem wil ing to
change his state of mind.
He drank another sip from his coffee, looked at the time and
jumped up.
“I’m late” he said and after checking his folder one more time,
he turned to leave. Maria fol owed him into the living room
and after he kissed her, he wished him good luck. He opened
the door to leave but her voice stopped him:
“Don’t forget the pottery exhibition at Nikolas’ school at four.
We’l be waiting at the entrance.”
“Is this real y necessary? After al you’l be there.” he said
while holding the door open.
“Our child wants you there. He asked me yesterday evening.
Al this time you haven’t been to one school event, so please be
on time”.
“I need to be at the office today. Couldn’t it be on another
day?”
“Your son needs you more” she answered and the tone of their
voices started rising. Their bawling could be heard up to the
entrance of the apartment building. Right before the
apartment door shut, Petros promised Maria that he would do
everything possible to be there, but he didn’t convince her.
The cloudy Athenian sky burst out in lightning and thunder,
while the big drops of rain would soon transform the streets
into raging torrents. Petros hands hit hard on the steering
wheel. He was stuck in traffic for quite some time now, while
the flooded from the rain streets made the traffic even worse.
His appointment with the investors drew near and he still
hadn’t made it to the bank. Anxiety had taken the best of him.
The ring of his phone interrupted his thoughts for a while.
44 Charis Gantzoudis ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“Hello?” he asked intensely
“Hi my friend, where are you?”
“Dimitri, not now. I am on the way to work and I’m already
late.”
“I won’t hold you up. I just wanted to ask you about. .”
“I told you, I don’t have time right now. I’l cal you later.” He
interrupted him, closed the phone and said: “with everything
on my mind today I can’t listen to Dimitri crying on about
Olympia cheating on him.” and started cursing his luck.
Dimitris was his childhood friend and was going through a
tough time lately in his personal life. They were talking on the
phone for hours after work. Petros tried to comfort him and
convince him that there would be more girls like Olympia. But
now work came first and he wouldn’t let anybody, not even
Dimitris, occupy him. This behaviour had become the cause of
misunderstandings between the two friends.
Every chance he got he would accelerate as much as he could
and anytime someone came in his way, his horn buzzed like
crazy. Because of his anxiety, he took a wrong turn. So he
wouldn’t be late, he turned around instantly to avoid having to
take the long way but he oversaw a motorcycle coming his
way. It fell on the driver’s door. The young motorcyclist fell on
the asphalt. Petros stepped out of his car. Thankful y nobody
was injured. Only some minor scratches on the motorcyclist’s
arms and legs, who started shouting at Petros. He tried
calming him down, which turned out to be not that easy.
When he suggested he gave him his card and they sort
everything later through the phone, because he had to go to
work, the young motorcyclist got even angrier.
“You’re not going anywhere. First police wil come and clear
things up and then you can go wherever you want.”
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Petros tried to change his mind without any success. He got
into his car and waited for the police to arrive. He didn’t stop
for a second cursing his luck. His suit got wet and his pants
were ful of mud. For a second he thought about stopping to
buy another suit, but he would lose more time this way. He
just hoped that the big investors would concentrate on what
he had to say, not on his looks.
Half an hour later, after he arranged that his insurance
company would pay the motorcyclist, he got into his car,
relieved that he could continue his drive to work. But there
was one more unpleasant surprise waiting for him. His car
would not start up. He got out and started kicking the door
that was already squeezed from the hit earlier. Though his
luck seemed to be back, when he saw a taxi passing by. He got
in and told the driver to go as fast as he could. In fifteen
minutes he had to be at the bank. His anxiety rose while he
was thinking about the investors waiting for him in his office.
While thinking about al this his blood froze and his eyes
opened wide. “The folder. I forgot the folder with the
documents in the car” he screamed. He started hitting the
taxi’s dashboard and cursing. He asked the driver to turn
around. When they drove up to the car, he saw the documents
and some of his belongings scattered in the muddy water of
the street. He had forgotten to lock his car and somebody had
stolen everything. Petros tried gathering some of the muddy
documents from the asphalt, but there was no point in it. He
started crying in anger, unable to believe what he was going
through. After he calmed down, he got into the taxi again.
When he final y go to the bank, it was too late. Christina, his
assistant, informed him that the investors had just left a few
minutes ago and that Georgiou had closed the deal, a co-
46 Charis Gantzoudis ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
worker with whom Petros didn’t have the best of
relationships. Petros walked towards the manager’s office.
When he entered, he saw him congratulating Georgiou, who
gave him an arrogant look while leaving. When the office door
closed, Petros tried to explain to the manager what had
happened but he didn’t seem wil ing to listen and simply said:
“Don’t bother. Just go to your office and gather your stuff. I
have already arranged your compensation.”
Petros left, without trying to say anything more. There was no
way he could have made him change his mind. He went into
his office and gathered his few belongings. A few hours later,
after he had said goodbye to his co-workers, he stepped out of
the bank. He turned around and stared at it for a while. His
whole life flashed before his eyes: endless meetings,
consecutive appointments, studies, economic analyses,
anxiety, alienation. “Eventual y my whole life was only my job
and what did I get out of it?” he wondered. Next to him was a
recycle bin. He opened it and threw the things he had
gathered from the office in. What had fil ed him with
satisfaction a few hours ago, now suffocated him. He looked at
his watch and stopped a taxi that was passing by. He urged the
driver to hurry, but this time not to get to a work
appointment, but to make it to the appointment he had with
his son. The pottery exhibition had to be reaching an end soon
and since he hadn’t made it from the beginning, he at least
wanted to be there at the end.
When he got to the school entrance, there was no one. The
gates were locked. Without wasting any time, he hurried
home. He opened the door and shouted for Maria and Nikolas.
In his hands he had gifts for both of them. But there was no
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one in the house. A white piece of paper on the living room
table caught his attention. It was a note from Maria:
“I hope that you closed the deal and that the investors were
pleased by your knowledge. I also hope that you have seen
satisfaction in your boss’s eyes, and not the disappointment I
saw in Nikola’s look when I told him that you couldn’t come to
the exhibition. This look helped me make the decision to order
my lawyer to start divorce proceedings. Neither me, nor
Nikolas are stil able to compete with your job. I got tired. We
got tired. You see, the job turned out to be more important to
you that we were. For a while I wil stay at my mother’s in
Thessaloniki. Whenever you want you can communicate with
the child. As for my decision, it doesn’t change. I know that
you love and care for me, but we have different priorities.
Good luck.”
Petros left the note on the couch. For some minutes he stared
at the wal in front of him. The memories were going wild in
his mind. He started reckoning what he had lost al this time
because of work. He grabbed his phone and cal ed Dimitris.
The pre-recorded message “your cal is being diverted” made
him see that he had lost him too. He was al alone.
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