Envy – Part 1
Envy
Dedicated to Julia (You-lee-ah ) in Romania.
Hello, this is Jana,
I’m here with the first of a two part story set on the Greek island of Crete.
It’s a special story for Bertie and me - we actually wrote it on location.
It’s also a follow up to a story I wrote some time ago, called Fear, and it features Emily, who is struggling with a phobia and her best friend Heidi.
As you will hear in this story, their friendship comes under some strain during a school trip.
Envy
Read by Jana.
Story by Jana and Bertie.
Dedicated to Julia in Romania who supports Storynory!
Emily was in a state of awe as the aeroplane's engines revved up ready to get spinning along the runway.
For her the idea of being suspended 35,000 feet in the air by some miraculous aeronautical magic was a huge thrill. She and her best friend Heidi hardly slept a wink the night before, counting the hours for this moment as they’d huddled up in Heidi's attic bedroom giggling excitedly. But as it turned out, it wasn’t so thrilling for Heidi. She gripped Emily’s hand. In fact, she was firmly glued to it. Fortunately Emily being in such high spirits hardly noticed her hand turning blue.
“Oh my goodness, what a buzz!” Emily shrieked excitedly, as the plane sped up into the air. “Look how high up we are! Heidi, look!” she gushed.
You might think she was being tactless, but in truth her excitement helped dispel her best friend’s fear of flying.
Heidi breathed a sigh of relief. “What would I do without Emily.. my bright spark,” she quietly thought to herself.
Emily was sitting beside her by a mixture of luck and the power of persuasion. They were going on a school trip to the island of Crete but it was really only meant for the handful of students who were studying ancient Greek. After two terms, a boy called Charlie could not stand any more Greek declensions and so he switched to Spanish. There was a spare place on the Cretan expedition, and Emily who was in the French class, begged and begged Mr Christakis to allow her to join the trip, telling him that she loved mythology even if she didn’t learn ancient Greek. Of course she doubly wanted to go to be with her best mate Heidi.
Mr Christakis, who had a soft heart, relented.
When the takeoff was over, and the plane was flying high above the clouds, the passengers settled into their seats. Heidi opened a copy of Homer’s Iliad on the first page. The ancient epic poem of the Trojan War was far in advance of what the class was learning but she was determined to puzzle it out with the help of her Homeric dictionary.
Meanwhile Emily was reading an exciting novel featuring the Greek gods who are hanging around in the modern world, still carrying on ancient grudges and fighting secret, supernatural battles.
After three and a half hours of flying, they touched down with raucous applause at Chania Airport on the Island of Crete. The terminal was far less hassle than London’s Gatwick had been, and soon the exuberant children were travelling in a minibus, driving past the majestic, Aegean sea. After about 40 minutes, they turned off the highway and headed into the foothills of the mountains. They drove through winding valleys, and past sparkling lakes taking pictures on their mobile phones. They were quietly in awe of the beautiful scene around them. They passed rows and rows of olive trees and as many shades of green as they’d ever seen sprouting out of grey and orange mountain sides. Every so often, modernity intruded amid the ancient landscape, with giant solar panels or wind turbines perched on peaks. But nothing could manage to be ugly here. It was all bathed in crystal clear sunlight that made everything cheerful, even concrete houses that were only half built, or stone cottages that had half-tumbled down.
The airline had only served tasteless food at rip-off prices, and so of course the kids were ravenous. They were delighted when the minibus pulled up outside a row of tavernas. They looked appealing as they were situated alongside some antique fountains that bubbled with mountain spring water. An appetising rich, smoky smell of burnt olive wood and roast meat scented the air because the food was cooked over a fire on the terrace. Heidi realised that this was the same smell that the heroes of Homer’s Iliad experienced when they offered sacrificial animals to the gods.
They settled at a restaurant called ‘Carpé Diem’ and sat outside under the cool plane trees, their wide leaves providing shade.
The menu was written in Greek, German and English. Heidi tried to decipher the Greek letters - which were the same as in ancient Greek.
She worked out some words like:
Σπανακόπιτα (Spanakcopita)
Σουβλάκι (Souvlaki)
And Tsadziki (Tsadziki)
But she had no idea what any of them meant, because the words in the Greek language have changed quite a bit over the past 2,000 years.
In fact, all her hours of studying Ancient Greek were hardly any help at all when it came to the language that Greeks speak today. When it came to being a tourist in Greece, she might as well have been learning ancient Aztec!
The owner of the restaurant, a friendly but business-like lady, came round to take the orders. Heidi was amazed when Emily piped up:
καλημέρα
Kalimera (which means, hello)
The Greek lady instantly understood and echoed back the same.
And Emily did not stop there.
ένας τζατζίκι, ένας Cola Zero, ένας φρέσκια πέστροφα, σας παρακαλούμε
“Enas Tsadziki, Enas Cola Zer0, enas Freskia Pestropha, Sas Parakalou.”
The lady understood perfectly and wrote it all down.
“Nice accent, Emily,” said Mr Christakis - the teacher who was himself half-Greek, so this was praise indeed.
Heidi was astonished with her friend’s fluency.
“How did you learn to speak Greek?” She asked, flabbergasted.
Emily explained. “When my dad agreed to pay for the trip, he said the deal was I had to do some online Greek lessons.”
“And you learned to speak Greek so fast?”
“Well, only the most important things, like food. At least I’m not going to starve!” said Emily.
But of course the ancient Greek scholars were in no danger of starving either, because the waiters all spoke English.
As she was speaking, a burly waiter used a net to fish a wriggling trout out of a stone pool under the waterfall which was now thrashing around in a plastic bucket. A girl called Flora who happened to be a vegetarian was sitting close. Seeing this and near to tears, she exploded, “That is nothing short of barbaric!” And stomped off in dismay to the further end of the table.
Soon a waiter brought a collection of starters, called Mezzes, that the kids could all share. Each little dish was more delicious than the next, and they eagerly demolished the platefuls of fried calamari, hot pitta bread, fried zucchini, olives, luscious fresh tomatoes, and a host of other tasty bites.
“Mmm, this is good,” said a boy called Oliver reaching over for some more spinach and feta pastries.
“Yes, and perhaps you can stop scoffing down the whole lot? You're meant to share, you gluttonous hog!” cried Emily, who was unfortunate enough to be sitting next to the greediest boy in their group. She had already watched him devour a whole basket of bread. And endured his loud belches!
It was made worse by some of the others laughing hysterically at Oliver's noisy eruptions.
“You're so rude, Oliver!” Just stop it, for goodness sake.”
Laughing sound fx…
By this point, Emily and Oliver had both taken hold of a generous plate of tzatziki. As you can imagine, the tug of war inevitably ended up with the creamy mixture of Greek yoghurt and cucumber flying out of their hands and landing on the stone ground.
“What a mess! Will you stop that!” shrieked Heidi.
Mr Christakis looked up from his plate.
“Heidi, keep your voice down! I’ve been saving myself all day for this,” he said looking down at his plate with a smile.
“Sorry Mr. C,” said Heidi, who actually did not feel sorry at all. It was not her who had been misbehaving, it was her friends.
After lunch, the minivan took them on a short trip up a windy road to their lodgings. Mr Christakis had booked an old villa which was situated in a picturesque and traditional Cretan village. It had a lovely garden, a swimming pool, and magnificent views of the steep mountain side. The four girls on the trip shared a stone arch shaped room that had probably served as a grain store in previous times.
Heidi lay down on her bed, took out her phone and plugged in her earphones. She opened up YouTube and typed, “Modern Greek Lessons.” She was determined to catch up with Emily’s useful language skills!
“Kalimera,” she repeated several times back at the video of the Greek speaker on her phone, before practicing “Pou Eenie?” which means, “Where is?”
Meanwhile Emily relaxed outside on a sun lounger and read her novel, until she became bored. She decided to go for a venture around the cute garden filled with an array of colourful flowers. She was admiring the huge Cretan pots delicately arranged with aromatic herbs, such as thyme and basil, before she discovered a gate, hidden around the back. Mr Christakis had told them not to leave the villa, but she was curious to explore the little streets and did not intend to go far. In fact, she went no more than about 100 metres between the stone walled houses before she found something interesting. It was a mosaic floor that was protected by a fence. It had an attractive geometric pattern and looked old. A little notice said it dated back to the Roman period in the second century AD. She snapped a picture or two and headed back to the villa. On the way she took a few moments to pick a tempting pomegranate from a tree overhanging the street.
In the evening, Mr Christakis gave them a little talk about where they had come to, and the plans for the trip.
When he’d finished speaking, Emily put up her hand and said: “Oh by the way Mr C, did you know that there is an ancient Mozaic near here? It dates from Roman times and it’s only about 100 metres from the villa.”
“No, I did not know that. How did you hear?”
“Oh, I was speaking to the owner of the villa,” said Emily, telling a white lie.
“Marvellous. Well let’s go and take a look,” said their teacher eagerly.
“Through the gate at the back of the villa, you turn left and walk down the little street past the pomegranate tree,” said Emily. The pomegranate was sitting on a plate in front of Emily, but the teacher didn't notice the clue that Emily had been out of the villa and picked it.
So Mr Chistakis took the kids on the short expedition to inspect the mozaic.
“That's odd. I have been here many times and I did not know about it. Good find Emily,” he said.
Emily smiled. She was pleased because she wanted to feel that she deserved to be on the trip. She wasn’t in the ancient Greek class like the others, but she was justifying her place on the trip.
But Heidi thought of all the hours she had spent learning ancient Greek verbs, nouns, and adjectives, with all their many different endings that changed constantly, and here was her friend lapping up all the approval of her teacher. It didn’t feel very fair.
That evening, when Mr Christakis fetched pizzas and Greek salad from the village taverna, Heidi didn’t feel hungry enough to eat more than one small piece. Her stomach did not feel at all right, as if butterflies were fluttering about. And when she looked at Emily, who was happily praising the pizza, and bragging that it was just as good as the one she ate in Rome, Heidi felt even worse.
She peeled a piece of ham off the top of the slice of pizza and secretly fed it to the little one-eyed cat that was meowing at the foot of her chair.
The next morning, they were back in the mini-van to head off for the archeological dig. Mr Chistakis explained that they were driving a few kilometres further up the mountain to a large construction plot. Some wealthy Germans had bought it six years ago for their luxury villa, but the Greek Department of Archeology had forbidden them to start building. First experts had to dig up the land to check there were no ancient ruins or artefacts. After many delays, the dig was in progress. A university friend of Mr Christakis was in charge, and he had given his permission for the class to take part in the excavation for one day.
The minibus took the party of kids high up into the mountain along a winding road. Up, up, and round they went. The journey along the precipice of the mountainside seemed endless and potentially treacherous. Heidi and a few others were starting to become quite alarmed. The tarmac just stopped, and then it was a steep drop to the bottom of the valley. The wheels of the minibus were tracing this sharp edge. All their lives depended on the steady driving skills of their ancient Greek teacher. Some of the kids on board were praying with baited breath that they would not dive over! On one sharp bend, they almost ran into a herd of goats clanking their bells. Emily was sitting at the front of the minibus, admiring the views, the sheer mountain sides.
Finally they arrived safely at their destination and Heidi released a huge sigh of relief! The rich Germans had chosen an idyllic spot to build their luxury villa. They were on a plateau with magnificent views over the valley. For now there was no building on the land - just digging. The archaeologists had excavated about a third of the plot down to about half a metre.
The friend of Mr Christakis welcomed the kids, and showed them what they had to do. First of all they needed to be wearing hats and sunscreen and have plenty of water to hand. Then they must go down on their hands and knees and not so much dig through the dirt, as comb through it looking for ancient artefacts.
“Have you found anything yet?” Asked Mr Christakis.
“Just a few bones and an old frying pan,” said the archeologist, “but I have a hunch that a beautiful spot like this would have been the perfect site for a shrine or an altar to the gods.”
The kids were soon working down in the trench and Mr Christakis was walking around making sure that nobody was rushing and that everyone was taking care not to miss any special finds.
And I am delighted to send our best wishes to You-lee-ah in Romania and her mum Alexandria who have very generously supported Storynory on more than one occasion. We really hope that you enjoy this story.
And that was the first part of Envy - What do you think? Can you sympathise with Heidi for feeling just a bit envious of her best friend? Do you think they can remain friends? Listen to the second and final episode to find out.
And thank you again to You-lee-ah and her family in Romania. If anyone would like to support us - perhaps the easiest way is via PayPal - look for details on Storynory.com in the sidebar.
From me Jana @ Storynory.com, bye for now.