Soon we were all in the van and on our way with Kiki, Nicholas, and Aunt Anna, who was so overcome to see JJ that she cried like a little girl for a full five minutes, stammering her words and hiccupping. JJ put his arms around her and patted her back. He was so touched. He gave her his handkerchief. Yes, my brother used linen handkerchiefs. I know. Very old school. Everyone was moved by her emotional outburst.
“You see,” Kiki said, “this visit means the whole world to her. She thought you wouldn’t come back and she thought she’d never see JJ again. For a Greek woman, to find more family is the greatest gift she can receive.”
Touché, Kiki, I thought. I couldn’t have said it better myself. I hoped Adam took her words to heart.
Alexandros Taverna was in full swing when we got there, and of course Alexandros hurried out from the kitchen to greet us.
“Kalinta! Kalinta! My cousin is home!” he said, grabbing me into one of his bear hugs and then kissing both of my cheeks. “How are you, Eliza? Where is your husband? Did he stay at home, I hope?”
We all laughed at Alexandros’s joke. Of course, he knew Adam was right there, waiting to shake his hand.
“I understand we have a very special reason to celebrate, yes?” he said to Adam.
“I’m alive,” Adam said, “and very happy to be here.”
“That’s good!”
“Yassou! Yassou!” Alexandros said to everyone, and the feast began.
For the next six days, we ate, we drank, and we played tourist. Of course, Nicholas arranged for a boat to take us to see other islands and guides to various churches, ruins, and museums. Needless to say, every one of us touched the foot of Saint Spyrídon. I wondered if my plea to him had influenced the peaceful resolution of our marital strife. I thanked him and threw in a prayer for my sons to find happiness.
The last night found us back at Alexandros Taverna, discussing a visit to our neck of the woods.
“I know America,” Alexandros said. “I went to New York and saw the Statue of Liberty and I went to many Greek restaurants in Astoria. And I have been to Disneyland in California and I have seen where Clark Gable lived. What else do I need to know?”
“Oh, come on, Alex,” Kiki said. “He is teasing all of you.”
“Actually, I wanted to talk to you about an idea I have for a restaurant. Should I e-mail you?” I said.
“Yes, please!” Alexandros said.
Suddenly, the restaurant got very quiet. I turned to see what was going on. There stood Cookie, in a diaphanous white linen caftan, laden with turquoise jewelry everywhere it could be hung, and with her was a large man, at least thirty years her junior, holding a wheel of cheese. He was wearing a navy double-breasted jacket and white pants with wooden clogs. Hans was in the house.
Adam, Ted, Carl, JJ, and Nicholas stood up.
“Oh my dear God,” Ted said, and he shook his head, as though he’d seen something that didn’t register.
“Hey, y’all,” Cookie said. “Hey, Ted. Y’all say hello to Hans!”
I had to admit, Cookie looked radiant. But this man she was with was very age inappropriate. Very. And, hello? May, December?
“I sent her a text yesterday,” Eve said. “I never thought she’d come.”
Alexandros stepped forward to greet them as though it was a perfectly normal situation.
“Yassou! I’ll get two more chairs.”
“Thank you,” Cookie said and sat down in Carl’s chair.
Tasha reached for the bottle of wine and refilled her glass.
“Anyone else?” she said.
Ted said, “Sure. Thanks.”
Hans just stood there grinning like a three-hundred-pound, six-foot-long merman out of water. He had long ringlets of blond hair and beautiful blue eyes.
“Mother! What are you thinking? Don’t you know he’s using you for your money?”
Cookie looked from my face to Judy’s and back to Eve’s and said, “Maybe I’m using him. Did you ever think about that?”
There was a look of horror on Judy’s face, and Ted was just aghast. Tasha began to laugh like a hyena. JJ tried to calm her down with death ray looks, but she couldn’t stop.
“She gets like this,” JJ said, clearly exasperated.
“It’s okay,” I said. “We love her. She’s family.”
The cheese was a gift for Kiki.
“We brought this for your hostess,” Cookie said to Eve. “Hans made it. And we knew you’d show up empty-handed.”
Cookie had not changed all that much.
Don’t ask me how we got through that awkward dinner, but we did. After all, the concept of hospitality was coined by the Greeks, and all my years in the South had taught me a thing or two about how to handle a sticky situation. In fact, everyone used their best southern manners and soon, when it appeared to be time for the bill, Cookie and Hans—who spoke not one word of English or Greek—went off into the night.
“Well, this was certainly a memorable evening,” I said.
“Thank you, Cookie,” Adam said and chuckled.
“It certainly was,” Kiki said. “Anyway, Nicholas and I have talked. We think we should take turns visiting one another each year. Next summer we will come to you with Mother for one week if that is a good plan?”
“Oh! It’s just perfect!” I said.
“Yes,” Adam said. “We’ll just get another condo at Wild Dunes!”
I was so sad to leave Corfu and most especially to leave Kiki, Nicholas, and my sweet aunt, Theia Anna. They had gone the distance to give us all the most memorable visit and vacation any of us had ever had.
“This vacation has been so great because we actually lived like locals,” Judy said. “Eliza was right.”
“Eliza is always right,” Adam said.
“May I have that in writing?” I said with a laugh.
After cruising the incredible blue water of the Ionian Sea together, we would never be the same again. As we said good-bye in Athens to JJ and Tasha, Adam and I made them promise to stay in touch.
“We’re going to do a better job, JJ,” Adam said.
“That sounds good,” JJ said. “We will as well.”
We watched them walk away, heading to their gate.
“Tasha wasn’t so terrible,” I said.
“No. She really wasn’t. She got a little tanked last night and went off the hyena scale but hey, she’s family!”
“I love you, Adam Stanley.”
“I love you, Eliza Stanley.” Adam gave me a kiss on my forehead. “Let’s go home.”
epilogue
2016
It was right after Christmas and we were eating leftovers. I had finally given Eliza the gray pearl earrings she’d been dying for. They were pretty dressy for leftover roast beef sandwiches but she wouldn’t take them off.
“They look really good on you,” I said.
She touched them and said, “I can’t believe you bought them! Adam! You’re a madman!”
“What should I do? Leave our money to the kids?”
Luke piped in, “I don’t know. That sounds okay to me.”
“Right,” I said. “You won’t need it.”
“I talked to Max,” he said. “He’s coming down for New Year’s Eve. He thinks we should all spend it at the house on the Isle of Palms. He wants to have a black tie New Year’s Eve Dinner.”
“Why black tie?” I said. Black tie was a pain in the neck.
“You know him,” Luke said. “He’s always been the dramatic one.”
“Oh, Lord. That’s more shopping and more work,” Eliza said. The holidays always wore her out.