#4

You can't see them.

I shouldn't be seeing them.

I always loved my outdoorsy kid with the wild imagination. For as long as I can remember she had been seeing another world in our backyard. Every time her father would get ready to mow the lawn she insisted on running outside first yelling, "He's getting ready to mow! He's getting ready to mow!", as if she were warning the village.

Today she scraped her knee while she was playing outside and while I was out tending to her, she was telling me all about her fantasy friends. "Oh, mommy I really wish you could see them too". "That would be wonderful, honey but -", I answered absentmindedly and got distracted as the sun suddenly got brighter for a moment. I looked up trying to judge if the day were going to get any hotter, but nothing seemed to have changed. I looked back at my daughter, who seemed to have even forgotten she had fallen and told her to go play I'd call her in for lunch soon.

As I was getting up I saw them. Moving at he base of the tree we had been sitting next to were these creatures. I sat back down and stared. What could they be, were they dangerous? They weren't animals, they had tools and clothes, and definitely some magic. How is he moving that huge eggplant? Hey, that's from my garden! I thought I had a rabbit problem. Julie did say the fairies liked them. Oh-no! These can't be the fairies she had been talking about all these years. Fairies are beautiful diaphanous creatures, these are not beautiful. They might be cute in they way that small things are cute, but these are homely, earthy creatures. They don't even have wings. They look like they probably live underground.

"Mommy!" Julie's voice calls to me but I can't look away from what I am watching. Her hand is on my shoulder, "can you really see them now mommy?" "See what honey?", I answer vaguely although I know what she is referring to. She turns her head and says something to herself. When she looks back at me she gives me a big hug and runs back to play again.

I don't know if I am losing my mind or if my daughter has just given me some magical gift so I can see into her world. But I know I am sitting right here until something makes sense.

#3

Facebook.
She had found him on Facebook, or rather he had found her. Now here she was sitting in a coffee shop pretending to do a crossword puzzle for the past 20 minutes, waiting.

Why had she even gotten onto Facebook anyway? "Come on mom, it'll be fun", her son had said, "we can be friends". Oh, she had given him such a look, but then he flashed that smile and she became his "friend". She was surprised at how many "friends" her son had, and even more surprised at how many of them were friends with their parents. One of her son's friends contacted her after she had been online and asked her for the recipe for those "lemon cookie things" that he had at her house once, he had never forgotten them. She didn't remember the boy or the cookies and there was a good chance they had probably come out of a box, but it was sweet anyway. Eventually, she knew more about what her son was up to than when he had been living at home and she had her own slew of friends. It seemed like everyone was on Facebook.

"I can't believe you are on Facebook. I have thought about you so many times and wondered what happened to you." came the message with the Friend Request. Thank goodness no one was there to see her grinning like a schoolgirl with a crush at the computer screen. He had thought about her, he had found her, she pressed accept without thinking. Was the world so much easier now. She started to write to tell him, but his e-mail arrived first asking her to meet him at Cafe Amelie tomorrow for lunch. She focused back on the entrance and the street around it. She knew she would recognize him, even if he never looked her way. She could remember how he walked, the way he moved, but of course she would be sure if she saw him smile. She had seen that smile every day for the past 20 years. Well almost every day, up until her son moved on to campus last year.

There he was walking into the Cafe.

Quickly she got up and began to walk across the street. Finally after all this time she could tell him about how that summer, that vacation, that one night had changed everything. He could tell her why her dad couldn't find him when he looked, why his family had never come back to the lake. It was OK, she hadn't been alone, her family had had taken care of them both, but she always felt bad that he didn't know about their son. She walked up to the entrance of the cafe and could see him seated. She only saw his profile, but his face gave her all the answers she needed. He had always known.

#2

It was either the best decision or the worst decision she had ever made, taking up with a stray. Oh she knew him from around the island, he was always friendly, nice teeth if that meant anything. But allowing him into her life was a split second decision she hoped she wouldn't regret.

That first night he spent hours bathing her, brushing the knots out of her coat, untying the strings that those rotten juveniles had tied to her. Not that she was vain but she would not have gone back to sleep outside after that for an entire souvlaki. Ok, well maybe for and entire one she would have, but not just for a bite. But he cleared some space in that cluttered room and gave her some old T-shirts to lie on and she slept indoors for the first time. It would have been the best night of her life except that her stomach started rumbling before the sun was even up. She was used to scavenging at night to fill her belly and now her belly was telling her to find food but she was trapped inside. She got up to see if she could find something that would allow her eat enough to get back to sleep.

There were more smells in that cluttered room than behind the fish restaurants down by the bay. She carefully dug through piles of clothes that smelled of endless nights, empty cans, empty bottles, empty boxes and so many things she couldn't identify. She finally found one stale crust to chew on and then she continued to chew through the paper plate it had been sitting on, her stomach still rumbled. In front of her she saw a tube and in her hunger decided it was worth tasting. Ugh the awful acrid taste, it filled her mouth immediately. She thrust her tongue forward over and over trying to get rid of it but she couldn't get it out of her mouth. She needed water and she ran frantically around the room trying to find some, finally she found it in the small room off to the side. She drank and drank and drank until that foul taste left her mouth.

In the morning he found her sleeping there beside the toilet. He looked so worried and he ran around almost as frantically as she had after she had bitten that tube. Finally he found the tube and walked over to her, laid his hand on her head and said, "red paint". He then brought her big bowl of water and some food although she had no idea where he had managed to find food when she couldn't. He washed her again and when he was done he made a big deal about throwing away almost everything in the room. She cowered in the corner wondering what would happen next. He turned to her and said, "Come Jackie, let's see if we can get some real painting done today".

#1

Everyone knew where to find them. Every morning out by the dock. Long before the tourists had shaken off last night's party they were out with the people of the town getting ready for the day to come and the night to follow. Most of the money on this island was made at night, even the shops stayed open until the wee hours taking advantage of the purse strings loosened up by revelry and alcohol. But they made their money in the morning, Benito and Angelo were part of the quiet side of the island. Street cleaners nodded at them as they worked their way past. Shopkeepers and friendly cops would come by and chat as they cleaned the fish caught before the sun had even come up. They would be done with their work by lunchtime and in bed before the street lights came on at night.

Benito caught himself thinking that he would miss this quiet routine. He tried to think of what it would be like after they left. Their first stop would be Athens. The only soul he knew there was Vicki, one of the countless young people who came out from the city during tourist season to make some money. But the only one he'd ever met who loved to watch the sunrise. His thoughts were interrupted by a loud laugh. He looked over, Angelo was smiling and chuckling, but it was the cop who was laughing loudly at his own story.

The cops enjoyed sharing their stories with the two fishermen even if they did stay back a few feet back to keep the smell of fish guts off their uniforms. Then there was that one morning almost a year ago now when no one came by. Benito and Angelo had wondered about it until they realized that an early morning crime had upset the police routine for the whole day. One of their favorite cops, Dimitri, had griped to them about it the next day, "Who the hell commits a crime at sunrise!" Benito turned his face down towards the fish he was cleaning to hide his smile as Dimitri went on about how it screwed everything up. How the night shift was just getting ready to turn in, the morning shift was coming on so then everyone had to be involved, 2 different shifts stepping on everyone's toes, screwing up the whole day. Still it was the most exciting thing that had happened in a long time, four jewelry stores hit in rapid succession at sunrise. Dimitri went on and on about how it had to be one of those big crime rings and they would have to get Interpol involved, but they never saw a single agent. The cops had talked about it for weeks. Now though, it had faded and the cop who was standing with them was just telling stories of drunk and indiscreet tourists.

All those mornings of cleaning fish on the dock in view of the shops where the tourists would unload their money, he knew everyone's routine better then he supposed they did. He was going to miss this, but it was time to move on. Tomorrow they would drive the car down in the dark and park it as usual. They would take the boat out, gather up their catch and that would be it. They would be just as gone as the jewelry.