Seven Days of Friday (Women of Greece Book 1) (32 page)

M
elissa is
full of
tears and hugs.

That’s okay, Vivi is, too.

“Allergies,” she says.

Nobody suggests otherwise.

Y
ou’d think
she’d been gone a year, the way Biff acts.

It’s undignified, how she rolls around on the ground with him, but who cares?

“So who do you think called in the tip?” Max asks.

Vivi shrugs. “Could be anyone.”

“Who hates you?”

“I’m sure there’s a list.”

“Be serious, Vivi.”

“I am serious. Let’s see. Ian – that’s my ex husband’s boyfriend. Your fiancée – ”

“Ex fiancée.”

“ – my cousin Effie. Melissa’s friend Olivia. This Sofia woman’s daughter – who may or may not be my sister. I’m sure there are more. Like I said: a list.”

“Do you think she’s your sister?”

“It’s possible.” She thinks for a minute. “Who knows if she even knows I exist? If her mother was as secretive as mine . . .”

They look inside at Vivi’s parents and Melissa working in the kitchen.

Vivi says, “We never really know our parents, do we?”

“No, but they know us. They used to be us.”

S
he might talk
a lot of sunshine and light, but Vivi is worried.

Somebody here hates her. Somebody here hates her enough to lie to the police.

That’s not exactly small potatoes.

Nobody leaves anonymous tips for funsies. It’s a calculated tactical move. That anonymous someone wants:

V
ivi in jail permanently
.

Vivi in jail temporarily.

Jail or no jail, Vivi’s reputation shredded.

S
o
, she’s worried. For now, she’s out of jail and home with her family, but what’s next?

When someone’s gunning for you, they usually bring more than one bullet.

She keeps her cool, though. Doesn’t melt in front of her family. Doesn’t cry again, until she’s tucking Melissa into bed that night.

It’s been years since Melissa asked to be tucked in, but tonight is special circumstances.

Biff settles his big bones on the end of Melissa’s bed and tries to look small. Melissa’s not trying to look small – she is small. Tonight she’s maybe five, maybe seven.

“Mom, you’re not going back to jail, are you?”

“No, Honey. Max vouched for me, and they know his word is good.”

“Then why did they arrest you?”

“Because someone told a lie.”

“Why would they do that?”

It’s a million-euro question. “I don’t know. People do all kinds of awful things for all kinds of reasons. Maybe it was some kind of crappy joke.”

“It’s not very funny,” Melissa says. Her bottom lip is starting to quiver. “Are you mad at me, Mom?”

“Yes, but also no. Does that make sense?”

“Not really.”

“I don’t like that you lied to me, but that’s only one tiny crappy thing. There are a billion other wonderful things about you. If you could stay away from guys until you’re thirty, that would be awesome.”

“Are all guys assholes?”

Well are they?

Consider the two men in the other room.

The man who boarded a plane, and took on the world, the minute Vivi called, the minute he knew his wife was in need.

The second man who (Vivi knows) would do the same for his own wife, if necessary. The man who saved Melissa, who saves children every day. The man who told the truth so she could walk free.

“No,” Vivi says. “Most men are pretty great. Just be patient.”

I
s my Melissa okay
?”
Elias asks.

Vivi nods.

“I should go,” Max says.

“Or you could stay,” she tells him. “For a while.”

He glances at her parents.

Eleni says, “If you put your hands on my daughter, I will cut them off and feed them to the dog.”

“Leave the man’s hands alone, he’s a doctor,” Elias says.

“Only a surgeon needs hands.”

V
ivi gets
down to (personal) business.

“I’m sorry about yesterday. I didn’t want to hurt – ”

“I’m in love with you.”

It’s not midnight, but it sure looks it. The moon is too new to matter. All they’ve got for light is the stars, and even they’re limping, worn out from last night’s merriment.

Vivi panics. This isn’t how the script in her head goes. And when it comes to Max, she’s not good at making it up on the fly. She can’t be trusted with herself.

That’s okay, Max has more words for her.

“I think I loved you from the moment I saw you standing in the emergency room, holding Melissa in your arms. You were terrified, but at the same time you were strong enough to carry her in there on your own. Yes, I want to be your friend, but not just a friend.”

He loves her. He loves her.

And yeah, she loves him.

Or at least she thinks she does.

It’s hard to say. She lived a make-believe love for so long that now she can’t tell the real thing from the impostor. Doesn’t want to love a sheep and find out he’s a wolf.

“I’m not looking for an answer, tonight,” Max says. “I’m giving you your time. Giving myself time. Then I’m coming for you, Vivi. Believe it.”

Oh.

E
leni
! Vivi! Hurry, hurry!”

Mid morning. They all slept in.

At least until the
Thea
Dora juggernaut started rolling their way.

Now they’re leaping out of their beds, running to see what today’s drama is all about.

Vivi is in yesterday’s clothes. Max left minutes after his revelation, and things got hazy after that. Getting changed seemed like a waste of potential sleeping time, so she let herself fall, let the bed catch her.

She and Eleni collide at the front door. Her mother squints at the figure of her impending sister.

“My God, Dora, what is your problem?”

“Virgin Mary be praised, you are both here!” She glances around furtively. “I hope the lesbians did not touch you.”

“No lesbians,
Thea
. Just me. And Mom's not exactly my type,” Vivi says. “They tossed us in a cell together.”

“And nobody beat you?”

“Not even at cards.”

“Oh, thank Jesus and God and the Virgin Mary!”

It’s exhausting, watching her heave herself up the steps.

“I heard a rumor, Vivi, that your father broke you out of the jail. If you need a place to hide from the police I know a good one. It is under my house. Your late uncle, he dug a big hole there in case the Turks came.”

Eleni has a funny look on her face.

“We didn't break out of prison,” Vivi says. “They let us out.”

“Really?”

“Yes,” Eleni says. “The walls are made of concrete and steel. How would we break out?”

“Maybe Elias tied rope to a car and pulled the window bars.” She sounds hopeful.

Vivi doesn’t laugh – she doesn’t.

“You are ridiculous, Dora,” Eleni tells her sister. “Come, have coffee.”

“No, no, I cannot stay. You must come to my house immediately! We must remove the evil eye. Sofia is dead so her curse should be gone, but someone else still wishes you ill or you would not have been arrested.”

“Dora . . .” Eleni starts.

“Bah! You have lived in America too long!”

“I suppose it cannot hurt,” she says. “Vivi?”

It’s unconventional. Weird. Hocus-pocus. Crazy. Start believing in the evil eye and you may as well start living your life according to the horoscope scribbled in the back of the newspaper. It’s one step away from throwing your life savings at some psychic hotline, where the only accurate prediction is your inevitable bankruptcy.

“I thought you already got rid of the curse. Why do it again?”

“Curses can be like a burr,” her aunt says. “This one could be stuck to you.”

What would The Amazing Randi say?

“Um, okay?”

V
ivi thinks
her aunt doesn’t look so hot, so she offers to drive. She doesn’t frame it like that, though, doesn’t tell her aunt she looks like one small hillock away from heart failure.

She’s diplomatic about it. Blames it on her own frailty and the heat.

Melissa stays behind with her grandfather. Vivi thinks how lucky she is – lucky to have Melissa in her life. She’s the world’s biggest silver lining.

They’re still in first gear when Eleni says, “Look, here comes Melissa’s friend.”

Vivi glances in the rearview mirror.

Friend, her ass. But she’s glad to see Olivia is alive and capable of steering a bicycle. She doesn’t like the girl, but she’s somebody’s baby. And, yeah, this lets Melissa of a huge, bloody hook.

“Hang on,” she says.

Reverse, reverse, until she’s alongside Olivia.

The girl looks startled, at first. It’s obvious she was waiting to catch Melissa alone, but she makes a smooth recovery.

“Mrs. Tyler, is Melissa home?”

“Not to you.”

“Why?”

Gee, where does she even start? “Because you're a shitty friend and my daughter deserves better. That’s a good enough reason.”

The girl leans on the handle bars oh-so casually, puts on her best smirk. Vivi wants to slap it clean off her face.

“Did Melissa tell you everything?”

Figures. Vivi is so not surprised. A snake is a snake is a snake. But Vivi’s a good Girl Scout – she came to this confrontation prepared.

“Everything.” She stretches that word to its limits. “Including the part where you had sex with Thanasi.”

Goodbye, smirk. Hello, fear.

“I could have died,” Olivia says.

“But you didn't.”

“But – ”

“You didn’t.”

Olivia looks away.

“I highly recommend looking for another friend. Melissa is unavailable.”

Vivi hits the gas. The tires spin and as she zooms away, all that’s left in the rearview mirror is a sepia-toned girl.

M
elissa watches
it all
go down.

Olivia rolls up on her bicycle and Melissa freaks out, because either that’s a ghost out there or Olivia has come to kick her ass for kicking her ass.

But she’s not a ghost. Melissa figures that part out quickly when Mom throws the car into reverse.

So Olivia’s not dead. That’s good. That’s great. No juvie for Melissa – if they even have juvie out here.

Which leaves the ass kicking. Best-case scenario, Olivia’s going to yell a lot of horrible things. She doesn’t care what Olivia tells Mom, but she does care what Olivia tells, oh, the rest of town. School is starting in another month, and Melissa doesn’t want everyone to hate her before they’ve had a chance to know her. There’s, like, one high school in town. It’s not as if she can just go somewhere else nearby. Changing schools would mean catching the bus into Volos every day.

“What’s so interesting out that window, Sweetheart?” Grampy asks.

“Nothing,” she says vaguely.

He looks outside. “Who is the girl?”

Melissa shrugs. “She used to be a friend.”

“Heh, heh. Look at your mother. She is telling that girl something she does not like hearing.”

He’s right. Olivia is making a face like Mom’s flinging poop at her. Then Mom zips away, leaving her in a dust cloud.

Pretty awesome.

Grampy smiles out the window. “Your mother and grandmother, sometimes they remind me of very short amazons.”

Yeah, her mom is pretty cool. For a mom.

B
owl
, water, olive oil?
Check.

Same ritual, different time. When
Thea
Dora drips the olive oil into the water, the droplets immediately separate.

Vivi yawns.

“You have the evil eye again! And it is very strong this time. See how fast and wide the oil spreads? It is like an egg.”

Of course.

Thea
Dora draws a wet, oily cross on Vivi’s forehead, then it’s Vivi’s turn to swish, swish her finger in the bowl.

“Rub it on your lips,” her aunt instructs her. “Now, I do your mother, okay? Then we will do you again, to make sure you are clear.”

Exact same ritual, but her mother’s drops stay tight and whole.

Thea
Dora smiles. “Sofia’s curse has gone to the grave with her body.” She dry spits into the air three times. “Just in case. Come, Vivi. Let’s make sure you are not still cursed.”

But Vivi’s curse is sticky. It likes her too much to leave.

Thea
Dora shakes her head. “Someone is very persistent. We must try something else. It could be that this person went to a professional to place the curse.”

“Mama, are you here?” Effie's voice booms from outside.

“Come in, Effie,”
Thea
Dora screeches. “We are in the kitchen!”

A moment later, Effie barrels through the door. She’s cultivating a nest of long-legged black spiders in her armpits. And she doesn’t look happy to see Vivi. How surprising.

“Why are you here? I thought you were in jail.”

“Don’t be rude, Effie,” her aunt says. She’s busy poking through the spice rack. “Make some coffee.”

Effie hesitates, but not for long. Her face is pinched and pissed as she dumps coffee and sugar in the
briki
.

“Hold out your hand.”
Thea
Dora drops something in Vivi’s upturned palm.

Vivi looks up. “A bay leaf?”

“Chew it. While you are chewing, concentrate on turning the curse around, away from you and back to the person who made it. Afterward, I will give you three bay leaves to keep in your pocket – or your purse if you do not have pockets. Keep them with you always.”

“And this will work?” Potpourri as a shield against evil. Huh.

“If it was good enough for the ancient oracles, it is good enough for you!”

Eleni says, “Do it, Vivi. What harm can it do?”

Vivi shrugs. Why not? It’s not like it’s poison – right? “Bottoms up.” She chews. “This is the second worst thing I’ve ever put in my mouth.”

“Concentrate.”
Thea
Dora pats her arm. “Turn the curse around.”

The bitter, oily eugenol is making it hard to concentrate on anything. Still, Vivi bundles up every tiny mishap from the time they arrived – Melissa’s wrist, Biff’s worms, the roof – all the way up to her night as a jailbird, then fires it off towards the unknown target.

Effie screams.

She’s covered in scalding coffee. Steam rises in a thin sheet from the coffee pool widening around her feet.

Thea
Dora is on it. She snatches up the long handled whiskbroom and starts whipping Effie’s legs with sharp, vicious strokes.

“My God, Dora, have you gone mad?” Eleni yells.

Effie’s screaming and screaming, like someone stuck a knife in her.

Thea
Dora isn’t in a listening mood. She hits and hits and hits. “What kind of woman are you to put a curse on your own cousin? Is this how I raised you? You are not too old or too important to take a beating.”

Wait, what? Vivi thinks. Effie cursed her?

She’s horrified but not all that surprised, now that she thinks about it. Effie hated her pretty much on sight. But this level of hate is crazy.

“Why couldn't you just go away?” Effie screams. “You should never have come here!”

Eleni tosses Vivi a towel.

“I have as much right to be here as you do.” Vivi kneels at Effie’s feet, soaks up as much brown as the white towel can take. The broom whistles past her ears.

Effie doesn’t want help. Correction: Effie doesn’t want
Vivi
’
s
help. Her foot jerks, nails Vivi in the ribs.

Vivi yells and rolls sideways. She kicks and she kicks hard. Right in Effie’s groin.

“If you had a problem with me, you should have had the ovaries to say something,” Vivi says.

“You think you are so wonderful with all your education and knowledge about every little thing in the whole world. You know nothing!”

“Ha! I know you're an idiot who might actually get a friend or two if you’d crack a smile.”

“
Putana
.”

“Cow. Mooooo.”

“You turned your husband into a homosexual!”

Vivi says, “Bitch, if you want war, you can have one.” Her left hook is mean. It should be – it’s never been used. Got about thirty-four years of resentment behind it.

It knocks Effie back. She rebounds off the counter, wrestles Vivi to the ground. Then she grabs Vivi’s hair and twists.

Vivi’s eyes flood. “I'd kick you in the ass,” she says, “but my foot would bounce right off all that Jell-O.” She stabs Effie with her elbow.

Eleni and
Thea
Dora are background noise.

“Should we stop them?”

“I say we let them fight. No need to panic until there is blood. Tell me, Eleni, how do you do that neat cross-stitch? All these years, still I cannot master that one stitch.”

Vivi sinks her teeth into Effie’s ear. She feels the satisfying crunch.

“It is all about where you slide the needle. You want that thread to go next to the neighboring threads, not on top of them.”

It’s a sideways punch, but it’s a good one. Hot blood spurts out of Vivi’s nose. She hooks a foot behind Effie’s knee, flips her, straddles her chest. Now she’s bleeding. All. Over. That. Bitch.

Effie spits, right in Vivi’s face.

“No spitting, Effie,”
Thea
Dora says passively. “Spitting is for lower-class
putanas
.”

“That's why I'm spitting at her, Mama.”

“I said no!” she barks. To her sister, in a sweeter voice: “How do you tie such neat knots on the back?”

Vivi pins Effie to the floor with one hand, wipes the spit off her own face, smooshes it into Effie’s. “Here, you left this behind, Miss Piggy.”

Effie clamps her teeth on Vivi’s finger. She bites until she’s violating the space between bones. A thin whine in Vivi’s head turns out to be her own crying. She hits and hits and hits. Effie’s jaw springs open.

Then she’s seeing stars. Cartoons, apparently, have correctly nailed the aftermath of a successful head-butt. All these years, she figured it was animated hyperbole. She staggers to her feet.

Is it over?

Hell no.

She snatches up Effie’s hand, wedges her cousin’s arm between her knees, bends that middle finger back, back, back. The crystal vase on the table considers shattering under the pressure of Effie’s squeal.

“Stop!”

“Apologize,” Vivi says, panting.

Eleni peers over. “Is that blood?”

“Yes, but it is just her nose,”
Thea
Dora says. “No vital organs.”

“Thank the Virgin Mary.

“I'll die before I apologize!” Effie screams.

How far back can a finger bend before it snaps off?

Vivi doesn’t get a chance to find out. There’s a loud crack inside her skull. She drops Effie’s hand, staggers backwards.

Her cousin is gasping on the ground, one end of the broom clenched in her hand, the other half at Vivi’s feet.

“You should be in jail! I told the police you did it – why did they let you go so quickly?”

Silence. No more talk of needlepoint.

“Wait – you called the police and told them that my mother and I were killers?”

“Not
Thea
Eleni. Just you.”

Small miracle. Tiny. Miniscule.

“Why?”

“It was the only way to get rid of you! My life was okay until you came here. Now it's all 'Vivi this, Vivi that.' Even my children are second best now. You are all anyone talks about – not just in the family but also in town. No one asks how I am doing, they just want to know about you and America.”

“Effie, you do not know what you have done,” her mother says.

“You are the worst of all, Mama. My husband is cheating and did you offer me a place to stay? No! You just gossip and joke about it with your friends. But your precious Vivi comes crawling here because she doesn't have the strength to face life, and you throw the doors open wide for her.”

“Effie, Vivi is family! What would you have me do? Turn her away?”

“Fuck the Virgin Mary,” Effie yells. “I am your family, too!”

Screw this, Vivi thinks. This isn’t about her and Effie – it’s a mother-daughter thing. And mothers and daughters need to figure things out their own way.

Her face is on fire, her head’s pinging like a sonar, and a big red bird is unfolding its wings on her dress.

“Vivi, where are you going?” Eleni asks.

“Running away again?” Effie snarls.

Vivi shrugs. “The hospital, I guess.”