Three Rivers (36 page)

Kate pushed her plate angrily away from her and got up. “I am leaving. I have a great deal to do. You know, you are not the
only
one to make changes. New life, new friends, abandon the old. I am taking a leaf from your book of rules, and see how you like that!”

She stood there at the table and called the waiter over and asked for the bill. The waiter said, “I am sorry, madam. Is something wrong with the food?”

“Never mind the food, just give me the bill,” she spat.

“The bill has been paid, madam.”

With violently shaking hands she managed to open her purse and throw down five hundred drachmas on the table. Then she left.

Isabel sat there in silence as Ava ate her steak and salad. Slowly she felt herself grow calm once Kate was away from the table. She was so grateful that Alexis had not seen this, that he had been spared this horrible ordeal.

Ava turned to her and said, “You know that she let you off lightly? You are not going to make it, Isabel. You’re weak, lazy. You have no discipline. You’re luxury-loving and you’re ruled by your senses. He will throw you out in six months, but then, you have your diamonds, haven’t
you? Vulgar, but at least worth something. You always did like to stand out, and with those diamonds, you sure do. But remember, you have to pay.”

Isabel continued to chew her food, tasting only sawdust.

“I notice your new love isn’t here. What were you afraid of?” Ava lashed on. “That we might show you up for what you are? A bully, a tyrant, a hustler; how else would you have been able to make your way in the world? And now with a track record like yours, you would lead me to believe he is so in love with you that he cannot wait to marry you after two weeks? That he adores you? That is all that you have ever wanted. Adoration and the center of attention — the spotlight — and now you think you have it. Well, I certainly wish you luck and look forward to seeing how you handle this. But now let’s be practical. What are you going to do about Mother? Figure
something
out. You are a rich woman now, or will be in a few days, and it’s about time you started paying back. She is all alone in this world and a miserable person, unfortunately very stupid as well, or she would never have ruined a life for you.”

Suddenly Isabel looked straight up at Ava’s hard face. For the first time in her life she noticed an added look on that face, a kind of venomous release achieved by the tongue-whipping she had just given Isabel. And strangely, Isabel thought with pity, Ava was now freed of a burden she had probably carried for all of their lives.

Ava said very calmly and icily to Isabel, “You know, I really do not like you. I never have liked you. I don’t like anything you stand for, or anything you do. I consider you second-rate, and all these years I have pretended that you were first-rate. You’re calculated and unattractive and very unfeminine. You are a freak. And now, with your big diamonds, and an unattractive Arab husband on the hook, you come here to Athens with a flashy entourage of flunkies, trying to impress us. Well, you don’t. All my life I have had to suffer so you could be the center of attention. First as a child I watched you adored and loved, while I was forgotten in the background. When I ran away with my first new husband, I only then began to feel the luxury, the real luxury, of not trying to steal the show. You really don’t think at this late stage in the game, that your marriage, no matter how successful the catch is, will impress me, do you? Because it never will. So why not save yourself
a great deal of trouble later on, when it fails, and forget marrying him? Collect what you can off him, and as soon as the passion dies, which never takes very long, you can go back to being alone. Believe me, it suits a selfish person like you, and then, of course, you will have Mother to make a life with. Well, do you agree? Surely you must see that I am right?” Ava ended a little lamely.

Isabel said, as calmly as possible, “All I see, Ava, is that you are mad and you are wrong. I am marrying Alexis Hyatt immediately, and we hope to spend the rest of our days together making love, in love, and sharing what love we have for each other with as many people as is possible and ——”

Ava attacked instantly. “I have hated you since childhood for this thing you hold so dear — love! This
fantasy
that is nothing but a word, and I hate you now for it ….”

It was at that moment that Isabel felt Alexander standing behind her chair with his hand on her shoulder. Ava, so coolly hysterical, and going on in her icy, steady voice that mesmerized herself, never saw him. She saw only the object of her hatred and heard only the sound of her own voice.

Isabel was more shocked than surprised. Alexander put his hand firmly under her arm and half lifted her up; he pulled her chair back, and they left the table. Ava continued in her icy, calm voice, telling the empty air how much she hated Isabel.

Alexander took Isabel as far as Gamal’s table, and from there she was escorted by Gamal to the waiting car.

He then returned to the table where Ava was still spewing forth. He put his hand on her shoulder and very quietly and gently shook her. “Excuse me, but your sister has gone now, and I think your luncheon is over. May I take you to a taxi?”

Ava quickly recovered herself and drank down what was left of the wine in her glass. “That will not be necessary. I am quite capable of finding a taxi when I am ready to leave. For the moment, I would like to sit here quietly alone over another cup of coffee.”

Alexander left Ava and went to the table where he had dined with Katarina. They left at once to join Isabel in the car.

As they made their way through the restaurant and up the stairs, Katarina said to Alexander, “Christ! That was
theater! Such terrible things from that table! Such hatred, bitterness. There was no love. Alexander, those three women! Never will they flow together, never! You will see, Alexander; never will they meet again. Your friend Isabel has a good man, I hope? She will need a good man to wipe out a lifetime of that.”

Katarina declined a lift with them, saying that she would walk to a friend who lived close by. Isabel got out of the car to say good-bye and thank her for such a marvelous morning. She apologized for cutting Katarina’s lunch short.

Isabel had recovered and this put the party back in good form. As they were talking, the little old photographer arrived with the pictures from the Acropolis. They were marvelous and captured the spirit of the morning.

The two women kissed good-bye, and Katarina said, “Isabel, don’t think of them anymore. You know the world is filled with women together with no love. It is just something you have to live with. I am not worried; I see love in you.” And so they parted.

Alexander and Isabel made themselves comfortable in the back of the car, and Gamal got in the front with the chauffeur. She thought to herself about Alexis and how he had insisted that she be accompanied by these men, how, in fact, he had arranged everything to make it all easier for her. How had he guessed that it was going to be so bad? She wondered if it was not his strength that was helping her at this very moment.

It was Isabel, an embarrassed Isabel, who took control of the situation. “Alexander, you could not have had much of a lunch, and I only had a forkful of aubergine, which stuck in my throat. We have hours before the flight. Let’s go down to Turkolimino and have a splendid afternoon eating fish and drinking retsina.”

Just the thought of the old port with its many little fishing boats, the hundreds of little white-clothed tables sitting under the awnings near the water’s edge, the baking sun overhead, cheered her up. There would be the Sunday Athenians out for a feast, all laughing and gay; the waiters running back and forth up and down the stairs to the restaurants on the other side of the road, balancing plates of
kalamarakia
, oysters, shrimps,
barbounia, glossa, salada horiataki horta
and
octopodi
. The smell of the olive oil, the lemons, the retsina, filled Isabel’s imagination.

Alexander agreed it was a great idea, as he was famished.
He squeezed her hand and said, “Let’s get drunk!” She gave him a grateful kiss on the cheek.

He told the driver where to take them, and said something to Gamal in Arabic, who immediately produced two joints. They lit up, and after a few puffs, both looked at each other and said together, “Fantastic.”

“Alexander, this is just what’s needed,” Isabel said with a sigh. “I had no idea you smoked!”

Much too discreet to bring up the dreadful incident of the family reunion, Alexander remained silent on the subject. It was not until hours later, when they were up in the air and halfway to Cairo, that she asked him, “Please, Alexander, say nothing to Alexis. I do not want him upset for me. I have no doubts about what I am doing, and I am very happy and very much in love. I do not want him upset. It was only a bad hour out of what has been otherwise a wonderful day. The Acropolis and Katarina, all those hours at Turkolimino gorging ourselves and laughing and drinking with those amusing Greeks we met … Please, Alexander …”

Alexander put his hand out to stop her. “Isabel, please do not worry. Alexis will ask me, so I must say something. You must leave this with me. I will be most discreet and he will not be upset. He would not have sent us with you unless he suspected trouble.”

He kissed her hand then and said, “You know I am very fond of you both. I know that you will be happy.”

To himself Alexander thought it incredible that this lovely woman was about to marry one of the most eligible, interesting men in the world, without one kind word or blessing from her family. He knew that she was affected by the dreadful meeting, but he also knew that the love Alexis had given her made her very strong indeed.

He had a dreadful feeling that these two women were not through with her yet. Isabel behaved with a kind of innocence about them that he found frightening. If Alexander was concerned at all, it was that Isabel was terribly vulnerable, whether she knew it or not. Yes, he would have to tell Alexis, but in his own time, and his own words.

X

Ava sat alone at the table while the waiters cleared away the uneaten food. After three brandies, she finished a cup of coffee and then called for the bill. She was told yet again by the headwaiter that the bill had been paid. She picked up the five hundred drachmas that Kate had thrown down on the table and none-too-steadily raised herself to her feet. She was on her way to see her mother. By God, she admired her.

Kate had two performances: the weak, pitiful, abused martyr was one, and the proud, vicious tiger was the other. There were variations on both themes. Ava found Kate the tiger a great deal more palatable.

When Kate opened the door there was no question in Ava’s mind that the very vicious tiger was at work.

“I brought you your five hundred drachmas.”

“I don’t want it.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Of course you want it,” she said, putting it on the table. “What are you going to do?”

“What do you think I am going to do?” Kate growled. “I am not going to have my plans ruined because of Isabel. You can’t tell me that Isabel has only known this man two weeks. She must have known for a long time she was going to marry him. Oh, I’m angry! It would have been a different matter had she said that she was seeing someone, had she confided in us. Had we
met
him.”

“Isabel is not that special,” Ava added. “There are millions more better than her. No, to receive diamonds of that quality for nothing, for two weeks in bed with a man! Who knows what they do in bed? Those Arabs are so strange, the whole world knows how they are with women! But, that’s Isabel. She does what she wants anyway. She has to be taught a lesson.”

“I am going to teach her one,” Kate said. “Fortunately, my neighbor, the travel agent, tells me that I can fly to
Alexandria tomorrow morning to meet a cruise boat. I get my one day on the Nile, then I join the main ship that stops in Florida, North Carolina, New York and Southampton. It’s a much longer cruise, and by the time it is over Isabel will have either gone through with this marriage, which I
doubt
after our luncheon
today
, or be back in London
alone
again. The way I see it, she will be in London, all apologies by the time I dock in New York. I will get off in New York, visit my brothers and sisters, and find out where she is and what she has done. If she has gone through with this ridiculous marriage, then I will stop in London for a few days and fly back here to my flat. And if she is alone, as I am sure she will be, I will join her as I’d planned all along. What do you think of that?”

“I think you should do what you want to do,” Ava replied. “You know that you have always been welcome here, but I think that it is time you had a change. Travel around. I agree with you, it’s time that she faced the responsibility of family. What time do you have to get your plane?”

“Eleven-thirty in the morning.”

“Well, I will see to it that you get to the airport.”

“Oh, darling, you do not have to do that. You are always so good and generous to me.”

Ava smiled in agreement. “Of course I will take you. Now, do you need any help in packing?”

“No. Fortunately, I am not like your sister. I started packing four days ago. So I think I can manage everything by tomorrow morning. All I will have to do is get to the hairdressers as early as possible and then we can go. You know, Ava, this has given me a new lease on life. I like this. I like this just fine. This getting out and doing things my way. You will see, it will all work out.”

Ava sat back and thought to herself:
I am going to enjoy this; I am going to enjoy watching both of you. You silly, foolish, stupid women, always going round in circles, spending money, getting nowhere, having nothing. No relationships, no success, just fantasies. Kate had her fantasies; Isabel had hers. But Ava is not going to pick up the pieces this time. Oh yes, I am going to enjoy every bit of this, and it could not have come at a better time for me. I will not have to go to Takis’s dreary
pied à terre.
I will keep my mother’s key and have my little romance
here. Who knows, I may marry again before Isabel manages to crawl to the altar!

“Listen, Mother, you give me the keys to this flat when I take you to the airport, and I will keep an eye on it for you. When you are ready to come back, you let me know, and I will meet you and give you back your keys.”

“Oh, you are good, Ava! My God, you are a responsible, good daughter. Thank God I have you.”

You stupid old whore
, Ava thought.
You didn’t always feel that way about me. It was always Isabel who got
that
speech
.

Ava left her mother and started walking home. There was no question in her mind that this entire charade of a marriage with a rich Egyptian was not out of love, but out of spite, simply to better the brilliant marriage that Ava had made.

She walked along at a very brisk pace, paying no attention to the burning hot sun. She saw two men give her the eye, and that cheered her up considerably.

Passing some of the tables in Kolonaki Square, she saw the old admiral. He stood up to greet her and kissed her hand. She started to flirt with him, but when he asked her to sit down, she said no, she had to be on her way, and swung herself more jauntily, in a sexier fashion, up through Kolonaki Square.

A couple of young Greek blades in their tight, tapered shirts and their cock-bulging trousers watched her. It made Ava feel very sexy, gathering admiration from those Greeks, young and old alike, who really enjoy their illicit fuck in the afternoon. Even if more dream about it than actually do it, she could always sense the afternoon sex hanging heavy in the hot air.

Ava walked through some of the narrow streets, and met a young
concièrge
from one of the buildings near her house. He was a handsome young boy, and she flirted with him every day. She could see him become excited at the attention she paid him, and she reveled in her own power of attraction. She knew that he wanted her, that to him she was an unattainable goddess, so she tantalized him. Even to the point of “accidentally” bumping into him with her ass. He wanted her desperately but had not the courage even to touch her. She saw his hands tremble and then patted him on the cheek; the poor boy almost
came in his pants. Satisfied, she moved away from him with a friendly wave.

When she arrived home there was no one there, but she had known that there would not be. The house was cool, quiet. It did not seem to calm her down very much. She went to her bedroom and undressed. She walked through the house naked, looking at herself wherever she could catch her reflection. Then into the bathroom to run a bath, and while the tub was filling, she looked at herself in the full-length mirror. Her figure was very good, much better than Isabel’s, and she was so firm and limber.

There was something youngish about her and her figure, not voluptuous like Isabel. The voluptuous, sluttish, animalistic kind of look was just common and vulgar. She could tell by all the men that wanted her on the way home, and Takis — how he wanted her — that the slight, feminine coquette was still the winner.

Still looking in the mirror that was misty now from the steam, she arched her back and pushed her pelvis forward. She opened the lips of her vagina and looked at herself, thinking of Isabel’s diamonds and how she might have got them. What did she let the man do to her? She knew that she must have received them for fucking, for all
sorts
of obscene sexual acts. You don’t get diamonds for love. You get them for lust.

You get nothing for love.

Ava admired herself in the mirror, which she now wiped down to see her image better. She saw her nipples, big ones and pointed, and she knew that they were desirable. She pulled one of them, squeezed it. It was supposed to do something for you, arouse you. She squeezed it again, but did not much like the pain, so she stopped. Then she lifted her leg very high and pressed her foot against the wall and looked at her genitals again. She wanted to see how she looked with a cock inside her. She wanted to feel it and see the expression on her face feeling it. She became obsessed with the idea of seeing something penetrate her and how she looked that way, what her expression was like. What could she put inside her? What was the same size as Takis? She ran around picking up things. A perfume bottle, too large. Syringe of a douche bag, too thin. A cucumber from the fridge was too obscene, too big, too depraved. The courgettes were too
small. She was frantic. Then she saw Alfred’s deodorant, a cock-shaped, fluted glass bottle about an inch in diameter, and about eight inches long. She surely could get half of it in her and see the rest sticking out. She washed it with hot water, then cold, with disinfectant, more hot water, lukewarm water, then soapy water and finally rinsed it. At last she thought it sterile enough to enter her.

She went back to the mirror, put up her leg, and spread herself open. First she inserted Nivea cream and worked it in well with her fingers. She almost gave up the idea, it all seemed so disgusting. But her desire to see herself in the mirror overcame her revulsion and she very, very slowly pushed in Alfred’s bottle of deodorant. Oh, it looked wonderful. She moved it in and out, watching herself dispassionately. How wonderfully sexual and beautiful she looked, she thought. A lovely position. Not everyone would be able to keep that position and that balance. She walked around, with it sticking out of her and thought she looked just as dignified that way as well. Then she pulled it out, washed it four or five times and put it back on the shelf.

Back at the mirror she examined herself again as she thought of Isabel’s diamonds and then of Takis. Takis was very rich too, and when she got him she would not accept diamonds. They were vulgar. No, she would opt for property.

The telephone began ringing just as Ava was drying herself off. She wrapped a towel around herself and ran into the living room and picked it up. It was Takis. He was free for an hour, and he knew that Alfred was away. Could he come by and see her?

She teased him, saying that it was impossible. They must wait a couple of days; then she would have a surprise for him: a secret place where no one would find them.

She had him dreadfully excited on the telephone; she could tell by the passion in his voice. When she put the receiver down and looked in the mirror, she saw the pretty, flirtatious Ava with an old Greek man on a string. She felt a thrill go through her body and then smiled: Her thoughts had made her come ever so lightly.

That evening, when Alfred arrived home, he found Ava in an over-excited mood. He instinctively knew that something was very wrong. Being a man of peace, and knowing
his wife very well, he asked no questions, happily following her every wish. After a few drinks together the two went out to dinner. Halfway through their meal, Takis and his wife, Evangalia, and an old bachelor friend of Takis’s arrived in the same restaurant. Ava was annoyed when she saw them come in but said nothing. Of course they joined them.

Ava dismissed her annoyance, and was at her very best. During the gay and happy night they decided that, because of the freak heat wave, they would all go to Marathon for a picnic lunch and a swim the next day. Ava would take along her writing box so she could work on an article for the
Reader’s Digest
while the other four played bridge.

The endless arrangements that Greeks get into about a midday excursion went on, and finally it was settled. Takis would pick up Ava at 10:45
A.M.
, along with a hamper filled with crushed ice and wine and a portable bar. Takis would tuck it all away in the boot of his car, along with the food that had been supplied by Evangalia. He proudly announced that there would still be room in the enormous boot of the shiny new Mercedes for Mrs. Wells’s luggage, as he insisted on taking her and Ava to the airport. That done, he would pick up the others at the Piccolo in Kolonaki at noon. Of course, what was not announced was that the arrangements allowed the possibility of a quick fuck with Ava, or at least some time for the two of them to be alone and make some plans for a midday fuck in the near future. The ever-generous Takis liked Kate and was happy to see her off. What he would not realize as he drove them to the airport was that although Kate hid it, she knew Ava very well. The moment that the car pulled up in front of her flat, with Ava in the front seat and Takis running out for the luggage, she would know that
this
was the reason why Ava was encouraging her to go away and this was why she was so pleased to care for her flat. Ava was about to launch an affair with this old and trusted friend, and she wanted her mother out of the way.

At the airport Kate would kiss her quickly good-bye, trying not to hit her for cheating on Alfred, and then, “Mother dear, you have forgotten to give me the key.”

“Oh, so I have. Well, never mind, I don’t want to
bother you, sweetheart. The flat is closed up. There is no need for you to go there.”

“Don’t be silly, dear. Give me the key.”

“No, honestly, there is no need.”

“I insist.”

“You insist?”

“Yes, I insist.”

Kate would see a mean iciness come into Ava’s face as she held out her open palm. Kate would be furious, on the verge of tears. She would want to hit her but would not dare. “Now, give me the key.”

In her obvious anger she would throw it into Ava’s outstretched hand and miss. Ava would bend down and pick it up.

The last thing that Kate would say to Ava would be, “Ava, don’t use my flat as a whorehouse, use your own,” and with tears in her eyes, she would walk away towards customs.

But now it was 2:15 Monday morning. Ava was in her nightdress, lying next to Alfred, who had made love to her and was now in a deep, comfortable sleep. Ava had nothing but affection for Alfred and respect for his money. If it were possible for her to have any hatred at all for Alfred, it would be because night after night he slept on like an innocent baby from the moment his head hit the pillow, while she remained the tortured insomniac.