OLGA GRUSHIN
391
"What a place this Inos must be!" she said archly. "Positively bar–
barian! Have you made many friends there?"
"No, no one at all," he replied. "It's been very lonely, especially in the
evenings."
Her eyes softened, and she invited him to a dinner party at her place
the next day.
THE DINNER PARTY TURNED OUT to involve only two girlfriends of hers,
who immediately after dessert made vague excuses and disappeared.
They were left alone.
It
was rather awkward, and neither knew what to
say, so he soon started to make motions toward leaving-but then she
suddenly burst out crying. She had never stopped caring about him, she
repeated through her sobs, but she thought he had forgotten all about
her, she thought there was someone else in his life, his letters had
become so cold, so reserved .... He spent the night holding her, stroking
her hair like a little girl's, whispering to her until the dawn was upon
them.
In the morning he made a trip to Georgos's, packed his few belong–
ings, and moved into her place. He had only five days left before return–
ing to Levkothea. That night they made love, but at the most
inopportune moment, without warning, a face swam up from the dark–
ness of his mind-the face of Ino, the way she had appeared to him that
time on the shore, her lips smiling triumphantly, her skin glowing, her
eyes the changing color of the sea.
Suddenly terrified, he sat up abruptly, pushing Angeliki away.
"What's the matter?" she asked sharply.
He could not tell her, of course; but he felt as if something alien had
just burst into his comfortable, familiar, normal life, ripping its very fab–
ric-and he would do anything to keep its strange, cold breath away.
Barely thinking, he turned to Angeliki. In the light of a street lamp her
eyes were two glistening, worried lakes of darkness.
"Let's get married," he whispered.
She must not have detected the note of desperation in his voice.
They spent the few remaining days planning their future. In a matter
of months he would get a position in Athens, and in the spring they
would be married in a simple ceremony. They would live at her place at
first, but eventually they would look for a small house in the suburbs.
"I'd like to have a yard," Angeliki said shyly.
"It
would be good for
a baby, you know. I mean, if we decide we want one."
On the day he had to go back to Inos, they got up earlier than usual
and had a hearty breakfast. When she left for her shop, he watched from
