Page 64 of For One Moment With You
Michail’s eyes fluttered open briefly and he said something in Greek, wincing as he tried to reach something in one of his pockets. After taking out a key, his hand was weak as he pushed it towards Nicos. Then closing his eyes, he was still.
Noticing the colour of his skin, alarm bells were going off. ‘Something’s wrong, Nicos. Where’s the ambulance?’
Nico felt his wrist. ‘His pulse is very weak.’ He shook his head. ‘They will be here as soon as they can.’
The longest five minutes passed – and that’s really all it was. Five minutes, before the ambulance arrived. Filled with relief, I stood back and watched the paramedics check him over, before expertly moving him onto a stretcher.
Nicos picked up my folded-up jacket and passed it to me, as one of the paramedics spoke to him. Then we stood there watching as they drove away.
‘Poor Michail,’ Nicos said. ‘He lives alone – on the edge of Chania. I must call his daughter. She lives in Heraklion.’ He frowned. ‘For a long time now, his legs have not been good. I have no idea what he was thinking, coming all this way.’ Then he glanced at a bag Michail must have dropped. Picking it up, he looked inside. ‘This is why,’ he said, showing it to me. ‘He came to buy fish. I will put it in his freezer – he has given me his key. He has a cat, and a few chickens. He wants me to ask his neighbour if they’ll feed them.’
‘I could do it.’ The words were out before I could stop them. But when it came to helping others, there was no stopping me. ‘Until he’s out of hospital – if you show me where he lives?’
‘You would do that for a stranger?’ Nicos looked surprised.
I didn’t know Michail. But wasn’t it how the world worked, people rallying round at times like this? ‘Nicos. Look at me. I’m not busy. And I’m good at helping people,’ I added.
‘Maybe you are a little Greek,’ he said. ‘We help each other – families, friends.’
‘Maybe I am.’ Liking how that sounded, I smiled at him.
But there was no time to stand still. ‘We will go in my car,’ Nicos said.
‘But Nicos,’ I said, ‘don’t you have to work?’
He shrugged. ‘The restaurant is not busy. It is October, Tilly.’ He said it as if I was a particularly stupid person. ‘You are ready?’
* * *
Michail’s house was a five or six minute drive away, and I tried to memorise the route as Nicos turned up a narrow, uneven street of terraced houses, then pulled over and parked at the side.
‘It is this one.’
I took in the peeling blue paint as he nodded towards a front door. Then I followed him as he unlocked it and went inside. The house was in darkness and after finding a switch, the single bulb dimly lit what appeared to be a small living room.
‘Come.’ Nicos walked through a doorway into a bigger, untidy kitchen with a door that opened onto a surprisingly large garden. He switched on an outside light. ‘Here comes the cat.’
A large black and white cat trotted across the garden, followed by a couple of others, one ginger and one black.
‘In Greece, there is never just one cat,’ Nicos said ruefully.
After opening a few cupboards and finding the cat food, he put it down then went outside, where a handful of scrawny chickens appeared out of the shadows. ‘Michail keeps them in there.’ Nicos nodded towards a flimsy chicken run. ‘If we feed them, hopefully they will follow us.’
I watched as he successfully herded the chickens into the run and closed the door, then after checking inside the chicken house, came back holding three eggs.
‘You should take these,’ he said.
I shook my head. ‘Thank you, Nicos. But you are forgetting. I don’t have any way of cooking right now.’
‘Of course.’ He was silent for a moment. ‘But who knows. It is possible this will change.’
I stared at him. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Today, things are like this. But you do not know what tomorrow will bring.’ He locked the back door and I noticed the cat flap. ‘None of us know,’ he said cryptically. ‘We are done here.’
I followed him out to the car where he handed over the key to Michail’s house. ‘If you are sure you can do this, I know Michail will thank you.’
‘It’s fine.’ My heart was already warming at the thought of being able to do something to help. I mean, it was true what I said to Nicos – it wasn’t like I was exactly busy. And it was a basic human need, wasn’t it? To have a purpose? Anyway, it wouldn’t be for long. Just a day or so, until Michail was home. Then I frowned. ‘What did you mean back there? About things changing?’
