The Old Couple in Athens ((1995)(a short story))

The Old Couple in Athens

An old man and his wife with raggedy old cloths on, and the man, with an warn smidgen hat, both droopy eyed, walked slowly down a hill, alongside of a road in Athens, Greece, in the fall of 1995, and with very dusty and patched cloths. They both stopped when they saw me. There was a small bridge that crossed over a canal, up ahead of them; I had been going the opposite way, and just crossed over it. A few cars and trucks drove by. They were peasants that had seemed to have trudged in an unimpressed manner, a long ways, for a lengthy while in high ankle wool socks.
They both stood there looking at me without moving. They were too tired to have a long conversation, and perhaps go much farther.
I was on my way back to my hotel, after being in the old part of the city, shopping, looking at sites, and having a nice late afternoon meal, in an outside café, admiring the acropolis.
“Where do you come from?” asked the old man.
“From Minnesota, the United States of America,” I said and smiled.
“And you?” I asked.
“Istanbul, Turkey—, old Constan!” he said with a smile and half grin. His wife seemly happy he had mentioned their native city and appeared pleased he had done so while smiling at her with pride.
“I was a merchant, I sold things,” he explained.
“Oh,” I said, not quite understanding.
“Oh yes,” he said “we stayed as long as we could taking care of our shop in the Gran Bazaar. I was the last one to leave Istanbul in the family; my brother was a pork butcher, but seldom do people want pork nowadays, and only the Christians usually, a few Muslims, and Jews, but it’s a bad business if you live in that city.”

He didn’t look like a merchant. Or that he might have a butcher for a brother. I examined his dark dusty cloths, his wool scarf, his old warn and wrinkly face, his wife’s steel rimmed teeth, and said, “What merchandise did you sell?”
“Various kinds,” he said, and shook his head and shoulders. “I had to leave much of it behind.”
He had beside him, a big canvas like sack, he had carried it over his shoulder as the bums do in the old movies I used to watch, but this one was larger, perhaps his wife could have fit in it.
“What merchandise did you bring with you?” I asked.
“I have some bronze items, and some marble evil-eyes,” he remarked.
“And you had to leave most of your merchandise?”
“Yes, because I couldn’t pay the rent. The owner of the shop told me to go before he got hold of the police, and they’d force me to go.”
“And do you have family here in Athens?” I mentioned, looking at the bridge ahead and the old city below and the acropolis on the hill. I sensed he was in no hurry to continue down the incline into the city proper.
“No,” he said, “just me and my wife and this bag of merchandise.”
Cats and birds seem to be able to look out for themselves, but I couldn’t imagine how this old man and his wife could make it.
“I am with out political views,” said the old man. Then hesitated, “I’m seventy-two years old, my wife is sixty-seven years old, we are tired, let’s sit here,” and they squatted right then and there.
“This is a bad spot to stop and rest for too long,” I said, “it’s getting pretty dark, quickly. If you can make it down to the old city, there are still lights on.”
“We’ll rest here a while,” he said, “and then we’ll go where all the cars go!”
“Towards the city,” I told him.
“I don’t’ know, we don’t know anyone in the old city, but thank you for your concern!”
He looked at me very blankly, tiredly, and then said, “We’ll be all right.”
And I gave him three-dollars. And as I continued my walk up the hill to my hotel looking back a few times over my shoulders the old man and his wife were next to the bridge on their way towards the old city.

“Why they’ll most likely be fine,” I murmured aloud.
“You think so?” questioned my mind.
“Why not,” I answered, clearly, watching for my hotel, then added to my monologue, “but what will they do?” I muttered noisily.
“Doesn’t the Lord take care of man better than his own sparrows?” my mind questioned me.
And I answered “Yes,” and I figured that was all the luck he really needed, or ever would need.


5-9-2009∙