PAH-MEH (Let's Go!)

The benches were soft enough for comfort but way too narrow.  I woke up about a dozen times in the night and starting around 6:00 in the morning I heard that coffee machine at the counter whirring and whooshing. 

At 6:45am I completely gave up trying to sleep.  Sitting up in my sleeping bag, I checked out the room.  There were about a dozen people stretched out sleeping and two or three people sitting at tables drinking coffee.  It was daylight but still gray out the windows because they didn’t face the sunny side.

Aaron was still sound asleep.  He was lying flat on his back with his one arm flung up half-across his face.  Mom moved a little and whispered, “Morning, Lex,” when I climbed out of my bag and stretched. 

“Hey, Mom.  It’s almost seven.  When do we get there?” 

“Sometime after nine,” she mumbled, “I think the donuts are good on the boats.  Get some money from my wallet and buy yourself one with some juice.”  She did a bit of wiggling, produced her wallet from somewhere in the depths of her sleeping bag, and handed it to me.  Then she turned her face the other way and put the sweatshirt she’d been using as a pillow, over her head.

I put my socks and shoes on and went over to the counter.  The donuts were on a tray by the coffee machine and they did look good.  They were the raised kind, covered in granulated sugar.  I’d never seen a donut like this in Greece before. 

“O-ree-steh,”(Order me: at your service) said the man behind the counter.  I pointed to the donuts.  He picked one up with a napkin and handed it to me with a nod. 

“Tee-po-tah ahl-lo Dhe-spee-nees?”(Nothing else, Miss (often used as flattery, meaning pretty girl)

“Uhh, uhh....” I couldn’t remember the word for juice, “Por-to-kah-lah-dhah?”(Orange soda)

“Me-pos theh-lees hcee-mo?”(Maybe you want juice) he said and he bent over.  When he stood back up he had a can of orange soda in one hand and a juice box in the other. 

“Ahf-toe pah-rah-kah-lo,”(This, please) I said, pointing to the juice.  He nodded again and turned to the cash register.  CH-ch, CH-ch, CH-ch, it went.  He turned back to me and handed me the receipt saying slowly, “Pen-dah-ko-sies peh-neen-da.”(Five hundred fifty)  I found a 500 drachma note and a 200 drachma note and handed them to him.

“Tah reh-stah,” he said, handing me back my change.  I nodded and headed for a table near Mom.  The donut tasted as good as it looked.  I thought about getting another one, but decided I’d wait ‘till Mom got up and ask if I could.  Five hundred and fifty drachmas was a lot. 

It was boring sitting there with everyone asleep so I put on my jacket and went out the door to the deck.  It was chilly and I zippered up as I walked to the railing.  There were a couple men standing at one end smoking and talking.  I leaned against the white painted metal.  It felt sticky.  I rubbed it and my finger came away coated with a dirty white powder.  Salt. 

I rested my chin in my hands and looked at the churning waves in our wake.  The water coming up from underneath, erupted white and foamy in a swathe the width of the boat.  The bubbles frothed, intensely at first, then subsided into layers of disturbed sea that extended behind us as far as I could see.  To the sides of the boat the waves were colored swells before they fell over into white foam and ebbed off to right and left.  The water was incredibly clean and blue, a dark, deep blue with tinges of black and green.  It was amazingly translucent. 

Sea gulls flew above the wake crying their insistent, piercing, “Gaow, gaow”.  They looked like they were having fun, like they were dancing to the splashy music of our wake.  I don’t know how long I stood there staring down.  It was mesmerizing.  Then suddenly, I realized there was an island to my left, a big looming shape had come into my periphery. 

I walked over to the side railing to check it out.  The sun was shining warmly on the island’s rocky barren hills, giving them a golden hue.  But they were totally empty.  I couldn’t see people or houses anywhere.  We passed gullies and hills and V-shaped patches of green, which led down to the sea.  I saw some beautiful little beaches. 

In one cove I thought I saw a boat and in another two small squ