"Open up!" "Open up!" "Bettina, open the door!" "Open the door!" "Bettina, Bettina, let me in!" "Bettina, play andante." "Play andante." "I have come for Bettina." "There's a concert at a friend's house." "Where is the house?" "I will bring her round myself." "a film by Lakis Papastathis" "Fill the carriage with flowers." "They are for a wedding." "Giorgios Vizyenos is to wed Bettina Fravasili." "Giorgos, when you are in love sing of it all day long!" "I am to marry Bettina." "We have come for you." "The wedding is to be in the countryside." "That's what her mother wants." "Shall we go?" "In the country?" "Where are you taking me?" "Where are you taking me?" "Where are you taking me?" "THE ONLY JOURNEY OF HIS LIFE" "When they enrolled me in the honorable ranks... of the tailor's calling... no promise left such an appealing impression... on my childish imagination... as the assurance that... in Constantinople..." "I was to sew... the garments of the daughter... of the king." "I was well aware..." "Here he is." "...that princesses harbor... a particular weakness..." "What's he saying?" "...for little tailor boys." "It's his story." "It was published years ago in the "Estia"." "...Princesses have... a particular weakness..." "Which short story?" "...for little tailor boys..." ""The only journey of his life."" "...The assurance that..." "I was to sew the garments of..." "I can recall even today... the childish pride with which..." "I first entered Constantinople... as the newest member... of the guild of tailors... secure in the knowledge that in a matter of days..." "I would be departing the city via the self same gate... through which I was now entering on foot... in triumph... accompanying the most beautiful princess alive to my village." "This is what my grandfather had intimated to me." "Since he was the most widely travelled person I knew..." "I believed his every word." "Grandfather simply had to know the ways of princesses... had to have seen them." "Maybe he had even fallen in love with one of them... even though he was neither a tailor nor a famous singer." " Good morning!" " Good morning!" " Good morning!" " Good morning!" "Quickly!" "To work!" "Come here so I can see you... aman, my lovely." "Come here so I can see you." "Let the light of day be upon us... my famous beauty." "Come let day... let daybreak come." "They shimmer... aman, my lovely... they shimmer, the mosques of Constantinople." "My famous lovely... the workshops... the workshops of Constantinople." "Gold-embroidered bodices for the princess." "Beautiful..." "Take the bundle." "They shimmer, the mosques of Constantinople... my famous beauty..." "I knew that when a princess falls for her tailor boy... she does so with all her heart... and throws her whole self into that love... and falls ill and takes to her bed... and comes close to death." "and no physician can cure her... no sorceress can restore her to health... until the princess finally calls her father... and tells him straight out..." "Daddy, it's either the tailor's boy who sings so sweetly... or I will die." "The king approaches!" "The king approaches!" "Do me the honor of taking my daughter." "Do me the honor of becoming my son-in-law." "But perform me first some deed of daring..." "I am a king and have my reputation to think of." "Tell me, of what are you capable?" "Can you bring me down a lion live from the mountains?" "Or kill a dragon or conquer a kingdom?" "I can sew bridal gowns without seam or stitch." "Very well, young master son-in-law!" "Sew me forty bridal gowns... fit for a princess... and let not a single seam or stitch be visible to my eye!" "But see to it that they are ready before dawn tomorrow... because otherwise it's off with your head!" "The king is deadly serious." "Proud man that he is, he has decided... to kill the tailor boy... and wed his daughter to a more rich and powerful groom." "All that evening the tailor boy eats, drinks and makes merry." "He knows his job and isn't worried... since he is... some say the son... others say the grandson of a nymph... the golden-haired nymph... who has vowed to save the little tailor boy... whenever he is in danger... and who has an escort... of forty little nymphs dressed all in white... each one more beautiful than the other." "Round midnight whiles the master tailor and apprentices sleep... he goes to summon the golden-haired nymph... and her little nymphs..." "And the little nymphs appear... with their sweet songs... and coquettish movements in the air... they tease the little tailor boy so flirtatiously... so provocatively... that if their mother wasn't close by... they would most surely have driven him to distraction." "The tailor boy has a thimble with a secret compartment... which never leaves his finger." "He takes the thimble off his finger... removes a single golden hair... that he has hidden inside for safe keeping... and burns its very tip in the flame of his oil lamp." "The nymph appears before him..." "What ails you, my love?" ""This and that", answers the little tailor boy." "The nymphs sew and sew... and sing and joke." "And before the cock has crowed... before the sun has even risen, there's the king... sweeping in with the royal executioners in his wake." "Aha!" "His eyes are dazzled." "The gold and the pearls... stitched on the forty bridal gowns... are worth more than the whole of his mangy kingdom!" "The king bites his lip... takes the tailor boy by the hand... leads him to the palace and gives him his daughter." "It was my grandfather who told me all of this... and he told it to me... as if it had only happened yesterday." "As if things like this happened all the time in this world." "The people inside and the soldiers outside... have come to take the girl from us." "They've come to take the girl from us..." "The girl who's like a turtledove." "Once they take her They will lead her... to the palaces way up yonder... to the palaces way up yonder... with the battlements and dungeons." "Several months had passed since my arrival... and I had as yet achieved nothing." "The mistress is a mute... and I haven't had a chance to sing yet." "Where are those princesses who fall for apprentices so easily?" "Who fall ill and take to their beds... and come close to death out of love... when the tailor's boy sings of their beauty?" "We spent all day hunched up over our sewing in the shop... with the master and mistress breathing down our necks." "But I sat facing the entrance, waiting... because I had absolute faith in my grandfather's words." "The mistress would take us all for a day out in the city..." "Turks and Armenians and Greeks all together." "I stored away everything that I saw in my memory... to tell grandfather." "Though his words never left my thoughts..." "I never remembered to send a message to my mother." "I later learned that my mother lurked in the streets... asking passersby if they had seen me anywhere." "Some said I would meet misfortune in the City and became a Turk... some that I would been shipwrecked and was begging in the streets." "She'd make her way to any poor unfortunate she heard of... with the intention of giving him her few savings... so that I too would receive alms far away... from the hands of strangers." "[Please put as much as the Lord is worth to you in this box.]" "What does it say?" "My master was fond of reminding us apprentices... that we were all his inalienable property." "He scared me." "I wanted to breath cleaner air." "Keep your stitches closer together." "You haven't followed the pattern right." "Mouchtar, that has to be ready tomorrow." "You will stay on after we close this evening." "Georgi!" "You still haven't finished!" "Iordani!" "..." " Good day." " Welcome, sir." " Red as glowing embers." " Red." " Yellow, like wheat." " Yellow." " As green as a cypress." " Green." "And purple..." "What do you say?" "Have you ever been to Vizyi, Auntie?" "Do you know how to read and write?" "Have you ever been in the palace, Auntie?" "Come!" "See you don't get lost!" "Now, it so happened that my master was head tailor... to the Sultan's mother." "Since I was the youngest of his pupils... he would regularly send me to her palace on the Bosporus... carrying a large bundle on my head." "The princess still preyed on my mind." "I nursed the secret ambition to apprentice myself... to the head tailor of the Sultan's harem... in the Dolma Bachtse." "The good gentleman lived on the Asian shore of the Bosporus... opposite the afore-mentioned palace." "I believed the princesses would hear me singing from there... and would either come to me in their royal barges... or wave to me from their windows... indicating that I should swim across to find them." "Indeed, many's the time that I entered... the magical chambers of the Sultan's Mother's harem." "But the persons with whom I came into contact... were mainly the black eunuchs." "I heard female voices and laughter... crude jokes and obscene insults." "The guard behind me was there to protect me... from being snatched away... but also watched to see I did not dare raise my eyes... and sully the ladies of the harem with my infidel's gaze." "Trembling with anticipation I approached the final chamber." "And what do you think I found waiting for me there?" "Some blonde princess ready to fall into my arms?" "Nothing." "There was absolutely nothing in that room!" "There was, however, set in the wall... which separated the chamber I was in from another... a wooden cylinder... which clearly awaited my caresses... as if it were my sweetheart." "The moment I caressed it..." "I heard a delicate, so very delicate voice... coming from the other side of the cylinder." " You came, my lamb?" " I did, my Sultana." " Do you want another one?" " I want you, my Sultana." "Bravo, my lamb!" "Are you tall?" "Are you?" "I was on the verge of telling her... that I was so small I could get into the little cupboard... and appear before her very eyes... when the guard said:" "Big?" "Him?" "He's still so small that I had to order a new stool... for him to stand on so he'd be at the level... of your eyes." "From that moment the ground suddenly gave way... beneath my feet and I plunged... into a silent, dark abyss..." "with my head swimming... with my heart beating ever so faintly... as when we dream that we are falling... falling... falling..." "Grandfather!" "Grandfather!" "A number of my fellow apprentices... began to babble how they, too, had eaten sweets... from that round cupboard... and that the sweet, that very sweet voice... was not that of my beloved, the princess... but that of the oldest eunuch in the palace." "A bird alone weeping in the City... like the nightingale that sings at night alone... and no heart can feel its pain." "Like a flower blooming on a barren rock... with no one there to get wind of it." "Thus blossom and fade in this foreign soil... the sad little blooms of my heart." "And only my bitter, bitter songs... echo in the black silence." "I had started taking God himself to task... for having had the idea of clothing Eve... thus giving birth to the tailor's trade." "If I were God I would have left my Eve as I would created her." "What harm would her nakedness have done me?" "I warrant she would have been more beautiful." "I have come to take Giorgi for a while." "Don't take too long." "Giorgi!" "Despite my mother's repeated lectures... on how a trade was a golden bracelet... that I had to acquire no matter what the sacrifice..." "I kept insisting that she call me home." " Are we family?" " A distant cousin." "Your Aunt Zoe wrote and asked me to look you up." "Will you come for me often?" "I would like to write to the village with my news... to my grandfather... where I have been, the places I have seen... what sort of people there are here." "I'm ready." "Dear Grandfather..." "I have seen the Salyvrian gate... with the Paraporti way up there..." "I haven't seen the princess yet." "Do you want me to teach you to read and write?" "I began to loathe my master." "While the ridiculous movements of his toothless jaw... accompanied the squeaking bites of his greedy scissors... he never took his eyes off me for a moment... lest I straighten out my tortured spine for a moment." "Giorgi, wake up!" "Grand dad!" "Grand dad with two d's." "The vile and tedious monotony of the working life..." "And the difficulties faced by anyone new to a trade... seemed to weigh down on me two and three times more heavily." "I began to grow thin and pine away... shut up as I was... inside Stamboul's bazaar... behind the iron gates of the Kebetsi Inn... staring out over the lead-covered domes." "So desolate was I... that I no longer sang songs of love..." "But rather wailed and moaned... like the desperately homesick child I had become." "The sun set last night on my blessed land." "And I was given a kiss on a dying ray... to bring to me." " Where are you from?" " From Skiathos." "You?" " What's your name?" " Dimitrios." " Where are you from?" " I'm from Thessaloniki." " What are you called?" " Nikolaos." " Where are you from?" " Chios." "And you?" "I'm from Vizyi." "Mine was once a tailor's lot..." "Why should I be ashamed to admit it?" "The stitches and patterns I've long since forgot..." "But the art is to memory committed." "Giorgi!" "Giorgi!" "Your grandfather's wrestling with the angel!" "Giorgi!" "Giorgi!" "Your grandfather's wrestling with the angel!" "The end is near." "And he's asking for you!" "Come on." "Let's go, quickly." "If you are too late, he will die and his eyes will remain open." "Grandfather is wrestling with the angel." "He can't manage by himself and he needs me to help him." "How will I manage?" "But this is my only chance..." "Not only to escape the clutches of my master..." "But also to ask my grandfather... in what part of the world he would met his princesses." "His grandfather is on his death bed... and he's asked to see the boy." "Grandfather wanted me because I always won when we wrestled." "He was proud of me and called me his little champion." "But how could I defeat the angel?" "And what if it was grandfather's last wish?" "If a departing soul still has an unfulfilled desire... it cannot break free of the body and leave... but hovers moaning... and complaining... on the dying man's lips." "That night I saw two huge wrestlers in the clouds... fighting to the death." "One was my grandfather for sure... and the other was, of course, the angel." "I had seen him in our village church so many times." "Poor grandfather." "How could he win against such a terrifying opponent?" "Grandfather is wrestling with the angel!" "I dreamt of grandfather... his tall frame laid out full length... a child reading the Psalter at his feet." "Why is his head not resting peacefully on his pillow?" "It is as though those pale lips of his are whispering... a most mournful complaint." "His eyes radiate a dull crystal glow." "wide open, staring at the door." "Who is he expecting?" "which of his loved ones was he still hoping to see... when he died, poor grandfather... and his eyes remained open?" "I woke up shaken by the horror of the dream... and did my best to keep my eyes open... and my neck erect." "But I couldn't." "My head lolled and I fell asleep again... and dreamed once more." "It seemed to me that much time had passed... since the death of my grandfather." "His grave was newly dug... but grandfather was not lying in his coffin." "He was sitting on the ground... his mournful gaze fixed on the road... just looking, looking, looking... as if he were expecting someone to come." "Grandfather!" "Grandfather!" "Giorgi!" "Giorgi!" "I could hear the hoof beats of the galloping horse... and feel the shock of its tread... just as if I were astride its back." "Horse and rider came hurtling towards me." "I woke up." "After such a dream I dare not doze off again." "I was afraid." "When we dismounted in front of Grandfather's house... it was already past noon." "A heavy silence prevailed." "Everything around me was unchanged." "Only Grandfather's shoes, always so spotless and shiny... were not in front of the door of his room." "Grandfather was gone!" "Shoo!" "To work or I'll give that fur coat of yours a shaking!" "Poor grandfather's dead... and grandmother's taking it out on her cat." "Ah!" "Our little rascal is back." "Where have you sprung from, you wretch?" "From the moon that's where." "Or have you eaten all the Jews' sulphur... and that's why your face is so sour and yellow." "Oh, the shame of it!" "Oh me, oh my!" "Why are you standing there like a man hanging on the gallows?" "Hurry up and fetch me some water!" "Grandmother!" "Why are you standing like that, you weakling?" "Afraid your kidneys will drop out, are you?" "May you roast in hell, asking me for city clothes!" "You useless, wretched lay about!" "Grandmother was like one of those musical gadgets... that once you have wound them up... simply have to play their music... till the very last note." "Only no one ever stayed to listen to Grandma's music... until the end!" "Grandma was getting Granddad's best suit of clothes ready... and the scent of lavender and basil filled the room." "I knew no one entered Grandma's house without doing some chore." "But I was desperate to see grandfather... before the angel took him." "Where is Grandfather, Grandma?" "Ah, you may well ask." "He is gone and left me, the lay about, the bum!" "The useless man!" "The laggard!" "She wants Granddad back from the grave to do the chores!" "Where he is now, what's poor Granddad doing?" "Why, he is lazing around sunning his belly!" "The glutton!" "The waster!" "The worthless man!" "And where is he sunning his belly, Grandma?" "Up on the hill, where else?" "The fool!" "The bum!" "That bundle of worthlessness!" "Little Giorgi, Who is your love... that all day long you're singing of?" "Granddad!" "You have been to the City, little one?" "You saw a lot of people?" "Yes, Grandfather... and some mills with wings that turn in the wind." "Never mind that!" "Did you go by the land where the sun bakes bread?" "Did you see the Dog heads?" "No, Granddad." "I didn't see them." "Where are these Dog heads?" "There... just a bit down from the land where the sun bakes bread." "In front they are people, but behind they are dogs." "in front they talk but behind they bark." "In front they flatter you, but behind they eat you up!" "So it's just as well you didn't go, little one." "Most certainly better!" "Better that I wasn't eaten and went to the City by boat!" "You should see the sea, Grandfather!" "Like this, full of water right up to the top... and boats moving through the water with sails full of wind." "Never mind that!" "Did you pass by the sea's belly button?" "Did you see the water swirling round the hole in the middle... like when your grandma stirs the pickling brine in the pot?" "No, grandfather, I didn't see that." "So, little one, you didn't see anything at all!" "But where is it, grandfather?" "There, a little way down... where Alexander the Great's mother, Fokia, lives." " Did you see her at least?" " No!" "Ah, my little one, so you saw nothing at all!" "Nothing!" "What's Fokia like, Grandfather?" "From the belly up, she is the most beautiful of women." "From the waist down she is the most terrifying fish." "She sits at the bottom of the sea... and when some passing ship casts a shadow over her... she leaps to the surface in a single bound... and grabs the ship with her hand and stops it." "Then she shouts to the captain..." ""Does Alexander the King" still live and rule?" "Three times she asks him, little one." "If the captain tells her all three times that Alexander rules... she lets him go about his business." "If he tells her that the king isn't alive... she sinks the ship and drowns him." "So it's just as well you didn't see her, my little one." "Much better, Grandfather... because how could I have gone to the City if I had drowned?" "You should see how big it is... and all the different people who live there!" " Fine ladies and princ..." " Never mind all that!" "Did you see the place where the petrified men are?" "No, Granddad, I didn't." "Ah, little one, then you have seen nothing in your life!" "Nothing!" "I never doubted that my grandfather was well-travelled... but I had just returned from the longest journey, from the City." "I had seen so many things!" "You must have made many journeys in your life!" "What me?" "Journeys?" "That was your grandmother, Hatzidena." "One time I told her I've vowed to the festival... of the Virgin of Sarakinos." ""Well go", she said, "Go!"" "What do I need you for?" "To sit here and keep an eye on me?" "You waster, you scoundrel!" "You this, you that!" "..." "Well, little one, I made all the preparations." "Where do you think you are going, damn you?" "To the Virgin of Sarakinos, sweetheart." "So you had leave our cow to go to the Virgin, would you?" "You think of the fair, but not of the cow who's ready to calf!" "But what will people say?" "You are all prepared." "You have bought oil, candles, incense!" "And what will the horse think now you have saddled it?" "The horse needs a run!" "Don't you see." "The quarrel was so she had get what she wanted!" "I lifted her up and sat her on the horse... and sent her to the fair with her brother." "And you, Grandpa?" "I sat in the stable waiting to calf the cow." "But the damned beast didn't give birth." "She just ruined my luck as far as journeys are concerned." "Every time I so much as thought of a journey..." " I found her barring my way." " How, Grandpa?" "When your grandma's involved..." "you try figuring it out." "How she managed to pull it off, it's enough to drive you crazy." "Every time I got ready for a trip, some beast gave birth... or the bees flew off, or someone fell ill, or a guest arrived... as if she planned it all to happen... just as I was crossing myself before mounting the horse!" "All these years we've been married I made the preparations but she made the journeys." "That's what happened with Redesto... with Silyvria with Medeia." "Everywhere." "But I planned one journey in secret, little one." "I kept it all to myself." "I saved up money for years and years and hid it away." "One day I call your grandma and I tell her firmly..." ""Sweetheart, I've made up my mind to go on a journey... make sure no animal is about to give birth, or sick... or needs anything and make sure no guest shows up... for I will break his legs!" "I wish you'd been there to see how scared she was!" "Not a word!" "I send for the priest and he comes and I confess my sins." "I call your grandma and will all my property to her." "I call the villagers and ask each for his forgiveness." "Because, my dear, this journey is the longest in the world... and we're all mortal." "The next day as I'm crossing myself, ready to mount..." ""Come here, sweetheart," I say to her." ""We are all mortal." "Forgive me and may God forgive you."" "And then she starts to cry." "Now that I hadn't expected." "I had decided I was leaving no matter what happened." "But when I saw your grandma, my wife, crying, my heart sank." "How could I leave her and go away to the ends of the earth?" "I've vowed to go to the Holy Sepulcher." "What can I do?" "If I don't go, we will be committing a sin." "You made a vow, husband, but are we not husband and wife?" "Whether you go or I to, is it not the same thing?" "She's standing there in tears!" "What can I say?" "I put her on the horse and send her off to the Holy Sepulcher... with her brother." "I haven't tried to go on a journey since then." "And all those places you have been to, Grandpa?" "All the long journeys you have taken?" "That was before you married grandma, right?" "Well... before they gave me to your grandma, Hadjidena..." "I wasn't a boy." "So what were you?" "A girl?" "You could say that, little one since I thought so... and so did everyone else." "You youngsters live in a golden age." "You can travel wherever you want, whenever you want." "And you know what you are." "We lived in troubled, unhappy times." "Our mothers knelt in tears before the Virgin... begging her to either give them a daughter or kill the child... in their bellies so it wouldn't be born a boy." "The Janissaries were the most terrifying troops of all." "They go round the villages gathering the most handsome... most intelligent Christian boys and make Turks of them." "I curse the hour on April's first day... when the soldiers marched out to take our boys away!" "Georgia!" "When your mother bore you her belly was blessed..." "When I was born, little one, they named me Georgia... and along with the name, they dressed me in girls' clothes." "And like the miserable little girl I thought I was..." "I never saw beyond the four walls of our house." "...and made you, the most beautiful... of all her children." "The good times are here... the hour is blessed..." "When I was about ten years old... my father, God rest his soul, grabs me one day." "Georgia!" "From this day on you are Giorgis." "You are a boy." "And from tomorrow on you are a man when carnations blend... with violets of gold." "Your hair is like silk Chrysi's husband, the girl you play dolls with and braided so well..." "Come." "When I was a fine young lad of twelve or so..." "I could squeeze water out of iron..." "In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost... forever and ever." "Amen." "I still hadn't learned to tie my new kaftan... and they gave me a wife to command." "But it had to happen." "The Sultan's order was that the Janissaries could only take unmarried youths." "And so, little one, instead of some Janissary getting me, your grandmother did." "So you didn't go on any journey before you were married." "I did!" "I did go on a journey before I was married!" "I did!" "But I didn't finish that one either." "See that hill over there..." "the highest one... where the face of the earth ends?" "I see it." "It's top touches the sky." "That's the one." "The sky really is touching it, isn't it?" "Yes, Grandpa." "The earth ends there and the sky begins." "Bravo, little one." "That's as far as I was able to journey..." "As far as the sky." "I looked at that hill from our window since I was a child." "And I longed..." "I so wanted to go there... and climb up to the top... to climb up into the sky." "But I was a girl!" "How could I go out in the roads?" "When my father cut my hair and dressed me in boy's clothes... and my family were all busy making our wedding crowns..." "I slipped away and went out into the yard." "I was thinking about the journey... nothing but the journey." "I had noticed a short plank that the chickens ran up... to get to their nests." ""I will rest it on the window of the sky" I said to myself... like a step ladder..." "I will climb up, make a hole... and climb in." "Nasty boy!" "Horrid boy!" "Grandma Chryssi pelted me with stones when she saw me." "That's how she went after boys." "It was as if I had just been born again." "No one recognized me." "I kept going." "My eyes were fixed on the hill." "I go a mile, I go two miles..." "The further I go, the further away the hill seems to be." "And the nearer I approach the higher the sky seems to get." "When I saw that my legs just gave way on me." "The edge of the sky just kept getting further away... from where I expected to find it." "I felt tired... hungry..." "I felt that the wood I was carrying was as heavy as lead... that night had started to fall." "And then I turned back and left the journey unfinished." "And on top of everything else I thought of my father." "He, God rest his soul, was nothing like your grandma." "Your grandma is all bark and no bite." "But he bit without evening barking first." "And that's why I turned back, little one." "It was the only journey of my life... but it was never finished." "Mama..." "And everything you told me, Grandpa?" "About the land where the sun bakes bread?" "About the belly button of the sea?" " About the princesses?" " What princesses?" "The ones that gets love-sick for tailor-boys... and send their father, the king, with his crown... to go and beg the bridegroom." "Don't you remember the wedding gowns without seam or stitch?" "Ah, little one, my grandmother told me all those stories... when she was teaching me to knit." "It's getting cold." "My grandfather gazed towards the horizon." "He seemed absorbed by the sight of the landscape... that stretched out before us." "The bright variety of the last autumn colors... and the raised mounds of the tombs which dotted the plain... lent the scene a unique and wonderful unity... as it stretched out into eternity." "Nearby the now useless stubble of harvested corn fields... sent up spirals of smoke as they burned." "Over there, fertile fields... stretched out into the distance." "They no longer swayed under the weight... of their crop of corn." "But despite this most pleasant of sights... a secret anguish... a chill foreboding... filled my heart." "You felt that life... once so vibrantly omnipresent in this place... was now slowly but surely drawing away." "The nature of the scene... and my grandfather's waxen... wizened face... lit by the rays of a dying sun... were so similar... so closely related!" "Poor grandfather wrestled with the angel and won... but he was so exhausted and weak... that if he has to fight again there's no way he will win." "Giorgi!" "Giorgi!" "Wake up!" "That night was very cold." "We woke the next morning to find frost... lying thick and white upon the fallen leaves... that carpeted our garden." "He lay there in absolute peace." "A supernatural glow lit his face." "Poor grandmother!" "What she would have given to stop him going on this trip!" "Journey!" "Grandfather!" "Grandfather!" "Money, money." "Missus, money money." "Missus, money." "Give me some, too." " The warden's office?" " It's upstairs." "Katerina looked after Giorgos Vizyenos until the end." "He was used to her." "He wouldn't have anyone else near him at the end." "Are you a relative, Mrs. Fravisili?" "A family friend." "Where do you have him?" "Could I see him?" "In Ward 5 at the end of the corridor." " Are you Katerina?" " Yes." " Have you come for Mr. Vizyenos?" " Yes." "They just took him away." "They have him in the courtyard." "The carriage should be here at any minute." "Will you take his things?" "Yes, I will take them." "Two shirts, two pairs of trousers, his coat... his books, his watch... his writing." "That's everything."