The Last Colossus of Rhodes

Soon the man from the coast guard was back and he sat down on the other side of Niki while Kyros went to greet his father when he arrived.  Hemeros asked Niki some more questions about Yanni and Gregos.  What was their state of mind when they left?  What condition was the boat in?  How much experience did they have with bad weather?  What would they have done if something happened?  Did they have life vests?  Did they have a lifeboat?  Could they swim?  What supplies did they have for the life boat in an emergency?  Would they be without food and water?  Without a way to keep warm in the cold night coming?  Could they navigate if their equipment failed?  If they got lost, what then?

    Niki answered all of these questions with patience and without worry.  They didn’t seem to understand that there was nothing in these waters Yanni hadn’t conquered a hundred times before.  A dozen of those times or more, Yanni had likely been too drunk to see a hand in front of his face when he set sail upon these seas.  However, Yanni was different now.  It would all be all right.

    A helicopter flew by, coming from the direction the airplanes always went when they landed upon this isle.  Athena had always been fond of watching the airplanes as they came in to land.  She could name where each plane was from based on the time of day ever since she was in seventh grade.

    “That one’s from Amsterdam,” she would tell Niki offhandedly as they walked the streets together.  “They have a lot of museums there.  Some very famous art.”

    Or she would look longingly at the sky and say, “The plane from London is late.  It should have passed by ten minutes ago.  I wonder if it’s because the British weather is as bad as everyone claims and it makes it hard for the planes to fly on time.”

    Niki never once admired the planes.  In his youth, there hadn’t been as many planes flying overhead.  One, maybe two a day, but now there seemed to be a constant stream of them from April until October.  Most days, Niki could tune them out, but sometimes the noise and the sight of them made him mad.  They disturbed the peace he felt while sitting in front of his shop.  There was very little blue sky Niki could see from the alley in front of his store and it bothered him when the airplanes flew overhead and took that sky away from him.

    Now there were helicopters.  Sometimes they flew overhead as part of a very expensive tour.  Other times, they belonged to the coast guard.  This one was heading out to sea.  This one was going to look for the passengers of a boat they assumed was downed by a storm.  All three of whom Niki knew were safe.  He would be seeing them soon enough.  There was no need for a helicopter to fly out over the waters.  All it did amuse the small children who pointed at it with glee and annoy old men like while who didn’t like the noise of it.

    Other boats soon followed in the direction of the helicopter.  The man from the coast guard left once all of the questions were asked and Hemeros sat quietly with Niki while the old man stared out into the sea.  He could hear Orestes walking up and down the harbor in one direction and Kyros in the other, talking to the men on their boats, asking if they had been out that day, if they had seen anything, if Yanni passed by them in his boat.

    Nothing from any of them, then, one by one, the boats began to leave the harbor.  Niki hadn’t seen this place so empty in years.  All of the boats pulled out to sea, spreading out in every direction, like ants harvesting on the horizon, they moved like small dark dots to and fro.

    “Come Niki,” Orestes said after a while.  “Come to the restaurant and have dinner with me.  You must be starving sitting here all day.”

    “Yanni won’t keep her on the water at night,” Niki said.  His confidence in his friend never once fading.  “I’ll wait here until the boats come in.”

    Niki could feel his back and bones protest, one after another aching out their pleas for him to move.  He ignored them all.  The pleas from his brother-in-law to go into town.  The pleas from his nephew just to eat a little something while he waited.  The pleas from his own body to move.  Nevertheless, Niki sat there on his bench, the very bench where Yanni had fallen asleep waiting for him this morning, making polite conversation with Hemeros as the boats went by.  Niki asked about the other man’s mother, how long she had been retired and if he went to visit her often.

    Hemeros answered with kind words and excused himself from time to time to speak with other officers that had arrived.  Eventually, the sun set, the boats returned, and Niki knew that Yanni would never be returning to Rhodes again.