{"id":2628,"date":"2014-08-05T03:26:19","date_gmt":"2014-08-05T03:26:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/?p=2628"},"modified":"2014-08-05T03:26:19","modified_gmt":"2014-08-05T03:26:19","slug":"coach-sozou-kyrkou-konstantina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/coach-sozou-kyrkou-konstantina\/","title":{"rendered":"The Other Coach by Sozou-Kyrkou Konstantina"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"130806cr01_2\"<\/a>
Tempest by Tommy Ingberg<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Other Coach<\/h1>\n

by Sozou-Kyrkou Konstantina<\/p>\n

I\u2019m unzipping the small suitcase open when the phone rings.<\/p>\n

\u2018Tonia, is that you?\u2019 My mama\u2019s fuzzy voice comes through the line in agonizing gasps.<\/p>\n

\u2018Yes, mama, it\u2019s me. What\u2019s up?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s terrible! Have you heard about the coach accident? On the highway, near Korinthos. People were killed. Horrible!\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Yes, I saw it on the news. Things\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Ismene had come to town for your cousin\u2019s wedding.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018I know that, mama. I was there too, remember?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Oh, yes, yes, of course. She left this morning for Athens on a coach. Was it the same coach? Have you talked to her? Please\u2026 \u2018 Her words are minced up with sobs. I take a deep breath in order to reply but she interjects. \u2018I called her as soon as I heard. Several times. Her phone is dead.\u2019 Another whimper. \u2018Please, Tonia, find your sister immediately!\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Calm down, mama! She has possibly forgotten to charge her mobile phone. You know her. And it wasn\u2019t the same coach. The one that collided with the lorry was coming from Lefkada, not Preveza.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Oh\u2026 Is that so? Well, that\u2019s a relief!\u2019 Her deep sigh a discordant breeze against the receiver. \u2018There was something else I meant to tell you but\u2026 I forgot.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Well, it can\u2019t be that important. You would\u2019ve recalled it if it was.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Yes\u2026 yes. You\u2019re probably right.\u2019<\/p>\n

Mama\u2019s dementia is deteriorating day by day. Last month she called after she\u2019d heard Ismene had her salary chopped by the new austerity government measures. She asked me to chip in. I had both my husband\u2019s and my own salary to live on, she\u2019d said. Forgotten I\u2019d been redundant for two years.<\/p>\n

Phoned another time when there was this protest march in Athens, when anarchists burnt down some buildings in the centre of Athens. Ismene\u2019s phone was out of order, as usual. Wanted to see whether Ismene\u2019s flat had suffered any damage or she herself was injured. The fact that my sister\u2019s work and home were in Glyfada, a southern suburb of Athens \u2013 nowhere near the Syntagma square, where the incident took place \u2013 seemed irrelevant.<\/p>\n

Ismene has always been on mama\u2019s mind; a source of constant worry. Mama had only been eighteen when she gave birth to me, the product of an arranged, oppressed by despotic in-laws marriage. When she had Ismene, fourteen years later, she had finally reached equilibrium in her life and was ready to love and nurture a child.<\/p>\n

\u2018Tonia, when you find your sister, tell her to call me. And\u2026 well, I can\u2019t remember\u2026 there was something else but\u2026 anyway. Have to go now.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018OK. Bye, mama.\u2019 I hear the click of the receiver being replaced in its cradle. \u2018Don\u2019t worry, mama. I\u2019ll always be here for you and Ismene,\u2019 is what I want to say but never do. I take the red crepe dress out of the suitcase and hang it in the wardrobe, trying to brush aside the thought that what eludes mama is probably the fact that I was also on that coach coming to Athens from Preveza this morning.<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n

I hold a BA(Hons) in Literature and an MA in Creative Writing from Lancaster University. My stories have appeared in print and online in several literary magazines. My first collection of short stories in going to be published with Matador (Troubador Press) soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m unzipping the small suitcase open when the phone rings.<\/p>\n

\u2018Tonia, is that you?\u2019 My mama\u2019s fuzzy voice comes through the line in agonizing gasps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[168,338],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-flash-fiction","category-story-of-the-world"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2628"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2630,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2628\/revisions\/2630"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}