- Kotsifas' Navagios Cousin

Lithography by Vaso Katraki

Every year when the flowers would blossom end of May and I would finish school, the family cars (a blue and a silver Opel Kaddet) were packed and ready to take us all to Gialtra for our summer vacation. The main characters spending the whole summer at the house in Gialtra were:

Aunt Nitsa (Religious housewife married to Uncle Andrew; an old boat mechanical)
Giagia Bouboulina (The Grandmother)
Varka (Little speed boat named Nitsa after my aunt's name that was slow like aunt)
Kotsifas (My cousin)
Tsitsos (The cat)
Flatroudes (Deadly spiders. A strange species found only at Gialtra)
BMX Blue Bicycle (Kotsifas' old bicycle that became mine when he bought a fancy yellow one that I wasn't allowed to touch)
Navagio (Ship wreckage from the war with the Germans in front of the house very close to the shore. The top part of the wreckage was visible and looked haunted)

The days at the house were unbearable boring. Who would have imagined that me; a born rebel who used to drink water from the toilet would end up enclosed in a house with three old people. And old was fine, but old and crazy was too much. A typical afternoon entertainment meant being seated at the front terrace eating watermelon listening to Giagia saying stories about the dead people after the earthquake in the island of Zante where she grew up and got married, uncle saying stories about the dead people at his journeys in the wild sea and aunt lighting up candles in the middle of the day saying stories about the Saints.

The moment I was really waiting for with anticipation, same way a little kid is waiting for Santa to arrive at the house during Christmas, was the day my cousin Kotsifas would finish his classes at the college and would come stay with us for 1-2 months.He was my only hope since with him Aunt would let me go everywhere and most importantly to Limanaki beach where all my friends used to hang out outside of the famous Greek Lithography artist Vaso Katrakis' beach home.

Everyone loved Kotsifas at Limanaki, Peppy, Swtos, Mariana, Vagelis, Zelina,Theodora to name few. And because he wasnt the only one with that name; his friends used to call him Kotsifas o Navagios (Kotsifas The Ship Wreckage). And consequently, my name was Kotsifas' Navagios cousin.

That was till that day of the big jump.
The big jump was an incredible moment of my childhood life in Gialtra.

In front of Mrs. Katrakis' house there was a very old deck made of heavy, unevenly cut and rough stones.The very end of the deck was destroyed and a huge piece had fallen in the water diagonally making it very dangerous for everyone who would dare to jump in the water from the deck.

It was a quite, sunny Friday afternoon, and everyone was lying at the beach when Mrs. Katrakis' grandaughter;Annoula who was my best friend started urging me to finally make the attempt to jump from the deck.

Annoula: Why are you afraid to jump? Everybody had tried and nothing has happened so why are you afraid so much?
Me (thinking that probably Annoula is right replied): I will Jump!

Knowing that noone had hurt in the past, and that V. for whom I had a crash on, would see me jumping as a confident girl, I found myself at the edge of the deck crying out for help from all the saints that Aunt had mentioned throughout her stories.And I jumped.And I hit on the stone and never came out of the sea till V. rushed to save me and get me to the shore. I was probably shocked cause the only thing I remembered after the accident was that kiss V. gave me trying to do cpr on me; a great sparkling kiss that made my pain go away. When I opened my eyes still warm from that sweet kiss, to my suprise I saw the doctor of the village who kept telling everybody Get away from the girl.She needs space.

WHAT? I wanted to scream out loud. Who had invited that old guy with the beard to ruin my most precious moment with my V. ; my big love and future husband?The doctor started examining me, he wrapped my right leg that was bleeding and gave me a strong cream for the wounds in my back.
What is your name, he asked? Maria, I replied.

And since that evening, I finally got my true identity and everyone started calling me after my real name. I was no more Kotsifas’ Navagios cousin, but Maria; the first girl allover Gialtra who jumped from the deck and hit herself on the stone. But what a first summer Kiss!