The Lotus Eater Summary
Scotty has been searching the Aegean for Kelly, missing for ten days. He finally finds him, whereupon the latter announces he's giving up the spy game. The newfound decision turns out to be due to bottles of drugged ouzo fed to Kelly by Irena, a beautiful Greek girl who is an unwilling pawn of Sorge, an intelligence trader who's using the drugs to pleasantly pump Kelly (through Irena) for secrets. Scotty gets the government's scientists to concoct an antidote, finds his way into the villa where Kelly is staying with the girl and injects him with the cure. Sorge sends men over to the villa and Irena redeems herself by risking her life to crash their speedboat. In gratitude, Kelly and Scotty tell Sorge she went down with the boat, freeing her from his hold over her. The last we see of her is walking off at dawn into the town, with some money Kelly hands her to "buy yourself a dress and a plane ticket out of Athens."
A melancholy, blue-gray dawn is rising over the Mediterranean. The cries of the gulls follow Irena Papas along the waterfront. The admiring comments and flirtatious calls of the fishermen do, too, but these hold no joy for Irena.
Youth and beauty are not all they are – how did her Kelly put it? – all they are cracked up to be.
Irena knows this, surely. The old women look at her in the street with envy, resentment. But she knows it, has known it since she was very young. Youth and beauty do not protect; rather, they attract predators. Wealth protects. Social position and power protect. Family protects. Love…
Ah, love. It was a job, seducing Kelly, this strange, vulnerable yet strong man, yet in some way, she knows, she loved him. She loved his strength, his integrity… and, she knows, he cared for her. Yet she broke him down. What choice did she have? …Perhaps she hoped – she hoped that after he cut his ties with his government, after he passed the point of no return, he would have no place to belong, like her, and then he could be hers truly. Forever.
Ah, hope. Again, not all it is cracked up to be.
Especially not for Irena, a lone and friendless Cypriot in Greece. She wonders if Kelly understands what it is to be truly alone in the world, what she meant by "I try. Who will let?" Any attempt at an honest living, any attempt at an upright life – there are too many wolves in sheep's clothing, too many who wish to prey upon a young and pretty girl. No-one has her best interests at heart.
She envies Kelly his – it feels strange to call him 'friend', truly, for he seemed so much more than that. She cannot bring herself to dislike Scotty, even though it became apparent the minute he appeared on the scene that she would have no chance with Kelly, for he truly has Kelly's best interests at heart, in a way that she did not. Kelly is lucky to have such a man by his side. He reminded her a little of her father; always in control, knowing right from wrong. The way he glared at Kelly when he was about to give her information, the way he held Kelly up and injected him, the way he draped his jacket around her when she emerged from the sea.
Irena is glad that she did that, got Sorge's men away from Kelly and his protector. If she has it in her to do that, perhaps she can do other things. Maybe even, someday, be like Kelly's stern friend, guided by his own inner lights, not subservient to the whims of fate. She has always been too weak, so far.
She wonders what Kelly and his Scotty would do in her place, in the street with nothing but the clothes on her back, no shoes, no identification, no place to go. They would probably make a joke, look for work, find someone to forge them some identification. But it's irrelevant, because she doesn't have what they have. Each other.
Her heart ought to break with loneliness, but for some reason her mind's eye pictures them joking and smiling affectionately. She remembers the easy way they smiled at each other when Kelly was recovered, with the joy and relief of men who are finally free…
…and it opens a door in her mind.
"As far as we're concerned, you went down with the boat."
Like a shaft of sunlight through the clouds, all of a sudden she realizes all that she doesn't have. No omnipotent Sorge to order her around. No hateful Melina to beat her. No gilded cage to imprison her. No probing surveillance to monitor her. No disgusting duties to sully her.
No trace of Irena Papas, wanted by the police.
Perhaps she might find it in herself to be a little less frightened. After all, what does she have now?
Only the pearly-grey dawn, and the seagulls, and the clothes on her back. And youth, and beauty.
With more fortitude than she had five minutes ago, she examines the money in her hand. Three hundred and fifty American dollars. Not a bad sum in drachmas, and her mind races. "Buy yourself a dress and a ticket out of Athens." She'll pass on the dress, but there is a life ahead of her, and if she does not decide to end it, then she will have to live it.
She might as well start.