Chapter 1

Revelation

"Petros, wake up or I'm dragging you out." Nikolas shook me.

"I'm sleeping." I mumbled.

"Then why are you dressed?" He pinched my sleeve.

"Forgot." I pulled my arm away.

"You cast the best and your nets always have fish. Good fish." He added.

"You'll survive one night without me." I rolled over.

"I warned you, cousin." I felt him lift me up and carry me out of my room.

"Nikolas!" I balked.

"Shut it! Our parents are asleep." He shushed.

He carried me to the front door and let me put on my shoes. We walked as silently as we could to the dock. Stefanos was readying Zeno, our great grandfather's boat, for our second trip. We cast off and sailed to our nets.

The sun barely broke the horizon as we pulled in our catch. My net was full as Nikolas predicted, but the others were too. We went back to port and our fathers were waiting to help take them to the market. Theíos Sebastian and Theíos Dimitris made sure Babá didn't carry too much. We got the fish to market and were allowed to go home. Just outside the front door, Mamá was holding my jacket. We groaned.

"Petros, you know better than to leave the house without your jacket! You could catch a cold. What if you went overboard, huh? It won't do to have you sick before your Name Day." She scolded.

"Mamá, it wasn't my fault. Nikolas didn't let me get it." I protested.

"I wouldn't let him go overboard, Theía Irene." He added. Mamá looked at us like we were kids again.

We were allowed inside and we had breakfast, spanakopita, toast, and yogurt. The last time we skipped breakfast, Babá was furious and made us go eat early. Then when we got home, Mamá and everyone fussed over us after another tongue lashing.

Someone nudged my calf. "Petros, what do you want to do now that you're out of high school?"

I frowned. "I don't know."

"You'll figure something out, agapité." She cooed.

I hummed. We finished eating and went to back to the market. We sold fish until Babá decided there wasn't enough work for all of us to do. We walked around the village. The late afternoon sun warned the beach.

"It's too early to do anything!" Stefanos complained.

"We could borrow some bikes; go over to the next village." I suggested.

"You always want to go over to the next village. And the next and the next." Nikolas laughed.

"I think he just like to talk to the tourists. Especially the Americans. Remember when we had to pry him from that woman's table?" Stefanos added, smiling. "She had you hanging on her every word!"

"What she said was interesting!" I crossed my arms.

"You were asking about her what the weather was like, Petros!" Nikolas jabbed my side. "Let's go get something to drink."

We drank and chatted, but my mind kept going back to that conversation. The tourists all had unique stories to tell. I liked hearing about where they were from, hearing where they been. So, I liked going to different villages and meeting new people, but that was only because-

I… I wanted to travel.

Name Day: when someone is named after a saint, that saint's celebration day becomes their "name day" and is celebrated much like their actual birthday.

theíos: Uncle

theía: Aunt

agapité: darling

Babá: Dad