MOAB

Chapter 3i^3

Chapter 3i^3

Yanni’s mind raced on about keeping the light contained. Much like the spilled milk on the table, the spilled milk on the floor and the spilled milk on his son’s clothes, the damn light got spilt every time you tried to do something useful with it.

Thalia dropped the plate in the sink and grabbed a towel. “Oh Yanni, don’t just sit there! Clean up this mess. I can’t do everything around here,” she said and cleaned up after Georgie.

Georgie ran his fingers through the spilt milk on the floor and licked them. “No don’t lick that,” his mom said and slapped his hand lightly.

Yanni snapped out of it and started cleaning up with some napkins and said, “Yes, sorry, here. Not from the floor Georgie, we don’t eat stuff from the floor.”

But his mind raced on again. Tuning out the background noise (his wife cleaning up after the kids, Georgie crying because he was scolded, the baby crying because she needed changing, the neighbor banging on his damn DIY kitchen, the cat on her oistros calling out the males and the gardener with his electric hedge trimmers) he thought of equations that would make reality his b***h.

The light you see, could be crystallized. But the sneaky bastard kept leaking out.

Yanni had a thought about that.

And then his wife banged the table and he lost that thought.

“I need you to tell me how many people are coming for your birthday next month,” said Thalia while taking off Georgie’s dirty t-shirt.

“This early? I don’t know yet, I haven’t called anyone,” Yanni said and scratched his head. He went through the contacts on his cellphone. He said, “Antonis will surely come, Spyros maybe with Ntina, Niko will probably show up…”

Thalia interrupted him, “Plus their wives. And whichever half-naked poutana Nikos will be sleeping with that week.”

Yanni defended his friend, “He is a bachelor honey. Just because the rest of us are happily married doesn’t mean that he should get married as well. We are still young, you know.”

Thalia went to the next room, returned with the baby in her arms, and said, “You are all close to thirty. I could hook him up with some nice girls I know, but Nikos just wants to drive his convertible and go to nightclubs. He doesn’t want to settle down.”

“What do you want me to do, not invite my friend because he is the only one still single?” asked Yanni.

She explained, “We will all get together for your birthday, the pals and their wives and their kids, Ntina is happily expecting, but Nikos will be the bachelor that gets you all thinking that he is better that way. And the rest of you guys will stare at his poutana’s boobs and compare her body to what we look like after giving birth twice.”

Yanni stood up and hugged his wife with his baby and said, “Your boobs are nice. More importantly, they are the only boobs I want.”

Georgie said, “Boobs!” and giggled.

Yanni said, “See, we all like them.”

Thalia looked at Yanni and said, “You were staring at her last time.”

“No…”

“You were. You all were, actually.”

“OK, I did stare. I am sorry. They were huge and they were squeezing to get out,” said Yanni, mimicking their effort with his hands.

She smiled and said, “You know they weren’t real right? What was her name, Angela? Or was Angela the one before?”

Yanni hugged her tighter and said, “Yeah, I don’t remember. Who cares? Nikos will learn someday. It’s just a birthday party, we can manage one afternoon of temptation.”