‘Why do you think so many of them died during the war?’
Doctor Stavros shrugged. ‘I thought it was obvious. The Germans stopped all food supplies being sent over. They managed for a while, and then they were forced to live almost exclusively off the fish they could catch. I wasn’t allowed to go over, so they had no medical help. There were a number of elderly who would have died anyway, and, of course, accidents.’
‘Accidents?’
‘One man fell off a roof he was trying to repair. He never recovered consciousness. There was the man who got drunk and thought he’d swim to safety, needless to say he drowned, a couple were shot by the Italians when they tried to get across to Plaka, Anna died of blood poisoning and a woman threw herself off the fortress wall.’
‘Unfortunate.’
Doctor Stavros drained his glass. ‘I’ll take you to meet Manolis. He’s my regular boatman and he’ll take you across.’
They walked down to the waterfront and found Manolis in one of the tavernas. The doctor introduced Nikos. ‘You’ll be taking him over to the island every day.’
Manolis scowled. ‘I go early and I return late.’
‘I’ll be ready and I’ve plenty to do.’
‘Well, at least Yannis will be pleased to see you.’
Nikos pretended not to hear the remark. ‘What’s the food like here?’
‘Pretty good.’
‘I’ll try it. Should I take some food over to the island tomorrow?’
‘They’ll cater for you as a matter of course, they always do for the doctor and myself.’
Nikos nodded. He felt a distinct outsider and wished someone else had been selected for the task ahead.
The journey took less time than he had envisaged and he gazed at the island in the distance with interest. As they drew closer the ramparts of the Venetian fort rose above them with the incongruous concrete building that housed the generator at the foot. Flora was waiting on the quay and smiled with surprise when she saw Manolis had a passenger.
‘How nice to see a fresh face. I’ll take you to meet Yannis and we’ll find you somewhere comfortable to live. I’m sure you’ll be happy here.’
‘I’m not living here. I’m a doctor sent from Heraklion to examine you all.’
Flora looked at Manolis for assistance.
‘Take him to Yannis first. He’ll know where he needs to go.’
Nikos followed her up the slope, automatically noticing that apart from only having one arm, she appeared extremely fit and well, although thin. Yannis answered the knock on his door and looked in surprise at his visitor. ‘What can I do for you?’
‘I’ve been sent here by the government and hospital authorities. I’m the doctor who’s going to examine you and take the tests that are needed in Athens.’
‘You’d better come in then.’ Yannis held the door open wide and Nikos stepped into the small, neat room. He looked around appreciatively. ‘Have a seat and I’ll make some coffee, or would you prefer wine?’
‘No, coffee’s fine by me.’
Nikos’s eyes roamed round the room, noting the pile of writing paper and envelopes on the table. This was obviously the Yannis who had been writing to him. Pinned either side of the fireplace were two sketches, both of females. Nikos rose and looked at them carefully. He was still standing there when Yannis returned.
‘I was admiring the art work.’
Yannis did not answer. He placed coffee and water at the doctor’s elbow and sat down opposite. ‘What can I do for you?’
‘Are you the gentleman who has been writing to the government requesting the new drugs?’
‘I am.’
Nikos nodded. ‘I’m here to try to help. Let me explain. Shortly before the war America claimed to have found an effective drug for the use of leprosy patients. We were naturally interested and were waiting for more information and the results of their tests. You will understand, of course, that once we were involved in the war we were unable to proceed.’
‘I know all the excuses that have been put forward.’ Yannis rose and lifted a heavy file down from his bookshelf. ‘I have in here all the correspondence that has passed between the government and myself, also the correspondence I received from America. All we are asking for is our rights as sick people.’
Nikos shifted uncomfortably. ‘Of course, I am just trying to explain why there seems to have been a delay.’
‘You have no need to explain. I know why there’s been delay. Having been abandoned on this island we were not expected to survive very long. I’m afraid we’re still here to cause embarrassment and demand our rights.’
‘No, please, don’t think of yourselves as an embarrassment to us. We want to give you these drugs, but now we have Athens asking for health reports on all of you. It will be up to them to decide if your medical condition warrants them and if they can help you.’
‘I would have thought you could have gained all the information you needed from Doctor Stavros.’
‘I’ve gained a great deal, but I’ve been asked to take blood tests and skin samples and to give each of you a thorough medical.’
‘And how long is this going to take?’
‘No longer than it has to.’
‘Where do you want to start?’
‘It makes no difference provided I examine everyone.’
‘Then you may as well start with me.’
Nikos opened his case. ‘Very well. I’ll need some details from you; then I’ll do the medical and come back on Friday to take blood and skin samples. They’ll be fresher if I leave them until last. Now, your full name.’
The routine questions of family background Yannis answered easily, then Nikos began to probe a little deeper. ‘When was your condition first diagnosed?’
Yannis shrugged. ‘Is it important?’
‘Not to me, but I’ve got to fill in the form.’
‘I was born in nineteen hundred and nine and I was in Heraklion at the High School at the time, so I would have been about sixteen, which makes it nineteen hundred and twenty five.’
‘You went to High School?’
Yannis lifted his head proudly. ‘I did. I won a scholarship.’
‘I didn’t mean to doubt your ability. We must have been there at the same time. What were you reading?’
‘History and Classics, I had dreams of becoming an archaeologist.’ Yannis smiled grimly. ‘It was not to be.’
Nikos sat with his pen poised in the air. ‘Say that again.’
‘It was not to be.’
‘No, about becoming an archaeologist.’
‘It was a dream I had.’
‘Did you ever work in the museum?’
‘For a while, I had great plans for that, too.’
Nikos placed his pen down on the table and held out his hand. ‘Yannis, don’t you remember me?’ There were tears in Nikos’s eyes as he spoke.
Yannis frowned. ‘Should I?’
‘We spent a good deal of time together. You, Dimitris and I.’
Yannis frowned more deeply. ‘You were my friend Nikos?’
‘You just disappeared. Why didn’t you write to us? Tell us what had happened.’
‘You forget that we weren’t allowed to communicate with the outside world. Even my family didn’t know what had happened to me.’ Yannis spoke bitterly. ‘What did you do after High School?’
‘I went on to University in Athens, finally qualifying as a doctor and staying on a couple of years to become a skin specialist. Then I had the usual struggle to be accepted and get a permanent position.’
‘You’re established now, though.’
Nikos shrugged. ‘I gained by another’s misfortunes. I was a very junior doctor before the war, due to the death of Doctor Lenakis I suddenly found myself quite important.’
‘Are you married?’
Nikos nodded. ‘I’ve a little girl and another on the way.’
Yannis nodded. ‘Happy?’
‘Very. That’s why I don’t want to spend any longer here than I can help. How about you?’ Nikos looked towards the sketches.
‘That was my wife, Phaedra. She died during the war.’
‘I’m sorry.’
Yannis ignored the remark. ‘The other is Anna.’
‘Your daughter?’
‘My adopted daughter. She was Anna Pavlakis, Yiorgo Pavlakis’s daughter.’
Nikos’s mouth gaped. ‘You mean the Yiorgo Pavlakis who was shot? How did she get over here?’
‘Louisa brought her down to Aghios Nikolaos for safety. She then abandoned the child and returned to Heraklion. Anna was caught stealing and sent over here.’
‘Was she leprous?’
‘She had a birthmark, but before Doctor Stavros could send tests off the Germans invaded. It never got any worse and she never complained of any pain from it, so it’s doubtful that it was leprosy.’
‘Poor child. I read Doctor Stavros’s records yesterday, but I didn’t associate the name. Blood poisoning, wasn’t it?’
‘I told her she mustn’t use a knife.’ Yannis sighed. ‘If only she’d listened to me she could still be alive now.’
‘It could be better that she died. At least she never had to know how her mother met her death.’
Yannis did not appear to be listening. He was looking at the sketch on the wall. ‘She was a clever little girl. We both loved her, but to me she was very special.’
Nikos could feel a lump coming into his throat. How would he feel if his daughter met the same fate? ‘Shall I start examining you?’ he asked gruffly.
‘For all the good it will do.’ Yannis removed his coat and shirt and submitted to Nikos’s probing fingers.
‘You seem in good shape, considering everything. Drop your trousers.’
‘Is that necessary?’
‘I have to make a thorough examination.’
Yannis protested no longer. ‘Provided the outcome is favourable.’
‘It will be honest, Yannis. Whatever I find I’ll report. Not just for you, but for everyone.’
For the rest of the week Nikos visited the island. He found the journey cold and miserable and longed to be back in Heraklion. He would sit hunched up in the boat watching as the island drew nearer and nearer, insisting they left in plenty of time each afternoon so there was no chance of him being at sea when darkness fell. Each day he talked to Yannis, rediscovering their old intimacy and learning about the conditions Yannis had faced in the hospital in Athens and the dereliction that had confronted him when he first arrived on the island.
On the Friday, Nikos packed the blood and skin samples he had taken carefully. He was more cheerful, the prospect of seeing his wife and daughter again uppermost in his mind. Yannis had asked him to deliver a letter to Andreas and he had it in his pocket. It was thick and the envelope only just fitted, making him wonder what Yannis could find to write about at such length.
The bus journey seemed to take an interminable time and every jolt and bump made him peer anxiously at his precious samples. He certainly did not want to take them again. Safely delivered he hurried to his house, only to find that Dimitris had left a message to say he would like to see him during the weekend to discuss his progress. He was annoyed and wondered whether he could ignore the summons, finally deciding he would visit Dimitris in his home after delivering the letter to Andreas.
He set out into the dark street and strode along briskly. The sooner the errand was over the quicker he could return home. Andreas opened the door himself and insisted he went inside.
‘I mustn’t stop long. I have an appointment.’
‘I just wish to open Yannis’s letter and see if an immediate reply is called for.’ He ripped open the envelope to disclose a sheet of paper with another envelope that was full to bursting. Andreas picked it up and smiled. ‘This is for my sister and her husband. The letter for me is just a request to post it. It’s quicker from Heraklion.’
Dimitris furnished him with a drink and settled down opposite. ‘Now, tell me about this man Yannis.’
‘Do you remember our friend when we were at High School? The one who wanted to be an archaeologist and spent all his spare time at the museum?’
Dimitris nodded and frowned at the same time.
‘Remember his name?’
Dimitris shook his head; then realisation dawned on him. ‘You don’t mean…’
‘I do. Yannis Christoforakis, the leper, is our friend from High School. A skin test he’d had taken after that fall where he cut his head open showed he was leprous. They sent him off to Athens and he created such a fuss that they packed him off to the island. He’s been there ever since. He’s dangerous, Dimitris, verbally dangerous.’
‘So what can we do?’
‘Give him what he wants.’
Dimitris shook his head. ‘We can’t do that until Athens gives the go ahead. It’s up to you, Nikos.’
Nikos sighed. ‘I had an idea it would be.’
‘Well, what did you expect? I can’t leave Heraklion; besides, I’m not qualified to do the job. You’ll just have to delay, take your time.’
‘At the rate I’m going the job will take a number of weeks anyway, and that depends upon the weather. If we get a few storms I’ll be held up for days,’ grumbled Nikos. ‘Now I know I’m dealing with an old friend I want to help him. All he says is true.’
Dimitris looked at him sharply. ‘True or not, you do as I say and take plenty of time over it. Go away, Nikos. Spend the weekend with your wife and enjoy yourself, exhaust yourself, so you work more slowly next week.’
At the end of a month, when Nikos had examined no more than half of the inhabitants, Yannis’s patience began to wear thin. He spoke to Nikos who explained that he was working as quickly as he could, that talking to people was as important as examining them and he assured Yannis that all the information was being sent promptly to Athens.
‘It’s a much bigger job than I first thought.’
‘If it’s such a big job why don’t they send people down to help you?’
‘They have to be specialists, know what they’re doing. There’s no one else they can spare.’
‘I’m going to write to Dimitris and complain.’
‘I can’t stop you from writing.’ The threat held no fear for Nikos.
Yannis walked back to his house. He had no intention of writing to the government. If Nikos were removed due to a complaint they could have to wait months before a replacement doctor could be found and he would no doubt want to start all over again.
Nikos sought out Dimitris. ‘I’ve finished,’ he announced.
‘That’s what you think. I’ve had a letter from Athens. There’s something wrong with the blood samples. You’ll have to take them all again.’