Fanis and her cousin Kera were
in a house that Kera’s parents owned in a village in Patra, Greece, located
near the Corinth Canal separating the southern Peloponnesian portion of Greece
from the northern part. Although they
were here as a way to lay low before the recent pandemic, the Wuhan virus,
subsided, there was already tensions as Fanis had an altercation with one of
the villagers who had made an inappropriate comment to Kera. Technically, it was a misunderstanding and it
can be argued that Fanis was well aware of what was lost in translation as he
spoke both Greek and English fluently but it happened. As this man had been hitting on Kera since
she was 12 and he was 15 years older than her, Fanis chalked it up as a
combination of the last twenty one years.
It is early morning in Greece,
which means given the seven hour time difference, results are coming in from
Tuesday primaries. As expected, the
highly populated with Cubans and Venezuelan Florida voted overwhelmingly for
Joe Biden who did not voice his praise of Castro and Chavez like his opponent
Bernie Sanders did. This put Bernie
Sanders at a horrendous disadvantage and even though he’s much more popular in
New York, which votes in about a month, it doesn’t seem like there’s a path for
him to get the nominee. Kera and Fanis
are watching this unfold. Fanis is
naturally an early riser but Kera is groggy and drinking down coffee as if she doesn’t
know when she’ll have another cup. Due
to the Wuhan Virus, there is nobody at the victory rally for Joe Biden. There are, however, cameras so Joe Biden
steps to the podium to give his speech.
As a lifelong politician, Biden has given countless such speeches and it
appears that his body went into muscle memory because when announced, he said
thank you and paused. This would have
been expected and necessary as usually people are still clapping in normal
circumstances. As there was nobody
there, it turns out just to be an awkward silence. This unnerves Biden as he freezes at the
podium causing his wife to come up and kiss him on the cheek as if she had to
inform him that there was nobody there so there was no need for an applause break
and he can just walk off.
Fanis starts laughing and calls
out, “He does something that makes you think he’s senile every single time.”
“He’s just trying to cover up
for the times that it’s actually happening.”
“I don’t think it’s working.”
“He’s leading the nominees isn’t
he? It’s almost certain he’s going to
run against Trump so yea, I think it’s working.”
“Look at his competition”
“Better than the one he’s going
to get in November.”
Kera gave a large smile showing
off her large white teeth. She knows her
cousin is a Trump supporter and couldn’t resist the chance to rib him. Fanis and Kera are both Greek-Americans. Usually, Kera is traveling all over
collecting and selling Chinese artifacts but the Wuhan Virus has halted air
travel. Fanis states, “If we’re going to
stay in Greece, I should go down to Kalamata to see my family.”
Fanis’ family in Kalamata was
from the other side of his family so weren’t related to Kera. It’s about a two hour drive from Patra to
Kalamata. Kera shrugs her shoulders,
“That’s actually a good idea. I know
we’re supposed to be secluding ourselves from people but I’m getting a little
sick of village life and having roosters crow every morning.”
“Well, my uncle has a farm so I
guess we won’t stay there.” He said with a smile
“Is that where you normally
stay?”
“No, I normally stay with
another Aunt. My cousin lives with her
and he’s a couple years older than me so I have someone around my age to talk
to. When I was a kid, I used to have to
spend my time between the three families that live there.”
“And all of them got mad at you
if you spent more time in one than the other.’
“Correct.”
“Okay, let’s go.”
Fanis and Kera packed some
things and loaded up the car and drove down to Kalamata. On the way, Fanis called to make sure it was
okay. Even with the virus, he doubted
they’d mind and he was right. While
driving, Kera exclaimed, “Why are they still talking about Mueller?”
“Well, he put off the indictment
on the Russian troll farm case because of sources and methods and they were
nice enough to give him almost two years.”
“So you already heard about
this.”
“Oh yea, he had to officially
drop the case with prejudice. Now, it’s
official, no Russian was involved in Mueller’s investigation into President
Trump.”
“What were they indicted for.”
“It was a Russian troll farm
that bought $ 100,000 of ads to influence our elections.”
“Is that illegal?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Why would they prosecute
something that stupid?”
“You’re not going to like that
answer.”
“What does ‘with prejudice’
mean.”
“Basically never bring that shit
here again. It’s dead and it won’t be
resurrected. “
“I do want to hear why he
prosecuted this case.”
“Fine, but I warned you. The group was called the ‘Concord Group.’ They were very close to Putin. Because of that, Mueller assumed they would
never show up and since he wouldn’t have to defend it, he could sow the seed of
doubt in the American public’s head that this troll farm colluded with
President Trump. All he had to do was
mention the farm and then say he’s investigating if President Trump colluded
with Russians. He technically never said
they were linked but it seems like they are and enough people would be
confused.”
“Oh, so it’s one of your vast
right wing conspiracies.”
“Nope, it’s what happened. The first thing they teach you in law school
is never indict a case you’re not ready to try in court but that’s exactly what
Mueller did because they showed up and said, ‘ok, we’re here. Your laws say you have to turn over your
evidence against us. Mueller was like,
‘no, it’s classified.’ The judge yelled
at him for not being able to try the case since he wasn’t willing to give up
the evidence so gave him time for it to be declassified. The reality was, he never had anything and
the Russians knew it.”
“It was all a bluff?”
“Yes, but the main focus was so
that Rod Rosenstein could announce the indictment and try to convince Americans
that they’re not wasting their tax money on a hoax and there’s something to the
Russian collusion hoax. All they wanted
was that press conference but the Concord Group fucked it up.”
“They did meddle though. They spent $ 100,000 on Facebook ads.”
“That does nothing. Bloomberg just spent $ 500 million on ads and
won a delegate in American Samoa.”
“Fucking Russians.”
“You really think this was worth
$ 30 million and 2.5 years of our time?”
“Well, no, not anymore.”
“Bottom line is, Russians played
Mueller like a fiddle. Mueller gave them
the perfect opportunity to humiliate the United States and give them the
ultimate check mate and fuck you.”
“So, why aren’t you mad at the
Russians?”
“Mueller gave them the
opportunity. The Russians will always
meddle in our elections and we’ll meddle in theirs. We’re not really friends. I expect that from them but when our elected
officials get tricked by them and make it easier for them; that’s worse.”
They arrive in Kalamata and
immediately it becomes obvious that they are not afraid of the Wuhan Virus as
Fanis’ family gives them hugs and kisses on both cheeks as is customary in
Greece. At first, they are cautious with
Kera on which language to speak so Kera greets them in Greek and they are
relieved. Like almost everyone in
Greece, Fanis’ family is fluent in English but they prefer to speak Greek. This is especially true after the Greek
economy collapsed. For thousands of
years, when things got tough for Greece, they united together in a form of
nationalistic pride to exterminate the outside threat. In good and comfortable times, they would go
back to inter-fighting and show loyalty to their city or region over
country. Present time is no different,
which amused Fanis because he remembered summers as a kid when his cousin
insisted he speak English because he wanted to practice. Fanis would fire back that he wanted to
practice his Greek and the debate would last the entire three weeks Fanis was
there. Now, his cousin insists that they
speak Greek and Fanis still wants to speak Greek so he feels he’s winning
now.
Kolokatroni, Fanis’ cousin,
asked, “What’s going on in America? I
heard that in Philadelphia they aren’t arresting people for stealing cars and
other crimes because they don’t want too many people in a cell.”
Fanis and Kera looked at each
other. They hadn’t heard the story but
they were wondering how he knew the local politics of Philadelphia. Fanis, never missing an opportunity to tease
Kera, responded, “This is why we need the 2nd amendment. You can never rely on the police.”
Kolokatroni posed, “Are the cops
bad in America?”
Kera declared, “No, he’s just
being stupid. Like the rest of the
world, it’s a crazy time right now. The
police are very good.”
Fanis retorted, “They’re just
not there to protect you. They are there
to enforce laws.”
“How do they not protect
you? If you enforce the law, you are
protecting people!” Snapped Kera
. “You can’t walk
into a police station and demand that a police officer guard your house for you
or escort you somewhere. You can ask and
they may do it but they don’t have to.”
Kolokatroni, confused, asserted,
“You can’t do that anywhere I don’t think”
Fanis rejoined, “Which is why
you need a gun to protect yourself and your home because the police won’t
always be there.”
Kera shot back, “Good luck
shooting the Coronavirus.”
Kolokatroni who is also on the
far right as socialist and leftist policies had destroyed Greece inquired to
Kera, “Are you conservative or liberal?”
Fanis tensed up for he knew the
answer and knew that Kolokatroni hated liberals. Kera answered, “liberal.”
“Oh, I’m conservative”
That was the end of that. Fanis relaxed and remembered that his
sister-in-law, who is so far left, it makes Kera look Republican, had visited
Kolokatroni and they got along. Fanis’
sister-in-law didn’t even speak Greek, which was another knock on her. The emphasis on hospitality was much stronger
with Greeks than politics. Somehow,
Fanis had forgotten this. Despite this,
Kera knew how to read Fanis and when he tensed up, she thought she had to
diffuse the situation, “Right now, there’s a crisis, so we all need to come
together and put politics aside.”
As Fanis knew they were out of
the woods with their hosts, he went back to baiting Kera, “Tell that to the
media.”
Kera rolled who eyes but
Kolokatroni queried, “Have they been bad?”
“The worst” Fanis decreed
“Why?”
“First, Joe Biden lies at the
debate saying that the World Health Organization (WHO) offered Wuhan Virus
testing and president Trump refused it.”
“The WHO doesn’t make tests
though”
“I know. In fact, our CDC (Center for Disease Control)
gave them our tests so they could replicate it and give to other countries.”
“Germany did that too.”
“That is the real story that
Biden is referring to. The problem was
that the German tests didn’t pass the American FDA approval because it had too
many false positives.”
“You Americans always think
everything you do is better.”
“This time it was.”
“That’s Joe Biden’s fault
though. I saw on CNN that the WHO never
discussed selling Coronavirus testing kits.”
“Right, I said media but that
was Biden. One media lie was that there
would be a national quarantine but President Trump never suggested it.”
“Okay, so that’s an obvious
lie. Let’s go back to the testing. Why wouldn’t President Trump want testing?”
“Good question. Of course he wants testing because that’s the
only way to push down the death and contagion numbers; by testing more
people. Claiming that he tried to
suppress testing is stupid but I’m not surprised with the media being stupid.”
“What else did they say?”
“That they won’t let Dr. Fauci
speak?”
“He’s been on like every news
show.”
“Exactly”
Kera chimed in, “It’s not just
liberals. Glenn Kirschner is a
Republican and he wants to arrest Trump for homicide for his handling of the
Coronavirus.”
“That is a just a whole new
category of stupid.” Fanis uttered
“Yes, and he’s a Republican so
there, both sides are stupid.”
“Every group has stupid people
but there’s more on your side.”
Kera groaned and Fanis’ Aunt
cried out for them that dinner was ready.
They all sat at the table and put politics aside and ate. One of Kolokatroni’s favorite things was to
watch Americans get drunk so after dinner he invited them to go to the bars to
drink. Kera and Fanis were a little
surprised. In Kera’s village they
understood because there weren’t many people around but Kalamata was a city so
they thought they would be banned from meeting at bars but apparently they
weren’t. Kera and Fanis agreed and they
went by the water to drink as the waves crashed in the dark.
Kalamata may be a city but it is
a small city so everyone knows everyone and Kolokatroni was greeted by a lot of
people at the bar. He introduced them to
Kera and Fanis and they enjoyed themselves.
One guy named Dimitri blurted out, “The Chinese are destroying the
world. They made this virus and we all
have to suffer. Wuhan Virus halts the
world economy”
Kera’s eyes narrowed as her
loyalty was to China over her heritage.
Even though Fanis called it the ‘Wuhan virus,’ Kera didn’t like hearing
that from other people. She yelled,
“Hey, we don’t know that it started in China.”
Dimitri glared at her, “Yes we
do. Don’t listen to what the communists
tell you. Chinese communists are liars.”
“How do you know? You’re in Greece, you’re nowhere near China.”
“It’s called common sense.”
“Fine, but don’t call it the
‘Chinese virus’ call it ‘Coronavirus’ please.”
“No,
I won’t. I’ll call it whatever I want to
call it. Most viruses have locations
such as Zika, West Nile, Ebola, even your lime disease.”
“Why is it mine?”
“It’s from America”
“If you call it that, then
people will start attacking Chinese people.”
“That’s not true. It didn’t happen for the other viruses.”
“I’m just saying you don’t
know.”
“There is no evidence it originated in other countries.”
“An American publication called Newsweek agreed that it’s
racist.”
“You Americans think everything is racist. You don’t realize that some people are bad
and China is one of them.”
“Are you kidding me? “
“Luckily, your president isn’t as naïve as you. He called out China for blaming it on the
American military. You should be more
mad than we are because it’s your country they attacked.”
“Hold on, how was Lime disease an American disease?”
Fanis said through clenched teeth, “It came from Lime,
Connecticut.”
Kera gave a puzzled look and confessed, “I didn’t know
that.”
Dimitri snickered, “Well, I’m glad I can teach you about
America. After all, I’m just in Greece
so what do I know?”
Fanis calmly chimed in, “Look, it’s an accurate term so
president Trump will use it. It’s not a big deal what we call it; the point is
that we find a way to contain it and treat it.”
Kera was fuming so didn’t take the hint, “Critics call it
racist.”
Fanis rolled his eyes.
Kera was very well travelled and lived in England. She should know that the ‘racist’ card only
works in America because most other countries, and Greece was one of them,
didn’t care that they were racist. They
freely admitted it.”
Dimitri shouted back pointing a finger at her, “It’s not
‘critics,’ it’s you!”
Kera screamed, “It’s a stigma on the people if you call
it the Chinese virus.”
“It’s a stigma on the US military to blame them. Unlike your stigma, it’s a lie to blame
America. Why do I have to defend America
to an American?”
“I live in London!” she fired back
Fanis threw up his hands. Kera was speaking from emotion now. She knew full well that the Greeks think the
English are thieves because of how many artifacts Lord Elgin and Lord Byron
took from Greece back to England. Objectively,
the Greeks made a bad deal and when the British fulfilled their part of the
bargain, help Greece get rid of the Turks, they expected the agreed upon reward
from the Greeks; artifacts. The Greeks,
however, never specified how many and what they could take and Greeks to this
day think they exploited that. “Oh so
you’re a thief!” came Dimitri’s response.
“What? No!”
“China could have stopped 95% of the cases but they
silenced a doctor who had the disease that tried to tell everyone. Once he did, he disappeared. Seven other doctors were arrested for trying
to tell the world but your Chinese covered it up.”
“They’ve got it under control now and they were smart
enough not to let people hang around at tavernas
and drink. They put the country on lockdown.”
“After it was too late.
They knew about this in December but Chinese scientists destroyed proof
of it.”
“Liar!”
“Thief!”
“Fuck you”
Dimitri grabbed Kera by her long jet black hair and
yanked it back and brought her face within inches of hers, “What did you say to
me whore?”
Fanis grabbed Dimitri by the neck and commanded, “You
will let go of my cousin right now.”
“She’s a Chinese whore?”
“No, she just works in Chinese artifacts and likes
China. Her blood is Greek just like
yours.”
“She’s not Greek.
She’s an English thieving whore.”
“Let go of her or we are going to have a problem.”
Dimitri let go of Kera and shoved Fanis. “You should tell your cousin to watch her
language.”
“You accused her of stealing because she lives in
London. She’s not even English. You’re right, she was born and raised in
America and is an American. Why do you
have to call her a ‘whore’”?
“She’s defending a country that
started a worldwide disease that has killed 7,000 people.”
“The flu has killed like 40,000
people and you’re not pissed about that.”
“Why don’t you and your American
whore cousin go back to America?” Dimitri barked and went to shove Fanis again
Fanis chopped his arms away,
which left his right hand cocked at his waist.
He shot it out and nailed Dimitri in the solar plexus. Dimitri took two steps back and then hurried
forward swinging his right arm. Fanis
raised his left hand to his head sticking out his elbow and cocked his right
under his chin. This gave Dimitri no
angle to throw his punch so his arm collided with Fanis elbow and his fist only
hit air. Fanis grabbed Dimitri’s shirt
and yanked him to Fanis’ left sticking out his foot and collapsing Dimitri onto
his back. With his right hand already
cocked, it was simple for him to punch Dimitri in the face. He scolded, “Don’t ever call her a ‘whore’
again.”
Dimitri got up rubbing his face
and Fanis thought the fight was over.
Dimitri then darted toward Fanis and tackled him to the ground. As he tried to punch, Fanis knocked his right
arm to the side and pinned it under Fanis’ left arm. Fanis then put his right foot on Dimitri’s
hip and kicked shoving Fanis to his left.
As Dimitri shifted his weight trying to find his balance, Fanis lifted
his leg under Dimitri’s left arm so he didn’t have an angle to punch Fanis and
rested the leg on Dimitri’s shoulder.
Fanis then brought his other leg to interlock his ankles on the right
side of Dimitri’s head and flexed his feet.
DImitri squirmed as his left arm was now being used to choke him. Fanis used both his hands to pull down on
Dimitri’s head and leaned back and let Dimitri try to use energy without
breathing. Like most people that try
this, DImitri was unconscious rather quickly.
Fanis kicked him off him and got up.
Fanis had put his drink down
when he decided to intervene and Kera handed it to him with a wry smile. Fanis returned it with a glare knowing that
he just rendered a man unconscious even though he agreed with his side of the
debate. Still, when the debate turned
physical, he had to involve himself. It didn’t take long for Dimitri to wake up
and when he did, he was no longer interested in pursuing the fight. He avoided Kera and Fanis and after a couple
more drinks, Fanis, Kera and Kolokotroni went home.
After they arrived at the house,
Fanis turned on the news. Kera put on
CNN and giggled because she knew she was triggering Fanis. It had the desired effect as Fanis exclaimed,
“Oh come on, first you instigate a fight that I have to end and now you put
this shit on.”
“Hey hey hey, you bait every
day. Turnabout is fair play.”
Dana Bash is on TV and she tells
a panel that President Trump really stepped up and solved the problem and she
praised him for that. Fanis stares
dumbfounded at the TV and Kera looks confused as she glances at her
cousin. Bash finishes her speech with,
‘it’s remarkable’ and there is a stunned silence in the room.
Kolokatroni gives a puzzled look
at the two Greek-Americans and asks in Greek, “What happened?”
Fanis shakes his head as his
mind is back to the present. He tells
Kolokatroni, “CNN just called President Trump a good leader. He talked about how his calm tone is exactly
what the country needed in this time of uncertainty.”
“Okay, I understood that
correctly then but why do you two look so surprised?”
“It’s CNN. They never say anything nice about President
Trump.”
Kolokatroni laughed but Kera and
Fanis were still stunned. Fanis then
expressed, “Between that and Andrew Cuomo praising Trump and stopping DeBlasio
from being a police state tyrant and forcing Americans to stay in their homes,
I’m forgetting whose side I’m on. Did
this virus give some sanity to Democrats?”
As if the TV could hear them,
CNN cuts to Governor Cuomo updating New Yorkers that they’ve done 3,000 tests
and the most important thing is that they can double that and start doing that
in a day. He then praised Vice President
Pence and President Trump for facilitating this and moving quickly. Kera gazes at Fanis, “You might owe CNN an
apology.”
“Not yet, but I will give them
credit for finally being honest. It must
not have been hard for them.”
With that, they all go to
sleep. Kera and Fanis decide they’re
going to stay in Kalamata for a little while.
They are sharing a room that has two beds and Kera mutters, “Hey Fanis”
“Yea”
“I don’t know how long this
pandemic will last but we’re kind of running out of places to stay. Can you stop attacking people everywhere we
go?”
Fanis laughed while Kera
giggled. He responds, “That
depends. Are you going to be with me
this whole time?”
“Of course, I never leave your
side.”
“Then no, I can’t”
With that, they go to sleep and
prepare to spend some time in Kalamata.
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