My Big Fat Christmas Wedding Read Online Free PDF Page A

otherwise he would have returned.’
    Perhaps. But I doubted it. Greece was overrun with stray dogs at the moment, many dumped by financially-stretched owners who also couldn’t afford to neuter them, so numbers easily swelled. Some pets, like Otis, might run off to join roaming packs.
    ‘Let’s look again once we’ve warmed up,’ said Cosmo. ‘I’ll go a bit further afield on one of my bikes.’
    ‘And this time all of you put your coats on,’ said Grandma.
    But the door opened and Yanis stepped in, along with a gust of cold afternoon wind. His face looked flushed. Hair unkempt. Clothes damp. And in his hand was… Oh no. Otis’ distinct leopard-print lead.
    ‘My baby?’ stuttered Mrs Vesteros.
    Slowly Yanis nodded. ‘Sorry. Spotted him just past Caretta Cove. He must have seen something in the water. I followed him in but…’ Yanis glanced away. ‘The dog sank. Perhaps his lead got caught on some rocks and held him down.’ He held up the lead which was broken around the neck. ‘This washed up on the shore.’
    A howl followed by sobs came from Mrs Vesteros’ body and she fled the taverna. A couple of her neighbours followed. Yet crying still came from the room – Mrs Manos. She looked distraught.
    ‘Poor dog,’ she finally muttered, in between sniffs.
    All the villagers nodded. It was especially hard for dog-loving Mrs Manos who had taken in a couple of strays, keeping them in the shed at the back of her property. She fed them unsellable scraps from the butcher’s business. I’d wanted to home one, but Niko wasn’t keen. Not until we moved out of the taverna into our own place. Which made sense. Since we’d got engaged and talked of the future I’d seen a new side to Niko that was less spontaneous; more logical. That was good, right?
    Mrs Manos stood up and went over to Yanis. ‘We go,’ she said and sniffed loudly before nodding at Niko’s parents. ‘Thanks for the coffee and cake.’ She glanced at me. ‘As for this meeting…a Christmas market? What difference will that really make?’ Her voice wobbled. ‘Until our businesses take off next summer and the Marine Museum is completed…’ She threw her arms in the air. ‘I know not where the money comes from to pay the electricity for my big refrigerators, let alone help pay for my young grandson’s measles jab. And as for Christmas presents…this pointless idea belongs to a thriving English town, not a Greek village crippled by debt.’
    Yanis patted his mother’s shoulder as my mouth went dry.
    ‘Mama is right,’ he said. ‘Everything going to still be a struggle, for a few months at least. A market no make any difference.’
    Mrs Manos shook her head. ‘At the moment I see so few prospects for our children. How will a Christmas market change that?’
    I swallowed and thought back to Mrs Manos’ comment about her grandson’s measles jab. Only last week I’d got talking to a doctor in Kos Town, who shook his head saying he had diagnosed many a case of malnutrition in hard-off adults and children.
    ‘Mrs Manos, Yanis, I know my idea doesn’t seem like much at the moment, but—’
    She snorted. ‘A market stall won’t raise enough to buy even the door of the new money-saving freezer we need, to cut down running costs.’
    Pandora glared at her but I noticed the way Mrs Manos’ chin trembled; how she wrung her nicotine-stained hands. A lump formed in my throat.
    ‘It’s got to be better than doing nothing,’ I said softly. ‘Let’s see… Taxos schoolchildren do a dance performance each year for the parents, don’t they? Maybe they could perform a couple of times a day, out in the street, for visitors? We could have fun games like…like hook-a-turtle,’ I said, ignoring the blank stares from people who’d clearly never heard of hook-a-duck.
    Uncle Christos rubbed his chin. ‘Really, it would be more like a fair.’
    My eyebrows raised. ‘Yes, that’s an even better concept. We’d have Christmas music playing or