Chapter One
Everybody took place around the
wooden table; mom had prepared my dad’s favorite meal. Dad seemed blissful about
that and I was pretty sure he could eat everything from the table if we let him, but then there
would not be enough for everyone. He worked really hard on the fields so to
quench his thirst, mom put a small bowl with red wine with a little bit of
water next to him. The boiled meat sat
in front of him. The smell was excellent and we could not wait; it seemed so
juicy and the vegetables seemed so fresh, although dad brought them from the
fields the day before.
After we said our prayers my brother and I pushed each and
fought over the first piece. As always my brother won. I don’t know why but my
mom and dad always watch us fighting for the first and best part of the meat
and neither one of them stops us from fighting. They just smile! You might
wonder why the first piece is so special. It is because in our family
(basically only between me and my brother) the first piece means that you are
stronger and that is why you get the better part.
After our
lunch, my brother and I asked our mom if we could go outside and play with our
friends and for the first time she said ‘yes’. The previous times that we asked
her the same question, she refused because the market, where we usually play, is
really crowded. Once we were playing with the hoop my brother and I broke
Iakintho’s pots and he told us not to play close to there again. He was really
frustrated!
Today I suppose she
let us go and have fun because it is a special day. Today are the Olympic Games
and everybody is getting prepared which there would be no one around the market.
The youthful athletes, that are not yet wedded, will be practicing for the big event.
Their fathers are probably helping the other athletes who came from all over
Greece to find the Stadium, show them where the list with the names are, so
they can sign up and also lead them to the statue of Zeus, where they have to
take an oath that they have been involved at the certain sport they are
competing, for at least ten months. That means that they have to take a prayer
and swear that they have been practicing and getting prepared for the
competition so there is no confusion and they can trust it because we are very
religious.
Chapter
Two
Let me now introduce myself because
you are probably wondering who I am. My
name is Nike and I am twelve years old. I am kind of short with long light-colored
hair and blue eyes which have the color of the sea. I have a brother named Aris
who is older than me. He is fourteen years old and very tall. My mother’s name
is Calliopi and my father’s name is Leonidas. They are all brunette and have green
eyes except for me. I live with my family in Athens in a small house right in
the centre of the city, close to the market. We have had this house for many
generations back and I love living here because it reminds me of my
grandparents who passed away three years ago. During the habitual day we all
wear white tunics except for my mother who wears a light yellow one. She also
has a thin cloth wrapped around her upper waist and I have a blue one wrapped
around my lower waist. We all have strappy brown leather sandals. Since we all have
olive skin, my mom never wears makeup, only during some special celebrations or
events.
Every day,
my dad goes into the fields and helps to plant the crops and harvest them when
it is time. He usually returns home after the sun sets but he is right in time
for our dinner. When the Olympics are going on, he can choose three of the five
days that he will stay either in the morning or in the afternoon and watch the
Olympics. My mom and I stay in the house
and cook. When we are not working, my
mom meets her friends somewhere in public to sew. They go to different places
depending on the day because sometimes the men of Athens use certain places to
teach the boys how to write, read and play the flute or the lyre. These are
places where my brother goes with his teacher too. I unfortunately can’t go to
school because I am a girl. Us, girls are not allowed to do certain thing except
if we have our dad’s or husband’s permission. However, the only thing we can do,
without or with permission, is go to school. This is really not nice because we
can’t then do the things that men can, such as work and it is important for me
because I feel like their gender is overestimated and we are just slaves!
Chapter Three
Once we arrived at the market, as we thought, there were no
grown-ups and kids there, except my brother, Cleopatra, Jason, Lilly, me and
lots of others –all kids from our neighborhood. We started playing with a hoop
that Cleo brought. We rolled it, we threw it to each other and in pairs, we held
it on opposite sides, one person to each side, spin really quickly. When it was
my brother’s turn with Jason, they fell and hit their backs; I ran at my
brother and ask him if he was okay. He nodded. Cleopatra, my brother and I
helped Jason stand up. They both looked fine but we couldn’t locate the hoop!
We started running around the small area but we couldn’t find it anywhere. I
looked under and on the trees; inside the bushes but I still couldn’t find it.
Since we were not able to locate it, we decided to split into four groups of three
and look all around the area.
Cleopatra,
my brother and I started walking. Suddenly we stopped because my brother had to
fix his sandal-laces. While we waited for him, he started heard people shouting
with excitement. My brother slowly stood
up and we all made a big step, while looking forward. We saw the stadium! It
was full of men and young boys who were beginning to get ready to race. The
view was extraordinary! We couldn’t recognize a lot of things because we were
at the top of a small hill and the stadium was a little bit further away but
still… it was marvelous! People were standing up from the marble bleachers and
were cheering for the athletes.
We looked at
each other with a big smile. It seemed as if we all had the same idea! We all
wanted to sneak into the stadium and watch them at least for a while! It was
THE craziest idea we ever had. But it could actually work, if we did it in
secret and without anyone seeing us. The reason that we couldn’t go (except for
my brother) is because girls and women are not permitted to go. It is probably because
as my mom said when I asked her; the athletes don’t wear clothes. My brother
can go, so can my dad and they always said that it was really nice to watch all
those young men run and throw the disc. The most exciting part is when they
announce the winners. From all those beautiful things that they said, we all desired
to go there.
Chapter Four
The last rows of the benches were
empty so we decided to climb from the back of the stadium, where none could see
us, and just stay a little bit low, so they can’t notice us from our undersized
height. Then we will wear our belts around our heads so our long hair wouldn’t
be conspicuous. Then my brother will go from the entrance and he will sit in
the front row so he can tell us when someone is looking our way. In my opinion
it will perfectly work if we are really cautious.
I stepped on
my brother’s hands which he was holding very tight so he could make sure I
wouldn’t fall and after Cleopatra. After both of us sat comfortably on the
bleachers, my brother gave us a warning sign that he was heading for the
entrance. Immediately Cleo and I put our belts around our heads and we saw my
brother coming towards us. Something went really wrong with our plan.
Unfortunately, our uncle met Aris at the entrance and they were both approaching
our way. Suddenly my brother made a signal that we have planned to do when
something went wrong and we had to leave. I looked speedily at Cleo and she
looked at me. For our luck, my uncle saw a friend of him sitting in the first
row and preferred to go sit with him instead of sitting with my brother. Thank
God!
-
“It
was so terrifying!” Cleopatra whispered to my brother.
-
“If
he had made one more step, I tell you for sure, that we would leave immediately!
I wouldn’t be able to handle the shame and pain I could have if he saw us” I
responded taking part in the conversation
-
“I
had no idea what I should have done to stop him… for a moment I thought I
could…. Never mind!” he answered
-
“NO,
tell us your thought” my friend and I said at the same time
-
“It
was not nice and since nothing happened it doesn’t really matter if I tell you
now… it was a really persecute thought”
-
“But
we want to know…we won’t tell anyone” “If we tell it to someone it would be
stupid because then they will start asking questions such as, what did YOU do
there or, how do you know! It doesn’t make sense doesn’t it?” I quickly
responded.
-
“Okay
fine… I will unveil the ‘secret’ he hesitated for a while but then said with a
jokie tone
We all started laghting
-
.
Well… I thought of kicking his leg and from the pain he would fall down and
then I would run away” “After I would sneak in a tree trunk away from Athens
where no one would see and recognize me and my only friends would be the
caterpillars!” he said while he blushed
We
all started laughing. My brother with his arrogant expression looked at us and
quickly covered our mouths with his hands. We looked at him and saw that
everybody in the front row was starring at us! As we realized after a while,
our laughs were so ‘girly’ and they heard them! Ohhh, were in BIG trouble.
-
“Yhhhh”
my brother said “Don’t worry, my friends are just making girly voices, that’s
all!”
-
“Okay…
whatever” said the guy in front of us.
Thank God my brother
SAVED us!!
-
“I
worship you brother!” I said “Thank you for helping us!”
After I finished my phrase he stared
at me with an abundant face for us to close our mouth and don’t say a word till
it is time to leave.
Chapter Five
The athletes finally finished the
sprint of 600 meters and they drank a sip of water. Then, a lofty man stood up
and announced the winners. At first place it was Hercules. He was from Athens,
a young man with eyes blue as the sea and golden hair as bright as the sun,
that was put an olive tree branch around his neck, like a crown to step him, and
stood up at the biggest rock that was placed next to a smaller one and a tiny
one that were used as pedestals. The next one was Achilles, a tall guy with
black hair and amazing greenish eyes who was from Sparta. Sparta has some of
the most well trained athletes and they always returned to their town with pride
but they have never won the first place. Last was a Corinthian young man who
was a little bit ugly but since he runs really well, he deserved the thirtd
place.
After
the game ended, a horde of men run at Hercules and cheered for him really
loudly. He looked so proud of himself and it was really annoying. I also
thought I felt a feeling of jealousy! Can you believe that? I mean he made us
proud for getting the first place but he doesn’t have to look that proud! It
makes the athletes that didn’t win think that they did nothing well but in fact
the truth is that they tried and the result doesn’t matter!
My
brother jumped first off the bleachers first, which were not really high, and
helped us climb down. Men walked out of the stadium, we were afraid of them
seeing us so we started running. We headed for the market, where we were
supposed to meet the rest of the kids, but there was no one there. We hadn’t
realized how much time had passed since we left the market to go and look for
the hoop!
-
“Where
is everybody else?” Cleo asked
-
“I
don’t know, maybe they returned after researching for the hoop and waited for
us for a long time and then got bored and left” my brother said.
-
“I agree. Maybe it is time for us to also go
home, it started to get dark” I responded “Good night Cleo, see you when the
sun rises” I said.
We waved at each other as Cleopatra walked the opposite
direction
Chapter Six
As we walked
with my brother to our house I asked him if he was afraid of participating at
the Olympic games next year. After he took a deep breath he said:
-
“I
am not really afraid, but I am a little bit nervous. I just don’t want embarrass
my family in front of the whole community! If I lose I will disappoint our
parents and grandparents! I will not be that strong as the rest of our family
is since all of our relatives took part at the Olympics. I want to feel that I
am part of them and they will remember me for trying and my place olive branch
that will be placed on my head and the crowd that will cheer for me”
-
“I
am sure that you will be fine. If you
train hard for at least ten months we will be really proud for you and I am
sure they will respect you as they respect the real winners. Even if you don’t
win in my heart you will always be a winner! You helped two young girls to
sneak into the Olympics and you would embarrass and ruin your life just to save
ours’ by kicking our uncle! Which normal person would do that for us?”
-
“I
know it was a violent action but I would risk my life for you!”
-
“Thank
you very much and I appreciate that but I am worried about you. During the
training you might get hurt and I don’t
want you to feel pain”
After we hugged each other we walked
into the door of our house and said ‘hi’ to our mom. She kissed us on the
forehead and told us to sit down and get ready for dinner.
-
“Dad
will be here in a few minutes” mom said.
-
“Why
did he go to the fields again? He went in the morning so why did he have to go
again now?”
-
“He
has to because all these five days of the Olympic game he can only stay in the
house in the evening or in the morning and watch the games only for three days
and he chose to watch games that he likes. He is interested to games like the
disc!” my brother said since he is older than me and he knows what my dad does
every year when the Olympic Games beggin.
-
“Mom,
which game did dad participate when he was younger?” I asked with a big
question mark drawn in my head?
-
“He
participated in the disc and he won as you know the first place” my mom said
really proud of my dad “I wonder who won the 600 meter sprint this year…”
-
“Hercules
won! He was so proud of…..” I said but then when I realized what I was saying I
covered my mouth with my hands.
My brother looked at me with his big
eyes and was about to kill me. My mom facedat me quickly with a weird face
-
“How
do YOU know? The result only come out when all the sports are done… in five
days!” she slowly asked me.
I turned all red and looked at the
floor… I felt so embarrassed and didn’t know what to say. She was still waiting
for me to reply. After a few minutes she sat down on the chair next to me and told
my brother to leave. When she was sure he wasn’t in the room she smiled at me
and said:
-
I
was also curious when I was young like you how it would be at the Olympic
Games… so I did the same as you did today!! I sneaked into the Olympics!
I finally lifted my head up and
looked at her after several minutes. She
still had a smile at her face and shook her head slowly while her memories of
her childhood returned to her mind.
-
“You
also did that, didn’t you?!”
-
“Yes
mother” I said “I am so sorry but we were looking for the hoop and while we
were searching for it we saw the stadium and then…”
-
“Don’t
apologize, I told you that I did the same thing when I was like you… know I
feel bad so STOP” she replied with a loud voice and she seemed so mad about
herself
-
“I
am sorry for making you mad but I also feel bad…” I said
She opened her arms wide and was
ready for a big hug. I looked at her, curled into her hug and we both started
crying from joy.
-
“You
should have told me from the beginning, you know that you should tell me
everything” “Now call your brother and don’t ever dare to mention anything to
anyone or else we will both get in BIG trouble”
-
“Aris
come down, father is here”
Dad just entered the house.
-
“What’s
going on here?” dad asked
-
“Nothing
much… we are… just… huh… I am helping mom to prepare dinner” I answered quickly without much thinking
-
“Hmm…
so what do we have for dinner? He said
He looked at me with a weird face
knowing that something wasn’t right but
he didn’t want to ask because he was really hungry and he wanted to rest as
soon as it was possible.
-
“We
have boiled potatoes. I think you will like it” she answered hesitating a
little bit and waited for my dad’s reaction
-
“That’s
fine. I am just a little bit tired and I feel dirty from all the dust from the
fields.
-
“So…
what did you do when you went to the market? Did you have fun?” he asked
I looked at my brother and he also faced me and then I said:
-
“Nothing
much… we just played with the hoop. That’s all” I said with a smile drawn on my
face
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