Chapter 20 Chapter 19

The doctor's smile changed the atmosphere around him.Crittis never smiled in the past.The misery and anxieties of other people are the basis of his life, giving him little reason for lightheartedness.He lived alone in Heraklion, working long hours in the hospital, and the few waking hours he had outside the hospital were spent reading and sleeping.Now, finally, there was something else in life: the beautiful face of a woman.To his colleagues at the hospital in Heraklion, to Lapakis and his regular patients, the lepers, he was as dedicated, determined, and frighteningly serious as ever - some would say lacking in humor - a true scientist .To Maria, he was different. She didn't know if he was her long-term savior, but he saved her in small ways, and every time he came across the sea, her heart beat faster.She was a woman again, and not just a patient waiting to die on a rock.

Although the temperature dropped in early autumn, Maria felt the increasing warmth of Nicholas Kritis.When he came to the island every Wednesday, he would stop and talk to her.At first it was only five minutes, but gradually, each talk was longer and longer.Finally, as he was cautious about punctuality and needed to meet patients at the hospital on time, he started arriving on the island early to allow himself enough time to see Maria.Giorgis, who always rose at six and would have liked to have taken the doctor across the sea at eight-thirty instead of nine, felt that the days of Maria coming to talk to him on Wednesdays were over.She came to pick up the boat, but not to see her father.

Usually a man of few words, Krittis chatted with Maria about his work in Heraklion, explaining to her the research he was now involved in.He described how the war had disrupted everything, told her what he had been doing all those years, and painted her a picture of a war-torn city where everyone with medical training had to work twenty-four hours a day, Care for the sick and wounded.He told her about international conferences he had attended in Egypt and Spain, where leprosy experts from around the world had gathered to share their ideas and present papers on their latest research.He told her about the different treatments he had been experimenting with recently, and how he really felt about them.Occasionally, he had to remind himself that this woman was a patient who might end up being treated with the drug now being tested on Spinalonga.How strange, he sometimes thought to himself, that such friendship should be found on this small island.Not only his old friend Christopher Lapakis, but also this young woman.

As for Maria, she watched him and listened to him, but she seldom talked about her own life.She felt she had nothing to say.Her life circle is too small, too limited, too narrow. From Crittis's point of view, the people on Spinalonga lived an almost enviable life.They go about their own business, sitting in a small restaurant chatting, watching the latest movie, going to church, chatting among friends.They live in communities where people know each other and communicate closely.In Heraklion, Krittis would walk the busy streets every day of the week without encountering a familiar face.

For Maria, meeting Fotini once a week was as important as talking with Critis, but these days meeting Fotini made her a little scared. "So, was he still seen coming out of that house this week?" she asked right away when Giorgis was out of hearing. "Once or twice," Fotini replied, "but only when Andres is there. The olive harvest has already started, so he goes a little more. Manoli and Andrés Overseeing the press, they're apparently all back in the big house for dinner." "That's probably all your brother's imagination. Obviously, if Manoli and Anna were lovers, he wouldn't go there to eat with Andres, would he?"

"Why not? If he didn't, it would be more suspicious." Fotini is right.Ana spends the evening combing her hair, wrapping her turban, trimming her nails, and getting herself into perfectly fitting clothes, while simultaneously being a wife to her husband and housewife to her cousin.She did exactly what Andres expected.She coped with the situation with ease.It was impossible for her to say the wrong thing and express her true thoughts in expressions.For Anna, the undercurrent only made her more excited by imagining herself on the stage, and the extra nervousness during the days when her parents-in-law were here made her even more excited, reveling in the extreme pleasure of concealment.

"How have you been tonight?" she asked Andrés later, in the darkness of their spacious bed. "Yes, why do you ask?" "I was just asking," she would say.When they started making love, she felt Manori's weight and heard Manoli's moaning.Why should Andrés doubt this pleasure?Afterwards, he lay in a tightly closed and dark room, silent and out of breath.Here was an unsuspecting man, the victim of her lust with another man.She can only have sex with that man during the day. This situation did not make Anna struggle in the slightest.Since she had no choice over Manoli's passion, her infidelity was almost excusable.When he suddenly appeared in her life, her reaction was an instinctive impulse.Free will had no use in her response to him, nor had she ever imagined it would.Manoli's appearance shocked her as if she had been shocked by electricity. Her hairs stood on end, and every inch of her skin longed to be touched.There is no other way.In the morning, she sat in front of the mirror combing her hair and said to herself, I can't help myself.Andrés was going to the furthest part of the estate that day, and she expected Manoli to appear in the kitchen at lunch.There is no way, Manoli is the husband's close relative.With all her will she could not drive him away.She's a victim who gets caught up in it and doesn't complain.And Andres, even if it happened under his own roof, didn't notice it at all.She betrayed him on his bed, that framed wedding wreath, having witnessed her infidelity.

Andres didn't think too much about Manoli, and Andres was very happy that he could come back after traveling around, but he left his worries about Manoli to his mother, and Elevatoria was worried that his nephew had already passed away. Thirty years old and not married yet.Andres regretted that Manoli's marriage to his sister-in-law encountered such insurmountable obstacles, but he thought that sooner or later his cousin would find another suitable woman and bring her into the family.As for Elevatoria, she was saddened that such a sweet bride was taken away from her nephew, but even more saddened by the suspicion that there was some kind of intimacy between Manoli and her daughter-in-law. Look at her and make her suspicious.She couldn't make it out, and in fact, sometimes she told herself, it was just imagination, fleeting like the shapes of clouds.

Maria shuddered at the thought of what Anna might do.My sister never bothered to be cautious, and nothing could be changed now.Her real concern, however, was not Anna, but the effect on their father.She thought, that dear father had never felt safe in his life. "Isn't she ashamed?" she murmured. "I don't believe she does," Fotini said. The two women wanted to talk about something else, but the conversation always started with Anna and ended with Anna, about her infidelity, about how long it would take Andrés to stop for a moment, think about Anna's inadvertent glance at Manoli that glance.Slowly, Maria's residual feelings for Manoli also dissipated.The only certainty was that she couldn't help.

It's the end of October now.The winter winds are getting stronger, soon cutting through the thickest coats and the heaviest woolen blankets.It seemed inappropriate for Maria to stand in the cold wind and talk to Dr. Kritis, but she simply couldn't accept giving up the conversation.She loves talking to this man.Even if she didn't think there was much interesting to say to him, they seemed to have a lot to say.She couldn't help comparing the way he spoke to her with Manoli's.Every sentence of the latter was relaxed and humorous, but when Kritis talked to her, there was no hint of provocation.

"I want to know what it's really like to live here," he told her one day, just as a gust of wind was blowing between them. "But you come to this island every week. You must know it as well as I do," she said, puzzled by his words. "I looked at it, but I didn't see it," he said. "I was looking at it as an outsider passing by. That's totally different." "Would you like to come over to my house for some coffee?" Maria practiced these words many times in private, but when they finally came out, she could barely hear her own voice. "Coffee?" Kritis heard it clearly, but repeated the word because he didn't know how to answer. "Do you want to?" As if she disturbed his daydreams. "Yes, I think I would." They walked down the tunnel together.Although he is a doctor and she is a patient, they walk side by side, like the same kind of people.The two of them had crossed the walls of Venice hundreds of times, but this time it was a completely different journey.Crittis hadn't walked down the street like this in years, accompanied by a woman.And Maria, walking with a man who wasn't her father, made her a little ashamed as she had been a child.Someone could see her and jump to conclusions. "It's the doctor!" she wanted to yell, trying to save herself from gossip as much as possible. After walking out of the tunnel, she led the doctor quickly into the alley and into her home.Maria started making coffee.She knew that Crittis wouldn't be around for long, he was on time for his first patient. While Maria was looking for sugar, cups, and saucers, Krittis looked around the room.It was far more comfortable and richer than his own little apartment in Heraklion.He noticed the embroidered dresses, the picture of young Mrs. Petkis with Maria and another girl on the wall.He saw neat rows of books, saw jars containing young leafy olive branches, bouquets of lavender and herbs hanging from the ceiling, dry.He saw cleanliness and felt the atmosphere of home, all of which made him feel warm. Now that they were on Maria's territory, he felt it was time for Maria to talk more about herself.This is what he really wanted to ask.He knew so much about leprosy, its symptoms, its contagiousness, its causes, but he didn't know what it was like to have leprosy, and until now he had never thought of asking one of his patients. "Having leprosy..." he mustered up his courage, "what does it feel like?" The question is very personal, but Maria answered without hesitation: "In a way, I feel the same as my life a year ago. But I am still different because I was sent here." She said , "For people like me who are not tortured by diseases every day, except that there are no locks on the doors and no iron bars, it is a bit like being in a prison." As Maria said this, she recalled in her mind the winter morning when she left Bracca for Spinalonga.Life in the leprosy colony was certainly not what she had hoped for, but she paused for a moment to think what life would be like if she married Manoli.Could it be another prison?What kind of man would betray his family?What kind of Judas would profane the kindness and hospitality shown to him?She had always been deceived by his charms, but now discovering it had saved her.She had no further conversations with this man than about the olive harvest, the music of Mykis Theodorakis, or whether to attend Elounda's All Saints' Day celebration.This joie de vivre attracted her at first, but she realized that was probably all he had.Living with Manori might be another life sentence, not much better than the one she's currently being sent to on Spinalonga. "There's a lot of good stuff, though," she added, "good people like Elpida Kentumaris, Papadimitririo, and Dimitri, they've got this spirit, you know , even though they've been here a lot longer than me, they never complained." After Maria finished speaking, she poured a cup of coffee and handed it to Kritis.His hands were trembling so badly that she realized it was too late, and the cup fell to the floor with a clang when Krittis took it.A pool of black water stains spread across the stone floor.After a moment of embarrassment, Maria rushed to the sink to grab a cloth.She found him very embarrassed and was anxious to comfort him. "Don't worry, it's okay." She said, wiped it with a cloth, picked up the broken porcelain pieces, and put them in the trash can, "as long as you don't burn yourself." "I'm so sorry," he said, "I'm sorry to break your teacup. I'm such a clumsy man." "Don't worry. A teacup is nothing." In fact, it was a special teacup, one of the china sets her mother had brought from Plaka, but Maria knew she didn't mind at all.It was almost a relief to her that Krittis wasn't perfect, not as flawless as he appeared on the outside. "Maybe I shouldn't come." Kritis muttered.In his mind, it was a sign that he shouldn't be breaking the code of conduct he'd always believed in.In social intercourse, he enters Maria's room, thus crossing the line between himself and the patient. "Of course you should come. I invited you, and I will be very sorry if you don't come." What Maria blurted out was unintentional, but more passionate than she really wanted to say.Surprised Kritis, and surprised herself.Now they are even.They all lost their composure. "Please sit down and drink some coffee." Maria looked into the doctor's eyes and begged.Apart from accepting, he couldn't refuse.She took another cup from the shelf, and this time, after pouring the coffee, she placed the teacup on the table so he could reach it safely for himself. The two of them sipped their coffee without speaking.Sometimes it's awkward to be silent, but not in this situation.Finally, Maria broke the silence. "I've heard people start taking medication. Does that work?" That's the question she's been wanting to ask. "It's too early, Maria," he replied, "but we have to hold out some hope. We've found some contraindications to the treatment, so we're cautious at this stage." "What kind of medicine is it?" "The full name is diaminodiphenyl sulfone, but it's usually called dapsone. The main ingredient in it is sulfur, which can be poisonous. However, the point is, it usually takes a long time to develop." "In that case, there's nothing magical about it," Maria said, trying to hide the disappointment in her voice. "Yeah, I'm afraid so," Kritis said. "It might be a while before we know who's really healed. Nobody's leaving yet." "So, that means you can still come here for another coffee?" "I hope so. Your coffee is delicious." Dr. Crittis knew his clumsy answer meant he was here for the smell of coffee.That was not what he wanted to say at all. "Well, I'd better go now," he said, trying to hide his embarrassment. "Thank you." With that hard farewell, Kritis left. Maria heard herself humming as she washed the teacups and swept the shards from the floor.The mood could only be described as lighthearted, an unfamiliar feeling in a gray area, but she enjoyed it and expected it to stay with her forever for little reason.At the end of the day, she felt as if her feet were not touching the ground and she was floating in the air.She has a lot to do, but everything makes her happy.After tidying up the room, she tied together several vials of herbs, put them in a rough basket, and set off to see Elpida Kentumaris. The old lady rarely locked the door, and Maria went in by herself.She found Elpida lying on the bed, pale, leaning against the pillows. "Epida, how do you feel today?" "I really feel better," she said. "Thank you." "Thank nature if you want, don't thank me." Maria corrected her. "I'm going to make you some more. It's obviously useful. You have a drink now, and another three hours later, and I'll see you again tonight, Here's your third dose." For the first time in weeks, Elpida Kentumaris felt better.The sharp pain in her stomach subsided at last, and there was no doubt, she thought, that it was the calming herbs Maria had prepared for her.Although the skin on her aging face was wrinkled and her clothes hung limply like rags, her appetite began to recover, and she now imagined the time when she could eat normally again. After making sure Elpida was more comfortable, Maria left.She would come back at night to make sure her patients took another dose, but during the day she was willing to wander the “block,” even though it lacked emotion, with its large apartment buildings lining Main Street and not welcoming.Looking down from the top of the mountain, there is still loneliness and despair.People prefer the comforts of small houses in the Turkish and Italian styles.These old houses adjoin each other, enhancing a sense of belonging to each other, which is more important to the islanders than bright strip fluorescent lights and modern shutters. Maria went there today because the lepers in four flats were unable to look after themselves.Among these people, some had festered feet and amputated limbs, some had deformed hands like claws, unable to do even the simplest housework, and some had distorted faces beyond recognition.Under other circumstances, the life of these shape-shifting people would have been miserable and miserable.Even though some people are living on the edge of despair, Maria and several other women are working hard not to let them give up. These people value nothing more than their privacy.A young woman whose nose had been ruined by leprosy, whose eyes could not close because of facial paralysis, and who could not stand the stares of her fellow patients.Occasionally, she went out at night, slipped into the church, and stayed with the icon in the dark, comforted by the smell of the melting candle.Besides, she doesn't go out anymore, except sometimes for a short walk to the hospital.Dr. Lapakis would mark the changes in her skin and prescribe medicines to free her mind and body from the insomnia, blessed with a little sleep.Another, older woman, lost a hand.A few months ago, before she was sent to the island, she suffered severe burns while cooking for her family, and paid the price with one hand.Dr. Lapakis did everything he could to heal the festering wound, but the infection got the better of them.His only option was to amputate the hand.The rest of the arm is fastened to a pair of pliers.She can only grasp the fork now, but cannot open the jar or button it. Each of the dozen or so extreme cases living there bears horrific scars.Many came to Spinalonga in a severe state of old age.Despite the hospital's best efforts to prevent the numbing effects of the disease from damaging them in the long term, it was unable to control them.They fit the image of lepers in the Bible, and embarked on the road of disfigurement and transformation, only a little bit of human form can be seen. Maria does the shopping and cooking for these terminally ill patients.Helped them with their lunch, sometimes even fed them, but she hardly cared about their disfigured faces anymore.In the back of her mind, she thought maybe the same was true of her mother.No one had ever really told her, but when she lifted a spoonful of rice to their lips, she wished her mother had never suffered from them.She counts herself among the lucky ones whose damaged bodies will never recover, whether or not the new drug works. Many people on the mainland imagined that all lepers were devastated by the disease like these extreme patients who refused to be close to the patients.They are afraid for themselves and for their children, convinced that the bacillus that infects people on the island can spread through the air into their homes, and even in Plaka some people still have this misconception.Another reason to hate the quarantine has also been brewing over the past few years.Exaggerated stories of the great wealth of the Athenians on the island drove people into a growing hostility, especially in the poorer mountainous areas such as Seles and Verojas, which were not like Plaka from which Earn a steady income from fishing.One minute people were afraid that they might be sent to Spinalonga Island, and then they thought that the people on the island had a better life than they did, and they were jealous and angry.Their fears are unfounded but deeply rooted. One day in February, rumors began to circulate.The cause was the gossip of a man.In an instant, the rumor spread like a prairie fire through the entire nearby villages, from Elounda in the south to Vihadia in the Gulf to the north.The mayor of Seles is said to have taken his ten-year-old son to Heraklion Hospital.He suspected that his son had leprosy and wanted to have an examination.Disease may have been carried from the island to the mainland.Within a day, the overreacting crowd came together.There was a leader in every village who incited, and long-simmering fear and loathing drove the people into a rage.Everyone came to Plaka one after another, trying to destroy the island on the other side.Their reasons are ridiculous.If Spinalonga was sacked, they figured, the Greek government would be forced to move the quarantine elsewhere, and lepers would no longer be sent here.They also considered that powerful Athenians would insist on going elsewhere if threatened.Either way, they can remove the unclean spot from their land. The mob planned to land on Spinalonga at night, with all the fishing boats at hand.At five o'clock on Wednesday afternoon, more than 200 people, mostly men, gathered at the pier in Plaka.Giorgis saw the first trucks approaching and heard the commotion as people poured in, making their way to the pier.Like the rest of Plaka's villagers, he was taken aback.It was time to pick up Crittis, but first he had to fight his way through the crowd and find his own boat.As Giorgis did so, he heard the staccato of conversation. "How much can we put in a boat?" "Who brought gasoline?" "Make sure it's enough!" A leader saw the old man jumping into his boat and said to him defiantly, "Where are you going?" "I'll go to the other side to pick up the doctor," he replied. "What doctor?" "A doctor who works over there," Giorgis replied. "What can a doctor do for a leprosy patient?" the leader laughed, pandering to the crowd. As the crowd laughed and jeered, Giorgis pushed the boat away from the dock.He was trembling with fear, and his hands trembled so badly that he could not hold the tiller.Never had the journey been so long as the boat struggled with the monstrous waves.Not far away, he could see the black shadow of Crittis, and finally he leaned the boat against the stone wall. The doctor was too lazy to bother, and jumped into the boat without waiting for the boat to be tied.After a hard day, he was eager to go home.In the gloom, he could barely make out Giorgis' face under the hat, but the old man's voice sounded different than usual. "Dr. Crittis," he said almost choked up, "there's a group over there, and I think they're going to attack Spinalonga." "What's the meaning?" "They came in a few hundred people. I don't know where they came from. They got some boats, they got a lot of gasoline. They're probably on their way now." The stupidity of these people and their concern for the islanders frightened Kritis into petrification.Not much time left.He had to make a quick decision.It would be a waste of precious time to go back inside the walls and warn the lepers.He got the mainland to persuade these madmen to dispel their ideas. "We need to hurry back—quick!" he urged Giorgis. Giorgis rocked the boat and turned around.This time the wind was favorable, and the boat sailed quickly across the sea between the island and the mainland.Now the crowd on the pier lit torches, and another truckload of people arrived as the boat docked.Giorgis pulled the boat into the harbor, causing a commotion, and as Crittis disembarked the crowd parted to make way for a tall, broad-shouldered man who was evidently their spokesman. "Who are you then?" he mocked. "Are you free to come and go in the quarantine zone if you want?" Silence the noisy crowd and listen to their conversation. "I am Dr. Kritis. I am currently on the island treating some patients with a new treatment. There are signs that there is hope for a cure for this disease." "Oh!" the man laughed sarcastically. "Listen, everyone! Did you hear that? The leper is getting better." "Probably." "Well, suppose we don't believe it?" "It doesn't matter if you don't believe it." Crittis's emphasis was also exaggerated.He stared at the leader.He could see that the thug was nothing without the help of his crew. "So why is that?" said the man dismissively, surveying the crowd standing expectantly on the pier, their faces illuminated by blazing torches.Now he wants to stir them up.He had misjudged the thin doctor, who, despite his small stature, attracted more attention than he thought. "If you touch one of those lepers," said Crittis, "you'll find yourself in a prison darker and deeper than your worst nightmares. If a leper dies, you will be sentenced to death. I personally promise." There was a burst of excitement in the crowd, and then silence.The leader sensed that he had lost them.Crittis' firm voice broke the silence. "What are you going to do now? Go home quietly or do something bad?" People looked at each other and gradually formed small groups.The torches were extinguished one by one, and the whole pier was almost plunged into darkness.The crowd moved quietly back to their vehicles.Their resolve to destroy Spinalonga was gone. As the leader walked back to Main Street alone, he glanced back at the doctor. "We'll take care of the cure," he cried, "but if it doesn't work, we'll come back. You take my word for it." Giorgis Petkis had been in his boat the whole time this confrontation had taken place, watching in horror at first, admiring Dr. Crittis as he dismissed the mob.Single-handedly stopping the mob was nearly impossible, and they seemed desperate to destroy the leprosy colony. Crittis seems to be in complete control of everything, but he is also worried about his own safety in his heart.Not only that, he also worried about the life of every patient in the quarantine area.For a moment, he was so nervous that his heart almost stopped beating, and he felt that his chest was about to explode.He realized that there was something special about him that gave him the courage to stand in front of the crowd—the woman he loved was in danger too.He couldn't deny it to himself.The person he desperately wanted to save - was Maria.

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