Peloponnesus

It was marginally better or marginally worse here than Williamstown? The bay and the beach down there inevitably tipped it in one direction. Remembering unlikely Greek George who first set up Java, the first café apart from what used to be called the Wog Shops. Got a serve for the cheek of $2 coffees suddenly in Yarraville. Such traipsing through the streets every way you turned—young mums pushing sleek prams; the novelty shoppers; lounging retirees with the old academic’s beards and neat kids. Some of the high-vis chaps had graduated from the pub to the cafes for their beers. The old guy from the house beside Aven’s former in Anderson Street was pretty much the only distinct Greek presence remaining in the neighbourhood; at least so far as definable quantity went. Did the renovated church get any patronage at all now? anything apart from funerals? Collecting the regular Yasous the old trooper and always ready to return, never mind his mystification at the ID. In Av’s day there was a son or two and long-suffering scarved wife. Aven herself guessed she must have been considered a terrible whore with all the comings and goings at her place. Decidedly shabby genteel, especially passing against all the sprucing. Shiny faded old windbreaker, fraying trouser legs and scuffed shoes. Possibly the family could afford to deck their patriarch more fittingly now and he stoutly resisted, determinedly retaining the old, worn garb. Wild hair, unkempt beard, worry beads. Lost the thread long ago, well over thirty years; barely into middle-age when he first began receiving the disability support and started circling the streets. The house now was worth at least a cool million, never mind the shabby up-keep. Did the man ever lay eyes on his parents again, brothers or sisters, ever manage a return visit? Didn’t appear to be the case pacing like that, peering at the faces searchingly. The lapse of time had stretched so far, his eyes now losing their colour. Narrow round through the hub, a couple of the outlets that remained Greek backstage allowing him a place at the tables despite the lack of coin. Stupendous when you consider the distinction the man has now attained in that figure he cuts, that rare individuality and uniqueness.