The aunt and uncle had not changed much. They just looked a little older.
Efrossini ran to them trying to hug them, expecting friendly smiles, hugs and kisses that would have eased her long trip, after all they were the only people she was familiar with.
The first thing her aunt said was: we need to take you home and wash that hairstyle out. The year before, Efrossini’s hair was short. That is what the aunt remembered. Now her hair was up on her head in curls. Being well nourished her hair grew quickly. Along with her new clothes and the one-inch mambo heels, Efrossini looked like a grown up, almost.
CHAPTER 12
HER NEW WORLD
After collecting her suitcase, all three walked outside into this strange new world, Efrossini thought.
The uncle went to get his car. Minutes later when he pulled up to the curb, Efrossini noticed how beautiful this car was. It was a creamy white car decorated with shiny chrome, a Plymouth Fury with rear wings like a swan. The interior was also all white.
After driving over several bridges and seeing a lot of traffic, they turned on 72nd street, a residential area. The houses were all attached together side by side like a long factory. They were all red brick unfinished and unpainted. To Efrossini, they looked unfinished. The houses in Greece were all plastered and painted in beautiful pastel colors. In Greece all the houses had red terracotta heavy duty long lasting roofs. Here they looked like they had thin paper roofs. “Where did they send her?” She asked herself.
The aunt and uncle’s house was a three-story townhouse, as they called them. Two of the floors, the first and the third were rented out. She thought, how strange, these people do not need the money. They walked up to the second floor and yes, she had her own bedroom.
The second floor was a two-bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, living room and a small dining area off the small kitchen, just like an apartment.
The first meal consisted of a burger, a baked potato and a few spoons of whole canned corn. Efrossini commented in Greek: back home in Greece, the chickens eat the corn.
Needless to say, Efrossini was very disappointed! There was no grace at the table, but Efrossini crossed herself. The three sat down and ate quietly. Their food was measured out and if anyone was still hungry, there were no seconds. Back in Greece at her parents’ home, no one left the table hungry. Music would be playing softly, and the family talked of the daily happenings. They had plenty of good food for as much as you needed. They also had fruit or some nice homemade sweet desert after their meal. These old people ate like they were on restricted diets. This place was lacking life!
That first night Efrossini was told a few house rules. She was to take just one shower per week. She needed to do well at school and to tend to some house chores. If she did well, her uncle was going to give her $2.00 per week as an allowance. From that allowance she needed to buy her own toiletries, toothpaste, shampoo and feminine hygiene products.
She also needed to keep herself in shoes. She had to walk to school which was Joseph Pulitzer Junior High School. Later, she found out a pair of shoes was $4.00 at the popular Thom McCann shoe store. She had brought three pairs of shoes with her, so she would not have to worry about buying shoes so soon, she thought.
Her shoes though were feminine, fancy shoes and not great for walking on concrete, later she found out.
Efrossini arrived in New York on a Saturday and by Monday morning, she was at school.
She did not speak English, but she could read the language; she spoke Greek and French. But she had problems doing homework. She remembers staying up very late trying to finish homework which she had to translate first.
Because it was towards the end of the year, her teachers passed her onto the next grade after seeing her wonderful report card from Greece. Efrossini studied all summer to be able to speak the language by September. Anytime she asked her aunt and uncle what an English word meant, they replied: look it up, by pointing to her Greek/English dictionary.
Six months later, Efrossini was speaking fluent English.
Yes, she came to a different world, almost to a different planet. So, this was the wonderful modern country called America, but she was, also, ORPHANED.
The aunt and uncle were up in years, much older than her parents and they needed a young maid, she figured out. They did not wish to be loving, nurturing, guiding parents.
Parents not only feed, clothe, educate their children, but they also guide their children, answer their endless questions, tend to them when they are sick and nurture them. Most of all, they love their children. That’s the part her parents forgot to tell her about, before she left Greece.
They did not know Efrossini would have to grow up without love. They entrusted their young daughter to some relatives they hardly knew! Malama had only met this older sister twice in 50 years for just a couple of weeks.
What could Efrossini do now? She would cry in her pillow every night quietly not to be detected and would try to figure out how she could cope in this cruel existence. She would ask herself: why can’t they show me love, just a little kindness, so my poor heart doesn’t hurt with this endless sadness.
She would ask herself: how did these two-old people become like this. Her family loved and respected them for being thoughtful and sending them those big trunks full of wonderful items to brighten their lives in terrible times. How can these people have changed so much? Why did they become so stingy, uncaring and unloving? She just could not figure them out. There was no joy in that house, none.
What did she ever do to deserve this? She was used to praises from her family, she was used to having three mothers and her loving father and even her older brothers showing her love because she was a good girl and helpful to everyone. She could not write to her parents, describing the living conditions in her aunt’s house. She feared the consequences.
In the ‘60s telephones were used for important calls and long distance was very expensive. Letter writing was the usual means of communication. She was afraid to write to her parents of the living conditions. She did not wish to upset her parents after all their sacrifice of letting her go. Her future was what mattered, she thought.
She remembered if someone would ask her father how much he loved his children or did he have a favorite one he loved more he would answer like this: his children were like his fingers. No matter which finger he hurt, the pain was always the same. He loved all his children equally.
At only thirteen and she thought of the consequences. She would keep her suffering to herself, to save her family back in Greece the sadness and the disappointment. She was forced to become an adult at the tender age of thirteen.
When Efrossini day dreamed, she thought of her wonderful father who took her out on the town. Her mother would wash and fix her long hair in a special hairstyle, usually braided in a fancy new fashion. Efrossini would wear her very best clothes, freshly ironed and shoes that shined. With her little purse and gloves on she would be treated to the theatre, concerts, the World’s Fair in the Fall of the year and places she would never have gone that early in life if it was not for her dear father. Her father Achillea needed that type of entertainment. It was in his blood.
He was only six years old when he lost everything, but all the arts were instilled in him already. On the other hand, Efrossini’s mother Malama had lost her well to do captain father when she was very young in the terrible earthquake. She did not have any opportunity to be taken to theatres and such outings. What she had seen was a lot of suffering, famine and disasters while she was growing up.
One day Efrossini found out that her father Achillea was in the habit of taking out each one of his four daughters to special outings.
When they were old enough to appreciate such things Soula, Roula, Efrossini and Anna all were taking out by their loving father. Each one of the girls felt very special, like they were the only one, going out with their handsome, well dressed, and extremely SELF educated father.
Efrossini