Milica: Where were you last night?
Milica: Anna’s mad at you.
Milica: Why didn’t you wish her a happy birthday?
David: What??
David: Oh, that…
Milica: She actually cares about those silly things.
Milica: She says you’re just like me.
David: I’m mad at myself too…
David: For the same reason…
David: …but when you mentioned it, it felt awkward to say it afterward.
Milica: You’re hilariously clumsy, in such a “manly” way.
Milica: What would it have cost you to just write two words on her wall or something?
David: The important thing is that it’s manly.
Milica: Hahaha.
Milica: She forgives you now.
David: I’m glad…
David: Tell her she should know that I love her…
David: After all…
David: She is the sister of my best friend. 🙂
Milica: 🙂
Milica: She has a look on her face you wouldn’t want to see.
Milica: She can’t believe I’m more important, prettier, better, smarter, hahahahahahahaha.
Milica: Anyway, we’re off to eat. Talk later.
David: The reason I didn’t wish her a happy birthday is that I don’t rely on electronic reminders to remember my friends. 🙂
David: Bon appétit!
Milica: Your one reminder tool doesn’t seem to work very well.
Milica: You shouldn’t be ashamed of electronic ones.
Milica: I openly admit I don’t remember anyone’s birthday.
Milica: By the way, she took the day off, naturally, to avoid seeing her boss on her birthday.
David: Can our budget handle Anna’s habits?
Milica: Don’t comment like that. You worked for the government irresponsibly, just like everyone else does. Remember when you visited Aliki on the state’s dime?
David: That was incidental; it’s not my usual behavior. It was for love. Totally out of the norm. Usually, I’m perfectly well-behaved. No scheming or shady moves.
Milica: Have you ever stripped for money?
David: Come on… where are you pulling that from?
Milica: Or was that also for love? 🙂
David: I didn’t know I’d end up stripping for money. It never crossed my mind.
Milica: Have you ever been involved in illegally hiding ancient artifacts? 🙂
David: That was for love too. I was just a helper; it wasn’t my idea, and the artifact probably wasn’t even ancient.
Milica: Stop making excuses; you’re only making it worse.
Milica referred to an incident from July when I was in Volos for the first time, before the minister’s visit. Aliki’s father had been expanding his olive grove and discovered a stone slab with engraved letters while preparing the new land. In Volos, it’s common for people to find archaeological remains on their properties. The land is full of history. Most of the time, the findings aren’t of significant historical value, but they always have to be checked. This process can take time, and any work on the site must stop during the investigation. If the findings are important, work could be halted indefinitely.
During construction and excavation, archaeologists were often present to document any discoveries immediately. Naturally, this wasn’t great news for landowners or investors, so they would try to remove artifacts from their properties before anyone noticed. Aliki told me her family was deciding what to do with the slab. Jokingly, I suggested they move it during the night to Spiros’s construction site. Spiros was feuding with their family and half the neighborhood, so it seemed funny to me. Aliki loved the idea. With her insistence, I agreed to ask Michalis to help me move the slab to Spiros’s site that night. We buried it shallowly so part of it would stick out of the ground. The terrain was already dug up, so we just covered it lightly with soil.
Milica: What’s wrong? Why aren’t you writing back? Are you mad?
David: No, not at all… I just got lost in thought.
Milica: What’s on your mind so suddenly and deeply?
David: Just thinking about how much love there is in public administration! Cupid’s arrows must have darkened the skies.
Milica: Love will be the end of us… as it has been for so many before.
David: Maybe, but love can also save lives. That’s the situation at Ian’s job. I’ll tell you about it. Don’t want to keep you now…
Milica: Alright. I’m off now. Ciao. Kisses.
David: Ciao!!
Soon after this chat, Max and Elena stopped by. Max wanted to play our game Camp 16 so I invited him. We needed a third team member. Ian left, Max called Yanko, but his phone said he was not currently available. I called Elena to join us, it is our game, we are overpowered anyway. They brought some news. Uncle Matija had an awful brawl over Skype with his son. They don’t talk anymore. I felt bad because we enabled that call, long enough to start a fight.
Before we started Elena insisted that I should find out why my uncle built a roof without a building under it. I said that I will call him from the telephone booth tomorrow. She asked me to call him right now. It is a bit expensive to make international mobile call so I tried to talk her out of it. In the end, it was easier to pay then to argue. I called up my uncle. He said that government will photograph the whole country from the sky soon. All the existing buildings will easily get legalized. Any later buildings will go through a complicated procedure to get a building permit. He plans to make a weekend house on that place so he made a roof. It will look like the house was already there, when looking at the government’s sky imagery.
This info enabled us to finally start the game. There was a three-member team on one server and we entered there with one minute latency. They somehow managed to win, but the next game we started at the same time, so they did not have a starting advantage. In the first game they already had some economy when we entered. Anyway, they won two more times. Elena lacks some gaming skill and interest, but we expected to win anyway.
Max was mad.
“They beat us in our own game three times in a row.”
I suggested that we should switch to rakija.
