At this point, the only thing keeping Sennen from refusing to board the ferry tonight is my explanation that my allowing him to remain here would make me an international criminal.
"But why should anyone hold you responsible for my choice? I'm the one choosing to stay," he reasoned.
"Because you're not an adult capable of making your own decisions – I'm your adult and therefore, I would be responsible for you not returning to the United States. Don't you think your mom should be able to see you too?"
"She can come here. She should just live here and that would solve it all," Sennen countered.
But if push comes to shove Sennen doesn't want to me to become a criminal – even if it's not fair and the world doesn't work as he thinks it should.
Perhaps the only other thing driving Sennen from Patmos is his distaste for the cruise passenger volume and the Athenians who stay, bringing their oversized luxury SUV's that clog up the road. He's not a fan of either of these two crowds – but he also knows both will subside in the coming weeks. So, emphasizing these annoyances has less effect than I would like.
Last night, Sennen's protests and refusals got tiring enough that we called my mom to take a turn who went with the temporarily effective, "we should be grateful for what we have" theme – emphasizing how he has a great life in Westlake. Then Sennen decided he also had Patmos which he is more grateful for – and it would not be ungrateful to double down on his Patmos life – thus making it a good play on my mom's part, but without sustained effect.
In any case, most of the time Sennen recognizes we leave for Athens tonight and he complied with packing his belongings. To quote Martha Stewart, "That's a good thing."
Meanwhile, the kids are able to enjoy their final day of Patmos for the year. As planned, we came to Agriolivadi – perhaps the most practical of all beaches. Shallow for a long way out, sandy, beautiful view, easy parking, nice sunbeds, a solid cafe and restaurant with equally nice bathrooms, our friends Andreas, Stefanos and Vangelis – Agrio has it all. My making a reservation in advance made sure we didn't have to hurry and we got a nice place to hang out. Given the emotional crisis, I let the kids rent a paddle board which they've been wanting to do and have done amazingly with.
Today on the beach, we saw some of the same people as yesterday at Petra. Apparently, everyone thought today was an Agrio day. This allowed us to follow-up on our curious and tragic case from yesterday.
While swimming around Petra, Ailyn – wearing her goggles – noticed little red animals on some rocks and in the sea grass. She described them as snake-like. Sennen happily went to further investigate and they spent more than twenty minutes before returning to our chairs to report more to me – that they creatures look like centipedes with little spikes and are throughout the sea grass. I entered their description of the creatures into Google AI and sure enough found the culprit – a Bearded Fireworm – native to the Mediterranean and Atlantic that's red, looks like a centipede and has spikes that deliver a dose of a powerful neurotoxin that creates extreme burning and pain for up to four hours and sometimes nausea and vomitting. They are not legal, but very painful and unpleasant.
If one gets stung by a Beaded Fireworm – which Ailyn took to calling Fire Dragons – the articles said the two important things to do were to use adhesive tape strips to pull out the spikes similar to the idea of waxing, and to use isopropyl alcohol to alleviate the sting.
No sooner had we read this when a little girl began screaming, her dad coming to take her out of the water. It wasn't immediately clear if she was hurt or having a tantrum or what. So the kids and I watched until it seemed enough time had lapsed with the little girl screaming bloody murder and the dad taking her out to the parking lot and bouncing her around as if he were comforting her that we thought perhaps I should approach and offer him information.
It turned out the four-year-old French girl's two dads were at a loss of what to do. They confirmed she stepped on a small, red, sea creature. I explained to them in an alternating mixture of French and English (their English was pretty solid and my French didn't hold up consistently under a little girl in pain and medical explanations) I explained about the Bearded Fireworm, the adhesive strips, the alcohol and the four hours. Once les peres understood the pain wasn't about to abate, they decided to head to the pharmacy. I made sure they knew where both pharmacies were and advised they may or may not be open mid-afternoon. And off they went.
I told the kids they were right about the little girl having stepped on the Bearded Fireworm – or Fire Dragon – and that their curiosity, our research and their encouraging me to go talk to the dads helped that little girl. I jokingly told Sennen and. Ailyn they saved that little girl's life.
The kids felt terrible for the girl as did the German family of five behind us who then became curious as to what these Fire Dragons were and what they needed to do to keep their kids safe. As part of an exploratory procedure, the German dad used the paddle from a beach paddleball set to scoop up a Fire Dragon, examine it up close, show it to his kids so they knew what they were looking for – and then to kill it softly with notes of rotting food, tossing it in a garbage can.
In the end, the strategy for safety was clear – wear water shoes/socks (which we do at Petra anyway), swim over the seagrass to the deeper water where there was no danger of stepping on anything. Not being much different from what the kids and I typically do at Petra, we adapted with little effort.
Further research showed the Fire Dragons (or Bearded Fireworms) thrive in warm water and the water was definitely warmer than even the week before. It seems like a peak of the summer problem since typically Petra has rather cool, refreshing water. This is perhaps why we were so surprised by the Fire Dragons in the first place. Hopefully they don't last long and little kids everywhere remain safe.
Happily, upon our arrival at Agriolivadi today we saw the little French family. The little girl was fine. Les peres took her to the pharmacy but were redirected to the Health Centre for more comprehensive treatment. They used the adhesive tape to remove the spikes and gave the girl a cream which made the pain stop. All is well again and she was even back to swimming. Les peres were very appreciative of our help and it felt good to wind up our time here on a happy and fulfilling note.
Also to my joy, Ailyn completed her second painting of the summer last night – three wedges of watermelon on a blue background. It's the most recent of her "Spirit of Patmos" series she has been building the past three years: a sunset at Choklokas Beach, three of the cats who live in our yard (Gingos, Ketchup and Caramel), gelato and most recently a Greek flag. The Greek flag is now hanging in the living room and the watermelon is the first art to grace the walls of the kids'/guest bedroom. Our home is filling with wall art from within.
We still have many things to do today after the beach: a last load of laundry, buying a few gifts from Nektar, bringing a painting Sennen made to Coach Thanasis, dinner at Flisvos, final check that everything is packed, locking up the belongings we plan to leave behind in a particular closet to keep them off-limits to guests – all the little things that go with wrapping up and saying goodbye to our little home.
"Our house is small, but it doesn't feel small," Sennen said last night. "It feels like enough – I like it a lot."
As do I.
"It feel like there's just never enough time here," he also said.
I agree with that too.
But as my mom pointed out, we should be grateful for what we have. Most people never come to Patmos – or Greece. And when they do, most don't get five or ten weeks. Maybe you can never get too much of a good thing – but it can equally be true that we don't all get good things is as much quantity as we do. Gratitude is as good if not better a note to end on as any.
