THE destination | the Rebel & the Seeker

Chapter 6

"Spiros named his hotel like this, because it is his second name."
Now definitely Dian was confused. He looked around the shady yard, to the dark forest that made a mystic wall right after the property's rock walls. The grey guesthouse itself..."Hey, what are you doing!? Let me do--"
But Thanos already put his bag into the car's trunk and close it before Dian could complain more.

"Thank you for picking me up, three days here are far too much..."
"Hmm...? But it is better to be taken care of by the family than staying alone in a hotel room, no?"
"Mah, Elpida, the receptionist, was more caring to me than Spiros. Right now I did not see him for about 30 hours. Not to mention that when he comes, he is scolding me continuously. Even without words, just by looking at me with those black eyes of his, I feel so small..." Thanos pretended he is offended but smiled lightly.
"But he is right, isn't he? You did have the pain attacks before. You should have gone to doctor," Dian was about to ventile out his own emotions of that night.
"That is the worst. I know he is right. And I already told him I took my lesson... At least he persuaded our mother that there is no need to come to Corfu."

Thanos sit down carefully into the car:
"Thank you ag---"
"Please do not thank me again and again. What human would I be if I did not help...?! Just the circumstances wanted it to be me, not a random person in the park. I do not want you to be reminded every time you look at me," he turned on the engine and looked with a light smile on his Greek friend: "But... I am glad it was me and that I was able to help you..."
A tingling feeling froze his heart, but he chased it away. Things are all right now.

"So you said that Spiros' second name is Phobetor...?"
Thanos made himself comfortable on the seat: "Yes. Spiridon Phobetor Pantazis. My second name is Morpheus and my younger brother is Nikolaos Phantasos."

Dian was not surprised about having a second name, they have a tradition of official nicknames in Thailand, sometimes you meet a person with a really crazy one. But he was wondering how somebody can give a name of an sinister ancient god to his child...

"The tradition of giving names of ancient gods comes from my father's family, the Pantazis family from Crete," Thanos' voice slipped into serious tone: "It is kept for some hundreds of years already and my grandfather, uncles and aunts are proud of it...I think it makes them feel as if we were the chosen ones..." Thanos paused for a moment.

"So ridiculous! What were they thinking? Those crazy old men!"

Another minute of silence.

"Like it is not enough to live as a Greek with the sticker of an ancient nation that founded 'the western civilisation' while the today's reality is far from a splendid marble temples and brooding philosophers strolling under the olive trees. We are so not our ancient ancestors! More than 2000 years of mixing the influences of cultures from east and west. Even without being the bordering area of Europe, none of the country and nations can stay the same after so many centuries.
Yet, some people go and stick to mythology that is dead for twenty centuries. Being even proud of it..."

Dian could feel he hit a point that really is bothering his friend. He could only imagine how you live with such a name...

"Of course," Thanos answered again the question not yet asked. "But we were lucky enough to sustain each other as we were in three. But Spiros, with his name and being the oldest one, did bear the burden in full."
Thanos smiled: "I think he named the hotel like that as a recession... It looked so spooky when he bought it. The former owner died and his wife wanted to sell it, but nobody wanted to buy. You saw the place... So he got it for a good price."

Thanos suddenly laugh on some private joke: "In the end it turned out that one will have what he is running away from. Spiros always refused our grandfather's talking that he will one day enter the family business. The Pantazis owe many hotels, small guesthouses, restaurants, souvenir shops. Mostly, the ownership is not full, but they have the decisive word. And, what happened, was that only after Spiros bought the place, he found out that it was actually used as a guesthouse for friends of the owner. Some of the former guests persuaded Spiros that he should proceed with it."