Читать книгу The Journey: How an obscure Byzantine Saint became our Santa Claus - David Price Williams - Страница 54

Over the next few days I thought a lot about what Eugenios had said. I’d spent all my life in Patara. I didn’t really know the world at all and as he rightly had pointed out, the business was virtually self-sufficient. Eurymachus could manage it single-handedly and Irene was perfectly capable of running the house on her own. Yes, I thought, maybe I should go travelling. I went down to the harbour one morning to talk to Eurymachus. He was deep in conversation with a newly-docked sea captain. They were talking about prices and politics, as usual. Eurymachus introduced me. The captain’s name was Polios and he came from the island of Cyprus. He had been in Patara only a couple of nights and was due to set sail again at the weekend for Egypt.

When I showed a lot of interest in where he was going, he rather jokingly asked, “Why, are you thinking of coming with me?”

“Yes,” I replied quite suddenly. “Yes, I would rather like to join you on your journey. Do you have any space? How much would it cost? When exactly are you thinking of leaving?”

“Look, you don’t need to pay me. Just come for the excitement. I’ll be casting off the day after tomorrow soon after dawn. If you can organise yourself by then, you can come with us. How would that be?”

Irene and I talked over dinner that evening and again the following morning. As it became clearer I was going to travel

THE JOURNEY