Читать книгу The Journey: How an obscure Byzantine Saint became our Santa Claus - David Price Williams - Страница 91

mind you,” he continued rather condescendingly, “but there used to be something of a market for it among the lower class households of the city and they did sometimes burn it in some of the temples of the lesser cults and more obscure deities.”

“Well,” I continued, “I was given your name by our manager Eurymachus as someone with whom I should make contact.”

“I don’t think I can be of much help to you young man. Your father’s partner, Chrolos, was it? No, Chronos, that’s it, he came here, well, it must have been two or three years ago and took the last supplies I had, saying they were damaged stock and he would replace them the following day. He never came back. The sacks were worth a tidy sum I can tell you. It left me considerably out of pocket. Have you come to make restitution after all this time, is that what it is?”

For a moment I was thrown into a state of considerable confusion. I was sure Chronos had been drowned in the shipwreck five or six years ago. How was it he’d turned up in Alexandria? Had it really been him? And how did he know about Apollodorus? How did he find out he was a client of my father’s? I didn’t know what to say.

“You mean,” I hesitated, “You actually saw Chronos here, in Alexandria, two years ago?”

DAVID PRICE WILLIAMS