Chances Are... Stories of Hope Melina's Chance by Andrea Lena DiMaggio

Hawthorne Family Barbershop, Hawthorne, New Jersey

”Hello, Mr. Polidouris. “

Yanni walked in and hung up his hoodie on the coat rack. He hadn’t been inside the shop since Alex had died, and he really didn’t want to be there at all, for so many reasons. The man stopped sweeping the hair clippings and pointed to an empty barber chair.

“Haven’t seen you….in a while, Yanni,” he said as he forced a smile. He gestured to Yanni’s hair with his comb as the boy looked at their reflection in the mirror that spanned the length of the shop.

“No…sir….not since…” He gasped when he realized what he had just said. The man looked at him and shook his head, instead of the anticipate anger, the boy only saw sadness in his best friend’s father.

“You…you want a trim? I don’t do well with trims….maybe you wait until Stephanos comes back from lunch.” He shook his head once more and turned his back on the boy, but Yanni could see his reflection in the mirror in front of the other work station. The man had frowned, and once again his face seemed sad.

“No, sir….My Dad….well….I’ve got to….just take the clippers and take it all off.” Yanni choked back a heavy sigh, which escaped anyway.

“Whaddya mean, boy? You want a haircut or not.” He snapped at Yanni, but the tone wasn’t so much angry as it was frustrated, and it didn’t seem to be about any haircut.

“Listen….I’ll try to trim it for you,” he insisted. Yanni shook his head no, but the man had already draped a smock over the boy’s shoulders and had pulled out a pair of small snips. He began cutting the ends, carefully and precisely, just like Yanni had remembered from when he and Alex would get their haircuts together.

“You gotta listen to your Baba, Yanni….he knows what’s best for you.” The man said quietly in his right ear as he paid careful attention to the fall of hair on the back of the boy’s neck.

“That…that’s why I’m here, Mr. Polidouris. I gotta make sure I get it all taken off.” The boy looked up into the man’s eyes via the reflection and he saw that his sadness seemed to have deepened.

“Babas….they know what’s best for their children, Yanni…you know. We have to make sure that you boys grow up right….not ….not….” The man choked up and looked back at the boy’s reflection.

“Mr. Polidouris…I can come back tomorrow if you want me to? Really…I’ll just tell my dad you were too busy. It’ll be okay.” Yanni lifted his head slightly and turned it to face the man.

“What’s wrong with you kids? Why can’t you just be what we think you should be. Why do you have to ….why did my Alex have to be different?” By now the man was crying. He sat down in the chair next to Yanni and looked at the boy through the reflection once again.

“Why did he have to be like that? Why couldn’t he just be what everybody….I miss my boy, Yanni….”

Yanni leaned closer and listened intently, nodding while fighting back his own tears.

“He went away….”

“I know, Mr. Polidouris….I’m sorry he died.”

“No…we ….there was nothing we could do….but he went away….and he left someone in his place that I didn’t understand…didn’t know. His sister Ari? She knew the person….the….” The man bit his lip and cursed something under his breath.

“I’m sorry…” Yanni struggled to understand…to feel for the old man, but his own heart wasn’t in placating or comforting the one person his best friend looked up to; the one person that Alexander …Alexandra felt she could never please, no matter how hard she tried.

“NO….You don’t understand.” He seemed almost drunk, but he hadn’t been drinking; his intoxication almost seemed to arise from regret.

“You see…I don’t know how these things are supposed to go? Ask me to cut hair? A shave? A trim? That I can do. When he was born I was so proud….a boy to follow me? And then when he got older? Art? Sculpting? Painting? Even then I said to myself he’s just a bit different. But when he came to me and his mama and said he was….she was? How do I make that work? What kind of world is it where my boy isn’t a boy? I don’t understand.”

Yanni looked at the man’s face directly and he half-smiled.

“I made it work by not talking to him….not ….caring. When he got sick….I figured it was God ….punishing him for being the way he was. And after he died….after we….” Yanni‘s mind flashed to the last time he saw Alex; a boy resting in a coffin. Ari had placed a favorite teddy bear in the coffin and her father had yanked it out angrily before the viewing. She snuck it back in just before the service started.

“You didn’t understand,” Yanni said, trying to be comforting, but his anger got in the way, and it sounded like a rebuke. But the man across from him smiled and nodded.

“No, Yanni. I didn’t want to understand. I stopped talking and caring about my child, and he died thinking I hated him. God didn’t make him sick to punish him. He made him sick to punish me, because I was a bad father. He took away my boy and left someone I didn’t want to know ... someone I should have loved, Yanni. He wasn’t trying to punish me then, but that’s what I thought. Now I know better ... but it's too late. For a stupid old man, too late.” Yanni went to say something but thought better of it.

“When my boy was born…he was different ….we’re all different,” the man said as if it was a mystery; the secret he was destined to discover.

“Alexandra…. You know…that’s the first time I ever said her name. I should have listened to her, Yanni, you know? You’re a lot like her.” His eyes widened at his own words.

“Are you like her, Yanni?” The man snapped, and Yanni shrunk back in the chair in fear.

“Oh….no….I’m sorry…no…no….are you like her?” His tone softened to almost a whisper and his eyes plead forgiveness. Yanni looked at him and nodded, cringing ever so slightly at the expected anger. Alexander Polidouris Sr. stood up and stepped closer to the chair and pointed.

“No clippers…no trim…no cut today. You look just fine to me.” The man wiped the tears from his face with his sleeve.

“And now…I think I need something to eat. And maybe I have a talk with your Baba, eh?” Yanni nodded and blew out a breath.

Olympus Diner, a while later...

Alex Polidouris walked into the diner and sat down at the counter. A few moments later three girls walked in and sat down at a booth by the front door. Helen stepped over and handed them menus before walking back behind the counter.

“Alex….so good to see you. How is Marie?” Helen placed a cup of coffee in front of Alex and smiled.

“She’s…she’s doing better. “ Alex paused until Nicko had walked over before continuing.

“I can’t say enough about how you and Yanni helped out. I’m so sorry for not getting back to you. Yanni has been such a help to Ari with her studies…you know? Helped her stay focused through it all. I think Marie is beginning to hear music, smell the flowers. You know? Opa?” Helen nodded.

“Nicko…my good friend…I have so much I wish to tell you!” Nicko looked worried as Alex stood up. Grabbing him by the wrist, Alex pulled him over to a booth at one end of the diner.

“Step into my office, okay?” He laughed and Nicko laughed with him without really knowing why.

“You and me, we’re a lot alike, yes? Beautiful wives and lovely children. Life is good.” His tone seemed lighthearted until he added,

“Except when it hurts here.” He touched his chest with his palm.

“Me, I think you are hurting inside, and you need to let it out. I remember what it was like for you when we were little. My Baba took me every day to the barber shop in the summer. He gave me a book to read and something to play with. And he taught me how to cut hair. Your Baba brought you here, first light of day, sometimes even before Mr. Kanakaredes’ rooster got up. I heard you crying.”

“Not me! That was my brother Basil, God rest his soul. He could cry like a baby. If I cried, and I did once or twice? Slap in the face. I learned quick! What times!” He laughed but he looked away.

“But you learned, right?” Nicko nodded at the suggestion, feeling proud, but Alex’ words made him anything but comfortable.

“And when you didn’t learn quick? Slap. You don’t have to remind me. I was there. And I was there when he beat your sister. She was already, what? Seventeen? Like that song? And how was that? Was that a good thing that he drove her away?”

“It’s not right, Alex! It is not right!” Nicko argued, his hands out palms up as if to plead a case.

“And where is she now, Nicko, tell me. Where is your sister? Does she visit? Do you even talk? I was there, Nicko. I saw what your father did to her…and to you!”

“I don’t want to talk about this! You have no right?”

“I have every right. I have a child in the grave who cries out to me that I have every right! Your father beat you when you stood up for Kelly. ‘Buba…Kalliste is a good girl…don’t hurt her!’ Isn’t that what you said before he broke your wrist? Twisted it? And then he took your belt off of your pants and beat her! Your sister!”

“Stop…I don’t want to talk about it!”

“Nicko? When do you talk to Kalliste….Kelly she calls herself? And she lives with another woman. That must make you angry. And it’s not right. So you treat her like your father treated her? You turn your back on her?”

“You have no right. We are no longer friends!”

“You turn your back on your child like I did, Nicko. Alexandra!”

“You have no right. My boy isn’t like that!” Nicko shook his head and his eyes filled with angry tears.

“Yanni isn’t a boy, Nicko, and you know it. You don’t have four sons. You have three sons and one daughter.”

“Ah, you don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re crazy.”

“I was crazy, but no more. My daughter cries out to me from her grave. I am ashamed of the way I treated my child!” Alex bit his upper lip and looked away.

“What does that have to do with me, old friend?” Nicko said sarcastically. Alex smiled and leaned closer.

“It means, my dear old friend, that I don’t want you to make the same mistake I did. It’s too late for me and for Marie with my child….why Marie sits at home all day and cries after all this time.”

“Ah!’ Nicko gestured a wave of dismissal, but Alex shook his head and smiled again; warm and welcoming despite the anger sitting across the booth from him.

“It’s too late for us, but it doesn’t have to be too late for you and Helen and Yanni. No…sorry, excuse me, Melina!”

“You stop that. That was my mother’s name!” Nicko glared at Alex.

“Yes, I know. That is why your daughter chose the name. Melina? Meli…sweet like honey. I remember your mother. The sweetest person I ever met.”

“You leave my mother out of this!” Nicko raised his voice.

“I didn’t bring her into this, Nicko. Your daughter did…to pay respect. More respect than your father ever did.”

“I loved my father!”

“I loved my father too, but I never respected him. And did I grow up just like him? No. I took my lead from my best friend's father. It took my daughter to die to change me. Don’t wait until someone dies or moves away for ever before you change, Nicko.” Alex looked over at the counter and Helen stood there, weeping. Nicko’s eyes followed Alex’ gaze over to the counter where he saw his wife. She stood still, but the look on her face begged her husband’s change.

“You have a daughter, Nicko. I think you should take the time to get to know her. She works harder than your sons ever did combined. And she loves you. After all that you’ve shown her? After the teasing and the hitting and the insults? She loves you, Nicko. Your sister still loves you, but you won’t have her. Make room in your heart before it’s too late. I can never hold my Alexandra…ever again. Hold her while you have a chance, my friend.” Alex stood up and patted his friend on the shoulder before walking toward the door.

“Come, girls. You come to my house with Ari here, okay?” He smiled and helped his daughter Ariadne to her feet. Ari in turn stood and waited while Stephanie Elias made her way out of the booth. And finally, needing a lot of assistance was a very sweet Emo Girl with a face streaked with makeup from crying; Melina Macros stepped gingerly out of the booth and to the door. She waved to Helen who just sighed as her daughter walked out of the restaurant with her friends. And Nicko sat at his booth still shaking his head.

Bergen County Record: March 18, 2016

Stephen and Nerine Elias would like to announce the engagement of their daughter Stephanie Elias to Melina Constanopoulous, daughter of Helen Constanopoulous. The wedding will take place Saturday, August 20, 2016 We are all so happy for them.

Next: Susan's Tale

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