Word had reached Father Gregorios that Anna was in the hospital ill. At the risk of his life, he found a ship to take him to Athens. He rushed to the hospital to find Anna in a state of shock.
"My baby, my baby," she would cry between loud bursts of tears. The old nun, her only companion, was by her bedside night and day. Occasionally Dr. Tsipras would burst into the room to make a wise remark. "Don't worry about the baby, Anna, you'll have another one. You are young. Besides, this time you will have it with the man who really cares for you," she remembered him say.
Anna would turn her head to the side so as not to see him and cry. In one of his visits, Vassili encountered Father Gregorios.
"A visitor eh?"
"Yes," replied Father Gregorios. He summoned the doctor to come outside. "Please tell me where Anna's baby is buried so we can go and read the Trisagion for the departed."
"Aren't we forgetting something, Father?
The baby was not baptized; therefore, it is not a
Christian."
The Father looked at him. "This is between me and God, Dr. Tsipras. I think I'll consult him on how to proceed."
"Fair enough, Father. You will find the baby in a common grave at the cemetery of New Smyrna. And while you are there, you can pray for the rest of the hundred or so aborted fetuses we dump there every day."
"I am appalled, Dr. Tsipras."
"Some are seven months pregnant when they come here. They don't want children at this time of war and starvation. Besides, most don't even know who the father is," continued Dr. Tsipras, as though he was proud of his actions.
"Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy," repeated the distraught Father.
"Don't play this holier-than-thou attitude with me, Father. This is life for now. This is reality." Dr. Tsipras lit a cigarette. "I didn't see you in the streets of Athens saving starving children, Father, not you or anyone else of your kind."
***
Penelope, who had come to visit Anna, insisted on going to the cemetery with them, despite Anna's objections. Father Gregorios led the way to the taxi. The old nun was holding Anna on one side and Penelope on the other.
The cemetery was not far from the hospital. Dr.
Tsipras followed them in another taxi.
The cemetery looked like a freshly plowed field. There were that many newly dug graves, most unmarked. They walked to the unmarked graves where there was no one crying and there were no flowers. Anna had brought flowers and she placed them on the damp earth. She lit a candle and then she knelt down and burst into tears, lamenting out loud. The mountains surrounding the cemetery responded by echoing her lamentations for the whole world to hear. Her sorrow was great. Penelope knelt next to Anna and mourned with her.