"Look in the triangle between Rhodes, Athens, and Crete." A deep sigh came out of the angelic-faced novice, who hoped her man too would come looking for her one day, the man who had abandoned her, while she was carrying his child. "Bless," she said.
"The Lord," responded Nikolas as he left.
He went one more time to the Bouras headquarters, but again, the response was negative. As he was leaving, Nikolas saw a welldressed woman wearing dark glasses walking out of the lobby. He approached her from behind, and in a loud voice asked, "Mrs. Bouras?" The woman stopped, but did not turn around. She nervously fumbled inside her purse, and taking a piece of tissue out, blew her nose loudly and then threw the tissue on the ground. Then she continued walking at a faster pace.
"I must not give up," Nikolas demanded of himself, as he walked toward the harbor. He passed in front of his uncle Spiro's old jewelry store and went in and introduced himself. "Good man, your uncle," said the man behind the counter. "By the way, I am Tekno. Your uncle sold me his store before he died, 'sold' being just a figure of speech, more or less. Spiro practically gave it to me. He talked about you all the time. You were his pride and joy." Tekno suddenly changed his facial expression. "Hey, wait a minute! He told me you were dead, killed in Crete during the war."
"Well, as you can see, I was not."
"I am glad you were not killed. I heard so much about you from Spiro. He loved you more than anything in the world. He really did. With your mother in the hospital and you presumed dead, he got into a deep depression, and that's when I went to him and took care of him until he died. Toward the end, I was with him constantly. Spiro was so scared I even had to share his bed with him. He felt so alone." Tekno moved behind the counter. "Oh Nikolas, your uncle left a metal box for you. Let me go get it. I have it in the safe."
"A box?"
"Yes, Nikolas. For some reason, he had a feeling you would return someday." The man brought a small locked box and handed it to Nikolas.
"Feels heavy!"
"Oh yeah!" Tekno replied, smiling.
"How am I going to open it?"
"I am sure you will find a way, Nikolas. Now pick anything you want in the store, and I mean anything."
"Thank you ... Tekno?" Nikolas looked at him questioningly.
"That is correct. Spiro re-baptized me and gave me this name. Now, tell me what you like."