I must have been one of the few children of my generation—at least one of the few children who later began to write—who did not read. Alki Zey. I first read her book at the age of 35, after meeting her on a trip to Moscow. It was one of the most pleasant surprises in my life: it is not often that you meet someone two and a half times older than you and feel like a peer.

In 2016, Greece was an honorary country in Moscow International Book Fair. The country was represented by the writers Alki Zey, V. Vasilikos, E. Trivizas, I. Burazopoulou, Chr. Chrysopoulos, Cr. Gliniadakis and me too. I was traveling to and from Russia with Vasilikos and Zey, I arrived at the airport two hours before departure and they were already there, sitting side by side and chatting like classmates.

In Moscow, in the van that picked us up, I sat next to Zey. From the window, he watched everything intently. I knew that he lived here almost 60 years ago. “What does the city look like to you now?” I asked her. “I don’t know,” he shrugged. “Tomorrow I’ll go see my house.” She added: “Did I tell you then who looked after my son? Tarkovsky. He looked like he was going to be great.”

We checked into our gigantic Soviet-built hotel—the lobby was full of escorts—and the next day, after spending the day at the fair, I met her at dinner. Made up, cheerful, with a glass of whiskey in her hand. “Were you at home?” I asked her. “Yes,” he said. “I didn’t recognize him. You know something; I don’t like Moscow the way it is. I’m not going back.” Here, I thought: a 93-year-old woman declares that she will no longer come to Moscow, on the other side of Europe, not because she was 93, but because she didn’t like it there Later, getting to know her better, I understood why she said this: her spirit was focused on the here and now, her antennae were directed forward, without nostalgia, without the arrogance that people of her age and generation often have, either because of his experience or because of bitterness for what they endured.I realized that he had the wisdom to be down to earth and presentable, funny, sweet and skillful to tease, because he had nothing to prove to anyone: what to prove and to whom is the one who lived so much, who gave so much?

“Did I tell you who was babysitting my son then?” Tarkovsky. He looked like he was going to be great,” she recalls, thinking back to the house where she lived. “I will visit him tomorrow,” he adds…

We spent a lot of time together over the next two days. The distances were long and, in order not to get tired, he had to move in a wheelchair. As the youngest member of the mission, I moved it. On the last day we had a free schedule, and I went for a walk around the city. At some point, I got lost and was late to her hotel. He called me: “Where are you?” “I’ll be there in ten minutes,” I replied. “You’re going to have trouble with some rabbit,” he said, referring to the girls in the lobby. “No, no,” I protested. “If I want, I will believe you,” he said, and you could feel his smile. Later, over coffee in the lobby, the conversation turned to politics: “I don’t understand my girlfriends,” she said. “Stuck in the past. When they come home, I avoid politics. I can’t stand it.”

In Athens, I accompanied her to her son, and we agreed to meet again. Two weeks later, after reading Peter’s Great Walk, I went to her apartment. We had a great time – after that we talked several times on the phone. On the same day I had her sign “Walk”. I was embarrassed to tell her that I had just read it and that the battered copy was not mine – a friend gave it to me, he had two copies as a child. I am sure that if he could read these lines, he would forgive me.

Mr. Yiannis Palavos (Kozani, 1980) is a short story writer and translator. The collection of short stories “Funny” (Nefeli, 2012) was awarded the National Story Award and The Reader Electronic Magazine’s Story Award. Also, in collaboration with Thasos Zafiriadis, he wrote the script for the comics “Corpse” (Jemma Press, 2011) and “Gra-Gru” (Ikaros, 2017), which were illustrated by Thanasis Petru. Gra-Grow was awarded Best Comic and Best Screenplay at the Greek Comics Awards. Translated by Tobias Wolf, Flannery O’Connor, Bryce D’J. Pancake, Wallace Stegner and William Faulkner.