"Maggie, would you like to go to Greece?"
The question broke me out of my focus on the column of numbers on the computer screen in front of me. "Excuse me?" I asked, puzzled.
Dorothy, the president of the Christian charity, had posed the question. "I'm serious," she explained. "I'm organizing a tour of our major contributors to visit Greece this summer. I'm calling the tour 'In the Steps of Saint Paul.' I need an assistant to help me."
"But I have never traveled and I know nothing about Greece." At age 37 my travels had all been in an orbit around my home town in Kansas.
"That doesn't matter," Dorothy answered. "The travel agency does the logistics. What I need is somebody to help me keep twenty women contented. I know you well. You're attractive. You're sensible. You can pamper them, pray with them if necessary, and with a little study you can help me explain the places we're seeing. You've read the New Testament?"
"I know it backwards and forwards, but I can't afford a trip to Greece."
"You'll go free. I can't pay you a salary but it will be an all expense paid trip. Unfortunately, you'll have to put up with a crowd of rich, spoiled women for 10 days." Dorothy laughed. I was well aware that Dorothy's patina of Christian piety often yielded to cynicism. "Think about it."
"I will." That afternoon I could barely focus on auditing the charity's financial accounts.
***
Greece! I had always dreamed of seeing the world. Five years ago I had broken out of the routine of being the wife of a small-town evangelical preacher and passed the examination to become a certified public accountant. The customers of my one-woman business were Christian organizations, churches, and preachers scattered around Kansas and neighboring states. I was efficient, painstaking, willing to travel, cheap -- and working only part time I now earned as much money as my husband, whose congregation was neither large nor wealthy.
My business travels had an ulterior motive. I escaped from the boredom of my small-time life and had several sexual encounters, the first of my married life. They were hurried and self-conscious and with married men as nervous as I was. I overcame my initial guilt at being an adulteress and now was fearful only that my indiscretions would be discovered. Moreover, I had begun drinking alcohol, a vice I concealed almost as fervently as I did my illicit sex.
At home I was a different person. Three or four days a week, I was the exemplary preacher's wife: self-effacing, tireless in my duties, the mother of two teenage children. I tried not to show signs of my newly found independence and professional confidence. A preacher's wife in a small town in Kansas was expected to be humble, dowdy, and mediocre.
I went to sleep in my hotel room that night with images in my head of the blue Mediterranean and bright shining villages on rocky islands. Early the next morning I telephoned my husband. In adherence to the principle of female subordination in our evangelical Church, I always asked his permission for any endeavor. I anticipated his approval. He enjoyed the almost-new automobile my income had purchased too much to deny me. "What would you think if I went to Greece in July for two weeks?"
"Greece? We can't afford that."
"It won't cost anything...Well, not much...Mostly paid for. I'll help out with a women's group following Paul's route in Greece." Our church did not believe in saints. So, he was just "Paul," not "Saint Paul."
I continued. "I'll take photos so I can give a presentation to the Women's Missionary Union after I get back," I promised. Then, I threw in the clincher. "There will be a group of rich women on this trip. The contacts will do us good." My husband still had the ambition -- fading though it was -- of becoming the pastor of a large, rich church.
He conceded. "Thanks, dear," I said happily. I'll be home tomorrow. I'll help you collect some of those donations that are slow coming in."
"That would be useful," he replied. "There's talk, you know, that you're...uhh...not as active as you used to be in the church."
"I'll lead the prayer meeting next Wednesday. Promise. I love you." It was not entirely a lie. My husband was not a bad man -- but he was sedentary and unimaginative. I would have gone mad had I not found a way to carve out a slice of independence.
"I love you too, Maggie."
***
I bought a guidebook and read about Greece. It sounded enchanting and I was truly interested in the travels of Paul two thousand years ago to promulgate the new religion of Christianity. I asked Dorothy, "Do I need to come back to the U.S. on the airplane with you?"
The president thought a moment. "No. Once we put all the members of the group on an airplane home your job is done."
"Then, I'll go -- and I'll plan to stay on for a few days to visit one or two of the islands. They sound wonderful."
***
I was on pins and needles for the whole ten days of the visit to Greece. I dealt with carping, tardiness, diarrhea, homesickness, and penny-pinching. Most of the women were congenial, but I was chained to a couple who were perennially unhappy.
"I never promised you a rose garden," said Dorothy as the group waited in the international airport in Athens for the early morning flight to return to the United States.
"I hope they all enjoyed the trip." I said cautiously.
"You did splendidly. Nobody died. None of them got thrown in jail, or lost, or in a fistfight."
"Thank God." I looked up at the sky. "God, I meant that."
"How long will you stay?"
"I have plane reservations to leave for home in five days. Today, I'm taking a flight to one of the islands." The prospect of being on my own in a foreign country frightened me, but I was resolute. "I will do this," I said to myself.
"Best of luck. I'll need you to audit our books when you get back." said Dorothy.
***
The island of Skiathos was my destination. The guidebook said its only village oozed charm, the beaches were good, and the island was not overcrowded as the airport was adequate only for small airplanes.