Of Sinners & Saints

MARI

"I'm going for a shower," Mari called out from the living room of their rented apartment. They were in sunny Luz on the continent of Breton. "Do me a favour and run Ezra a bath would you? She needs one!" She stood, walking toward the master bedroom.

"Sure," Dimitris replied in that heavenly accent of his. "Sure." He still had a lot of making up to do. Dim, as she called him, had been out gambling and drinking last night with his younger brother Stelios, much to Mari's displeasure. The couple had argued all day about it, but they eventually came to a consensus that was simple: if Dimitris didn't change his intolerable lifestyle, she would finish their marriage of four years without question. Dim was in the last chance saloon as far as Mari was concerned.

In the master bedroom, she slowly undressed and investigated the long silvery mirror to admire her sleeve tattoo and svelte figure. Mari was tall and beautiful, her silver-gold hair and copper coloured skin, and like her mother, she had those alluring sapphire coloured eyes. They were like immense saucers. A Magia trademark. Off course she went by her marital name now of Kalentzi. But her emotions were not as easily hidden on her innocent face. Her pain was evident in the crease of her lovely brow and the down-curve of her full lips.

The ensuite bathroom was just large enough for all the essentials. Dim had been in not long ago, so there was a refreshing smell of aftershave and soap. She turned on the shower and let the temperature soar, she liked it nice and warm, it had to be close to boiling point to fully satisfy her. She jumped into the shower and closed the glass door that had quickly steamed up. She washed her body thoroughly with a bar of soap. Her face, then each tit, her body and lastly her feet. When she was done, she grabbed a white towel from the rack and dried herself down thoroughly.

She could still hear Dim and Ezra messing around in the bath. Aww. . . they would be in there for another five minutes at least, she figured.

Mari applied a light layer of makeup and got dressed, nothing fancy just a plain blouse and dark jeans. When she was done, she went to the kitchen. She opened a cupboard just right of the new oven and took out a sachet of pills, it was a mild barbiturate. She then crushed a quarter of the pill up and made some blackcurrant juice for Ezra. Her precious daughter professed her love for blackcurrant juice, it was her favourite beverage. Mari added just a minute amount of the crushed-up pill to the glass of juice and gave it a quick stir. She was not fond of drugging her daughter, but Gia, Stelios's partner was a paediatrician and assured Mari that Ezra would get a good night's sleep with no nasty side effects in the short and long term. It had worked without question for the other eight nights so why not continue the trend?

Not long later after her bath, Ezra came out smelling pleasant and kitted in her pink chequered pyjamas clutching her favourite stuffed toy. "You enjoy your bath, sweetie?" Mari asked her kindly, kneeling down to give her precious a warm embrace.

"All clean," Ezra said with that bright big toothy grin that always brought a smile to the face of Mari.

"Want your juice?"

"Juice. Juice," giddy Ezra said as she held out her hands, flexing her cute little fingers, a pleasing gleam in her stunning eyes. When she came of age, she would be desirable. Men would get lost in her eyes alone, like a siren enticing a lonely ship into the rocks of death. Mari handed her precious daughter the glass. Ezra guzzled it all down and was left with a blackcurrant moustache.

The time was pushing on and both Dim and Mari knew they would have to go shortly and meet up with Stelios and Gia at the restaurant which was conveniently joined to the resort. All week Dim and Mari had been late for dinner so tonight they decided to be punctual she did at least. They decided not to watch the nine o'clock news.