Another thing I learned is never to get raped and murdered or otherwise require police assistance past the afternoon. The Sifnos police station is apparently only manned in the morning. After that time, all calls are diverted to the station on the island of Milos, about an hour and a half away on the boat, where the duty officer conveys your emergency, via mobile phone, to his Sifnos colleagues. As a woman now living alone at the edge of a village, in a house that feels very exposed, I do not find this particularly reassuring. I can just imagine how it would play out.
‘Hello? Sifnos police?’
‘Hello, this is Milos, conveniently located about two hours from your current emergency, how may I help?’
‘I’m being raped and murdered in Sifnos!’
‘Splendid! May I take your address?’
‘SIFNOS! Katavati! Eleimonas! Turn right at the corner shop keep going past George the electrician’s and Margarita’s rooms and then it’s left at Vangelia’s house the one with the basil pot outside you’ll see the church on your left keep going and it’s the second house just after Mrs. Souli it’s a grey gate there a bird-shaped knocker with a bell!’
‘ … past George the electrician’s …’
Raped and murdered.
I think it’s best, under the circumstances, that I confine all emergencies to the hours between 9am and 1pm.
On a positive note, however, the one restaurant in town that delivers stays open all year round, and they know exactly where I live. Perhaps they’re the ones I should call if I ever encounter any suspicious elements loitering outside my home.
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