The Two Johns
The Two Johns were walking on Ermou street, a bit further ahead. They both were dressed in black and if I didn’t pay attention I wouldn’t be able to distinguish one from the other. I can’t recall if it was already dark because the road was lit by a lot of bright lights. They seemed however to be able to deflect them. They seemed like two diaphanous and simultaneously solid shadows. Like shadows of two mountains standing side by side. Light and time surpassed them which left the impression that they, too, were moving. However, they were just standing there and taunted the lights that didn’t reach them and the time that passed, two kids that had just gone out to get some beers from the kiosk and hang out.
Observing a group of young friends with the same voraciousness with which one watches their favorite TV series, we slowly started to build the characters and their back stories (at times with more versions than one for each) so as to have them evolve like all cinematic heroes, who when introduced seem mysterious and charming and in the process become approachable and familiar so that the viewers can identify with them, love them or reject them.
For the creation of these characters I personally had to move counterclockwise. I avoided any kind of sentimental involvement that might had already occurred between us and worked towards that particular sense of mystery created by any hero one meets at the beginning of a movie. It was only this way that I could imagine each character’s personal mythology. The Johns, Leo, Mike, Nicki, Limbo and the rest of their friends started morphing into ancient vampires, were panthers and fairies while gradually losing any real connection to place and time.Their qualities exaggerated like all imaginary heroes. Their rooms and houses turned into cinematic movie sets and events from their everyday lives were dramatized. On many occasions and completely incidentally my notes were almost identical to David’s, while on others it was like there were two completely different versions of our protagonists. The Two Johns could be two ancient, mythical creatures that learn to survive throughout the seasons, the name of a desolate location associated with a local legend or two 25-year-olds that know how to have fun and be bored. All versions a confirmation of the rule which holds that each myth can’t only have one version but is always defined always by the narrator, the place and the time period.
I followed the Two Johns, who had by now reached Thission area, and together we started walking up towards the hill of Nymphs in Pnyx, when I realized that it wasn’t entirely dark just yet. After a while it grew completely dark and the Two Johns started lifting off the ground. At the last minute I managed to grab one by the sleeve of his jumper and before I could realize it we were rising above Lycabettus hill. We crossed over to Pedion Areos and headed towards Tourkovounia, flew over Hydra and above the entire African continent. They showed me creatures I had never seen before, areas and bizarre monsters. I could listen to the music they were listening to and smell whatever they smelled, share the same tastes. I transformed each time they transformed. I became a tree, a dragon, a puma and now and then felt that I completely dissolved, that I was a shadow, just like them.
Antonakis
