The Ghost in the Machine-Short story

We were in Europe a few months ago, the whole jing-bang - Dad, mom, my brother, sister, wife and myself. Dad had been planning this trip for a long time. Now if you knew my dad, you'd know that nothing is ever simple. My parents reached a fortnight before us, joined by my wife a couple of days later in Italy, to rendezvous in Athens with my siblings flying in from Bombay, while I flew in from HongKong! And wonders would never seize - it all happened without a hitch!

We started our 'adventure' on an upbeat note, all the careful planning working for us, until we realized that hiring a car and driver in Greece is freaking expensive! Since renting a car (self-driving) would cost us only a third of the cost, we went ahead and did just that. We had a simple and straightforward plan - Drive from Athens to Meteora with a pit stop in Delsey for an hour or so. We would not have dreamt to attempt this ten years ago, where you would have to rely on actual maps and road signs! Who ever looks at real maps now-a-days? That is so 20th century!

Our six-seater sedan came with a GPS ("The best in Greece," I was assured by the rental company "and for you my friend, I give you for only 2 euros a day!") - nice!
When the car actually got delivered to our hotel on the morning of our departure, I was shocked to see it was only a four-seater station-wagon, until that is the salesman raised the rear seat from the otherwise non-descript floor like Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead in Bethany! Quiet a show with wows all around... A great start!

We keyed in our destination on the GPS for Delsey and in three hours found ourselves admiring the Temple of the Oracle (of Delsey) The setting was beautiful, we had a quick lunch on the steps of the museum there and then keyed in our destination for Meteora. A few beeps later the GPS had planned our trip, our destination six hours away. Easy as falling off a log!

A few kilometers into our journey, driving down the valley the GPS asked me take a right onto a smaller road. A bit surprised but not really worried I did just that. My dad seeing this bold detour immediately objected, "This can't be right!"

"Dad, would you rather drive?" I said, not without impatience.

"This is the right way, the GPS says so" echoed my brother who had the all-important task of DJ-ing and navigating.

The path we were driving on which started out as a two lane road started narrowing down, twisting and turning through the valley, all the time moving downhill. All around us there was just a dense forest with no cars or people anywhere! Along the way we saw a couple a boarded up sheds and every few kilometers spooky one-room churches that looked like they were last used in the middle ages. All the time the road that had been a promising two lane squeezed into a single lane and then barely wide enough to fit our tiny car. Well at least it was still a paved road.

The one thing yawning and worrying have in common is that it's catching. Starting with my mom who "Let's just turn back," (we're already half an hour into this thing) and my dad "Ask someone for directions!" (but the trees hardly make great conversation) and wife chips in "Are you sure, dear?"

Aloud I say, "Mom, I'd love to turn back but the road is too narrow to for that, dad I'll ask the first person we see and dear, I'm not sure, but I haven't seen any other roads but this one lately!"

Finally we hit the valley and now we're on a flat road, our spirits some what restored as the foliage started to thin down. However as we hit the next bend the road disappeared, what took its place was a hard pan with ancient grooves to mark the path of long gone wheels and grass growing in the center. Not good! Trying not to panic and failing at it, we pushed on. At that time it was already an hour since we left the highway. After what seemed an endless time crawling through the dirt road, the wheels of our car - never designed for this abuse - spinning uselessly trying for purchase, we finally hit the other end of the paved road. Breathing a collective sigh of relief we saw no option but to push on.

Shortly after our little scare, we came to our first glimmer of hope. A man! An actual human being walking on the side of the road! He looked like a farmer and as ancient as God. He was as surprised to see us, as we were pleased to see him (wrinkles and all). I stopped the car and rolled down my window with a hearty “Hello!”

None of us could speak Greek, and he couldn’t speak English. So all we managed to do was say “Meteora!?” with a few hand gestures (as if to ask him where the hell is it?)

In his reply I got - ‘Meteora?’ followed by a chuckle and lot of Greek, shaking his head eyebrows raised and wildly gesturing with his hands all the time (looked like he was saying ‘Meteora? What the hell are you doing here? In the middle of nowhere!’). Looking at our blank faces he tried again. “Meteora” and raised one hand in the universal gesture of far away.

This was when inspiration stuck and opened the dashboard for the map that the rental company had so kindly given us. I showed him the map asked by gesture to show us where we were. After what seemed a long time (must have been a minute) he pointed out a general location, then moving his finger along the map showed us the next town and from there our way out. We thanked him as best as we could and moved onward. Now obsessively looking at the paper map as if expecting it have a blinking red dot saying ‘You are here’!

The road started to climb and that was where we hit the second hurdle. Our tiny car engine could not climb the steep incline! The wheels would spin fruitlessly and the engine would rev alarmingly but we just wouldn’t make any headway. My mom came to the rescue and had everyone get out of the car. Once the car did not have to pull six people, it climbed the incline easily. We had to do that again twice.

After the second time there was a pungent burning smell and we could not figure out what was wrong. Every one of us was praying in our own way to not have a break down in the middle of nowhere! Our prayers were answered and an hour later we had the Highway in our sight. Right up to the end the road went straight to meet the highway but at the last few meters veered parallel to it! At that point I felt like a man dying of thirst who crawls nearly all the way to the pool, just to have a heart attack a few feet away. After an agonizing two kilometers we finally got onto the highway.

I took the GPS and mentally cursing it tried to see how it could have betrayed us so. After a little digging I found there was an option for the ‘shortest route’ and ‘quickest route’. The option of the ‘Shortest route’ was selected by default. That made sense! But my hunger for adventure was quiet fulfilled and I reset my destination but with the Quickest Route selected. After that we stayed on the highways.

All was fine, until the GPS did it again! Two hours after we had extracted ourselves of a difficult situation we found ourselves back in the saimilar one! I guess the GPS’ appetite for torment was yet to filled!

Driving into the night we finally reached Meteora and on our return used the paper map to keep to the expressways. However the GPS had taken us through the countryside - the scenic side of Greece! Driving on the Expressway was all road no fun, but a lot less scarier!