Every day for the past week, 8-year-old Laila Dimakakos has run to the mailbox, hoping to find her ticket to a splendid summer and a wider world.
In the case of this vivacious, loquacious third-grader from Loch Raven, the ticket is a U.S. passport that will allow her to board an airplane for the first time in her life. On the other end, she'll step onto white sand beaches and glimpse sea water as clear as a swimming pool. She'll fish with her uncles and try to master the language of her ancestors. Laila Dimakakos, who has spent her entire existence in the confines of Baltimore, is headed to the Greek isle of Ikaria for the next two months.
The last day of school used to be a yawn for Laila, who spent most summer days at camp at Leith Walk Elementary, the same place where she passed the fall, winter and spring.
But her grandmother moved back to Ikaria last year. Pretty soon, she was telling Laila's mother, Cleopatra, "It's time for her to come. She needs to learn her Greek culture."
Cleopatra Dimakakos remembered her own idyllic summers on the island, playing by the sea until dinner and heading back right after. So she and her sisters, who grew up working at the family carryout on North Point Boulevard, scraped together the money for Laila's big trip. The little girl has been able to talk of little else in recent weeks.
Leith Walk, in Northeast Baltimore, was quiet yesterday morning. Many parents had already called it a year for their students. Laila and 13 classmates passed the morning watching animated movies. "It's wind-down time," said Principal Edna Greer.
But every teacher who passed Laila in the hall lit up at the idea of Greece. She played to her audience, showing off her grandmother's bracelet, said to ward off the evil eye, and fretting about sharks in the Icarian Sea.
"In Greece, it's always summer," she said, with a smile as bright as her silver shoes and painted toenails. "So when I get back, I might be melted, like an ice cream cone."
Laila said goodbye to classmates and hugged Greer before the 11:30 a.m. dismissal. But she insisted there was no bitter in the sweet ending to her school year. "It's all happy," she said, "because I'll see them again next year."
Oh, the stories she'll have.
- Childs Walker
Richard Williams has it all planned. The rising sixth-grader from Baltimore can't wait to do awesome work next fall at his new school, Harlem Park Elementary, and prompt everyone to wonder which former school prepared him so well.
