Chapter 10
The dogs turned on the livestock. Almost got their fangs into my wife too. She calls me, I go over. They had mangled two of my ewes. I tell her, Wait. I go up to Atzinás’s storage sheds, I get my rifle. They were away, but I knew where they kept the key. I went in, I took the rifle, I took cartridges from the cabinet. I go back, and bang, I shoot one of them, then I shoot the other, they both fall to the ground. My wife asks me, Don’t these belong to Askomaídis? I go to the village of Ayios Pétros, I find Askomaídis. His son, the father was away. I ask him, Where are your dogs? He tells me, They were just here. I take him with me, I didn’t let on that I’d killed them. He sees them; I tell him, They almost bit my wife too. What could the boy say? He says, Not the bitch, you shouldn’t have. Doesn’t matter so much about the other one. I tell him, Shut up or I’ll kill you too. They destroyed four ewes of mine. They wanted to take me to court. People told them that they’d be the ones who’d end up paying. They compensated me, and we reconciled.
Chapter 11
They kicked him all the way over to the Unknown Soldier. There they walloped him and threw him down into Mákraina’s yard. And they shot him full of bullets. And they threw him in Omorfoúla’s vegetable patch. For three days they said, If anyone goes to bury him, we’ll kill him. We got up, we looked around, no one going there. So I went with Stella, we had a hard time of it, we put him on a ladder. The two of us. And we carried him up to the school. His sisters were waiting there. I don’t remember who else. We took him to the cemetery. I tell them, Do whatever you want, I can’t help you any more. Do whatever you want. And I got up and left. They dug a hole and shoved him in. Like a dog.
And Mihális, they killed him down near Oriá, on the same day. Petroú was screaming. Maritsoyiánnis’s wife went there, and Klaría went there. Petroú went there herself. I couldn’t bear it. They went there, they found him, and they couldn’t get near him. They washed him there. They tried to put him on the mule to bring him back but they couldn’t. So they buried him down there. Just like that. Mihális. Right where they found him. His mother went there, his mother. All that during the big blockade. The village was burned down later. They had taken us in. But before that, before the big blockade. We had put on a play. We’d performed Gólfo.1 As a benefit for the rebels. Then they came looking for Eléni. Eléni had come back from the detention camp. From Orthokostá. They thought she’d helped the Kyreléis women to escape. We found that out later. So in come the rebels, Where’s Eléni? She’s not here. She was up at Athiná’s. I went up and warned her. Rigoúla saw me, she went and told them. They come back, they say, Where’s Eléni? I don’t know. I left word for her to come back. That’s all I know. That’s what I told them. Eléni left, she went and hid. It was dark out now. They put two rebels at our house to guard us. My father, my mother, and Phaídros. To guard us. I always had a sixth sense. A voice inside me kept telling me: Go, go. Just before dawn, that voice woke me up. Go to the marketplace, go to the square. I race to the square, I find Yiórghis Haloúlos there. They had put him in charge of the village. How are you doing, Yiórghis? He says, Christina, take your mother, your father, and Phaídros and get out. Because they’re coming to round you up and take you to Ayios Pétros. Because of Eléni. I go home and wake them. Get up, we’re leaving. The rebels were fast asleep. The two who were guarding us. Sleeping that heavy morning sleep. We get going, we leave. Mavroyiórghis turns off, I don’t know toward where. Toward Karátoula. Our mother went to Lambíris’s place and started gathering greens. The rebels went past, they called out to her, they didn’t recognize her, she kept on pretending. I wonder if she’s found peace now. Phaídros and I headed toward Kékeris’s mill. Stella was in Astros. I knocked on the door of the mill. There was an Italian there, Petro, one of the fugitives. Petro, I shouted, Petro. Nothing. We left to go to Pródromos Monastery, Phaídros and me. I say, What if there are rebels in the monastery? We find a rock jutting out there, I held on to Phaídros, he grabbed on to a branch and jumped down. He tells me, There’s a cave down here. I held on to a branch too and jumped down. We stayed there in that cave. The sun was nice and bright. We could see the village of Perdikóvrisi across from us. We saw the Nikoláous, our koumbároi, on their way to grind their wheat. I tell Phaídros, Go down there and ask them for some bread. Phaídros goes down, our koumbára says, They came looking for you last night. They gave him bread, they gave him olives, and they gave him water. They tell him, As soon as it starts getting dark, go down to the river, we’ll be waiting for you. We go to the river. Kóstas was waiting for us, or maybe it was Dimítris. I don’t remember. One of our koumbáros Mihális Nikoláou’s sons, our uncle the doctor had baptized their daughter Telésilla. He led us along till we came to a certain spot. He says, Follow the riverbed to the end and you’ll come out on the far side of Karátoula, just below Bakoúris’s house. Knock on his door. He sent us back. Because he got word that our father had stopped there and left a message. We went and knocked on the door. We didn’t know if it was Bakoúris’s house, but it was the last house. It was nighttime. They opened the door. We went inside. They tell us, Your father’s on his way to Atzinás’s cattle pen to find you. In Xerokámpi. But here, take this old blanket and throw it around you and go to Spílio. So-and-so will come by to get you. I don’t remember who he said. We didn’t know Spílio. We went there, we saw a hole, an opening, Phaídros snuggled up to me, I covered him with the old blanket. All night long we heard the ice cracking. It got light out, we waited for them to come and get us, but no one showed up. I told Phaídros, Get up and whatever happens to us happens. We came out from there, the villagers in Karátoula saw us. Two of them tell us, I didn’t know them, they say, Don’t be scared, we’ll take you to your father. They all knew that the poor man was looking for us. And they took us up to Xerokámpi. They tell us, Take that road, it will lead you straight to the pen. We went to the cattle pen, we found our father. The pen was just a hovel partitioned in the middle. The animals on one side, a small room on the other. They had a fireplace, and they slept one next to the other. All of them. They’d milk the cow, we’d churn the milk to give them a hand. We’d make butter. Those people had nothing. They’d mix up some flour with water and bake it over hot coals. Our father told them, Go to Douminá and find Koupadélis. Tell him that Mavroyiórghis is at the cattle pen. And to give you supplies, and ask if he can come here so I can see him. They went and found him. He filled up their shoulder sacks and he tells them, Now go. And tell the man who sent you here that the rebels came through here looking for them. They came back and told us that. We stayed for three days at the pen. On the third day Koupadélis showed up. He tells him, Yiórghis, things have calmed down. You can come to my place. And we left, at night. We arrived at his house. The women had boiled up some coarse ground wheat, and they sat us down to eat. Then we hear a lot of noise outside. Like the trampling of feet. Get up, says Koupadélis, all in a fright. And he squeezes us up against a wall, behind the door. The tramping stopped. We went to sleep. The next day he got us and took us to Melíssi. Chrístos Kapniás was spending the winter there. First time I see this: There was a very bright moon, and all the houses had stone-tiled roofs. Slabs and slabs of stone. A while later he takes us from there. It starts to drizzle. He takes us to the river. To a footpath. That path would take us to Másklina. My father knew it, he knew his way around there. And Koupadélis tells him, Yiórghis, now I’ve brought you as far as the church, just below it. You’ll come out at Másklina in about an hour. And go to Moúdros’s place. Not to Yiánnis’s place. To his brother’s. Yiánnis was in Athens, he hadn’t married Vássio yet. We went there. We went to Másklina, we found his house. My father knocks. Who is it at this hour? It’s me, Mavroyiórghis. They couldn’t believe it. They open the door, they saw my father, and they let us in. Soaked through. They took us inside, we ate, they lit the fireplace, they sat us down on a mattress, all undressed. The women took our clothes, they dried them. We put them back on. In the morning, one of the two brothers goes and finds the Germans. They were the railroad detachment. He tells them, There’s a family here, the rebels are after them. And we have to get them out, so they can go to Trípolis. You needed permits for everything. The German says, Bring them at such-and-such a time. And he came to get us. We went to the station, we got on the train, and we went to Trípolis. Chrístos Haloúlos was there, and Kóstas Dránias, all friends of my brother. All of them in the Security Battalions. But where could we stay? Three lost souls. Mavroyiórghis, Phaídros, and me. Our mother down in the village gave and gave whatever she could, and she made it back home. They didn’t harm her. Why would they? Yes, well. Then Kóstas Braílas comes in. Or was it Vanghélis? I don’t remember. Whoever it was, he says, Uncle Yiórghis, you’ll stay at our place. They had got themselves a place near Kolokotróni Square. On the way to Sparta. A low one-story place, almost in ruins. His sister Chrysóthemi was there too. Chrysóthemi. They brought us something to eat, we slept all in a row. Vanghélis, Nikítas, my father, Phaídros, me, and Chrysóthemi. Kóstas didn’t come round there much. He had his team, they’d comb the mountains all night long, in the morning they’d come back to Trípolis. We were worried about the rebels. For about a week. Then they sent word to us that Eléni had appeared in Kastrí. And they wouldn’t harm us, we could go. I don’t remember how we got there, but we made it to Kastrí. We got there. They’d learned that it wasn’t Eléni who helped the Kyreléis women to escape. And they lost interest. We stayed there in Kastrí. Then came the big blockade. The Germans arrive. God must have been protecting me from it all. I realized this later. Someone shows up with a pistol, he says something to me. You scumbags. And he drags me down toward Katsandrís’s fountain. Just below Kóstaina’s house. He was from the Security Battalions. I was scared. But what could I do, how could I go back? Then another man comes rushing over, he says, The Germans wa