Orthokostá by Thanassis Valtinos Read Free Book Online

you to a hospital. I say, If you send me there I’ll go. And then when they sent us to Prastós and Lyghítsos’s wife Eléni came down with typhus, they put me in charge of her care, I had her, and I had Themistoklís. His care was different, rubdowns and salves for Themistoklís.
    â€”To the village of Prastós?
    â€”To the village of Prastós.
    â€”They took Themistoklís there?
    â€”And then they took us up to the mountains. They made Panayótis, Iraklís’s brother, play the clarinet. And they danced. Well, anyway. It’s all a muddle.
    â€”And when the Germans came they took you.
    â€”When the Germans came we went and gave ourselves up. But we had got some water earlier. There was a drinking fountain. Look, girls, down there down by the wild pears, one of them said. We got water. Someone, a tall man, says, Who’s that girl, and Vasílis Tóyias said, She and her whole family are in deep with the Security Battalions. 8 About me. We took the water, and on the road the man who had asked about me stopped us. He tells us, I’m Alímonos, and he turns to me, he tells me, I killed Ioannítzis from your village over there. Right there, he says to me. He showed me a hillside. A beautiful hillside. His head is planted under a pear tree. That’s what he said. Then I was really frightened. They took us farther up. It was hot. We tell Panayótis, Play a song. I told him that. To cheer us up. I will, he says. But first I’ll play a funeral dirge. We all gave a shudder. No, no, Panayótis, don’t do that. I don’t remember if he played anything. And that night, at twelve o’clock, they killed him. They kept them behind, they sent us away. The men took us there, the rebels, along the way they began to talk. What are you saying, what’s going on? Nothing, stay close to us. It was pitch dark. They took us to those shepherds. I couldn’t reap grain. I didn’t know how. They wouldn’t give me anything to eat. Chrysanthe went and reaped the grain for me. Later we saw the Germans. They were swimming in the stream. We gave ourselves up; they took us back to Orthokostá. Kalabakóyiannis comes in, he tells us, Tonight they killed Braílas’s mother, and Maraskés, and Themistoklís. And Panayótis Polítis. They were killing them all night, and that woman from Trípolis, they smashed in her head with the butt of a gun, left her dead on the spot. I got out safe. From Orthokostá they took us to Leonídio. I went to the school, the Boínis sisters were in there. Prisoners. Alexandra and the other one. They were crying. I ask, What’s wrong with them, someone tells me, They found out theirbrothers were killed. I felt sorry for them, I went over to them, I say, Don’t cry, girls. I said that like a good Christian, they didn’t answer me. I go outside, I run into Iraklís Polítis. Yeorghía, are the Boínis girls in there? No, I tell him, and he didn’t go in. He believed me. We went to the seafront. There were people in line waiting to get into the caïques. Lots of people. From the Orthokostá detention camp, people the rebels had taken to Xerokámpi. I found Tasía Kambýlis there and Matína Lymbéris, Chía’s sister, I found Tasía’s brother Stamátis. Iraklís comes in angry as can be, I could kill you now, Yeorghía, in front of your brother, who cares? Just because I hadn’t given away the Boínis sisters. Go away, I tell him, get away from me, leave me alone. And then I see those very women, they’re escorting them somewhere. They took them away, and they disappeared among the vegetable plots. They took them. Much later I learned they had executed one of them. From Leonídio we went to Náfplion. And from Náfplion up to Eleohóri. To Másklina. They come and tell me, They want you. They had taken someone in. My aunt tells me,