Orthokostá by Thanassis Valtinos

go. But we won’t be responsible for you any more. We went and pulled up some potatoes, they washed them, they boiled them. They had a goat with them. They cut it up. They gave us that to eat. Then we left. They let us go. We came to a place where the road turned toward Aráhova. We made it to Aráhova. Different headquarters there. There was a major in command, spoke fluent Greek. He started asking us about Kléarhos, about Velissáris. About everyone in the local chapter of Kastrí. In the end he let us go. Get going, he said. But don’t go past the cemetery because there’s a guardhouse there. They might kill you. Go by a different road. We headed out, we followed his advice. We took a much lower path. We left. We arrived atthe village. We saw the first houses. Stamatáris’s house. He received us in person. You’re both guilty. That pig. Both guilty. His house was brand new, I had worked on it for him. Door frames, doors. I did the roof too. So we came here. We go and find Vasílis Biniáris. He was also a fugitive, but not in any danger. He had made a deal with Nikólas Petrákos. He had worked it all out, the two of them corresponded and all that. They didn’t touch him. Stavróyiannis left, they took him away. I stayed behind. The Security Battalions came. I wasn’t in hiding. I slept at home. I see Mihális Galaxýdis, in a rage. Those bastards. Hey you, aren’t you a Communist? What could I tell him? Since when was
he
such a patriot? Treating me like a Communist. They arrest me. He was with some other men. Not local men. They lead me over to a car. Someone named Arménis was in the car. A member of the Battalions. I try to climb in too. Another man’s gun misfires, it kills Arménis. And they forced me to make his coffin. They carried him up to the shop. On a bench. Blood everywhere. I found planks, I made the coffin. They made us spend the night in the school building. And the next day they took us to Trípolis. But they had us outside. Free for the moment to roam about town. We milled around there in Ayíou Vasilíou Square. Then they took us to Áreos Square. And they interrogated us. Kóstas Dránias from the Military Intelligence Office asked me—well, Okay. I say to him, You know me. It’s true that we had been registered in the local organization. Blackmailed into it. Wasn’t Kóstas Braílas in the Organization? That’s enough, Dránias says to me. No further questions. And they took me downstairs. Mihális Galaxýdis took me there. Now deceased. Down to the basement. All this in the Courthouse. They were holding lots of men there. Like Spýros Roúmelis. Roúmelis was known as Selímos. His brother Yiórghis as Alkyviádis. They killed them. They killed them right before our eyes. They stood them in front of us and executed them. Just a short while later. In an instant, on a Sunday. It seems an order had come in to execute twenty-six men. Because twenty-six of Stoúpas’s 2 men had been killed. Somewhere, I don’t know. Yiánnis Kotsoríbas was the guard. Also deceased. And Kóstas Lígdas, another one deceased. Lígdas at the women’s jail. Both ofthem from Másklina. Everyone from Másklina is actually from Kastrí. And some of them from Ayiasofiá too. They’re from Karátoula, most of them. Both of them from Másklina. Lígdas protected me then. They were ordered to select prisoners from all the wards. A total of twenty-six. To count them up and take them to where the ambush had been carried out. The execution would take place there. And me, I wanted to go outside. Sergeant, sir, I say to him. Lígdas was a sergeant. He asked what my name was. Papavasilíou, I say to him. I didn’t know him back then. No, you’re not coming. I wanted to go outside, I thought they were taking them for chores detail. They took the others down there, and the