Orthokostá by Thanassis Valtinos Page B

say no. Ten days. For ten days I helped that woman. That Evanghelía. She had just given birth. She was married to someone named Taloúmis from Trípolis. I don’t know how she got there. She gavebirth to a boy. And that boy is now a civil engineer. Evanghelía, a Cretan. She had a sister, she said she’d like to make me her brother-in-law. She showed me photos. We stayed in Corinth for a day, and that’s when she told me this. I tell her, Let’s get back to our homes first. Let’s see if we find anyone there. Well, anyway. We got out in Corinth to wait for some other cars to come. There I see Iríni Koutsoúmbis and her sister. We were
koumbároi
. 5 Sávvas, they say to me, Sávvas. They saw the woman with the baby. Is this baby yours? I told them the whole story. Taloúmis, they both say at once. Daphne runs off and brings someone. It was Taloúmis’s brother. He gave us cigarettes, he asks us if we need anything. He worked in Corinth. Finally we left. Or did we leave Evanghelía there? I don’t remember. I think we left her there. I got to the village on September 14. I’ll always remember that day. Réppas brought me to Kastrí from Trípolis. His job was transportation. I reached in my pocket to pay him. He says, What are you talking about, Sávvas? Me take money from you?

Chapter 8
    They said they were bringing them from Orthokostá. I don’t know. Or rather I don’t know where they were taking them. Lots of them. A whole lot of prisoners. I mean, best I can reckon, maybe as many as 150, maybe 200. Maybe more. They took them through Galtená. They had my brother-in-law, Yiórghis Aryiríou. The Makrís sisters told me that they had their brother Nikólas too. Because Nikólas—they had an olive press then and they charged a fee for using it, like a tax. 1 The rebels. And they claimed that the Makrís family had hidden quite a few gallons of olive oil, and they hauled them in for that. Them and the Koutsoyiánnis family. Because they didn’t obey the orders of EAM. They took everything from us. The goats and the mules too. They didn’t leave us anything. Don’t know where they brought those prisoners from. But they passed through Galtená, they passed through Ayiórghis. Kapetán Kléarhos was with them. He tells Nikólas Makrís, I don’t want to kill the entire prison camp, but if the Germans force us to we will. Get yourself out of here and go over to Zoubás’s storehouses. Zoubás’s storehouses are somewhere in the area round Mesorráhi. Just down from Másklina. The area is called Mesorrahiótika. That’s where Nikólas was going to. So he left and went there and yes, he was saved. But the others were saved too. Because they were bringing the whole campful of prisoners through Ayiórghis on toward Koubíla and toward Eleohóri, and lots of Germans started moving in. Swarms of them. That’s when they killed Mémos. Kostákis Mémos, the village alderman of Mýloi. Had him up on a mule, he couldn’t walk. What should we do with this one,said the two men taking him away. And one of them said to the other, Whatever our superior said to do. The head of the detention camp. In other words, Kapetán Kléarhos. And
bam
, they fired one shot with a rifle. Just so he wouldn’t slow them down. The woman pulling the mule turned around. She had been pressed into service. Dína, Mítsos Fotópoulos’s wife. She turns round, she sees Mémos on the ground and his saddle full of blood. And if she’s no longer alive, her children will know about that. Her Dimítris and her Yiánnis will know about that, she must have told them. She told me everything herself. How she turned and saw the blood and how frightened she was. They had taken her from her village to transfer the prisoner. Kostákis Mémos. And today we call that place