Chapter 11 Chapter 10

1945 It was as if all he breathed was poisonous gas before, but now there is oxygen in the air again.Members of the resistance group returned to their villages, often traveling hundreds of miles.Bottles of fresh plum wine were opened, and everyone who came back was toasted.The Feast of St. Konstantinos took place within two weeks of the occupation, and the celebration of this saint's day was no more than an excuse to throw all caution to the winds.The haze dissipated, and the carnival descended across Crete.Here and there, fat goats and sheep twirled on spits, and fireworks exploded over Crete, reminiscent of wartime explosions that tore through their cities and lit up the skies.Yet no one dwells on the comparison; they want to look forward, not back.

For St. Konstantinos, the girls of Plaka dress up in their most beautiful clothes.They go to church, but the sanctity of the holiday is not on their minds.These adolescent girls are free because they are still treated like children, and their words and actions are seen as innocent.It doesn't take long, when the femininity in them slowly emerges, and the parents start to wake up, and the daughters have grown up, and they start to pay close attention to them, but sometimes it is too late.By then, of course, some of these girls had been sneaking kisses to the village boys, and having had secret trysts with the boys on the way home from school, in the olive groves, in the fields.

Maria and Fotini had never kissed anyone before, but Anna was experienced and charming.She's happiest when she's with the boys, tossing her thick hair and flashing a charming smile she knows her audience won't take their eyes off of.She is like a cat in heat. "Tonight is going to be special," Anna announced. "I can feel it in the air." "Why do you say that?" Fotini asked. "Many boys came back, that's why," she replied. The village is now home to dozens of young men who were boys when they left home to fight with the resistance at the start of the occupation.Some of them have joined the Communist Party, and the left-wing forces on the Greek mainland are brewing, and some people will join the battle against the left-wing forces, which will bring new bloody storms.

Fotini's brother Antonis was among the young men returning to Plaka.Although he had some sympathy for the ideals of the left and the new battles taking place on the mainland, after four years away from home, he wanted to come back even more.He's fighting for Crete, he wants to stay here.During his absence, he was lanky and hard-hipped, a different person than he had been when he stumbled back after his first few months with the Resistance.Now he has a beard on his upper and lower lips.It made the twenty-three-year-old look at least five years older.He subsisted on alpine plants, snakes, and any other animal he could catch, and was hardened by long periods of extreme cold and heat.

It was this romantic image of Antonis that moved Anna's heart that night.She was not alone in that passion, but she was confident of winning at least one of his kisses.He is thin and tall.The dancing started, and Ana decided to draw his attention to herself.If he didn't spot her, he'd be the only one in the whole village who didn't notice her.Everyone noticed Anna, not only because she was half a head taller than the other girls, but also because her hair was longer, more wavy, and smoother than all the other girls' hair, even when it was braided, reaching to her hips.Her almond eyes shone like cotton shirts on girls, and her white teeth sparkled when she chatted and laughed with her friends.Groups of young people stood on the square. Under their gaze, she felt extraordinarily beautiful. She was looking forward to the moment when the music sounded, which would be the beginning of the celebration.In this big festive evening, she was shining brightly, and all the other girls were eclipsed.

Tables and chairs were placed round three sides of the square, and on the fourth side stood a long dais with a dozen plates piled high with cheesecakes, pepperoni, sweet pies, waxed oranges and Ripe apricots are arranged into mountains.The aroma of roasted mutton floated over the square, followed by mouth-watering happy expectations.Festival activities also have a strict sequence.Eat and drink in the back, dance first. First, the boys and the guys stood chatting together, and the girls stood apart, giggling with excitement.It won't be long apart.The band started to play and people started spinning and stomping.Men and women stood up from their seats, girls and boys no longer huddled together.Before long, the dusty square was full of people.Anna knew that once the inner circle where the woman was on turned, she would meet Antonis sooner or later, and they would dance together for a while before continuing to spin.How can I get him to notice that I'm not just her sister's friend?she asked herself.

She didn't have to try, Antonis came to her.The opening waltz that required a slow dance gave her a moment, and she could see his unfathomable eyes looking at her from under the black bangs of his traditional hairstyle.Many young men wear Saric, the hat worn by warriors, to show that they have grown into men, not just with the passing of time, but with another man's blood on their hands.On the other hand, Antonis was not only stained with the blood of one, but several enemy soldiers.He prayed that he would never hear the distinct cry of his foe, followed by a gasp, as his sword plunged into the soft flesh between his shoulder blades.He never felt it was a victory, but it did give him the right to associate himself with the Parikalia, the fearless warriors in breeches and boots of Crete's past.

Anna smiled brightly at the boy who had become a man, but he didn't smile back at her, instead he kept his dark eyes fixed on her until it was time for him to move on to the next partner, and she was relieved from it .The dance was over, but her heart was beating wildly.She went back to her friends, who were watching the performance of several men, including Antonis, who spun like a top before them.It's a dizzying performance.As they leap into the air, their boots sweep the ground for several feet, and the simultaneous plucking of the shamisen and lute spur them on, giving the dance a gripping, energetic finish.

The married women watched the stunt, but the dance was not for them, but for the young girls watching them from the corners of the square.The music and drums crescendoed as Antonis twirled, and Ana was sure the handsome warrior was dancing only for her.At the end of the dance, the whole audience clapped and cheered, and the orchestra, hardly a moment's pause, played another tune.Some older men took the dusty center stage. Anna was bold enough to leave her friends and go to Antonis, who was pouring wine from a large china jug into his glass.Although he had seen her countless times at home before, he had hardly noticed her before tonight.Before the German occupation, she was just a little girl. Now, the little girl has grown into a slender, sexy woman.

"Hello, Antonis," she said boldly. "Hello, Anna." "You must have learned to dance when you were away from home," she said, "to be able to do those steps." "We can't see anything but goats on the hills," replied Antonis, laughing, "but they have very quick feet, and perhaps we've learned a trick or two from them." "Can we dance again later?" she asked, amidst the banging of shamisen and drums. "Okay," he said, with a smile on his face. "Okay. I'll wait. It's over there." With that, she went back to her friends.

Antonis had the feeling that Ana gave herself to him, not just for an opening waltz.When another waltz began, he stood up and walked to her, took her by the hand, and led her onto the dance floor.Antonis hugged Anna's waist, and now he could smell her sweat, which was indescribably sexy, charming and sweet that he had never smelled before.Crushed lavender and rose petals are no match for this scent.At the end of the dance, he felt her hot breath against his ear. "Wait for me behind the church," she whispered. Anna knew that on Saints' Day, even in the midst of such wild celebrations, it was quite normal to go for a walk in church, and besides, didn't St. Constantinos enjoy this day with his wife St. Eleni?The name Saint Eleni reminded her for a moment of her mother.She walked quickly to the alley behind the church.After a while, Antonis also came, and found her in the dark.Her parted lips immediately found his. Although Antonis had paid dearly for sex, he had never kissed like this.During the final months of the war, he was a regular at the Raytheon brothel.The women there liked the members of the Resistance and gave them good prices, especially handsome men like Antonis.During the occupation period, only the brothel business was the most prosperous, because the men who had not been with their wives for a long time needed to find comfort, and the boys had the opportunity to develop sexual experience, which was not allowed in their own team.But there is no love in that relationship.And now the woman in his arms, who kissed like a whore, might actually be a virgin, and most importantly, Antonis could feel her real desire.That's right.Every part of him longed for the provocative kiss to continue.His mind was spinning rapidly. He came back and didn't want to go anywhere anymore. He was planning to get married and settle down.Here just so happened a woman longing for love was waiting for him at his door, and had been waiting for him since childhood.She can only be his.fate. They let go of the hug. "We have to go back to the square," said Anna, knowing that if she left for too long her father would notice her absence, "but we're going separately." She slipped out of the shade and went into the church.After staying in it for a few minutes, lighting the candles in front of the statue of the Virgin and Child, she moved silently in prayer with her lips, which were still moist and bear the marks of Antonis. When Anna returned to the square, there was a bit of chaos in the street over there.A large limousine stopped, one of the few on the island at a time when people's traffic consisted mainly of walking on two legs or sitting on the backs of four-legged brutes.When the passengers in the car got out, Ana stopped to see who was coming.The driver was well-known in the area, and everyone immediately recognized Alexandros Pandoraki, a wealthy local landowner of about sixty years old, who owned a large tract of land near Elounda.He was popular, and so was his wife Aliftria.They employed a dozen villagers—Antonis was among them—several of whom had just returned from long-term resistance and welcomed them warmly.They also paid their workers generously, though some said, cynically, that they could afford it.In addition to thousands of hectares of olive groves, their family also owns the same area of ​​land on the fertile Lasithi Plateau, where they grow a large amount of potatoes, grains and apples, and have a stable income all year round.The climate on the plateau above 800 meters is cool and rarely uncomfortable, and the melting snow on the high mountains surrounding the fields makes the green land verdant and moist.In the hot summer, Alexandros and Eleftria Van Doraki often lived in Naples for several months, handing over the land of Elounda to their son Andrés. The house is more than twenty kilometers away.This family is not ordinary rich. Yet it is not at all surprising that such wealthy families are here, celebrating with fishermen, shepherds, and farmers working the fields.It's the same everywhere in Crete.Every villager would come out to dance and celebrate, joined by wealthy landowner families who lived on nearby farms or estates.No matter how rich they are, they will not go to a better party, they are willing to share the joy.Rich and poor suffered, and all had the same reason to celebrate their liberation.Whether you have ninety olive trees or 90,000 in your home, a martina is just as sentimental and an opening waltz is just as exciting. Out of the back seat of the car were the two daughters of Pandoraki, and the last to come out was the eldest son Andres.They were immediately warmly received by some of the villagers, and the best table was made for them, with the best position to watch the dance.Andres didn't sit around for long, though. "Come," he said to his sisters, "let us dance too." He grabbed them both and dragged them into the dancing ring, where they were dressed in the same folk costumes as the girls in the village and blended into the dancing crowd.Anna watched.Some of her friends were dancing too, and it occurred to her that if they had the chance to dance arm-in-arm with Andrés, she would too.She immediately joined the opening waltz that followed, staring at Andrés as she had just done for Antonis. The dance was soon over.The leg of lamb was roasted, cut into thick chunks, served in shallow dishes, and handed out to the villagers, and the feast began.Andres returned to his family, but he was absent-minded. At twenty-five, his parents put pressure on him to find a wife.To the dismay of his parents he rejected the daughters of every friend and acquaintance of Alexandros and Eleftria.The girls were gloomy, nasty, and silly, and while all of them were sure to have rich dowries, Andrés refused to associate with them. "Who is that girl, the one with the eye-catching hair?" He pointed to Anna and asked his sisters. "How do we know?" they answered in unison. "It's just a local girl." "She's beautiful," he said, "and I wish my wife looked like her." He stood up, and Aleftria glanced knowingly at Alexandros.In her opinion, if the lack of a dowry had no effect on Andrés' life, what did it matter who he married?Compared with Alexandros, Eleftria's own origin was quite poor, but that did not affect their lives much.She only wanted her son to be happy, and if it would violate the custom, then so be it. Andres went straight to the girls, who were sitting in a circle, eating slices of fresh lamb with their hands.Andres was nothing out of the ordinary, he looked like his father, with sharp features and a sallow complexion like his mother, but his family background made him have a different demeanor from the other men at the party, of course Aya Except for Lysantros Vendoraki.The girls were shy when they saw Andrés coming, and hurriedly wiped their hands on their skirts and licked the greasy gravy from their lips. "Anyone who doesn't mind dancing?" he asked abruptly, looking directly at Anna.That kind of demeanor is reserved for men who are extremely confident in their high social status.Only one person responded to this, Ana got up from her seat and took the hand that was extended to her. The candle on the table flickered and went out, and the moon rose, casting a silvery light from the dark sky.Plum wine and wine flow freely, and in this atmosphere, the musicians become bold and play faster and faster until the dancers get carried away again.Andres hugged Anna tightly.It was late at night, and the tradition of exchanging partners at the dance could be ignored, and he decided not to exchange her, he did not want to dance with ugly, clumsy housewives.Anna is the best.No one can beat it. Alexandros and Eleftria van Doraki watched their son court the woman, but they were not alone.Antonis sat at the table with his friends, drunk and numb, and he understood what it all meant.The man he works for is seducing the woman he desires.The more he drank, the more miserable he was.During the war, he slept on a wild hillside, and was rarely discouraged by wind and rain.But now that he was competing with a man who would be the heir to Lasithi's vast fortune, what hope did he have of keeping Anna? In the far corner of the square, Giorgis was sitting with a group of old people playing backgammon.His eyes flitted from the chessboard to the square, where Anna was still dancing with the most elegant man around St. Nicholas. The Vendorakis finally stood up and left.Aleftria knew instinctively that his son did not want to go home with them, but his reputation, and that of the country beauty, meant he should.Andres is no fool.He needs their support if he is to break with tradition and freely choose a wife instead of being forced to accept a choice. "Look," he said to Anna, "I must go, but I want to see you again. I'll send you a letter to-morrow telling you when we shall meet again." He spoke like a man who is used to giving orders and waiting for them to be carried out.Anna couldn't refuse, because silence was the appropriate response.After all, this might be her way out of Plaka.