CwHD16
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To
conclude this month's cycle, the story 'Kolokotronicus' which
recounts a voyage across the Ionian Sea. Misunderstanding and
language play their parts. The sun shines. The sea ... well, the sea,
as always, is implacable, indifferent.
The
story is ten pages long, or so; and reads better as a pdf file. I
have begun the tale here, then a link is provided to the pdf file.
Bon
voyage.
KOLOKOTRONICUS
Her
body bobs and dips briefly, hair fanned flat in the eddies about the
stern swirl. A thin green cotton dress clings to her torso and furls
about her hips revealing thin white thighs as her head follows her
feet and sinks suddenly from sight.
A
seagull squawks.
The
young man looks over the rail once again. Sits. A frown. He reads the
lines he has written. He rises up on one knee and once again peers
over the stern rail. Sits. He reads his lines.
There
is never an end to the journey
Within
the court of the Sun
No
twilight comes.
The
beautiful boy, the moon car
The
wolf following forever.
They
had hunched in the privacy of the bow, sheltered by the dual hulks of
the winch housings, a blanket draped over their shoulders, shivering.
He had watched them: she apparently sick, vomiting once, her hands
cradling her abdomen in that peculiar manner that, to Harry,
suggested pregnancy. He thought her too old. She looked old. The man
with her comforted her, a hand caressing her cheek, his body rounded
to support her as she leaned against him, dependent; yet Harry heard
the rise in pitch of her voice, the sharpness that suggested anger
and despair. They had squatted in the relative privacy of the bow
winches and thick, flaked lines until a crewman came and ousted them.
"Go
from here, go, get," shouted the crewman. He spoke Greek, but
the waving arms and insistence were clear. "Aussteigen," he
said; and, in English, "Shoo there. Out, out."
Harry
frowned. He wrote the words he had heard.
Shoo there. Out, out.
The
crewman stood over Harry as he wrote.
How innocent the words appear on the
page. The repetition picks up some of the crewman's anger, but his
brutality is lost completely. He despises these people. Where will
they go now, on this crowded ship? The bastard.
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