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Back The Black Earth
Chapters (56)
  1. Cover
  2. THE BLACK EARTH
  3. Dedication
  4. Contents
  5. BOOK I
  6. CHAPTER ONE
  7. CHAPTER TWO
  8. CHAPTER THREE
  9. CHAPTER FOUR
  10. CHAPTER FIVE
  11. CHAPTER SIX
  12. CHAPTER SEVEN
  13. BOOK II
  14. CHAPTER EIGHT
  15. CHAPTER NINE
  16. CHAPTER TEN
  17. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  18. CHAPTER TWELVE
  19. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  20. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  21. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  22. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  23. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  24. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  25. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY
  27. BOOK III
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  34. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  35. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  36. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  42. BOOK IV
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  44. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  45. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  46. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  47. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  48. CHAPTER FORTY
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  53. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  54. About the Author
  55. By Philip Kazan
  56. Copyright

‘Zoë! Zoë!’ Her head is jerked back and someone slaps her hard across the face. She opens her eyes and sees grey. Hands are tugging at her ankles, stretching her out across the step. The grey is cloth. A gendarme’s uniform. She looks up and Sólon’s face is hovering close to hers. ‘Wake up, koukla! Thank God, she’s alive,’ he mutters. ‘Can you hear me, Zoë?’

She nods. ‘Stop yelling, Sólon. Leave me alone.’ She winces at his rotten breath. They all have this corpse-like stink now: they are dying from the inside out. She looks past him and sees it is Efi who has hold of her ankles. They carry her inside and lay her on the sofa. Efi kneels down beside her.

‘When did you last eat, my darling?’

‘I … Last night. I had some beans last night,’ Zoë mutters guiltily. ‘But my stomach … och. It hurts.’

‘She has dysentery,’ Efi tells Sólon. ‘If she’s had beans they’ll have been ancient and full of rat shit, and God knows what else. Have you walked from Athens?’ she says loudly to Zoë, who nods weakly. ‘I haven’t seen you for days.’ Efi pulls off Zoë’s shoes, and winces at the blisters.

‘I’ve been at work.’ Zoë can’t manage anything more than a rough whisper.

‘Have you heard about the strike?’ Efi asks brightly. Zoë shakes her head. ‘The postal workers have gone on strike for more rations. Now EAM have come in on their side. It looks like the government are going to cave in. More food for civil servants like me. I’ll have more to share. You’ll have more, eh, Sólon?’

‘I do all right as it is,’ Sólon mumbles, clearly embarrassed. Zoë knows he spreads his meagre ration around his large extended family and the way his uniform is hanging off him he plainly isn’t getting much of it himself. ‘But I support the strike,’ he says, and looks at Mr Castanides. ‘And I support EAM too.’

‘Po po po.’ Mr Castanides shakes his head. ‘You should go to the mountains, Sólon. Join EAM. Fight with the partisans. That’s where you belong.’

‘I know,’ Sólon says bitterly. ‘But if I did, what about my wife, my boys? The Germans would send them straight to Dachau.’

Mr Castanides and Sólon are not natural friends. Castanides the old communist and Sólon the gendarme. But the times have whittled away their differences. ‘It’s good you stay here with us,’ says Mr Castanides, generously. ‘You help keep a balance against the bastard fascists.’ He doesn’t say more, but they all know who he means. Sólon’s brother, Ioannis.