The Barefoot Evangelist The Book: Part II

“i want the whole town dead”

“coronel, you better hope and pray

there is no God, if there is one i would hate to see

what he’s going to do to you for killing all these people”

By: Frank Elias Georgalis

PART II

Erik stared with unutterable ferocity for a long moment, fixing his eyes into space. He proceeded to tell his wife and child how three German soldiers broke the ranks and grabbed his father, breaking him away from his father’s grasp and pushing him with such force that Erik fell on the ground. He remembered seeing how the Germans took his father by the arms and hair, never releasing their hold or allowing him to stop until they reached the old building across from the square, where they made him stand up facing the wall along side with other fifty or so men. As they did that, Erik could hear the shouts of the populace who were witnessing the removal of additional men from the main ranks; they too were dragged into the old, open, three-wall building. Erik charged towards the building, where his father was made to stand with his hands raised high at arms’ length, but he was stopped and pushed away by another German soldier.

Erik, screaming and cursing at the soldier, thrust against him with all the power and wrath of a mad dog. The intensity of his energy and the unexpected suddenness of his assault caught the soldier by surprise, and brought him down heavily on the ground.

The soldier and he rolled on the ground together and Erik showered him with punches, but the soldier responded with some light slaps around the face.

 

The contest was too unequal to last long. Erik slid away from the German’s grasp, stood up panting and, striving to hold back his tears, noticed the battalion commander and three other high ranking officers standing and looking at him from the balcony of Petalas’ house. It was the largest and the most elegant house standing tall on the side of the square; it was being used by the Germans for their headquarters. He then saw two angry soldiers coming to him from across the street. They kept at the very top of their speed until they reached where he was standing. Panting out of fatigue and confusion he stood there and looked at them. The screaming from the women and the yelling from the men were renewed upon seeing the two soldiers heading for the boy. The nearest voices took up the cry and hundreds echoed.

The soldiers moved around us in a hurry

Of all the terrific yells that ever fell upon mortal ears, none could exceed the cry of that infuriated throng. Some spent their breath in impotent curses; others cried, shaking their clenched fists while becoming more and more excited as they yelled. After a vast quantity of hitting, kicking and struggling, Erik managed to escape from his captors. The fears and the anxiety of the spectators were temporarily relieved on seeing Erik climbing to the top of a small sycamore tree that was just big and strong enough to support the boy’s weight and high enough to keep him out of harm’s way. The German soldiers, looking angry and bemused, yelled and motioned for the boy to come down.

“I wasn’t about to come down,” continued Erik, puffing on his cigarette, “I stood on top of the tree, looking around the crowd below to catch a glimpse of my mother, sister and brother, but I wasn’t able to see them. I then scanned the area for a way out of the tree and noticed the big sycamore, rooted in Mr. Magginas’ courtyard, with its branches spreading all around; one branch reached very close to where I was standing. I was familiar with the tree, the courtyard and the gate that led to the other side of the house that was near the foot of the mountain. Some times I delivered milk from our goat for Mr. Magginas’ wife, who was either always sick or liked the taste of our goat milk.

“I stood there and thought that if I could only make it to the other tree, I would jump into the courtyard and then would head for the mountains, and it would have taken half of the German army to find me.”

“It wasn’t impossible to jump. My friends had done it plenty of times before, but they were a little older than I. They had jumped to get into Mr. Magginas’ property to steal fruits. We used to steal grapes in the summer time and oranges in the winter months. I said we, because I was with them sometimes, but I stayed outside; I was told that I was the lookout man, and when they came out loaded with fruits, they would give me some for being the lookout man,” said Erik, gazing at his son who was paying keen attention to his father, “They called me the lookout man. I felt good. I was a man. Yes, I was a man,” said Erik, laughing and hammering his chest with both hands.

“Daddy, you are telling us a sad story and you are laughing,” said Randy.

“Sonny, I want you to remember that Monday’s tragedy is Tuesday’s comedy,” said Erik, caressing the young boy’s hair. “Anyway, I stood up there and it looked to me as if I were on top of the world, but while the crowd was screaming at the Germans, the Germans were screaming at me, and the branch of the tree looked as if it were distancing itself from me; I felt that I was at the bottom of the world. All I wanted to do at that time was get to where my father was, find my mother, sister and brother, and go home. I then suddenly thought that if I could only jump I would make it into Mr. Magginas’ courtyard, and then I would sneak around and get to where my father was impounded.

 

I hung from the tree

Blinded by my desire and intoxicated by the thought of saving my family and restoring my world back to its pleasant and normal existence, I jumped. I didn’t make it across because I missed the branch of the big tree and fell, and my ankle got caught between two ‘Y’ shaped branches so I hung upside down about fifteen feet off the ground and remained there, dangling like a piece of meat on a butcher’s hook. Looking at the world upside down sent fear through my veins and my heart began to pump blood at a high speed. I heard and saw the German soldiers below me jumping up trying to catch me but I was too high up. I then saw an army type vehicle resembling a jeep pulling up and it came underneath me. The soldiers jumped on the jeep and took me down with all the carefulness and precision of men in the business of saving lives rather than taking them.  Once I was down they made me sit on the back seat, and one of the soldiers eyed me intently from the bottom of my feet to the top of my head without the slightest alteration of his face to reveal any feelings. This survey lasted a long time, and just when I expected some outbreak of anger from him, he went and sat behind the wheel, looked up at the balcony, and I saw the battalion commander giving him a sort of a signal; he then drove away with me sitting in the back seat and the other soldier sitting next to me talking in his native language, as if he were speaking on the most ordinary family domestic topic.

I was driven through the main deserted market and I was dropped off at the harbor. I ran to get back to my father but the German guards had the street leading to the square blocked off.

“There I roamed with a wilted heart. While I was pacing around the harbor, meditating and casting dark evil looks at the German guards and figuring my possibilities and methods of invading the square, I felt torn by my fears on the one hand and my anxiety on the other. I did that for almost two hours, as close as I can recall; I then saw the guards leaving their post, and several familiar fishermen, were coming down from the square, heading for their boats in a complete silence.

The siege was over but the battle for life went on

I realized that the Germans had let everybody go. I darted and headed straight for the square, hoping to catch up with my family and my father. While I was running, was thinking how wonderful it would be for all of us to go home and to gather around the fireplace and listen to my father telling us stories of the bygone days while my mother was making delights for all of us. I reached the square with throbbing breast but much to my disappointment, I found the square virtually empty.

“Without any further delay, pause, or a moment’s consideration, without once turning my head to the right or left, raising my eyes to the sky or lowering them to the ground but keeping them straight ahead with a strange desire and unnatural anxiety, I rushed towards my house as fast as if a dozen wolves were at my heels. I held my headlong course neither slowing down nor relaxing a muscle until I reached the front door. I opened it softly and on entering I found my mother sitting by the dining room table with her head buried in her hands crying and my sister Poppy and my brother Nassos standing next to my mother looking sad.”

“Where is Father?” I asked.

“The soldiers took him to jail and they are going to kill my Papa,” cried my sister, with tears coming down from only one eye because the other looked dark and swollen.

“What happened to your eye?”