by Jane Bow
What is inexcusable, Oliver says, is that they joined up not as patriots but as prostitutes, as in, “I will kill for you without a thought if you will give me an education.” He still has a lot of forgiving to do, mostly of himself.
The hardest thing, even after all these years, for me, is the betrayals: of a young woman by the country she had risked her life for; of young boys sent out to kill for reasons undisclosed; of a little girl by the mother who died and left her; of another little girl whose mother could not give love. So many betrayals everywhere, all the time. I cannot and do not want to keep on carrying their bitter and bloody corpses. The only one who did not betray anyone, it seems to me, was Theía Adonia. All she did was answer a few questions in good faith.
We became friends before she died, and I still miss her lessons about herbs, chrysohórto for the skin, melissohórto for the stomach, chamomíli, and díktamos, found only high in Crete’s mountain gorges, for love. Did you know that men used to lower themselves down on ropes to harvest it? Her greatest gift, however, was the diary that, in bringing my grandmother to life, reminds me that we are all of us made of so much more than we can possibly know. Somewhere in all of our pasts, violence has helped to shape the person we are today. Sixty-seven years after my grandmother Callisto was killed — and twelve years after 9/11 — I wonder whether human violence is a necessary part of evolution.
Nature’s leaves, flowers, human bodies are made of patterns, but endlessly repeating patterns cannot adapt to meet tomorrow’s unforeseen challenges. New ones are needed and how do you get those?
Sitting here on Crete, just across the water from Egypt and Libya to the south, Israel and Gaza to the east, I wish I could explore some of these thoughts with you. Maybe someday soon. Our children are going to have to come down out of our Hidden House one of these years and get to know the outside world. They will need more education than Vlatos can offer, and we’d like it to be in English. Also, some day Oliver would like to settle his affairs in the U.S.
Remember when I came home with baby Paul, just after George Bush declared war on terrorism? You said then that Oliver was right to stay far away, that he should wait for “a gentler day in America” before putting himself into the hands of the Marine Corps. Will that day be here anytime soon, do you think?
Wrecks has just flopped down in the shade beside me. His whiskers have turned grey now but his eyes are as bright as they ever were. The tour must be over, so I’d better sign off.
Please, dear Slee, switch off your cellphone and laptop soon and bring Leonard and your troublesome teenyboppers over here. Let them stamp the grapes and pick the pomegranates and feed the goats and chase the chickens so you and I can eat and drink and walk and talk again.
With much love,
Cally
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to all those whose knowledge, expertise, stories and ideas, support, and encouragement have contributed to this book during the twelve years it took me to write it. I would particularly like the following people to know how grateful I am.
In Crete: Eddie Foster, Alan Fairest, Nikos Brokalakis, Carola Poppinga, Giorgos Georgoulakis, and Kate Brusten.
In England: Hilary Boyd.
In the United States: Robert Begiebing and the Norman Mailer Center.
In Canada: Greg Ioannou, Kate Unrau, Emily Niedoba, and Meghan Behse at Iguana Books; Barbara Berson, Margaret Slavin, Patricia Stone, Florence Treadwell, and Julie Johnston; most of all, I am grateful to Sarah Collins, Christopher Collins, and especially to Grant Collins without whom this book would not exist.
Books about Crete
While all characters in Cally’s Way are fictitious, research into Crete and its history has come from many sources. The following books were instrumental:
Fourtouni, Eleni. Greek Women In Resistance. New Haven, U.S.A.: Thelphini Press, 1986.
Hadjipateras, Costas, Fafalios, Maria. Crete 1941 Eyewitnessed. Athens, Greece: Efstathiadis Group S.A., 1999.
Kazantzakis, Nikos. Report to Greco. London, U.K.: Faber & Faber, 1973.
Keegan, John. The Second World War. New York, U.S.A.: Penguin Books, 1989.
Keeley Edmund, Philip Sherrard. A Greek Quintet. Limni, Evia, Greece: Denise Harvey, 2000.
Lind, Lew. Flowers of Rethymnon. Athens, Greece: Efstathiadis Group S.A., 2000.
Panaghiotis, Christou, Papastamatis, Katharina. Gods And Heroes in Greek Mythology. Florence, Italy: Casa Editrice Bonechi: 1998.
Psychoundakis, George. The Cretan Runner. London, U.K: Penguin Books, 1955.
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