excerpt
“At least it’s still chirping,” Eteocles shouts, and they both enjoy
a good laugh.
The next day is a very hot one, with temperatures in the low forties,
so the village boys cool off in the sea twice, once in the morning
and again in the afternoon after the siesta. Eteocles can’t get enough
of the sea. He is a very good, fast swimmer for his age.
The sun shines down almost vertically on them, the other people,
and the sand dunes and rocks visible on the other side of the peninsula
and the houses on the far eastern horizon, way over in Chania,
and on the tavernas arrayed at the edge of the shore, and on the big
monastery that shines in whitewash where it sits on the top of big
rocky outcrop. Day after sunny day, they enjoy their long summer.
Sometimes they split into two teams and play football on the beach,
chasing the ball across the hot, flashing sand, laughing or arguing depending
on the situation. Some stand and others fall, depending on
who can run faster and kick stronger, and who is bigger and older,
and that is how it is decided who will stand and who will fall. But
they all have a chance at the ball, and this is the way things are done
on that seashore, that summer, in that Cretan village where Eteocles
spends his vacation before he has to travel back to Athens to his family
when the school year begins again.
It was beautiful this afternoon until loud screaming is heard from
two women a hundred meters or so away, two women who run toward
the water and stop at the edge, yelling and crying and calling
for help. The boys turn in a flash and focus all their attention on those
two women calling for help and pointing to the sea where they cannot
go, apparently not knowing how to swim. Anthony starts running
toward the women, and Eteocles follows close behind. As they get
close to the two women, they see a body bobbing in the waves about
thirty meters out. Without hesitating, Eteocles and Anthony both
jump into the sea, but Eteocles is the faster swimmer and reaches the
person first. It isn’t an adult but a youngster about his own age. Diving
under the water, Eteocles sees him face down, and as he comes under
him, he pushes the face up and embraces the head to keep the boy’s
face out the water. Now Anthony arrives, and between them they pull
the boy to the shore. He is not breathing, but Eteocles has seen…
Mayanaam
vequinox
Manolis 
