Mandras:
The sea is wonderful today. I don’t think I have ever seen it more beautiful. Thinking of beautiful, Pelagia looked amazing today, as always. I joked with her, and when she smiled, it was like the sun coming out from behind a cloud, sudden brightness, lighting my way to the next shoal of fish. I hope that I won’t have to leave her to go to the front too soon. Even though I must prove my manhood, I wish that I did not have to go, everything is so perfect here… Ah, well, I must go. There’s no point hanging about, and I have already enlisted. When I am a hero the Doctor will have to give me a dowry, or be shamed for it. I will be a hero at war, fighting those Italians; none of them will be able to stand before me. Ah, here we are, a shoal of trout. Over goes the net… I’ll leave it for a while, no use rushing it. Yes, that’s right, I will wait, and my call-up will soon come. I will be able to really take my place in the kapheneion as a man! I wonder how many men the Italians will have… they will have to attack now, as they have devoted themselves to the war so much. It is inevitable, and I can feel it in my bones. Up with the nets! A-ha, there we go, a brilliant catch, that’s more like it! Pelagia will be pleased with one of those, how about that big one there with the moss growing on it. Yes, that’s it…
Pelagia:
Agapeton,
Mandras is going away today, and I will never see him again. Those Italians will surely kill him! Their army is so big and they are on the same side as the Germans, and they have conquered Europe so far, and he is too beautiful to die in those cold mountains all alone without me to be there with him. I wish that he would swim with his dolphins forever, and I would always be able to see him coming round the corner where he was shot by Velisarios’s cannon, and there would never be any wars or any more death. But I am rambling, and he will go in spite of my protests. I don’t know why he has to go so much. Maybe he thinks that he needs to prove himself to others, but he has already proven himself to me, and surely that is all that matters? I will write to him every day, and I will send him warm clothes so that he is happy in those mountains. I will make them so well the other soldiers will be jealous! I will make a beautiful quilt for our marriage bed, and a waistcoat for when he dances at the wedding. It will be the most beautiful wedding there has ever been!
Mandras:
I have finally got my papers, and when I finally go to battle I will be able to prove to everyone that I am a man. When I come back, I will be awed in the kapheneion, and even Iannis will give me a dowry, and I could even become Mayor, as an old war hero. Some say that the mountains are a cold and evil place to fight, but there is only glory to be found there, in fighting those wops back to Italy! I wonder how soon it will be before I can get to fight them, I am so eager to throw them out of our homeland. Maybe we can fight them all the way back to Rome! Imagine that, to see Mussolini thrown out of his palace and made to eat with the dogs! I wonder when I can start; the waiting is the worst part! Maybe I can go and see Pelagia before I leave? She’s probably at the well talking about sewing or something with the others. No, I have already said goodbye, and saying goodbye again will only make things worse for both of us. I will see her again after I have won by glory and fame. I will see her then. I must go and say goodbye to Crystal and then I can go. I am sure that I will be home soon, the wops can’t be hard to beat…
Pelagia:
Agapeton,
I saw Mandras again today, and he seems totally recovered from his illness, and Papakis says his wounds have now healed completely, and it’s now his mental wounds that are healing. He has gone to join the partisans, and I no longer feel so much concern for him any more. I don’t want him to die, but I don’t feel that craving for him anymore, now his body is beginning to fail him. His buttocks are no longer like melons any more; they have begun to sag, and he is so wasted and thin. He isn’t as strong as he used to be, and he no longer goes fishing like he used to. I wonder what happened to those dolphins he used to play with. Wasn’t there some myth about a mythological Greek and dolphins? Never mind, I can’t remember it. I doubt Mandras will stay, and I think he will join the partisans. Why will he always be so fixated with war and death? He used to be so happy and cheerful, but now he is full of “Mother Greece”, and “Serving His Country”. I am betrothed to him, but I am not sure that I can love him like a husband any more.
Mandras:
Pelagia is not the same; she doesn’t look the same, feel the same or act in the same way. She didn’t even recognise, just Psipsina, who made it worse by reminding me of the sweet smell of Pelagia. She looked at me like some kind if animal! They say love conquers all, but maybe they were wrong. Maybe she really does love me, but she thought I was a tramp? No, it is final. She loves me no longer, but maybe there is some kind of affection still there, a flame in her breast that I can rekindle. But she has changed so! She is thinner, and looks less healthy, not the prosperous girl I used to know. Why is this so? I could not read her letters, that must have put her through agony, but love conquers all? I could see that her letters were getting shorter. I looked at the last and the first, and they were pages difference between them. My glory is nothing, my body is ruined, and the wops won. I most go to the andartes, that is the only way out. Yes, they can help, Greece is not yet defeated, even if she is diminished!