Duty It was all lost. It was the time of Hades and since our God was dead we planted a hyacinth in the pot and that, perhaps, was another act of redemption. Übermensch stood by the fireplace and shifting the logs He said: since you can do nothing for the wilted anemone at least try to push your empty cart uphill perhaps one day it might find its way, with you or without, back to the desolate house, and I bent down to pick my defeated ego; it had all started because of our devout narcissism, when I noticed all our dead laid in caskets as if waiting for their resurrection.
The Wind Perks Up my friend laughed and suddenly he looked like my father who would close his eyes tightly when he laughed his shoulders would jolt and he would hold together his hands as if clapping. my friend, standing in front of the fireplace whispered: The wind has perked up; we’ll try to survive and my father dived in his ashes again. Reality locked itself inside its present castle raising the white flag of the unequivocal age days of joy re-locked themselves in a few teardrops something insignificant was coming through the air something of an insignificant lust suddenly appeared in the room something insignificant we said and life passed by.
mother had waited for him to get up so she could talk to him, so she could look at him, so she could look at her first and only child, a man now, a graduate from the university, her pride. All night, she wondered about what to prepare for him, what to treat him with. She knew it was difficult for him to live away from his mother’s touch while studying in the city, attending classes, writing exams, and all. She had prepared some cheese pies of her own recipe with lots of sugar and cinnamon, which she knew he loved. She expected him to rise late since he had travelled all day yesterday; she fixed his coffee and walked to his bedroom. To her surprise, he was not only awake but also dressed. Hermes’ father, George Dragakis, was a fifty-two-year-old man who grew up in the orphanage, placed there by his mother, a young, unmarried woman who got pregnant out of wedlock. George grew up in the orphanage until he reached the age of eighteen, when he went back to the village where his mother and natural father lived. He had two stepsiblings on his mother’s side: a brother, Demetre, who lived in Athens, where Hermes stayed while in school, and a sister, Katerina, who lived somewhere in Germany. He also had a few stepsiblings from his natural father’s side, but his father had never told Hermes how many there were and whether they had any children. Hermes’ father was a reticent man, and it was rare to be able to start a conversation with him. It was Hermes’ mother, Despina, who told him the story about his father and how they got married soon after he came back to the village from the orphanage. Despina was a chubby sixty-four-year-old woman, a saint, as her son thought of her. She had only love in her heart, so much love for everyone, but mostly for her only son Hermes, who was her pride. “Oh, Mother,” he said affectionately and embraced her. “I will have to leave you soon after breakfast because I need to go up to the monastery. I promise we will have a long talk when I come back.” “Why do you need to go to the monastery, son?” “I need to look for something in their library. I will go by the orchards to say good morning to Father first and then carry on from there. I will be back for lunch.”
Sale Day The Circle H Ranch Willow Springs, Montana
That night Cindy and Lila slept in the guest bedroom. Joel woke to the alarm at five a.m. and quickly shut off the bell before it roused his guests. He dressed for the day and made his way to the kitchen. Joel could tell from the smell of the coffee that Tanya was ahead of him. Not only was she ahead of him, but also she was already out of the house. What a great girl, he thought, as he gobbled down a quick bowl of oatmeal, pulled on his boots, and headed out the door. Entering the barn, Joel saw Harry and Tanya already hard at work grooming the sale horses. In the distance, he could see the trails of dust rising in the sky as Roy and some of his helpers made their way to the ranch. By six a.m. the Circle H was buzzing. By seven they were ready to go. Joel was absolutely amazed when the first buyers showed up at eight to preview the horses that weren’t scheduled to be demonstrated until ten. With trucks parked every which way in every spot imaginable in the ranch yard, the visitors started to park on the road by nine. In no time at all, the line of trucks extended a good mile back on the road. Roy assigned two of his helpers to man their half-tons and cruise the road to pick up the buyers as they walked from their vehicles and deliver them to the ranch yard. Joel had never seen anything like it. Of course, it was the first horse sale of this nature that he had ever seen, so that was easy for him to say. What he didn’t know was that Roy had never seen…
Manolis Aligizakis 