excerpt
In Athens they have moved to a place with two rooms in the Hagios
Fanourios suburb. e boys are fourteen and sixteen now, and their
dad works in construction. He has found a good-sized lot a little
north of where they live, in the suburb of Ilion, and he works with a
local contractor building a house, one of those they call illegal since
they have never gone to the city officials to get a permit. A lot of
houses are being built that way these days.
When the main structure, the four outside walls, and the interior
dividing walls are done, they will pour the flat cement roof in the
darkness of the night. Aer a roof is poured, the city never orders an
illegal house demolished.
Nicolas has been working at the furniture factory for a while
now, and Eteocles is in the second grade of high school already, but
today is Good Friday, when all the boys of the neighborhood are divided
into two teams to play their favorite game. As always, Eteocles
is the goalkeeper in his brother’s team.
It is a peaceful but darkening aernoon. Clouds are hurrying
across the sky driven by strong winds from the east. e football field
is an area of empty land just behind their house, le over from the
time an army unit had occupied its eastern flank. e players chase
the ball from one side of the field to the other, and their team is ahead
by two goals when the other side gets a corner kick and all the players
line up around Eteocles’ goal area. e kick sends the ball high, and
before any opponent can turn it into a goal, Eteocles jumps and grabs
it in both hands, only to lose his balance and fall aer a player from
the opposite team ducks under him and knocks him off balance as
he comes down. As Fate would have it, Eteocles has his right arm behind
him to soen the fall while he cradles the ball in front of him
with his le, and the whole weight of his body falls on his right arm,
dislocating his elbow. He drops the ball and grabs the injured arm…
Libros Libertad 