Island of Ghosts and Dreams by Christopher Cosmos

Author:Christopher Cosmos
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Published: 2026-03-03T00:00:00+00:00

15 MARCH 15, 1942

I don’t sleep. How could I?

How could I, or anyone, possibly sleep?

Tasos doesn’t, either.

I don’t want to close my eyes because I know I’ll see his again, staring blankly up at me from where I cradle his head in my lap after I pulled him from the water.

I try not to think.

I can’t.

There’s the jingle of keys and I look up to see a German soldier at the entrance to the cell.

He uses the keys to unlock the door. He swings it open and says something to us in German.

I don’t understand the words.

I understand what he’s telling us, though.

We’re free to go.

How?

I don’t know, but I painfully stand, and so does Tasos, next to me, looking with questions in his eyes I can’t answer and we walk out of the cell and past all the other Germans that are in their headquarters, that was once the headquarters for the British, but before that was ours.

The center of our town, our city.

We keep walking.

We go past them, then outside.

And once we do, I understand.

I see Cassia waiting for us on the street.

I glance to the side and see an unfamiliar German officer standing by the old Venetian fountain and when he sees us walk out, he tips his hat, very small, to Cassia, before he turns and starts to walk down Zampeliou Street, towards the Old Town.

I go to Cassia.

“Do you have him?” I ask her, very quietly.

“Yes,” she nods.

I nod, too.

Then I start to run.

I hear her call after me to stop and be careful and to wait for her, but I don’t, and then before I’m too far away, I hear her tell Tasos to run after me, and he does.

He runs.

But he doesn’t catch me.

I sprint along the familiar path, through town where I dodge vendors, soldiers, and Cretan men dressed in suits spinning their komboloi that clack clack together, then past the kastro, the craggy point in the sea to where there’s sand, then rocks, then sand once more at Chryssi Akti.

I keep going.

I go past the olives.

And then, that’s when I begin to see smoke.

The Germans have dropped fliers since the beginning of the invasion, telling us what they’ll do to villagers who harbor Greek resistance or enemy combatants, and we’ve heard rumors they’ve done similar things and destroyed other villages.

As I get closer to the farm, I see they’ve destroyed ours, too.

The sheep are scattered because the barn has been burned, so they wander the hills and across the path and graze on any grass that’s there.

They look at me curiously as I run towards them, then I slow, and walk.

Behind me, Tasos catches up, and he slows, too, when I do.

I go to the house.

That’s where I find them.

They’re together on the ground, so that’s something at least, that they didn’t face this alone and they’re halfway between their bedroom and the kitchen and I wonder if it was quick, or if they saw their murderers coming and knew what had happened and what their fates would be before it came.

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