The Black Earth by Philip Kazan

Author:Philip Kazan [Philip Kazan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780749022037
Publisher: Allison & Busby
Published: 2017-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

It seems to be quite a bit later. Tom has been following the music where it has been trying to lead him the whole time, if only he’d noticed: into a half dream full of people, each trailing a story that he can follow all the way back to places that look, perhaps, rather like Turkish cigarette packets – but what, honestly, is more beautiful than a packet of Turkish cigarettes? He has been following the stories east, across the sea, back to where he is from, back to glossy green valleys and huge yellow butterflies. And now, he is here in the Cordelio but also out under the night sky, where the moon is rising, round as a tambourine …

She is singing. The night is the deep, sonorous drone of the violin. The stars are the trickle of sound from the lute. The moon is Zoë Valavani. He opens his eyes and sees a policeman’s cap.

‘What the … ?’ he says, and Sólon the gendarme turns to him and pats his arm. ‘Oh! Hello,’ says Tom, politely. He blinks, and there is the night again, and the moon. He sails across another great expanse of time and place: a calm sea reflecting stars. Alone with the singer. The words mean nothing but he knows he is learning something unutterably sad: a terrible lesson given with such beauty, such love, alone with her in this dazzling moonlight.

He opens his eyes. The gendarme is helping himself to one of his ration cigarettes. ‘Please go ahead,’ Tom says, and takes one himself. His fingers feel like sausages wrapped in velvet. The cigarette traces a slow parabola towards his mouth, like a shell travelling across the firing range at Larkhill. ‘Thanks,’ he says, as the gendarme’s lighter goes poff and he leans towards the flame. ‘I dropped off,’ he adds. ‘Sorry.’

‘Good?’ Niko appears at his side. He puts a glass of beer down in front of Tom. ‘English Army,’ he says. ‘Last one.’ Tom finds that he is incredibly thirsty and drinks half the glass in one gulp. ‘You liked the hashish?’

‘Made me fall asleep, I’m afraid,’ Tom says, taking another large mouthful of beer. He’s never tasted hops quite this strongly before.

‘Yes, yes.’ Niko looks as if he’s about to say something else, but just then Zoë comes in from the back and leans on the table.

‘I think we should go. Do you think so?’ she says. Tom takes a deep breath: there’s something he’s been meaning to say but he’s completely forgotten what it might be. Her eyes … her eyes are extraordinary. ‘Lieutenant Tom?’ Niko whispers something to her. ‘What … ? Christ and the Holy Virgin, what were you thinking?’ She sits down opposite Tom and takes his hand. ‘How are you feeling, moreh?’

‘I’m absolutely fine,’ he says, puzzled but deliriously happy. ‘I was just … lost in your singing.’

‘Umm hmm. Niko! For God’s sake!’

‘He is fine. Aren’t you, Kapetanios?’

‘Clear as a bell,’ says Tom, smiling beatifically. He is, however, very hungry.

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