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their mom having her siesta and quickly head to the center of the village,
past the angry dog that always barks at Eteocles, as if Eteocles
exuded some special odor the dog particularly dislikes, and in the
village square meet the rest of the rascals: Yanni, the one they called
Hleeby, a word no one knows the meaning of, and Manolis, their
cousin, and Antony, another cousin, and go hunting for sparrows.
This time, since the birds must have new hatchlings in their nests,
they decide to climb onto the roof of Hleeby’s house and search for
sparrow chicks under the roof tiles.
The only obstacle between them and their prey is Hleeby’s father,
who is having his siesta as well, which means they have to be very
careful not to wake him up because, if they do, they may as well forget
about hunting. If he catches them with sparrow chicks, he will take
them from the children and have his wife Anastasia cook them for
him, and the boys’ struggle to get the sparrow mothers to fly away
and give them room to grab the babies will have been an exercise in
futility. The boys have a plan, of course, and Nicolas, as usual, is the
mastermind who climbs up on the roof first and walks gently on the
tiles, making sure he doesn’t break any. Carefully, he turns up a few
tiles, only to discover that most of the babies have already flown away.
Only one here and there, some smaller ones or sick ones are still
roosting in the nests.
Nicolas and the other boys, including Yanni, are up on the roof
by now and manage to grab half a dozen birds, which they put in
their pockets, indifferent whether the tiny creatures are alive or dead,
and without saying a word they jump down off the roof, mission accomplished,
only to find Yanni’s dad right there waiting for them,
and without any argument or discussion they hand all the birds to
him and leave empty-handed.
Having lost all their catch, the boys decide to go to the three caves
above their village where they think they might be lucky to find some
birds roosting in the darkness, and so, armed with two flashlights
and their slingshots and stones, they walk two kilometers down the
road between the upper village and the lower and then up a path
along the hillside until they reach the caves. The next question is who
among them will go in the caves first, who will hold the flashlights…
Hellenic Canadian Literature 