登陆注册
37884800000200

第200章 six 1954-1965 Dane(32)

It was the same Roman emperor's face, and imperially unperturbed by threats of insurrection. "Justine, this is not something to play with, nor am I someone to play with. There's plenty of time. You have every reason to know I can be patient. But get it out of your head entirely that this can be settled in any way but marriage. I have no wish to be known as anyone less important to you than a husband."

"I'm not giving up acting!" she said aggressively. "Verfluchte Kiste, did I ask you to? Grow up, Justine! Anyone would think I was condemning you to a life sentence over a sink and stove! We're not exactly on the breadline, you know. You can have as many servants as you want, nannies for the children, whatever else is necessary."

"Erk!" said Justine, who hadn't thought of children. He threw back his head and laughed. "Oh, Herzchen, this is what's known as the morning after with a vengeance! I'm a fool to bring up realities. so soon, I know, but all you have to do at this stage is think about them. Though I give you fair warning-while you're ****** your decision, remember that if I can't have you for my wife, I don't want you at all."

She threw her arms around him, clinging fiercely. "Oh, Rain, don't make it so hard!" she cried.

Alone, Dane drove his Lagonda up the Italian boot, past Perugia, Firenze, Bologna, Ferrara, Padova, better by-pass Venezia, spend the night in Trieste. It was one of his favorite cities, so he stayed on the Adriatic coast a further two days before heading up the mountain road to Ljubljana, another night in Zagreb. Down the great Sava River valley amid fields blue with chicory flowers to Beograd, thence to Nis, another night. Macedonia and Skopje, still in crumbling ruins from the earthquake two years before; and Tito-Veles the vacation city, quaintly Turkish with its mosques and minarets. All the way down Yugoslavia he had eaten frugally, too ashamed to sit with a great plate of meat in front of him when the people of the country contented themselves with bread.

The Greek border at Evzone, beyond it Thessalonika. The Italian papers had been full of the revolution brewing in Greece; standing in his hotel bedroom window watching the bobbing thousands of flaming torches moving restlessly in the darkness of a Thessalonika night, he was glad Justine had not come. "Pap-an-dre-out! Pap-an-dre-out! Pap-an-dre-out!" the crowds roared, chanting, milling among the torches until after midnight. But revolution was a phenomenon of cities, of dense concentrations of people and poverty; the scarred countryside of Thessaly must still look as it had looked to Caesar's legions, marching across the stubble-burned fields to Pompey at Pharsala. Shepherds slept in the shade of skin tents, storks stood one-legged in nests atop little old white buildings, and everywhere was a terrifying aridity. It reminded him, with its high clear sky, its brown treeless wastes, of Australia. And he breathed of it deeply, began to smile at the thought of going home. Mum would understand, when he talked to her.

Above Larisa he came onto the sea, stopped the car and got out. Homer's wine-dark sea, a delicate clear aquamarine near the beaches, purple-stained like grapes as it stretched to the curving horizon. On a greensward far below him stood a tiny round pillared temple, very white in the sun, and on the rise of the hill behind him a frowning Crusader fortress endured. Greece, you are very beautiful, more beautiful than Italy, for all that I love Italy. But here is the cradle, forever.

Panting to be in Athens, he pushed on, gunned the red sports car up the switchbacks of the Domokos Pass and descended its other side into Boeotia, a stunning panorama of olive groves, rusty hillsides, mountains. Yet in spite of his haste he stopped to look at the oddly Hollywoodish monument to Leonidas and his Spartans at Thermopylae. The stone said: "Stranger, go tell the Spartans that here we lie, in obedience to their command." It struck a chord in him, almost seemed to be words he might have heard in a different context; he shivered and went on quickly.

In melted sun he paused for a while above Kamena Voura, swam in the clear water looking across the narrow strait to Euboea; there must the thousand ships have sailed from Aulis, on their way to Troy. It was a strong current, swirling seaward; they must not have had to ply their oars very hard. The ecstatic cooings and strokings of the ancient black-garbed crone in the bath- house embarrassed him; he couldn’t get away from her fast enough. People never referred to his beauty to his face anymore, so most of the time he was able to forget it. Delaying only to buy a couple of huge, custard-filled cakes in the shop, he went on down the Attic coast and finally came to Athens as the sun was setting, gilding the great rock and its precious crown of pillars.

But Athens was tense and vicious, and the open admiration of the women mortified him; Roman women were more sophisticated, subtle. There was a feeling in the crowds, pockets of rioting, grim determination on the part of the people to have Papandreou. No, Athens wasn't herself; better to be elsewhere. He put the Lagonda in a garage and took the ferry to Crete. And there at last, amid the olive groves, the wild thyme and the mountains, he found his peace. After a long bus ride with trussed chickens screeching and the all-pervasive reek of garlic in his nostrils, he found a tiny white-painted inn with an arched colonnade and three umbrellaed tables outside on the flagstones, gay Greek bags hanging festooned like lanterns. Pepper trees and Australian gum trees, planted from the new South Land in soil too arid for European trees. The gut roar of cicadas. Dust, swirling in red clouds.

同类推荐
  • Taras Bulba and Other Tales

    Taras Bulba and Other Tales

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 观自在菩萨随心咒经

    观自在菩萨随心咒经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 热河日记

    热河日记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 通典

    通典

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 明季北略

    明季北略

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 蜜恋百分百:逮捕一枚男神

    蜜恋百分百:逮捕一枚男神

    “搭档,这枪怎么用啊?”“搭档,扳机怎么那么难掰?”“搭档……”从小他就喜欢缠着她,她总是一言不合就给他过肩摔。长大后,她打不过他,他一言不合就把她当抱枕。“喂!你的头枕哪呢?”“不是在这吗?”“喂!你手往哪放呢?”“这是你全身上下唯一软的地方了。”“你混蛋!”
  • 殊途茶社

    殊途茶社

    殊途茶社有个不成文的规定:茶奉生人,酒敬鬼神。凡有求于茶社老板者,须用一物来换!
  • 怒王朝

    怒王朝

    自北魏夺权之后,数个朝代更迭,百姓们的生活苦不堪言,千里江山,俱是狼虎盘踞,鹰鹫饲旋,到处都是死于非命的厉鬼无处喊冤!乱世中,少年仗剑负刀千万里,怒血同行千万人,从江南至岭东,他们斩狼屠虎,灭鹰杀鹫,誓与少年一起,灭了这腐朽不堪的王朝!刀在手,剑封喉,怒酒共饮,翻涌王朝杀春秋!
  • 再来一遍,仍不后悔爱上你

    再来一遍,仍不后悔爱上你

    因为任务,颜夏做了安旭沐的女朋友,就在短短的几天,颜夏爱上了他。可是他却是杀害颜夏母亲的凶手的儿子,就在他们都想要放弃的时候,意外发生了,而他们的结局也跟着改变。
  • 天行

    天行

    号称“北辰骑神”的天才玩家以自创的“牧马冲锋流”战术击败了国服第一弓手北冥雪,被誉为天纵战榜第一骑士的他,却受到小人排挤,最终离开了效力已久的银狐俱乐部。是沉沦,还是再次崛起?恰逢其时,月恒集团第四款游戏“天行”正式上线,虚拟世界再起风云!
  • 全能大佬回家种田

    全能大佬回家种田

    苏岚,大家都知道这是一个出国十余年,找寻父母未果的小丫头。现在再次回乡村种田,却发现家产被亲戚霸占,只能屈居破旧老宅,这使得不少人因为同情她遭遇,都决定对她百般照顾。村长大伯殷勤帮忙,儿时玩伴儿亲切带着直播吸粉,表妹为了留在苏岚身边,愤而和家里断绝关系...直到有一天,众人才发现自己好像自作多情...美洲华尔街最强的财团老总,来到凉乡村,哭着求苏岚:“女皇老大,您快回去打理打理公司吧。”米其林三星大厨,直接下跪喊:“师傅,求求你教我做饭吧。”全世界黑客圈最强的黑客组织魅狐,也在网上哭诉道:“MMP,就想着进攻个小破乡村的网络,谁想到被打的鼻青脸肿,那到底是哪位黑客神仙在凉乡村守着呢啊?”.......而在魔都呼风唤雨的荣少看着自己预定好的媳妇儿,掉落的一个又一个马甲,有点风中凌乱。
  • 封魔龙歌

    封魔龙歌

    封宇天地浑,魔魇掩星辰。龙啸九万里,歌载英雄魂。一位从天而降的神秘少年,一段关系大陆存亡的英雄故事。亲情、友情、爱情,纵横交织,演绎一段旷世传奇!
  • 狐仙断案

    狐仙断案

    一梦重生,领着一名美男和一群小孩优哉游哉的过。只是好景不长,她霸占了狐仙的身躯,就要还她的债。舍弃美丽的衣裙,掩住绝世的容颜,穿上官袍,做个堂堂皇皇的县官,断个明明白白的小案。没事寻把宝剑,无聊跟踪美男。且看狐仙,日间周旋,夜间修炼······
  • 斗神传说之王者征途

    斗神传说之王者征途

    与海贼王相同,同时也是为了童年的赛罗奥特曼为原型这个世界上的少数人天生就是能力者,拥有着自己独一无二的能力,而有一个家族是天生的王者,而他们家族的名字就叫斗神!身为斗神中最小的弟弟一代王者的他将踏上自己的王者征途!
  • 伪宋

    伪宋

    背运的数学专家意外穿越时空,别人穿的都是开元康乾,他却好死不死落在宋末的女真窝里。别人回去驱除胡虏反金复宋,他却莫名其妙变成渤海人给大金当起雇佣兵。别人为功名利禄不惜负却天下人,他却站在家国民族的十字路口迷惘徘徊。他重情,却得不到情;他重义,却被人指为不义。倒霉的主角偏偏好运连连,灭大辽,擒天祚,攻北宋,俘太子,一步步登上权力顶峰。在力与欲之间他会不会迷失自我?是甘为异姓马前卒,还是慷慨弹剑许家国?命运把他抛到历史的风口浪尖,他又如何对待命运?