Αμάρο Μπάρο Γκιβέ

Αμάρο Μπάρο Γκιβέ is the second, independent of Eli tales and The Vuori Chronicles mountain story, written by vuorior James Kingston in Spring 2020 and completed April 7 of the same year. It was written in Modern Polytonic Greek and shifted the animal POVs to those of a family of gypsies that lived in the lower tops of the Poikilo Oros.

*Word Count*:14,035

## Release

The story was in the works since the completion of the Katharevousa story The Night at the Shrine, in November 2019. The main themes were meant to revolve around a murder that would transpire at The Monastery, with combinations of a heavy religious element, allusions to the apocryphal tales excluded from the Bible, as well as magic chants and incantations pertaining to the Szgany and their tribes. By the time the story was started in Mid-March 2020, most of the above elements were dropped and the narrative became the tale of two gypsy siblings as they sought to uncover what was lurking in their woods at the Mountain, retaining, however, religious allusions and traditional Roma/ Gypsy folkloric hints.

The title of the story owes itself to an old Gypsy song sung during their Saint George's feast, Ederlezi, and means 'our big day' / 'η μεγαλη μας ημερα' *(Greek)*.

## Plot

Split into 6 chapters plus an epilogue, the story begins quite descriptively, with the account of gypsy protagonist Marco recounting his journeys through the Other Paths and the Skaramagas Groves on the Other Side. Marco explains how his people have been marginalized across the years due to their race and offers some details regarding the menial jobs he has had to follow through time because his family did not have the money to send him to sports clubs or other entertainment groups. At the end of his journey he has reached the Evening Paths, and is troubled by the sight of a fallen lark bird which has collapsed mysteriously above the woods of Ntamaria, leaving a bright blue light in the cypress trees where the fall took place. Remembering the word of his traditional gypsy mother Marlek, who once claimed that cyan lights in the woods at night betrayed the presence of roaming spirits of the dead, he decides to take his sister Laura and check out the place the very following day.

Later, Marco and Laura- who are speculated throughout the introductory chapters to be engaging in a romantic, incestuous relationship- join forces to investigate the crush of the lark near the marshy soils of the animal boneyard at Ntamaria. When they discover an array of cairns and dog tombstones the duo is freaked out, and Marco is haunted by visions of Aristeidis, his father who has been missing for 6 years due to an unexplained reason. The sight of a German Shepherd's skull consumed by worms will consequently haunt his dreams along with the image of his father who is begging to be released from the unknown place he is 'held in'. Marco and Laura return to the gypsy camp near Theatro Phoinika and their mother Marlek scolds them for disobeying her advice not to wander in the woods after nightfall. She performs all sorts of rituals against the greek *mati* ( the evil eye) to protect her children, who are also revealed to be sleeping together on the same mattress- something Marlek appears to be aware of, which however she does not dismiss.

As the story progresses Marco's feelings for Laura become explicitly projected and it is revealed that brother and sister are very much in love. In a flashback scene 6 years back in Chapter 3, Marco describes the night of his cousin Gounari's marriage to wife Mirella, the same night on which Aristeidis vanished. Laura and him had been kissing and engaging in sexual acts near the Craggy Road on the First Antenna hill and reminiscing over memories of visiting The Monastery with their *dalio* Marlek. Suddenly, the distant baying of hounds breaks off the romantic scene and the two are forced to investigate, after the rattling sounds of guns and shotguns. When they reach the Woods of Stavriana, the forest surrounding the First Antenna hill's lower heights, they witness a company of shadowy figures abduct a screaming Aristeides, vanishing altogether in the depths of the antenna and Pefkies. Marco collapses by an attack of strange visions and Laura takes him back to the camp. This is the last time they see their father.

Elsewhere, Chapter 4 deals with the strange adventure of the Radio Station guard at the infamous Second Antenna, Christophoros and his old dog companion, Vallantis. Christophoros is moping about the boring, secluded nature of his job and regrets his decision of choosing it, while Vallantis sleeps calmly by his side, as they both enjoy looking at the golden sunset saturating Athens near Evenfall. Suddenly, Vallantis' ears prick up and he gradually becomes distressed over an unknown cause, which evidently alarms Christophoros. The guard exits the radio panel room and ascends the ladder to the antenna's top where Vallantis is barking at, but realizes nothing is of concern up there. When he descends, he finds Vallantis scared out of his wits and takes him inside the station. He assumes his fear sparked up because of their proximity to The Entrancing Graveyard, the second known dog boneyard in the mountain, which, owing to the lurid stench and the remains of carrions probably has a spooky effect on the dog. Out of the blue, they both hear a very loud strike at the door of the radio panel, and Christophoros is shocked to find three shadowy figures with bright red eyes smashing and kicking the tin container, trying to enter. Vallantis is barking uncontrollably despite Christophoros' best efforts to calm him down. When the shadows burn the light of the antenna and come crashing through the roof inside the room, destroying the panel and the windows, the duo rushes out to the woods and by-passes the graveyard in the pitch black abyss of the night. Christophoros has managed to take a quick glance at one of the figures, which resembles a very old woman, mysteriously agile for her age. The shadowy figures also appear to be chanting various apocryphal psalms and tales from the Gospel of Judas related to strange entities not accepted by Christianity, like Yaldabaoth. Terrified, they reach the expanses of Ksefoto and trick the shadows into chasing them down at the Shooting Fields of the Army Field, while Christophoros and his dog half-heartedly jump into the crags and the spiky bushes of the Second Antenna hill with the aim of reaching the blue cross of The Monastery. Christophoros realizes the day is the Orthodox Greek Church's *Saturday of Souls*, a day in which the dead are commemorated, therefore it is likely he will find someone in the temple, even at such a late hour. Crushing through the old iron fence near the Guardpost with Vallantis, the two manage to reach the safety of the monastery, where they hear Byzantine psalms echoing from inside. When they are invited in by some old ladies, however, the moonlight reveals their skeletal forms, much resembling the ones of the shadowy figures chasing them earlier. Thus, Christophoros and Vallantis' ultimate fate remains unknown.

Back in the Marco's POV, we find the gypsy siblings troubled by nightmares and visions of the blue lights or Aristeides, especially in Marco's head, who wakes up in the middle of Soul Saturday night and observes the strange lights and similar shadowy figures near the monastery, right about the same time when Christophoros was being chased. He decides on taking his cousin Gounari's Chevrolet pick-up truck the following day, while the latter is out with his wife Mirella for dinner at The Tzante, a restaurant near Zofria and Menidi Attikis, where the rest of Marco's gypsy family used to reside before moving to Chrysoupoli and Peristeri at the feet of Vuori. Marlek yet again storms Marco with a plethora of crucifixes and charms to protect him, but Laura finds him right before departing and demands that she come with him, since she is troubled by the same lights and wants to find out their cause too. Marco reluctantly agrees while about to kiss and have sex with her, but Laura suggests they figure out the cause of their visions first and then make out in the truck. Marco agrees and the two take the truck to the nearby monastery, having lied to Gounari and Marlek that they would visit their cousins at Shisto and Korydallos, towards the woods of Ag Varvara.

At The Monastery, deadly silence spreads around the dark yard, and Marco follows Laura to the whittled steps inside the rocky hill which lead to the church's bell and the blue cross. They find an abandoned room with a bible, strange religious inscriptions and remnants of an old Christianity-themed newspaper. When they take a look at the nearby Guardpost above, they find the mangled carcass of Menios, the donkey that used to graze around the Narrow Road, near the opening of the fence where Christophoros and Vallanits narrowly escaped the shadows the previous night. Shocked from the gruesome sight, they hear people exiting the temple, and Marco attempts to lead Laura through a small dirt path known to him from his childhood years with Marlek at the monastery, but when they reach the truck they are confronted by the shadowy figures, who forcedly take them out and proceed to throwing them off the cliff leading to the Gorge, the old mine which separates Moni Panagias Foinikiotissas' hill with the Aqueduct hill and the First Antenna.

In a flashback half an hour earlier, Marlek is seen cooking back down at the Gypsy camp, and uncle Stathis, her brother, whose Chevrolet Marco borrowed, is fidgeting around worried, telling Marlek she shouldn't have let Laura go with him. He keeps insisting on the two siblings 'finding' something they shouldn't, but Marlek tells him to stop being worried and also that Laura left before she could stop her. When Gounari storms the place terrified and in visible shock, Marlek asks him what the matter is, and he explains he and Mirella never reached the Tzante, because she started acting very weird and stormed out of the car, screaming at him with a hoarse voice, before getting lost in the woods of the Theater towards Liopyri. Stathis tells Marlek he was 'right' and they abandon the spells Marlek had prepared to remove the evil eye from Marco and Laura, using strange oils dipped in aromatic marjoram buds. Marlek tells Stathis to get ready and the three take their flashlights and enter the Woods of Stavriana to reach The Monastery and find the two siblings.

Back in the current time, Marco wakes up dizzy to find Laura sleeping next to him with bruises from the fall, which probably landed them on the soft Gorgewood. They are held captives by the shadowy figures on the inside of the Gorge and the mine's old stables, and they realize the inside of the mountain is hollow at this place, with plenty of tunnels leading to uknown areas underground. They are surrounded by pictures of saints and small shrines underneath each one, where more marjoram buds are seen along with candles and spiritualistic paraphernalia. Next to Marco is Christophoros, held captive for one day already, who manages to secretly show Marco some words he has inscribed using pumice rock on the underground walls. Marco is reluctant to trust him at first, since he used to scold him and his company when they played soccer at the Petroupoli alleys in Apolikseis, but is forced to do so when he sees *Aristeides* amongst the words, along with *Body Thiefs*, *Spells* and many more disturbing ones. He is shocked to discover the shadowy figures are actually Beznik and Zidelo, his two childhood friends, led by none other than Georgi, Marco's own grandpa. Their voices however appear altered, and the youngsters speak with a way hoarser voice than usual. Amongst the horrifying company he finds Mirella too, Gounari's wife. Christophoros, exploiting a chance when the figures are convening in a corner of the secret hideout, tells Marco to spell out loud the psalm of banishing evil, hoping he will get which one he means. Marco barely remembers the one Marlek used to tell them when wanting to remove the evil-eye, and maddened by the harsh treatment of Laura by Mirella when she tried to speak, shouts the words of the psalm.

At this point, a loud bang is heard across the shrines of the saints, Marlek with Stathis and Gounari reach the area, while Christophoros finds the chance to seize a knife Marco had used earlier at the monastery to stab one of the shadows and releases himself, lost for a while amidst the mess. Meanwhile, a strange aura appears from the shrine of one of the saints which is revealed to be the roaming, locked spirit of Marco and Laura's father, Aristeides, who reveals he has been locked amidst worlds for years and tells uncle Stathis, who is already regretful of his actions to confess everything. Gounari remembers seeing part of Aristeides' old rosary both in the shrines at the hideout and underneath Marlek's sink, and pieces together that Marlek was the one to have killed the man, keeping his skull and rosary under the sink to be able to control his spirit via gypsy witchcraft.

Stathis reveals the entire operation had been a ploy of his sister Marlek and his, to avenge their family for an old vendetta between them and Aristeides' relatives. Years ago, a lifelong bloodshed vendetta between the two gypsy families ended with Aristeides' and his relatives killing Marlek's aunts and marrying Aristeides with her to re-conciliate the two families and avoid any further bloodletting. However, shortly after that, Aristeides was revealed to have had an affair with another gypsy woman, through whom he had a son, Marco, who turns out to be, therefore, Laura's step brother. Marlek never managed to forgive Aristeides for his infidelity, and had two cousins of hers murder him on the day of Gounari's marriage. She then kept his skull close to her in order to let his spirit roam the realm of undead spirits, until her step son Marco and his friends were old enough, so as to transfer the spirits of her dead relatives in their bodies. Her ultimate goal was to infuse Aristeides' spirit into Marco, so her undead relatives could get the chance at killing him too, thus eliminating both father and hated son. Marlek was the one to send nightmares and visions to Marco to prepare his mind to accept Aristeides, and she did the same with Christophoros, whose body she wanted to use in order to partake in the killings in case something went wrong and she died before reaching the fruition of her evil plans. The blue lights around animal cemeteries were revealed to be the by-products of the communication with the dead, which became stronger when using the lands filled with dead animal plant and bones, re-inforcing the signal of the communication ( pertaining to an old Anatolian, mystical lore which claimed animal bones can be used to track the souls of the dead). Finally, Stathis regrets everything they did and is quickly executed by one of the three figures with a crowbar, under Marlek's orders, who remains coldly silent and disregards Marco's accusations. She simply tells him the spell will go on, despite not having wanted Laura to see it. She uses the other three body thiefs to keep Laura and Gounari at their place under the threat of the gun, and prepares the ritual by sprinkling an aromatic oil on Marco's forehead. As she spells out the ritual, Aristeide's spirit, who had been previously protecting Marco with his aura, shrinks more and more, preparing to enter his son's body.

However, at the last minute, another loud bang follows a bright flash, and suddenly everyone witnesses tons and tons of white hedge-nettle, a herb Marlek always used to say can be used to treat stomach bug but also curse one's enemies, burning lightly around the hideout. The herb has an adverse effect on Marlek's spells and manages to incapacitate her. Vallantis, Christophoros' dog, breaks out of his confinement at one of the alcoves of the underground tunnels and attacks Beznik and Zidelo, tearing off their flesh and releasing Marco and Laura. Finally, Christophoros appears out of nowhere and screams the remaining part of the psalm Marco had chanted earlier, which freezes Marlek at her place. Using Marco's knife, Christophoros stabs the old witch at the heart, reducing her to ashes.

Having effectively put an end to Marlek's plans, Marco rushes to hug and kiss Laura, and the Sun rises outside the Gorge. Everyone is now safe, however the body thiefs along with Mirella and Christophoros faint mysteriously for the next few moments.

Days later, in the Epilogue, Marco is seen playing soccer back at the Petroupoli alleys with his friends Zidelo, Beznik and the rest of his gypsy team, against the team of Peristeri, led by Christophoros, who is now a friend of the Roma people and who has now confessed Aristeides had temporarily entered his body to kill Marlek before being finally released. Laura is seen cheering next to the alleys, while petting and feeding Vallantis. Marco uses the half-time break to come kiss her and Christophoros makes friendly talk with them, explaining that if it weren't for Vallantis and his super sensitive ears, he would never have escaped the night at the antenna. They all laugh and share happy moments, and Christophoros gets back in the game.

Before returning too, Marco asks Laura why she was able to see the blue lights in the woods, since Marlek wasn't planning to kill her too, seeing as she was her own daughter. Laura laughs and romantically calls Marco an idiot, explaining that she never saw any lights, but didn't need to see any in order to follow him anywhere he goes. Marco smiles warmly, and returns to the game.

## Style

The story belongs to the personal narrative type, and is filled with dreamy descriptions of the mountain. There is an emphasis on the plethora of floral elements, echoing the traditional chronicles of the Mountain, along with plenty of descriptions of Sunset and Sunrise, two elements writer James Kingston frequently explores in his stories.

The choice of the polytonic reveals remnants of the 'charming' effect James Kingston has explained the Katharevousa dialect and Alexandros Papadiamantis' writing style has had on him, and was said to have been a 'crucial prerequisite' for the story to be written.

## Tackling the Roma issue

This story has come as a surprise to quite many of the fans of the chronicles, and it is not explained why writer James Kingston chose to give the POV of his story to gypsy protagonists, whose reputation is overall controversial amidst Greek population. While retaining a certain folkloric element of witchcraft and sorcery, Kingston used the characters to make quite a few hints across the story on issues of marginalization and racism against the Roma people, as told from the viewpoint of Marco and Laura who realized they were 'outcasts' wherever they went.

It is not sure how the reader is expected to understand these hints, however the general conclusion remains that the story serves as a satisfactory combination of Vuori stories' trademark descriptions of natural wonders and beauties, folkloric elements of the Roma tribe, and an overall image of the poverty and seclusion this race faces across the ranks of the Greek society. Whether the allusions to sorcery and the cheap means that get these families through ( stolen pick-up trucks, sleeping in containers, etc. ) serve to illustrate the sad image of their ways of living or another purpose, is ultimately uknown.