Taboo

Keywords: The, Bystander, Ch., 13, Blameless,

Handing me back the remains they next proceeded to tear the sleeves into pieces.

"Who want's to go first?" Jenny asked running her fingertips over the scares on my left shoulder made by the shotgun pellets. She kissed my cheek. I felt really guilty.

"Me please." Sharon chirped from the boxes.

I gave her a piggyback to the toilet area and was banished whilst Jenny and Linda supported her whilst she did her stuff. I could hear the rasp of a fart then the hissing of her pissing from where I stood. I was called to carry her back to the crates. The smell of shit hung in the air. I had climbed the rock fall, scattering debris in all directions, by the time the other two had finished.

Dust fell from the ceiling. I could understand why Hans had said it was dangerous. I didn't see how we could drag Sharon up here without starting another fall.

I looked out of the hole. The whole side of the hill had dropped giving a forty to fifty feet climb down to the base of the terraces. I could see a man guarding his goats in the distance and called out to him. He must have been to far away to hear for he ignored me. He wandered further away, the goats following him. He disappeared from sight behind some shrub.

I looked behind me.

"Should I go for help?" I asked, looking at Jenny. "Or stay."

"Go. We'll be all right here. They'll have long gone by now." I climb through the hole and started down the outside of the rockslide, starting a small avalanche by the time I reached the bottom. I looked around for the shepherd. He was nowhere to be seen.


The nearest road of any kind that led anywhere I knew of was the one leading up into the village from the site. I looked at the terraces. I could climb them. A well-worn path for animals led upwards so I took it as being easier than straight up. On the next terrace a set of wide, broad steps had been partly excavated so I took these. Finally a smaller set of steps, worn hollow in places, led me to our site.

I stopped, crouched and listened. Nothing stirred so I picked my way through the site to the road to the village. Somebody had pinned a note to the gateway to the site. 'Site closed today' it read in English and I imagined in Greek below it. Our two female labourers were still there, waiting patiently, nevertheless. I didn't suppose they could read either language.

I went up to them and mimed using a telephone.

One cackled and took me by the arm leading me towards the village.

At the bar she knocked on the door. Michael opened it and invited me in.

"I need to use your phone." I said.

"I do not have a phone but my friends have a car. Follow me." I did as I was told and followed him through the bar and into a kitchen at the back. Sitting on chairs at the large oblong table were Hans, Rose, Bill and Stavros. All of them had their hands tied behind their backs. Rose's necklace lay on the table in front of them.

"Come in and sit down Paul." Herr Kesler stood by my side pointing a snub nosed revolver at my head.

I sat down.

*Chapter 13 (Jenny) *

I heard Paul calling to somebody then watched as he disappeared through the hole. I hoped he'd be careful. I heard him scrambling down the far side of the slide for a few moments, then silence.

Sharon was over the initial shock of damaging her ankle, I didn't think it was broken, just badly sprained.

Linda was removing the tops from some of the boxes and was handing items to Sharon to comment on. She would give a date and Linda would say yes or no. I don't know who was right but it kept their minds off things. I, for one, was certainly feeling thirsty.

"Come here, Jenny." Linda called me too her. Do you think this will suit you?

She held out a pile of yellow metal.

It was a chain necklace similar, if not the pair to the one Rose had.

"Try it on." She urged.

I did.

"Where did you find it?" I asked.

"There is a box here that's different from the rest."

She showed me a casket of black, dusty wood. Inside there were what looked like pearls, some strung, some loose. Rings. A sort of tiara in silver, studded with coloured jewels. Other chain necklaces like the one I was wearing. We counted them. The one Rose had would make nine. Linda and Sharon both put one on. I must admit they did look nice. There was no sign of deterioration on them. Must have been because they were stored in a dry place. I could hear somebody scrambling up the outside of the rock fall. Linda and I quickly helped Sharon to hop to the tunnel leading to the other way in. Linda and I crouched at the entrance.

A figure appeared at the opening, blocking out the light. I couldn't make out who or what he was.

"Hallo?" The voice was English and sounded cultivated. "Is they're anybody there?"

"Who are you?"

"Lieutenant James, Royal Engineers, with the British Garrison here in Cyprus."

I let out a huge sigh of relief.

"Yes we need help."

"Right. One moment and I'll come in."

"Be careful. It's dangerous."

"I'll be careful."

He pulled back from the hole for a few seconds and I could hear him talking to others.

"Right. Here I come."

He slithered through the hole headfirst and climbed slowly down. Linda and I helped Sharon back to her seat whilst he did so. He was only a short man. Five feet seven or eight. I'd always thought of Army Officers as being tall, I don't know why.

He was well tanned with thick forearms.

His teeth seemed very white.

"What's happened here then?" He asked, standing at the foot of the slope brushing the dust off his clothing.

He looked down at Sharon's foot.

"You didn't come down that slope, did you?"

"No." Linda said. "There is another way in."

"That means there is another way out."

"Excuse me." Sharon spoke for the first time. "Do you have anything to drink. We're very thirsty."

He took the water bottle from his belt and handed it to Sharon. She undid the top and drank. Deeply. Wiping her lips on the back of her hand

she passed the water bottle to Linda, who drank from it and passed it to me. It wasn't cold but it was nice.

It was nearly empty when I passed it back to him.

He screwed on the stopper and put it back in its holder.

"Plenty more outside." He said. He looked at me.

"Will you show me the other entrance?"

I led him to the other way in.

"We'll strap up her ankle and get her out this way." He said, looking at the entrance above our heads. "I must get my men around here."

"Help me up and I will go and get them." I said.

With his shoulder first under my ass then his hands under my feet he pushed me up and out of the cave.

I returned in ten minutes with his men and thirty five minutes later, after a short period of work on the entrance with picks and shovels to enlarge it, we were all in the back of a large, open topped, lorry heading across the plains to the base in Episkopi.

Once there I immediately agitated to be allowed to go back to the site and look for Paul. First I was taken before a Major Roberts, Lieutenant James's Commanding Officer, and explained most that had happened. He ordered Lieutenant James, or Andy, as he called him, to take six men and go with me to the site. We were to keep in radio contact with him and he would contact the police should it be necessary.

I met Linda outside. She had been given a green shirt and trousers to wear and she was carrying her night clothes.

"They've taken Sharon to the military hospital for an x-ray, just to be certain she hasn't broken anything. What's happening."

"We're going back to the site with some men and a radio."

Andy was standing at the tailgate of his lorry.

"Come on, ladies." He offered his hand to us.

"I'm a lady now." Linda said under her breath as we walked towards him.

"You don't have any weapons." I observed as he helped me up into the back of the lorry.

"Not allowed to use weapons I'm afraid. Well, not on civilians." He answered his hands under Linda's bum as he pushed her up. Linda smiled.

Andy sat down next to Linda on the wooden bench along the inside of the lorry. I sat opposite next to a corporal named Colin.

Andy called to his Sergeant in the front of the vehicle and we were off. I noticed he was moving closer and closer to Linda and she wasn't moving away. Len was due out in less than a week and here she was making up to another man. I'd have to keep an eye on her. At least Paul had got her out of his system I was glad to say.

I hoped nothing had happened to him.

*Chapter 14*

I sat down at the table keeping my hands in full view.

"Now Hans." Her Kesler stood behind Rose. "Where are the rest of your Father's boxes."

"No." Hans made as if to rise but his hands were tied to the chair behind his back.

"Call Uwe and Franz in Helga."

Helga opened the door and called.

The two large Germans I'd seen earlier entered the room.

"Perhaps they would like to enjoy your friend for a while?"

"What do you mean?" Hans looked around him, I could see he was confused.

"Show him." Herr Kesler nodded at Rose. "She's yours."

"I'm bloody not." Rose said struggling to rise but she was helpless in their hands.

At the far end of the table she was stripped, her breasts fondled and a finger pushed up her fanny.

Keywords: The, Bystander, Ch., 13, Blameless,