LUCKY IN CYPRUS: The Cry For 'Enosis"

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'Enosis' Shouted From A Mountaintop

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Andreas' favorite “thinking place,” as he called it, was in the shadow of the huge boulder that overlooked the village. Beneath the boulder was a cave with strange markings on the walls. The hill the boulder was perched upon was covered with grass, already turning green from recent rains. Flowers of every color and variety were sprouting through the greenery to the delight of the animals who grazed there.

The field stretching out behind the boulder was a dangerous place for the unwary - it was pock-marked with large rectangular pits. All of them were uniformly the same: about seven feet long, four feet wide and six feet deep – like slightly oversize graves. When the grass grew tall the pits were nearly invisible, so you had to watch where you put your feet when strolling through the spring-fed meadow.

The Cypriot teenager said the pits were the remains of an ancient fortress that had once guarded this hilltop. He said Richard the Third had made the fortress one of his many redoubts when he made Cyprus his base during the Crusades. The spring that fed the meadow had nourished his army while they nursed wounds and gathered strength for a new assault on their Moslem enemies. Pallouriotissa had been a rich village during that time, Andreas told Lucky, from hosting King Richard and his soldiers.

Lucky found Andreas sprawled at the entrance of the cave, dreamily examining a book Lucky had loaned him. It was an illustrated copy of “Betty Zane,” written by Zane Grey, a distant relation on his father’s side of the family. The book was a fictional account of the true adventures of the author’s ancestor, Elizabeth Grey - a heroine of one of the last battles of the American Revolution. A girl who had “run for the (gun) powder,” to save the day.

When Andreas saw Lucky, he sighed and closed the book reverently. “What a story,” he said. Lucky had learned that Andreas was a victim of hemophilia – a disease that could result in uncontrollable bleeding, and so Andreas had to be extra careful not to hurt himself. Books were outlet for all the physical frustration he felt. And books were something Lucky had a ready supply of, being an ardent reader himself.

Suddenly Andreas bolted upright. “Do you think,” he said quite passionately, “if Cyprus had a revolution that the Americans might help us against the damned English?”

At the moment, Lucky had no patience for that kind of talk. He waved the question away and sat next to Andreas. From Lucky’s manner Andreas could see that he was troubled. He listened closely to Lucky’s account of his conversation with Derek and of Lucky’s previous problems at the school.

When the American was done, Andreas leaned back against the boulder, deep in thought. Lucky became impatient.

“What should I do?” He has absolute trust in Andreas. The boy was three years his senior and so it was only logical that he possessed superior knowledge about such matters. “I can’t worry about Derek,” Lucky went on. “He’s leaving the school. But what about me? How do I keep them from ganging up on me?”

To Lucky’s great relief, Andreas grinned and made a motion of dismissal. “Do not concern yourself, Lucky,” he said. “The prohvleema will be solved by my good friend, Sandros.”

Lucky hope’s rose. Sandros was the village thug. Although he was small and only sixteen, he was so fierce, so unforgiving, that even grown men did not cross him. When he was with a group of boys he regaled them with marvelously violent scenarios. One of which involved the destruction of the local police station.

Like most police stations in Cyprus, the British had staffed the one in Pallouriotissa with Turkish Cypriots. Apparently it was the colonial policy of the British to make policemen of the people the locals feared worst. In Cyprus, it was the Turks – who had ruled the island brutally for several hundred years during the days of the Ottoman Empire.

So when Sandros predicted that “come the revolution” - he and his comrades would attack the police outpost with Molotov cocktails all the village boys cheered. And they applauded loudly when he described in detail how frightened the policemen would be. How he and the other revolutionaries would make the cops shriek like women and make their underwear brown with skada.

The cause was Enosis. And each day Lucky spent on the island the cry of “Enosis” grew louder and more desperate. Enosis meant freedom for Cyprus. Some versions of Enosis envisioned rejoining the island nation with its ancestral parent – Greece. Others involved various forms of independence and alliances too numerous for Lucky to consider.

Mainly, it was the idea of independence that caught his young imagination - however it might be accomplished. Fire bombs seemed rather extreme, but when the Russians and the Americans were waving around bombs which could blow up whole cities, what was a little adobe police station? He didn’t think about the people inside. What a strange old world this was turning out to be.

It became just a little less strange when Sandros heard of Lucky’s problems with the British boys’ school and proposed an immediate solution. He said what Lucky needed was an edge over his enemies – a device he called a “comrade’s best friend.” Well, he said it in Greek, but that was his meaning.

Thinking at first that he meant firebombing the Thomas Arnold Academy For Boys, Lucky got a little concerned. “I don’t want to go too far,” he said. “I don’t want to burn the place down. I just want them to leave me alone.”

“Of course, Lucky,” Andreas said with a reassuring grin. “Sandros knows just what you require in your war against the English. Not to worry, my friend. Not to worry.”

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NEXT: LUCKY IN LOVE

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NEW STEN SHORT STORY!!!!
STEN AND THE STAR WANDERERS

BASED ON THE CLASSIC STEN SERIES by Allan Cole & Chris Bunch: Fresh from their mission to pacify the Wolf Worlds, Sten and his Mantis Team encounter a mysterious ship that has been lost among the stars for thousands of years. At first, everyone aboard appears to be long dead. Then a strange Being beckons, pleading for help. More disturbing: the presence of AM2, a strategically vital fuel tightly controlled by their boss - The Eternal Emperor. They are ordered to retrieve the remaining AM2 "at all costs." But once Sten and his heavy worlder sidekick, Alex Kilgour, board the ship they must dare an out of control defense system that attacks without warning as they move through dark warrens filled with unimaginable horrors. When they reach their goal they find that in the midst of all that death are the "seeds" of a lost civilization.

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MY HOLLYWOOD MISADVENTURES

Audiobook coming soon!

Here's where you can buy it worldwide in both paperback and Kindle editions:

U.S. .............................................France

United Kingdom ...........................Spain

Canada ........................................ Italy

Germany ..................................... Japan

Brazil .......................................... India

China

Also: NOOK BOOK. Plus ALL E-BOOK FLAVORS.

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LUCKY IN CYPRUS: IT'S A BOOK!

Here's where to get the paperback & Kindle editions worldwide:

Here's the U.S. Kindle edition

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Here's what readers say about Lucky In Cyprus:

"Bravo, Allan! When I finished Lucky In Cyprus I wept." - Julie Mitchell, Hot Springs, Texas
"Lucky In Cyprus brought back many memories... A wonderful book. So many shadows blown away!" - Freddy & Maureen Smart, Episkopi,Cyprus.
"... (Reading) Lucky In Cyprus has been a humbling, haunting, sobering and enlightening experience..." - J.A. Locke, Bookloons.com

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Audiobook Version Coming Soon!

Venice Boardwalk Circa 1969

In the depths of the Sixties and The Days Of Rage, a young newsman, accompanied by his pregnant wife and orphaned teenage brother, creates a Paradise of sorts in a sprawling Venice Beach community of apartments, populated by students, artists, budding scientists and engineers lifeguards, poets, bikers with a few junkies thrown in for good measure. The inhabitants come to call the place “Pepperland,” after the Beatles movie, “Yellow Submarine.” Threatening this paradise is "The Blue Meanie," a crazy giant of a man so frightening that he eventually even scares himself. Here's where to buy the book.

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All eight U.S. editions, both in paperback and Kindle... The three massive U.K. omnibus editions, including Kindle... The Audiobooks ... Alex Kilgour's Jokebook, The Sten Cookbook, Empire Day 2013... And much, much more.

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STEN #1: NOW IN SPANISH!