16The first time Maria Christina saw the Italian soldier, she had just returned from Koutsoufliani with two large sacks on her back and was distributing the grains to those whose goods she had traded. The soldier was a mid-sized, swarthy looking, ruggedly handsome man leaning against the wall outside the telegraph office. He was smoking when he saw Maria Christina. Looking her up and down, he flicked his cigarette and stepped in front of her.
“Want to f**k-f**k?” he tried in Greek as he smiled and rubbed his crotch.
Maria Christina looked at him with narrowed eyes and a curled lip and pushed her way past him. The soldier laughed and watched her continue at a hurried pace until she disappeared, then went back inside.
Later that week, as she approached the telegraph office on her way to t
