THE MIRACLE A True Story    "As you say, sir!" barked the soldier, clicking his heels loudly.    The two officials left to find the manager, still arguing at the tops of their voices.    I glanced at my mother, who was on the verge of collapse. Then I looked at my sister; there seemed to be a strange gleam in her eye. I turned to look at the soldier, who was standing as rigid as a statue and watching us with a blank expression.    Suddenly my sister began to walk towards the end of the bench. My heart gave a great leap. When she reached the place where the customs official had piled up the things we were not allowed to take with us, she picked up the cloth with the four icons and carrying it reverently to the trunk, put the bundle inside and covered it with some clothes. Then she came back and stood beside us. The soldier's gaze followed her every step of the way. Then he resumed his previous blank expression. He showed no reaction whatsoever; he had seen what happened, but it was as if he had seen nothing.    We stood there in silence, not moving, and waited anxiously for the official to come back.    After about a quarter of an hour we saw him approaching. As soon as I saw the expression on his face, I froze. He had obviously lost the case against his colleague and looked as if he was quite capable of killing someone.    He returned to his position and asked the soldier: "Did they touch anything while I was away?"    For a few seconds there was silence. To us, it was as if time stood still; our blood ran cold. The soldier blinked nervously for a moment, trying to make up his mind what to reply. Then he said clearly and firmly: "No, sir! They didn't touch anything!"    The customs officer was in a terrible rage, which increased his rancour and gave the impression that he was looking desperately for someone on whom to vent his wrath. I prayed that we would not be the recipients of this anger. The instinct for self-preservation had turned us into silent, motionless statues. The pile of things on the bench which we were not permitted to take with us now resembled a small mountain. There were feathers everywhere from the pillows that had been ripped open. Some of them were floating in the air and bothered him. He made several irritated gestures to brush them away from his nose and face.    When the customs check was finally over, the trunk was now only half full. Its contents represented the things we were allowed to take with us. Including, of course, the icons.    The trunk was sealed, after which there were a number of formalities to be carried out. When it was all over, we walked out of the customs building, holding on tightly to our mother. Once we were outside, she could control herself no longer and burst into tears.    "It's a miracle, my children! Today a miracle happened!" she kept repeating between her sobs. 97 and 98 Leonidas Koumakis THE MIRACLE A True Story If you prefer a hard copy of the book, please send an email to HEC-Books@hec.greece.org Previous Page | Initial Page | Site Map | Next Page (99th of 204) © For Internet 2001 HEC and Leonidas Koumakis. Updated on 19 June 2001.