THE CAPITAIN

By Stratis Myrivilis (1939)

The Capitain was brought home after our fishing boat
Vaggelistra sunk in middle of the Aegean. It was on a dark
night on Christmas Eve, when it went down between Molyvos
and Baba cove. Both fathers men went missing never to be
found. If he is alive, he owes it to our ship-dog, The Capitain.
When his hands and feet went numb and he could no longer
swim, the Capitain grabbed him from the collar and dragged
him along. He held his head above the waves until they reached
the Anatolia shore. From the day they returned barely alive, on
a boat that was not our own, father never set foot on a ship again, and the Capitain also became a
creature of the land.
He was a big yellow dog, a strong dog, with a white patch on his back as big as a maple leaf. Everybody
loved him, because he was a good dog, and we, kids, tortured him all the time in our games. There were
four of us, all boys, and only I, the eldest, was able to see what he was going through. He bore it all with
endless kindness.
He loved kids; he played with them and protected them with selfless patience, without ever losing his
temper or holding a grudge. So they went horseback riding on him or tied him to Petris bicycle to have
roman chariot races around the yard. When they hurt him, the Capitain half-shut his eyes, wailed a little
and licked the hand that overdid it. I strove to protect him for his young torturers knowing, like mother,
what we owed this dog on that night of doom.
I often wondered why the Capitain never put on airs for having saved father. Whenever I saw my pa
standing tall, his feet wide open, his sailors cap worn backwards, gazing at the sea from the village
harbor, hands in pockets, just looking silently yonder at Baba cove, I felt a lump in my throat. I would
then throw my arms round the Capitain and bury my head under his great big head. And he would lick
me behind my ear and snort in my hair. I knew that without him we would be fatherless, destitute
orphans, and I wanted him to know it.
When we went to school along with Antonis, my second brother, he would accompany us all the way to
the iron gate, but would never enter the schoolyard. He would watch us enter with those big brown
eyes of his, sitting on his back legs behind the stone threshold, his bushy tail sweeping the ground. He
would toss his head on one side in a motherly manner. And when we were out of sight, we would hurry
back home, waiting for the janitors bell to ring. On hearing that bell we could hear it all the way back
to our house- he would quit his games or the bones he was scrunching, rush to meet us at school and
safely escort us back.
Everyone loved the Capitain, because he was a good dog. Only a butcher whose shop was at the corner
of the street didnt take to him. He had a butcher dog called Mahmut. A nasty fat dog with a cunning
character. On his fits of meanness he would stalk the passengers and suddenly attack their legs or tear
their pants.
The butcher used to spoil him with bits of meat and leftovers that he tossed to the doghouse nearby. As
soon as the Capitain smelt as much, he would gallop to the doghouse, growl his threats and gobble up
the goodies while Mahmut watched terrified at a distance. Pa laughed and offered to compensate the
butcher. But he, he bore our Captitain an ill will.
One day he caught the Captain red handed eating Mahmuts treats, he got furious and threw the big
butcher knife at the dog. The knife swung sharply from his front right foot and hurt him, though not
badly. Our dog raised his foot and licked it plaintively. Pa had only just seen the scene on his way home.
In an instant he had caught the knife, grabbed the butcher and started hitting him with the reverse of
the knife until he turned black and blue. I had never seen my father so angry before.
One summer afternoon around the end of school vacations, my mother was preparing my suitcase so I
should leave for the city high school. Suddenly there was a big commotion in the neighborhood.
Something was terribly wrong A mad dog had bitten some sheep beyond the fence. The shepherds had
chased it with sticks and stones and it ran towards the village houses. It was a red dog, very fierce, with
his hair raised on his back, like a wolf. He was running with his head down low, glancing sideways, his
mouth open and his tongue was hanging out, dripping saliva. People yelled and shooed him tossing
scrap and bricks, women picked their kids from the street and hurried to shut the doors behind them.
The dog passed in front of our house, where my two younger brothers were playing with the Capitain.
They had put a bonnet on his head, tied its laces on his collar, and roared with laughter as he posed. On
hearing the commotion, he stood up, barked protectively and stood in front of the children to defend
them. The shepherd dog charged at him, mad with terror and sick with rabies. No sooner than he
entered the Capitains domain, our dog had leaped upon him and started biting. They rolled in a bloody
bundle, while my brothers ran to the house crying.
The mad dog eventually retreated in a miserable state, his ears badly bitten off and his muzzle covered
in blood. But the Capitain also had two small bites on his feet and a scratch on his breast. My father
came hasty and frightened. He had been summoned. When the dog saw him he stopped nursing his
wounds and greeted him happily. He stood on his rear legs and rested his front feet on my fathers
shoulders. It was a caress only pa could stand. The dog was nearly as tall as he was. The Capitain wagged
his tail victoriously; he sneezed and rubbed his head on pas chest.
Pa was as pale as a dead man; his eyebrows had lowered over his eyes. He unclenched the dog and told
me to bring the chain. Then, he tied him at the door. On his way in, he saw the bonnet lying all blood
and spit on the ground. He lit a match and burnt it to ashes. Then he went to the bedroom, opened the
trunk and took something with him. I saw mother struggling to stop him. No, you wont! No, you
wont! she kept saying in tears. My younger brothers started crying in empathy. Without answering
her, my father gave me a serious look. He weighed me from head to toe and said nodded: Come with
me.
He unfastened the chain and took the Capitain with him. I followed his footsteps. Neither of us said
anything. Only the dog was playful with pa and me, but got no reaction. We walked past the last houses,
towards the little harbor with the boats floating heavy with seashells. The air smelt of clams and laurel
leaves, which fishermen tucked among the shells. The boats at the dock danced upwards and
downwards from their ropes. The silence was becoming too heavy to bear. Pa leaded the way silent and
stooping, the Capitain was in the middle, and I followed. We were on the path to Dafnusa, our olive farm
on top of the hill. Underneath was a cliff about sixty feet deep and the sea, blue and emerald green,
always in motion splashing in and out of a sea cave. Its murmur was heard from afar, like an endless
lullaby, day in day out, rain or shine.
Thats where my father stopped. At the edge of the cliff. And with him the Capitain paused ever-playful
and happy. At times, he would huff uphill with his wavy tongue hanging out. He pulled on his chain
eagerly, he drew his ears back, his attention was caught by a cricket on a tree and he was heading there
to play with it.
Pa tied the rope to a bush and sat on an ancient rock underneath the great olive tree. I sat nearby out of
breath, with my heart tied in a knot.
The Capitain looked at my father and back to me. He looked at us with his brown eyes, so expressive, so
human, those eyes I knew only too well. He eyed us impatiently, he pretended to cry to get us to
unleash him, and he tried to bite his chain to show us he wanted to be freed. Neither of us reacted. So
he got on his two back feet and tried to do it himself pleading and scolding us with his barking.
Oh, come on, then he seemed to say. How long is this joke going to last?
I understood him. So did pa. He got up with a deep sigh and said.
Go over there and wait with your back turned. Wait until I call you.
My heart was pounding hard. I wanted to plead with my father, to say something but I didnt find the
courage. I knew my father. He always did the right thing. For all of us. He never changed his mind. I took
a few steps and leaned against a fig tree without daring to look at them. My father got the gun out of his
pocket. I knew that gun. It was a large Browning. I could hear the dry sound as he pulled the safety to
cock it. Then he approached the dog that leaped upon him. Pa back stepped and left the gun on the
rock. He then shortened the dogs chain, so that he couldnt move as freely. The Capitain complained
about this new game, but he succumbed with his head on the ground, waiting. Pa went and got the gun.
He placed it in the dogs ear. With a sudden turn the dog faces pa. He sees the gun and turns his head to
bite it playfully. The metal feels cold. He looks at my father lovingly with his big brown eyes. He is trying
to understand. All of a sudden it all makes sense. He wags his tail. This is surely something pa will toss
away towards the sea or the grass to that he would fetch it. Aa-pporte! His eyes mirror the new task
with anticipation. They want him to figure out how to fetch while he is tied up. Thats it! I can see pa
cannot pull the trigger as long as those eyes, so humanlike, are looking straight into his eyes. A small ray
of hope momentarily tingles my heart.
In a flash pa gets a hold of the dogs head, turns it to face the sea and shoots inside his ear. It all
happened very fast. The Capitain collapsed without a sound. All he did was toss his head a couple of
times as if he wanted to yawn, kick is feet and die clueless.
Pa secured the gun and put it in his pocket. Then he unfastened the chain from the shrub and tied it
around a large marble stone. Then, without looking at me he uttered: Come.
He held the dogs front feet and the stone, while I held the rear feet. I did my best to be a man, in heart
and soul, and although being quite strong for my age, it wasnt an easy task. We planted our feet on the
ground, knees bent, and swung the corpse once, twice The third time pa cried Hey! as if we were still
commanding on his ship. We let go and heard the splash below, then, as if that sound was the sign we
were waiting for, we looked at each other and moved quickly away.
Pa made the sign of the cross and sat on the ancient rock. He sighed Och!as if all of a sudden he was
old and tired. Feeling my inquiring eyes on him, he pushed his cap back and got the tobacco box out of
his pocket. Then he saw me and made a gesture sending me away. Go home. Ill come later.
I could barely hear his voice. He wanted to be alone.
I returned home bitter and unable to speak. My mother was sitting on the small sofa and started crying
when she saw me. Then I too broke down and so did my second brother.
My other two brothers were too young to understand the loss that had suddenly befallen us. They were
outside in the yard filling the plate up with fresh water with a toy watering can. So that when our
Capitain came, he wouldnt be thirsty.