The Greek Issue by Kostas Charitos (Greece)
“Fuck the Soviet Union. It suits them well, the bloody commies.” As soon as he passed eighty, Grandpa got into a series of weird habits, three of which are way too annoying: the tele which is always switched on, the endless cursing and his cheating at chess. “I don’t think they even know what communism is over there,” I say. “Fucking Soviets. Let them burn to death. You wanted our homes, didn’t you? You’ll get shit.” Grandpa has a selective memory, mainly of things from his youth, when there was still a Soviet Union and the stone-broke Reds would come to get our precious homes. Dad says it’s some kind of dementia; I believe he’s smart as a whip and he pretends he’s crazy whenever it suits him. Truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. “Actually, our homes belong to the banks,” I tell him. “Bulgarian scum, you’re next.” Here we go again. He’s going to send all of Eastern Europe to hell before the news report on the haemorrhagic fever is over. The ninety-inch screen is teeming with hospital beds and coffins in morgues. It seems the media got a brand new toy. We hadn’t seen 12
