a bit of research

Since my last talk with Bell I was a bit busy searching the Internet, and here is what I found. A tiny article in a local newspaper published in June last year proved to me there are people in this town that are still alive and have witnessed or were involved in some way or another in the events that took part in the hot summer of 1941.

The story of the grandmother walking her nephew in the park and accidentally overhearing a gruesome tale of an old soldier who forced a Jewish man to extract a bayonet from the wooden floor of the “Chestura” (local police department) with his teeth is the one that impressed me the most.

I imagine that man still alive today, with all his military decorations and honors, taking part in commemorations of WWII and things of that sort, and nobody knowing his true story: the one that he was gladly telling to his friend, one sunny day, in the park.

Other interesting facts I red here. I came back to Bell and told her what I have found. She paid little attention. She reminded me that she didn’t feel sorry for her poor Grand-Grandmother, for that is their tradition. Never to cry for their dead, always be sorry when one of their kind is born. She pointed that Cincomfei are a species of parasites after all, whom nobody enjoys having around. Except for me, I thought.

the train issue

We had to wait for a few good minutes until the shy creature made her appearance. She was so sweet you could eat her alive.

“My name is Bell”, she said. And then she asked for a cigarette. I was confused. I had a full pack in my stock but I was sort of hoping that a creature so fragile didn’t smoke. She didn’t. She said she wanted it for play. And to prove me wrong, she started rolling on it with her tiny feet. She asked If I was the owner of the house and I admitted that she could consider it a fact. She clapped her hands in joy. She said it was the greatest place she’s ever been hosted in. I don’t know if that was a trick to make me like her even more, but it worked.

The next question was a surprise. She asked me If I knew anything about the trains. “I travel by train a lot”, I said, ever so amazed by her cigarette tricks. “Actually, I bragged, they put a brain new train for Vaslui, my birth city. It’s so clean and nice that one could fancy oversleeping in it.”

But Bell wasn’t asking about trains in general, as I was soon to find out. She cared to know about some old trains from 1941, where her Grand-Grandmother was accidentally stuffed in along with a few thousands of Jews and Gipsies. My poor feet, they became ice cold. Some long minutes of silence followed that seemed to last forever. I knew something about the fact, but not much. Like every resident of this city, I wished I could switch to another subject, not so dark perhaps. Bell noted I felt uneasy with the talk and clapped her hands in joy one more time. She asked Elliot to light my cigarette and invited me to have a glass of wine from my refrigerator. The rest of the evening was pretty joyful and she didn’t mention the trains again. But at the end she made me promise I will take her to the train station one day. I promised, for there was no way one could refuse her. And that was the end of my first night with Bell.

Love Is a Wonderful Thing

Elliot confessed to me today that he left the bathroom several times while I was out. At first I didn’t care much about this detail, as I’ve never asked him or any of his fellows to stay put in one place. As long as they weren’t breaking anything in the house.

But then, he said, in one of his journeys, he met the most beautiful creature alive… I became all years. Her name is Bell, she lives in my kitchen, and apparently, she doesn’t know how to tie her shoes.

But this is yet another thing that he likes about her. He told me all those things while contemplating the short life of a soap bubble produced while I was washing my hands.

Given this melancholic outburst, I had no doubt… The little man was in love.

Well, Elliot dear, I said, love is the most beautiful thing that can happen to any of us. Do you think there’s any chance I could meet this wonderful creature?

Sure he said. In a blink of an eye he jumped on my shoulder and guided me to the magical place. My own kitchen. I was a bit concerned about Cincomfei starting dating and then who knows, marrying and having kids or cubs or whatever they will call them. But then I remembered that nature has its own way to make things work out fine for everyone. And I tried to conceal my worries. Let’s see what happens, I said to myself uttering the most discreet sigh.

a fine spring afternoon

No further events took place until Elliot and I got home. As I remember, everything was going on as usual in the neighborhood.

Three quarters of the fat man from the first floor were hanging out on his window again, in an attempt to threaten the children from the block, guilty of making to much noise… A kitty was trying to escape from a sealed cardboard box while a bunch of ecstatic kids were watching the show. Trees were humpbacked with flowers and mothers were returning from their grocery shopping – the happiest time of the day, it seemed.

It was a fine spring afternoon, after all.

And there I was, flowing by, with the Lilliputian in my pocket, wishing he could come out in the open and see all these things. But as I explained to him later, the Big World was not prepared to be confronted with such a tiny little creature. Yet.

his name is elliot

After the tram scene I decided to go straight home and never leave the house again without thoroughly checking the content of all my bags, pockets and other possible Cincomfei containers.

On the way, I put my hand in my left pocket and started scouring for the troublesome creature. And as I was groping, and groping, I realized it was the emptiest pocket in the whole world, and the deepest feeling of sorrow took over my being.

I arrived to a bench and I sat on it. I remember wishing it all to be a dream rather than losing the little creature because of my carelessness, when a small voice said to me from near the right ear:

‘Hi. I’m Elliot.’

It seemed he had found shelter in my hood after all and I took a breathe of relief.

‘I think I scared away your friend earlier, but I was just trying to behave nicely’, said the little man.

‘Nicer would have been never to show your face’, I said.

‘Even more crazy he got when I waved to him’ said Elliot and laughed almost in a whisper.

‘I would so love to talk to you more, but I can’t risk it that someone sees you again’, I said then, making use of the most severe tone I was capable of.

I can’t quite say I was surprised by the latest events, little was left to surprise me about these weird creatures. I found myself thinking that Elliot and I were talking kinda funny, as if we’d been long time pen pals or something. But I still found it hard to believe he waived. Who did he think he was, Michael Jackson?

In the tram

What happened yesterday: I met this friend of mine… actually he’s more of an acquaintance than a friend. And we took the tram together for a while. He kept on telling me about how he has been thinking for some time that he is going crazy, when suddenly, his face became whiter than snow. I thought he was feeling sick or something and I asked what was wrong.

“Nothing, It’s nothing”, he said, but at the same time he was staring at my left pocket.

“What, what is it”, I went along, and I turned my eyes to my left pocket too, only to see that a Cincomfei was watching him straight in the eyes, as serene as a mid-summer’s day.

I turned away laughing.

“Oh, dear, you need some fresh air”, I said. Let’s get down at the next stop and walk for a bit. I could swear his ears trembled.

“No! He said. I must go. Alone. I know you won’t believe me, but now I’m having hallucinations, too.”

“You don’t say!” I said in an exclamation, just to hide my urge to burst out laughing.

The next thing I knew, the tram stopped and he vanished out the door. The Cincomfei was, of course, back & safe to his pocket hiding. All was right in the tram.

Poor guy. I just hope he will forget this incident and it won’t serve him as a definitive proof that he is, indeed, going mad…

about angels

I heard someone saying the other day that kids are very lucky to have their guardian angels, otherwise they would be in great danger due to their carelessness.

But let me tell you another story. When I was little I had the nasty habit of stealing things. I used to go to the market to buy stuff for my mother. There, there was the cheap jewelry booth kept by a Gypsy family. It attracted me like a fly is attracted to the light bulb. I don’t know to this day if the Gypsies ever saw me. I used to tryout things, as if I was interested in buying them. When I thought nobody was looking I just slipped them into my groceries bag.

But things got to an end one day. My mum observed I had all kinds of ornaments that she never had paid for: hair clips, bracelets, even a pair of huge sun glasses, that could cover two thirds of my face. And so she asked… She said that she didn’t care whether I was telling the truth or not because she didn’t need to punish me. That was my guardian angels task. And it knew everything…

Smart me, I didn’t wait for this to happen. I got rid of all the “borrowed” stuff on the spot and started a clean life.

the clean-up

So I managed to gather Cincomfei at one side, Cinamei at the other and make them calm down. I threatened Cincomfei with toilet disinfection and Cinamei with cleaning the fridge. The guys in the first gang burst out into tears, those in the second started to sweat heavily.

They promised it won’t happen again as long as none of the sides invaded the other’s territory.

I was pleased with the resolution.

But the more indulgent I felt towards the little creatures living in my house, the more I had to admit that the rotten smell that agreed with them so much wasn’t the kind to compliment my olfactory epithelium. I had to clean the place. For that I had to prepare their evacuation.

I first put Cincomfei in a wash-bowl, and the wash bowl in the bath tube. I severely instructed them not to flee the place, as they were at risk to find their way of no return down the sewerage.

Then I put on my gauntlets and poured the content of a bottle with cleaning stuff into the toilet. I sit back and watched the chemical reaction that went on for a minute or so. Then I took the gauntlets off and went to the kitchen. The happiness was at its climax there. The little ones were celebrating the recent victory over the invaders. Needless to say they welcomed me as if I was their master and a true leader. I recalled silence. I placed all Cinamei into the sink, also warning them to keep off the pipe hole.

While waiting for the ice in the fridge to meltdown I decided to sweep the floor. But when I picked up the broom a new variety of creatures emerged from it, running as hard as they could to find shelter.

To be continued 😉

the invasion

Yesterday I got home and was very surprised to find out the Cincomfei got out of the toilet bowl and spread all over the rooms in my apartment.

It was like they owned the place.

They couldn’t care less they were leaving water footprints everywhere and were using my things as their own toys.

Maybe now is the time to mention… I have a habit since many years: I keep the empty jars after the content is consumed, for my mother to reuse them. I have a huge bag where I deposit them. Well, the creatures found this bag… When I forced the door to my bedroom I saw about a dozen Cincomfei playing with them. They were teaming two for one jar and running on the inside, making the pots roll on the floor. They were making a lot of noise with those jars, but in spite of it, they were still talking in a whisper.

In the kitchen the situation was more tensed. It seemed that the two creature-kinds had met and they put up a fight. Bread bits, watermelon pips, dead insects lying on the floor and pebbles carried inside on the shoe soles – all these were now munitions for the two armies. The enemies captured were immobilized in some huge spider webs on the hall. In the overall fuss some of the following curses could be heard: “this is our fight, losers”, “stupid Cinamei”, “may your noses fall off”, “may your toiled dry out” and so on.

The first thought that comes to my mind seeing all these happening was that … maybe … I should do house cleaning more often :(. Leaving them without munitions and potential toys, maybe they’d cool off. For the moment this remains an open point on my agenda.

my new friends

For a while I haven’t heard from Cincomfei again. They were too frightened by our last meeting and remained hidden in the toilet for a couple of weeks. As for myself, I also tried as promised to keep away from the bathroom during their awakening hours.

But as I am very curious about the life of these creatures, I can’t help it, now and then, to spy upon what happens in the toilet bowl.

Here’s what I know so far:

– Cincomfei and Cinamei are very much alike.

– If I were to name a gender, I’d say they are all boys. Not one of these creatures presents girlish characteristics such as battering eyelashes, back hair or red lips.

– One of their favorite occupations is to play the water toboggan when I flush. They grasp by the margins of the bowl with their minuscule hands and patiently wait for someone to come and flush the water, when they let themselves flow with the stream.

– Another fav. is to play jump around in the waste paper basket. That’s why they hate it when I change the basket bag.

– They are very cheerful and like to party a lot. The more they try not to make noise, the more affrays they provoke.

I’d say they feel more comfortable now. Maybe they are beginning to realize that I’m not much of a threat to them.