{"id":10108,"date":"2013-11-25T12:29:28","date_gmt":"2013-11-25T10:29:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/egophobia.ro\/?p=10108"},"modified":"2014-05-18T19:23:19","modified_gmt":"2014-05-18T17:23:19","slug":"the-obsession","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/?p=10108","title":{"rendered":"The Obsession"},"content":{"rendered":"

by de Ioan Suciu
\ntranslation from Romanian by Simona S\u0103mulescu [MTTLC student]
\nclick aici<\/a> pentru versiunea rom\u00e2n\u0103<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

\n\u00a0<\/i>
\n <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Innocent left the office in a good mood, because, as of then he was on vacation. On the street he jumped over some children\u2019s hopscotch, set fire to a garbage can, after which we walked on the middle of the road, among speeding cars. His reaction to the driver\u2019s curses was to flip them off with his right hand. He let off some squibs he had from last Christmas, and he dropped them at the feet of some women. He started running. Two men began chasing him. He jumped the fence into a yard and came out the other side through a gate which was opened. He sat down at a table in a garden and he asked for two pints of beer. A young, fat woman, with giant breasts which nearly spilled over her cleavage, answered in high spirits that she will bring them right over. \u201cTwo?\u201d \u201cTwo!\u201d \u201cBut you\u2019re alone.\u201d \u201cWhat\u2019s that got to do with anything?\u201d The woman brought him two beers and Innocent immediately downed one. \u201cWhat are you going to do with the second?\u201d He rose and poured the pint all over her breasts. The woman wanted to shout but didn\u2019t manage to make a sound, only a desperate hiss. Innocent left the garden in a hurry. After a while he looked back and realized that no one was chasing him. On a barren terrain between two houses some kids were playing with a ball. He began playing their game a little, he then took the ball in his hand and put it on his foot, after which he kicked it forcefully towards the window of a house. The window shattered with a deafening sound. The children started screaming. Innocent left. Some pebbles flew past his ears. He got on a tram and found a seat. An old man sitting on the bench across had a newspaper in his hand and another one in his lap. Innocent asked to look over the sheet he was holding on his knees. He found a crosswords puzzle and he started solving it. He was writing with a slippery and see-through pen. The old man wanted to get off at the next station and asked for the paper. Because Innocent did not pay him any attention, the man grabbed the paper from his hands and went near the door to get off. Innocent started following him, only a footstep behind. The old man stopped on a bench in a park, next to two older men. He wanted to snatch the paper with the crossword puzzle from the man, but he got punched in the face by one of the old men on the bench. The third one jumped him and they all fell on the gravel in the alley. Innocent managed to rise first, grabbed the newspaper from the old man that was on the tram and began walking away in a hurry. He took refuge in a cinema. He sat down next to a person who kept fidgeting. He began crying; remembering what he had done on his last vacations. No one has seen it but the images from those moments were imprinted in his mind with a stunning clarity. \u201cHey, relax, it\u2019s just a movie\u201d. The soothing voice came from the darkness of the movie theatre hall just like a balm. He stretched out his hand towards the seat on his right and came across a kind of soft ball. He instantly felt caressed all over his body and licked on his cheek and ear. At the same time he felt shrouded by a heavy and suffocating fragrance. He forgot to continue crying. The overwhelming being next to him began unbuttoning his shirt with her mouth; she planted kisses like mattery breathers on his hairy chest, as hungry lips glided beneath the cotton. A car-brake noise was heard and the light came suddenly on. Innocent gave a frightened cry. A being like a green octopus was wriggling on top of him; a woman of 150 kg, in a dress with a leaf patterns on it. He catapulted out of the cinema. \u201cIt\u2019s back on, the good part is only just beginning!\u201d said someone behind him. He went straight home. In front of his apartment building\u00a0there were two cops. Innocent slowed down and quietly passed by them. He took the stairs up to his flat, not the elevator.<\/p>\n

\u201cShould I make you something to eat?\u201d asked his wife.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not hungry!\u201d he said and disappeared into the closet. He searched for some masonry tools: a plastering trowel, a bucket, a chisel etc. Then, he locked himself in the small bathroom and did not leave it all afternoon, making some terrible racket repeatedly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are you doing back there?\u201d asked his wife through the door.<\/p>\n

He did not answer. He came out come night time and turned off all the lights in the house, including the TV ignoring the fact that his wife was in the middle of watching the weather program. He looked out the window, after which he went outside, in the apartment building\u2019s yard. He returned to the flat with an armful of bricks. He repeated the trip several times, always bringing with him more bricks, cement, binder, sand.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are you doing?\u201d his wife kept asking him, but seeing that he wasn\u2019t going to answer him, she went to bed. She didn\u2019t manage to get too much sleep because of the noises in the bathroom and the knocking in the pipes from their neighbours.<\/p>\n

In the morning, she found her husband sleeping on his side in the narrow space of the bathroom, still holding a plastering trowel; he had taken out the stool, leaving only a hole in the floor; he had walled up the entire outside wall, blocking in even the small ventilation window. From what she could gather, the lady understood he meant to line the walls with a layer of bricks, but to what end, she could not understand; the husband woke up.<\/p>\n

\u201cShould I give you something to eat? Or something against your headache?\u201d his consort asked him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have a headache!\u201d he said and walked away.<\/p>\n

The lady went to work. Innocent came back home with a van; its driver helped him carry in the apartment the objects he had bought: a massive iron door, a giant lock, a hammer, a poker, a few tin plates and a mug. The driver asked him:<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you working there?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere, where?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere!\u201d said the driver, gesturing with his hands over his belly.<\/p>\n

Innocent started working. He took out the flimsy door, that out of plywood with an opaque window he had at the bathroom, and put in its place the heavy iron door, which had a very small window (the size of a handkerchief), protected by some solid grates. The window opened from the outside. Innocent fixed in place, with heavy bolts, the massive hinges of the door. After everything was ready, he put the plates and bedpan inside and took out the globe from the ceiling, leaving the light bulb without any protection, and then he changed that one too, with a brighter one; he checked to see if the key turned easily in the lock, both on the inside and on the outside, and oiled it thoroughly with Vaseline; he tried the bolt (which had loops only on the outside), oiled it as well; the he locked himself in and stood inside for about eight hours, with the door locked, refusing the food his wife (who came home from work in the meantime) wanted to give him through the small window. \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong with him?\u201d she kept asking herself, pacing through the length of the house and wringing her hands. She decided to call upon a doctor she knew. He remained dumb stricken in front of the improvisation Innocent locked himself in.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease see him, doctor!\u201d said the lady.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, but how do I get to him?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHusband, please open the door, it\u2019s for your own good!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly I know what is good for me and what is not!\u201d said Innocent from the inside.<\/p>\n

\u201cTell me, please,\u201d asked the doctor, \u201care you all right?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cExcellent!\u201d came the reply.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you hurt in any place?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNowhere!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you in pain?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo\u201d<\/p>\n

The doctor wrote something in a notebook and told the lady:<\/p>\n

\u201cYour husband is perfectly healthy!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOK, but what if there is something wrong with his head?\u201d<\/p>\n

The doctor though about it for a moment, then he came closer to the window and he looked inside. Innocent made some silly faces, trying to also make his ears move at the same time, just as he used to do sometimes, when he was a little boy. The doctor said in a heartbeat:<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t you worry, there\u2019s nothing wrong with him!\u201d<\/p>\n

The lady paid for the consultation and the doctor left. It was late, past midnight.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you want me to make your bed?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo! Sleep tight!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCan I ask you something?\u201d<\/p>\n

Innocent did not answer and the lady closed her ear to the cold metal door.<\/p>\n

What could he tell his wife? Innocent thought. There are thoughts so personal that they cannot even be shared. And what if the police had uncovered something? It will get to that, eventually!<\/p>\n

Innocent asked a relative from Rahova to come live with them for a while. He was a former district attorney, named Bludgeon. Despite being old he proved to be very strong and healthy. Every morning we would chop wood for all the neighbours who lived in the old house in the surrounding area (he lived in an apartment building).<\/p>\n

The man took up residence in the free room Innocent used as library. They drank two litters of wine the first night he came live there and they got tipsy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want me to train you, you need to follow my instructions to the letter. Sign the agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut here it says Will!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s that got to do with anything?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen do we begin?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNow! You go and sweep the street!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s nighttime!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo?\u201d<\/p>\n

Bludgeon went to his room and fell right to sleep, and Innocent pleaded with the sanitation crew from the street to lend him a broom. After half an hour of work he threw the broom away and came back to the apartment, lying next to his wife. Several seconds later he woke up thrown on the floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are you doing here, you filth? What order did I give you?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell I\u2026 I mean we\u2026 I\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShut up! Get in your cell!\u201d<\/p>\n

Innocent gathered himself and went in the bathroom he set up as detention cell and sat directly down, on the ice cold floor tile. Bludgeon yelled at him through the little window:<\/p>\n

\u201cStand up! Attention!\u201d<\/p>\n

Innocent\u2019s wife appeared behind him, crying:<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what did he do?\u201d she babbled.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe knows!\u201d said Bludgeon harshly.<\/p>\n

In the morning, someone rang the doorbell. It was a policeman.<\/p>\n

Innocent, who had just been released from his cell, rushed to grab the man\u2019s hand, twisting and turning it:<\/p>\n

\u201cReally, it\u2019s not necessary, please believe me! I didn\u2019t do anything wrong, and even if I did, I punish myself as it is! If you\u2019d like, I can show you that I have made myself a detention cell, set up by the highest European standards. Don\u2019t take me, I\u2019m begging you, let me punish myself!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you Bludgeon?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo! I\u2019m just a poor man!\u201d<\/p>\n

The former district attorney came out of his room and asked what all the commotion was all about. The policeman told him to leave the premises.<\/p>\n

Innocent\u2019s wife explained her husband she called the police.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow it\u2019s going to be even harder!\u201d said Innocent.<\/p>\n

He has displayed in the kitchen a list of forbidden foods. Because he had broken his own rules by eating mushrooms (seeing the velout\u00e9 his wife had made he couldn\u2019t resist the temptation) he punished himself for four days. What, do they give you mushrooms in there?<\/p>\n

After he had faithfully fulfilled his time in the cell, he crashed onto the marriage bed, unshaven, tired, hungry and weakened, and began thinking he had only a few days of vacation left. And suddenly, all his being revolted against his punishment, as if it didn\u2019t come from him. \u201cIn the end, what will be will be! I still cannot get used to something like that! And truthfully, why should I torment myself twice, once now and secondly after a potential conviction?\u201d<\/p>\n

He decided to free himself. He will make himself a nice steak, after which he will drink two glasses of dark wine, and before that, three glasses of plum brandy! (which was on the forbidden list).<\/p>\n

Easier said than done, but the key would not budge: it was stuck in s different position and would not budge not even a millimeter, one side or the other. His wife, who was always near, asked him through the door:<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you want something, dear?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes!\u201d he screamed. \u201cOf course I do! And namely, I want to get out of here! Isn\u2019t it normal?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, I\u2019ll go make you something good to eat!\u201d said the lady.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan\u2019t you see that I cannot come out? The door is stuck!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd what do you want me to do?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGo get the locksmith!\u201d<\/p>\n

Innocent waited with a blistering impatience. The minutes that separated him from his freedom seemed like forever.<\/p>\n

The lady returned after about an hour, together with a scrawny man, dressed in overalls.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut this is a true cell!\u201d said the newcomer.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo what? You just push the lock so that my husband can get out of there!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what is he doing in there?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you care? You just do your job, that\u2019s what I\u2019m paying you for!\u201d said the lady.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou said that it was a bathroom door!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOpen the door already, man, come on!?\u201d shouted from the inside Innocent.<\/p>\n

\u201cStop yelling, I didn\u2019t put you in there! Go figure! Dear lady, let me tell you, this is no bathroom door!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMan, are you going to get busy or not?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut who built this cell, which maybe does not even match the legal requirements?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy do you care?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI care! Who ever built this type of cage is not right in his head! What if I take him out of there and he hits me over the head?\u201d<\/p>\n

Eventually the locksmith opened the door. After the men left, Innocent ran after him.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy man, please forgive me! You are right! Look, I promise you I will get back in the cell and I will not come out of there!<\/p>\n

\u201cGet away from me, man, and leave me alone! Go where you want, you\u2019re free!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s just it, I\u2019m not!\u201d<\/p>\n

Innocent locked himself in the cell and did not leave it for years. He had brought in his TV which he only watched two hours a day. In the morning he ate black bread with marmalade. At lunch beans or cabbage. In the evening tea and a sesame bagel. The TV broke down, but he didn\u2019t ask for it to be fixed. After a very long time, he realized he did not know what date it was. He came out of his cell and stumbled over a furniture piece. He called after his wife, but she was nowhere to be found. He went into the street. He looked at the world in fascination. A lot of young, beautiful women. He no longer can abstain himself. When he figured out what date it was (he had seen an electric billboard) his face lighted. He had been in detention for far too long for what he had done. In the park he had reached, he saw a beautiful woman sitting on the bench alone. He went determinately towards her. He had served enough to count for a rape as well.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by de Ioan Suciu translation from Romanian by Simona S\u0103mulescu [MTTLC student] click aici pentru versiunea rom\u00e2n\u0103 \u00a0 \u00a0   \u00a0 Innocent left the office in a good mood, because, as of then he was on vacation. On the street he jumped over some children\u2019s hopscotch, set fire to a garbage can, after which we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1044,22],"tags":[1166,1017,403,1116,926,312],"class_list":["post-10108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-egophobia-41","category-short-story","tag-egophobia-41","tag-ioan-suciu","tag-mttlc","tag-short-story","tag-simona-samulescu","tag-translation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6DakB-2D2","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10108"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10112,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10108\/revisions\/10112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}