,<\/em> like the way Eskimos talk in documentaries.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\u2018Not much. It\u2019s more drizzle than rain.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018What did you say, fizzle?<\/p>\n
\u2018Fizzle your head. I said it\u2019s more of a drizzle you hardly notice. It\u2019s not nice weather. Do you want me to make you some tea?\u2019<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u2018Yes, but I want to go to the bathroom first.\u2019<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The bathroom and the kitchen are in the same room. It\u2019s a one bedroom apartment divided in two parts: one part for bedroom, living room, etc; the bathroom and the kitchen in the other, separated by a blue, floral curtain. A quarter of the bathroom is occupied by an enormous cast iron bathtub, another quarter by the sink and the toilet on which stands a shiny ornamental plant, which lends it an imperial air, out of keeping with where it is. It\u2019s one of the items I particularly care about; it makes me smile every time I pull back the curtain. A portable cooker, gas cylinder, a cupboard, a hotel fridge, a table and two chairs furnish the kitchen; part of the cupboard which is too long for the space projects into the bathroom. We both went in: she pulled back the curtain and sat down, I turned on the cooker.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u2018Do you like black tea?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018I don\u2019t know, I think I do. Hey, there are some feathers on your cupboard. Why do you keep them there?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018What? Ah, those feathers\u2026 They\u2019re just the remains of one of my more distant relatives.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018No, come on! What is it?\u2019<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I was silent, trying to imagine what she was picturing on the cupboard. She stood up. The noise of the running water muffled her shriek.<\/p>\n
\u2018What\u2019s happened? Are you ok? Are you hurt?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018You\u2019ve got a dead bird on the cupboard! Are you sick or something? How long have you been keeping it there?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018I\u2019m not sick. Since the summer. It\u2019s my grandmother\u2019s cousin. I simply forgot it there. I am not much of a host. I couldn\u2019t take it outside either\u2026 I don\u2019t know if telling you about it will make any kind of sense. <\/em>Sometimes you simply can\u2019t separate things, whether it\u2019s a distant relative or it simply gave up the ghost – what I mean is that you can\u2019t get away from it, God knows why. Anyway I\u2019m not sure you want to listen to the whole starling story. Actually, it\u2019s not much of a story in the end. If you want to throw it away, throw it away.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\u2018Give it to me, I\u2019m a biology teacher.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018That\u2019s cool. Of course you can have it.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018You said you were a broker, right? Broker Max Keeps Dead Birds on Closet<\/em> \u2013 that sounds like a sinister headline about a psycho.\u2019<\/p>\n\u2018Ex broker. I told you I took a break.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018Don\u2019t put sugar in it, I only have to think of sugar to come out in a rash. When I was ten years old my parents took me to a wedding, I think: \u00a0I don\u2019t remember what really happened, I can only tell you that I couldn\u2019t stomach the least bit of sugar after that wedding. Only fruit, that\u2019s all.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018Kiwi. Have you ever drunk kiwi tea?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018Sounds interesting.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018Where do you teach? And stop saying it sounds interesting<\/em>, because it\u2019s awful, I feel like a tourist guide.\u2019<\/p>\n\u2018I\u2019d no idea you were so touchy. Last night you told me you were as understanding as an urban monk. Doesn\u2019t that sound awful to you? Thanks, it looks really nice with kiwi.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018Be careful, it\u2019s hot. It\u2019s stopped drizzling. We can drink our tea and then go out. Ok? I mean I have to pick someone up from the station.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018Some relatives? She is laughing proudly at her joke. \u2018See\u2026 and you say I\u2019m not spiritual enough.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018I never said that. I really have to go.\u2019<\/p>\n
She wraps up the starling in a newspaper and puts it in her purse. I put on the hooded jacket, take an apple from the kitchen table and start playing with it. Tania is wearing a khaki sweater, rather thin for the weather outside, a vintage model, predictable for a biology teacher, but her movements are very elegant, though a bit nervy because she is shaking. I want to ask her if she is ok, but I let it be – better not. We go out in the street. It\u2019s foggy.<\/p>\n
\u2018This froggy thing gets in my eyes\u2019, says Tania smiling. \u2018I\u2019m not chilly,\u2019 she adds without my asking her.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018Maybe we can go out sometimes\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018Don\u2019t be so nice. Stop thinking about it, you look like someone with no thoughts. Everything is perfect. Look how lovely it is outside.\u2019<\/p>\n
A stray dog was following us, just a few steps behind. The street was empty, the blinds half way down. Somewhere, on a distant street, a motorbike could be heard noisily starting up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by V. Leac Translation from Romanian by A C Clarke and Alexandra S\u00e2rbu pentru versiunea rom\u00e2n\u0103 click\u00a0aici How did I end up living on Teiului Street, on the outskirts of a luxurious neighbourhood, in a small one bedroom apartment which I call the Dalmatian cage, discreetly placed behind a garage – to be more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"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":[925,22],"tags":[665,629,1160,403,1116,312,334],"class_list":["post-8732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-egophobia-35","category-short-story","tag-a-c-clarke","tag-alexandra-sarbu","tag-egophobia-35","tag-mttlc","tag-short-story","tag-translation","tag-vasile-leac"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6DakB-2gQ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8732","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\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8732"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8972,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8732\/revisions\/8972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}