We all had to write reports to the Secret Police about our friends. Here are some of my own drafts:
When I first met Craiu I was five. He kept telling me stories about his WW2 plane accident and the dozens of surgeries he hand to undergo following it. He was piloting a Romanian copy of the Messerschmitt airplane called IAR when he collided with a stork and crash-landed in a plum orchard.
Craiu lived not far from my mother's studio in Balasa, a village near Câmpina, later deserted by most of its inhabitants due to lack of jobs. Most of the jobs in Balasa were provided by the local power plant. As most Romanian power plants, this was an enterprise that used lots of electrical power to produce smoke.
I visited the remains of this place in 1992, just after the accident that
When I first met Sergiu we were both highschool students. He was a silent young man, somewhat romantic and a lovely, very loyal friend. There was only one annoying thing about him: despite his age he would still believe that it is the storks that bring children to this world. His mother had no time to correct these ideas, as she was very busy working in the power plant. Unfortunately she got smoke poisoning and died, leaving
When I poisoned my dog with cigarette smoke for the first time, I took his remains to the local power plant. It was the only place that offered affordable cremation, plus, my friend Craiu's attractive mother was working there. She and I were
When Craiu saw me with my dog for the first time, I was part of the TV crew that was covering the Anina accident. A stork has become stuck in the local power plant's chimney, rendering it unusable. We had the unique chance of filming inside because of Sergiu, an old highschool buddy of mine that worked as a guard on weekends. What we did not
I never thought I'd see Sergiu with a girl; he was only interested in dogs and Russian Jewish fun stories. These were very scarce in Romania. In fact, there weren't any. So Sergiu had to breed dogs to satisfy his loving ego. He kept and fed and nursed dogs just to make them happy. This was a costly activity, his job at the powerpland didn't
Craiu is one of the highest peaks in the Retezat mountains. Sergiu and I had our favorite spot there; it was a cold north face, not very difficult to climb unless snow was overabundant. One year Toma, an engineer from the local powerplant wanted to join us for a climb. He was a very religious man and had a lifelong passion for airplanes. Throughout
Don't get me wrong, cursing was something I did often. It is just that Toma never heard me curse like that. It was because of the cold: the powerplant was idle since months and whatever heat it had produced was already dissipated in its metal parts. The funny part was that Toma didn't want me to curse because the dog was listening. He didn't care that Ana was listening too; as a matter of fact she
When Ana first met Sergiu, their dog was working at the powerplant.
The latter is the last draft I ever wrote.