Solutions

When there's no other way, one has to patch things up. Some even go to extremes. Like in the pictures below.

Gazing at the invention, I thought that maybe it's a passage between two apartments. Since there isn't any need for servants' passage anymore, I told myself that it must be a fantastic passage. Like the one in Florence's Palazzo Vecchio, used by royalties to get to other parts of the cities, without the mortals knowing about it.
Or do you have another guess?!

Ionesco’s legacy

The Theatre of the Absurd is often found amongst us. Sometimes, we pass it by and don’t even wonder anymore. We got accustomed to it. That’s how people are!

Today I went to the market place and then entered a shop, looking for a certain type of light bulb. I entered the shop just as two mothers and their little girls were jumping their way in too. The smallest of the two little girls, actually the secondary character in the story that follows below, must have been around the age of three. Her mother asked one of the shop assistants to show her a scale and let go of her small hand. I was waiting for my turn when another shop assistant asked me what I wanted. I showed her the out of use light bulb and told her that I needed one exactly like it, but a working one.

‘But we no longer have these spiral types.’

‘It’s ok’, I replied. ‘I just need one that has the same base.’

She ferreted about a large box containing different types of light bulbs; she pulled out a round one and showed it to me. I told her that I wanted to buy it. She turned back, searched and pulled out another one. This time, a spiral one.

‘This is more powerful’, she tells me.

‘Ok. I’ll take this one.’

The little girl was running through the shop, she stopped, pulled at something and suddenly, things were heard reaching the floor. Everybody in the shop turned at the place where the noise was coming from.

‘Oh, dear. These children never stop’ says to me the shop assistant. ‘They just leave them be around the shop.’

Her face showed a wide experience in the domain. In my mind, I felt for her, given all those times when she had to rearrange all the products that a client messed up.

‘So, did you make up your mind regarding which light bulb you’re going to buy?’ the shop assistant asked me.

‘Yeah, the spiral light bulb. The one that is more powerful.’

‘Aha.’

Another crack was heard. Another shop assistant went to inspect the place. She came with a frame and yelled at the shop assistant serving the mother.

‘Add a frame to what the lady is buying.’

‘Sure’ replied the mother and called her child to her, setting her straight for the mess.

The mother took her child into her arms and replied calmly to the shop assistant regarding the payment method. My shop assistant slowly turned to the box with light bulbs, being at all times very much interested with what was going on around the little girl, and then she said out loud:

‘So the little miss didn’t get to consume all her energy outside, did she?!’

The mother, visibly ashamed, didn't answer. All in all, she had accepted to pay for all the damages, and the situation was embarrassing enough without the shop assistant’s intervention.

‘Children should be kept outside the shops’, the shop assistant addressed me.

I was taken aback by how quickly the shop assistant considered me one of her allies. But even more, I was scared of the discovery that there are people who seemed to have forgotten what it is to be a child. When one can be patient only for a short while; like, for example the while when a crow flies over a block of flats, as my mother used to tell me.

Then, the shop assistant turned and started foraging for some more light bulbs. I realized that I must once again tell her that I have already decided to buy the spiral light bulb and there was no need for other light bulbs.

‘Oh, really?!’ she replied.

‘Yes. Only one is enough’, seeing that she was preparing to cash in for two spiral light bulbs.

He loves me! He loves me not!

I saw the movie Boyhood. A pretty good movie, but not one worth winning an Oscar. I wonder if we still know what an Oscar-winning movie is?! Yes, we do. Happy funerals and The Shawshank Redemption are Oscar-winning movies. Movies that make one lose oneself in the story and wish for it never to end. The exact thing happens with great books, Requiem for Fools and Beasts or Shantaram, for example.

The last dialogue, at the end of the movie, got me thinking. If Seize the moment! isn’t actually the other way around. Namely, that the moment seizes us, in fact, and we cannot withstand it. And so I realized how much we are mesmerized with dicta. We believe in them, we make believe that we carry our lives according to them and we love to hear ourselves giving advice to others by using them. Sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. Good always prevails. Nothing is above love (or law, depending on the circumstances). A lie has short legs. A leopard can’t change its spots. A handful of trade is a handful of gold. He who steals an egg will steal an ox. Yes, there is a grain of wisdom in all of them, but they are not the answer to our existence. In the end, life is impossible to be enframed within dicta. And neither within games such as He loves me! He loves me not!, even if we can choose to ignore the last remaining petal that would give us a response we would never validate as true. While writing the aforementioned dicta, the following verses rang in my mind (and they couldn’t be more appropriate):

Have no hope and be not afraid,

What is like the wave will perish like a wave;

If they urge you, if they call for you,

Remain still, no matter what.

                                                                        Mihai Eminescu - Glossa

The Pledge by Friedrich Durrenmatt

What I am looking for in detective fiction (even though The Pledge does not entirely belong to this genre) is suspense and the possibility of actually seeing the action unfolding while I am reading.
The novel 'The Pledge' contains both. Moreover, it invites the reader to reflect upon things. Such as, for example, responsibility. Be it for a certain individual or the society. After having finished reading the novel, I kept noticing myself trying to put an end to the abovementioned dilemma. Finally, I realized that I did not properly consider the issue. No one forces us to choose, even though we might feel constrained about certain things. If it is right or wrong? Well, that's a different discussion.
'The Pledge' is something you might call required reading, according to my humble opinion.

Morning's here! The morning's here, sunshine is here.

Joey’s song kept ringing in my head when I saw that the sun was rising. And then, I listened carefully. The nature's song was sounding even more enchanting. 

Why ruin it by trying to describe it to you?! It’s better that I play it for you.

The measured beat of the train wagons is simply magical. In the past, people living in the countryside used to tell the hour by the passing train. I wonder if they still do it.

I, instead, was helped by the wrist watch: five o’clock in the morning.

The Birthday Cake

A few days ago it was my father's birthday. My nephew, who is visiting his grandparents, must have been an even greater gift. 

In the evening, when my nephew was asked about how he had spent the day with his grandparents, he made the following remark: mom, grandpa doesn't have a cake! And then he discretely pulled himself away from the conversation. 

After a short absence from the room, my nephew came back singing Happy Birthday and carrying a slice of watermelon. And thus the birthday cake was created.

And more so, an unforgettable memory. Especially for grandpa.

Happy 1st of June, kids!

Excerpt from “Uncle Andi – “The detective” and his nephews” by Vlad Mușatescu

“Al, boy, you must write a book for the children!”

Considering that I was also impressed with the childish request of my nephews from Valea cu Urși, I pondered on it for a while. Then, I told my aunt:

“Do you think it’s such an easy thing to come up with a volume of stories for the youngster?... I don’t think I can do it. Until now, I have only written adventure novels!”

“So what? Do you imagine they haven’t read them too? You are very wrong, beyond being wrong ... . Get on track, man, and write them a book they can understand!”

“A book of fairy-tales?” I somewhat worried asked my aunt.

“Why not?!... Do you think that Prince Charming wasn’t also a detective himself? Didn’t he fight against the evils in the world? Write them some modern fairy tales, with dragons from our age, ‘cause they still exist, you can be sure of that!”

I grinned and then I told my aunt:

“Fine! Fine, aunt Ralitza! But don’t you regret it … . I’ll put you in the book too!”

“Eh! Why? Do I look like a dragon to you?” my aunt got a little scared.

“More or less!” I answered to my sweet old aunt. “But one that will make the little ones smile … ‘cause you cause so much trouble that I am sure that you will become a character adored by the readers! ...”