Enachescu Simina

First series
HOMEWORK

I waited for Mihaela the whole day. She had told me she would come, without
mentioning the hour. I hadn’t asked her, I could not, because there are some circumstances
when you want something so much by saying no or at least remaining silent. The
understanding settles beyond words, in-between words, through gestures and significant
attitudes, or through the silent voice of the eyes. In my waiting for her, i was daydreaming
feverishly, imagining everything that I would have wanted to happen after Mihaela’s arrival.
I desired her with such an ardour that it seemed to me a new love appeared inside me,
stronger than the first one (or maybe it was still the first one which grew because of the
constraints suffered so much that it reached huge proportions, ready to suppress my being.)
In my mind, I was going through the history of our connection, the facts which were
compiling it, so wonderful, so fresh! It was reminding me of the first kiss I snatched from
Mihaela (on the stairs), of the mansardists’ concert from the roof, of the visit of the audacious
finch that gave us boundless happiness. What about the love journey in the Bosforous region?
If the biblical heaven existed, it could not be even close to the heaven built by us in the two
weeks of floating through reverie.
My daydreaming went on for a few hours, without noticing how time passes. But my
long-waited loved one wasn’t showing herself yet. Then I calculated the probabilities about
her coming to understand in what percentage my prevision would turn into reality.
Mihalea arrived in the evening and turned over all my estimations because she was
accompanied by Alexa which I had not foreseen. I invited them to sit down, but since they
didn’t want to stay, we left all three to dine in the city. We got in some restaurant and there,
for three hours, we planed our journey, fixing the date, the place and the other details. (Asking
Mihaela who was the boy who proposed to her was on my lips, but I repressed my question
and I delayed it for another time, when we would be alone). I had to go to the countryside for
asking for my parents’ approval. I didn’t care if they approved of not (I had been major since
a long time ago). I was more worried about a filial duty. If they gave it to me, we would have
get married at home, in the countryside, in a more picturesque framework and, of course, at
the expenses of my parents.
 Mihaela opposed to this. She wanted the wedding in the capital city, everything simple,
with as little expenses as possible. However, we were still to discuss about this detail. For
now, we had to fulfil the formalities at the registrar and, because we had set the wedding day
in three weeks, we gave up on the engagement.

Mihaela was keeping all the time an incomprehensible reserve and didn’t get involved in the
conversation unless I was asking something. (I didn’t like her attitude, but what did i care for:
she had agreed and this was the main issue.) I chatted more with Alexa who would give me
too many advices (good ones, obviously) and would moderate my exaltation very tactfully.
Finally! From now on, my being a bachelor could go away. I spent the next days with the
formalities from the registrar and with the preparation of my departure in the countryside. My
parents were very surprised by my unexpected arrival. (I should have sent a telegram).
Without wasting any time with workarounds, I showed them the reason for my coming. My
father measured me from head to toes, without saying a word then he asked, obviously, about
Mihaela’s dowry.
- She is poor, I told him, but her family is a good one. We will both work and provide
for ourselves. We won’t die by hunger. What do you want, not everybody is lucky to
have wealth.
- It’s silly what you want to do. You youngsters are all the same: you get on flames at
the first fantasy then you pull your hair out. Boy, marriage is not the same as love,
beware, cause I have seen the sunrise before you did. First comes hunger, then love.
You always mix them up.

And keep on and on, he kept me a rough and as paternal as possible lesson. I was
listening him gloomily and when he finished (and he was sure he convinced me) I cut it
abruptly.
- Well, I am determined to get married!