by Lilly Wilder
Rene turned around, and saw the owner, Gioventino Gatti. Back in the old days, when she and her mother used to frequent this place more often, Gioventino was always here, supervising the business. Little by little, they became friends, and he would often sit at their table and join them for lunch. Then, life happened, and Rene couldn’t remember when the last time she came here had been.
“Hey, Gio!” she smiled, as he rushed into her arms, in true Italian fashion.
They kissed on the cheek and he held her by the hands, taking a step back.
“Let me look at you, bella,” he swooned. “You are even more beautiful than your mama! And where is she?”
Rene bit her lower lip, feeling another gush of tears coming on.
“She passed away, Gio. Her funeral was today.”
“No!” he shouted so loudly that a few guests turned around to see what was going on.
“I’m afraid so,” she nodded sadly. “So, I came here with my dearest people, to honor her on this day.”
“That is so touching, Gio, he is heartbroken to hear this news. If I knew, I would have come, I swear.”
“It’s OK,” she managed a weak smile. “It all happened so quickly, and I really wanted to get it done as quickly as possible, not to prolong the inevitable.”
“Si, si, of course,” he nodded, “you know what? Your lunch today, it is on Gio.”
“What?” she replied. “No, no, we couldn’t do that.”
“You can and you will,” he took her hands and brought them to his mustached lips, kissing them. “Today, we celebrate Magda. You and your lovely friends are welcome to the best table in the house.”
He gestured with his finger to the hostess, and her direction changed immediately, getting them to what really was the nicest table in the whole place. Rene smiled, as Hyde pulled her chair, to help her sit down.
“Your waiter shall be with you shortly,” the hostess said dryly, leaving them.
“Well, how about that,” Jesse whistled. “You really are something, Miss Olsen.”
“I feel a little awkward about this,” she admitted, as the waiter already placed menus before them on the table.
“Something to drink?” he asked.
“Do you have the 1963 Estate Cabernet Franc?” she asked, sounding like a real connoisseur, so much that Hyde and Jesse eyed her with awe.
“Yes, madam, we do,” the waiter nodded, with a smile.
He also wasn’t used to hearing such specific requirements for a wine. People would usually ask for recommendations, but Rene knew exactly what she wanted.
“Then, please bring us a bottle and three glasses.”
“Right away,” the waiter responded, then disappeared between other tables that surrounded them.
“That was surprising,” Hyde smiled at her.
“I hope you don’t mind,” she explained apologetically, “this was my mother’s favorite wine. We always had it when we came here.”
“Of course not,” both men replied, almost at the same time.
The waiter returned and they all ordered something to eat. Their glasses were filled with the wine Rene had chosen, and she decided to raise hers first.
“To my mother,” she started, “the sweetest, kindest soul I’ve ever known, may she rest in peace and may she join her family forever.”
“Here, here,” Jesse and Hyde added, taking a sip.
Rene lowered her glass, placing it gently back on the table. She was lost in thought. Her mind wandered, searching for answers that weren’t here. Suddenly, she remembered where she might find them.
“Did you hear what she said?” she asked, sounding as if she was just thinking out loud.
“Who?” Jesse wondered.
“You weren’t there,” she told him, “you went to get help. Hyde and I were there.”
“I heard something, but I didn’t quite understand what she said,” he answered.
“She said, go home, find some well, and open the box.”
“What well?” Hyde jumped.
“She told me a name, but I can’t remember. San something.”
“Sanziene?”
“Yes, yes, that’s the one!” Rene exclaimed. “What could it mean?”
“That’s a well in a small village of Sirnea.”
“That’s in Romania, right?”
“Yes,” Hyde nodded.
“Do you know where that well is?” she asked him.
“It’s been a long time since I was there, so my memory of the exact location might be a little hazy, but I doubt it would be too difficult to find it, if it still exists, that is. Why?”
“Can’t you see?” she beamed. “My mother wanted me to go there. She wanted me to find that well and open some box. This key,” she grabbed her pendant, showing it to them again, “must open that box.”
“What’s inside?” Jesse wondered.
“I don’t know,” Rene admitted.
“It’s been such a long time, the well may not even exist anymore. And, she was talking about some box that was left there what, 50 years ago? What are the odds it’s still there?”
“Maybe we should just go and see,” Jesse was on her side.
“I know you want to do this, because it’s something that still connects you to your mother. I just don’t want you to get disappointed, because we might find nothing there. We might make all that trip for nothing, and I don’t want you to get depressed over it.”
“I won’t,” she assured him, speaking like a little child who really wanted it right now.
“You say that now,” Hyde sighed.
“Let her have this one,” Jesse urged. “We’ll arrange our work so that we can go with her and she won’t be in any kind of danger. We won’t even say who she is.”
“But, they might recognize us,” Hyde was weary.
“Culore is dead,” Jesse shrugged his shoulders. “Who is there left to be afraid of?”
“What if Ozul told them what happened?” Hyde wondered.
“I’m almost sure he did. But, that doesn’t matter. That can only work in our favor, making people get out of our way.”
“We don’t even need to stay too long. Only a day or two,” Rene added, seeing that Hyde was slowly starting to change his mind.
“The weekend,” Jesse chimed in. “We’ll be done before you know it.”
“And, if we don’t find the well, or the box, I’ll still be happy that I got to see where I come from. It will still bring me closer to my mother, whether or not I find that mysterious box.”
Two sets of hopeful eyes were watching Hyde, pleading that he would agree to come with them.
“I won’t hear the end of this unless I agree, right?”
“Right,” Rene and Jesse replied at the same time.
“Fine,” Hyde snorted, “let’s just get this over with.”
Rene smiled, raising her glass again. One chapter of her life was closing, but there were so many left, and she was about to embark on a new one.
Chapter 21
The flight to Bucharest was uneventful. Rene found out that she couldn’t sleep on the plane, even though that didn’t seem to pose a problem for either Hyde or Jesse. They started on Friday morning and were hoping to get back on Wednesday evening. Judging from all the stories her mother once told her, Rene was sure that she would enjoy the beautiful nature and, hopefully, she might be able to brush up on her rusty Romanian. Her mother used to speak Romanian to her, when Rene was a child, but after a while, all that remained was English and, hopefully, Romanian that she would find easy to brush up on.
In Bucharest, they rented a car for the next few days and immediately started towards Sirnea. The road signs were easy to follow and every once in a while they would see a herd of sheep, peacefully grazing in the green fields that spread out before them, as far as the eye could see.
“Now, there’s something you don’t see every day,” Rene was in awe of the n
ature around her, the majestic mountains and lush greenery.
She almost couldn’t believe that places such as this one still existed in the 21st century, when everything was modernized. These people still upheld the old way of life and they seemed happy to do it. Rene wondered how they survived without electricity or the Internet.
A few hours later, they finally reached a small guest house on the very entrance to Sirnea and stopped there to ask if they had any free rooms.
The empty space in front of the guest house was supposed to serve as a parking lot, so Hyde parked right in the middle. All three got out and an elderly woman walked out to greet them, wiping her hands on her apron. She addressed them in Romanian.
“Hello there!” she smiled, and a row of tanned wrinkles immediately appeared on her face. “Do you need rooms?”
“Good day!” Hyde replied first. “Yes, we do. Do you have any?”
“There is no one here but me, so you are welcome to stay as long as you’d like. Two rooms or three?” she wondered.
Rene figured it would be best for everyone to be in a separate room. These people were proud of their old-fashioned values, and the fact that Rene wasn’t married to either of them might pose an issue that could easily be avoided, simply by getting separate rooms for everyone.
“Three, please,” she addressed the woman, in Romanian.
The woman eyed her, shielding her eyes from the sun, in an effort to take a better look at the girl.
“You remind me of someone I once knew,” the woman told her.
“I get that a lot,” Rene smiled, not wanting to reveal her identity unless she really needed to.
“Come on inside, and we’ll get you settled,” the woman turned around and walked in.
Hyde, Jesse and Rene immediately followed behind. It was an old house, made mostly of wood and brick, with low ceilings. In some spots, they even had to bend down a little, so that their heads wouldn’t bang on the ceiling. The woman showed them to their rooms and offered them a light snack once they settled in.
Once Rene closed the door, she sat down on the small bed, covered in a red and black checkered blanket, which looked like it was someone’s personal handiwork. She pressed against it with her open palm, feeling the texture. A little prickly, but probably very warm during cold nights.
She took a quick shower and, about half an hour later, all refreshed and changed, knocked on Hyde’s door first. He quickly opened it, and he also looked refreshed and ready for their adventure. The three quickly went downstairs, right into the kitchen.
The woman was standing by an old stove that worked on wood, releasing a soft heat all around the room. A slight smell of burning wood filled their nostrils, but Rene didn’t mind. It was a pleasant sensation to be here, to get to know everything her mother once knew.
“Some cheese and sarmale, that is, cabbage rolls, mamaliga, or polenta, and some homemade fresh, bread. Not too much, but if you are hungry, it will be more than good,” the lady smiled.
“That looks delicious,” Rene gushed. “Thank you.”
They sat down at the table and started eating. Rene realized that she knew and understood much more Romanian than she thought, and she was able to carry on a decent conversation with this sweet lady, who treated them as if they were relatives and not just guests at her guest house.
“We were told that there was once a well here,” Rene asked after a while. “Do you know where it is?”
The moment Rene mentioned a well, the lady’s facial expression changed. She looked worried.
“Why do you want to go there?” she asked them.
“They just said it’s a nice place to visit. The view is beautiful there,” Rene tried to come up with a plausible excuse.
“It is a bad place, you shouldn’t go there,” the lady urged them.
“Why?” Rene wondered.
“No good thing has ever come out of that well,” she started explaining, “the water is yellow, it makes you sick.”
“We don’t want to drink the water,” Rene smiled, “we just want to take a walk around the well.”
“There are so many nicer places, with a more beautiful view, you should go there.”
“Alright then,” Rene said, but it wasn’t because she agreed not to go, but rather because she didn’t want to risk insulting her kind host.
After a pleasant chit chat, Rene, Hyde and Jesse thanked their host for the wonderful meal and went outside for a walk. Rene gazed into the distance, listening to the howling of the wind. Hyde stood by her side, watching the mountains covered with snow.
“Does it bring back memories?” she asked him.
He sighed, without answering. A smile lingered on his lips, then he spoke.
“This is where I spent my childhood, up in those mountains, in these woods. All the memories I have of this place are beautiful, not even Culore could have destroyed them.”
“Are we going?” Jesse was the last one to walk out of the house to join them.
“Yes,” Hyde nodded.
“Do you know which way to go?” Rene wondered, looking at endless trails that started everywhere and ended far away in the distance, where the eye couldn’t reach.
“Let’s just start somewhere,” Hyde suggested, “I have a feeling that memories of old paths will come flooding back and I’ll recognize the one we need.”
“That sounds like a good plan,” she kissed him on the cheek. “I really appreciate you guys coming along. I would probably chicken out, if it wasn’t for you.”
“You can always count on us for anything,” Hyde assured her.
“Always,” Jesse emphasized, just in case she ever forgot.
This tender moment lasted for a few seconds, during which meaningful glances were exchanged, and Rene already knew that they’d all meet up tonight in one of the rooms and have wild, silent sex. That was inevitable. But, now, it was time to go on an adventure.
Hyde pointed the way and they took off. They were passing by old, dilapidated houses which were still inhabited by people, and Rene wondered how come they weren’t afraid that the roof would come crashing down on them. Goats roamed the roads freely, as shepherds watched their sheep in the meadows. Children ran curiously around them, asking them all sorts of questions.
Rene found it endearing. She answered a few, and then gave them her bag of M&M’s to share amongst themselves.
“You know,” she knelt down before a blue-eyed girl who was stuffing her face with the candy, “we are looking for a special place. Maybe you can help us find it. It’s a well.”
The girl, chewing with her mouth open, pointed in the direction of the woods, where no path was visible.
“Are you sure?” Rene asked, hoping that her Romanian was comprehensible.
The little girl just nodded.
“Here,” Rene gave her a Mars bar as a thank you.
The girl grabbed it, and ran away with it.
“This way,” Rene shouted at the guys who were busy inspecting a dried up fountain.
“Where?” Hyde asked, and Rene pointed. “There is no path there.”
“So?” she shrugged her shoulders and started, without waiting for them.
Somehow, all of the anxiety and confusion dissipated on the way to this place. Rene wasn’t feeling chaotic any longer. She felt like this was the right place to look for answers. Even if she didn’t find them, she believed that this place held a spiritual connection with her mother and just visiting it would be enough.
Rene waded through a path of mud and leaves, hoping that she was going in the right direction. Hyde and Jesse followed closely behind. Long branches scraped at her jacket, getting tangled in her hair, but she kept pushing forward. She could sense that she was on the right track.
“Hey, slow down a little, will you?” Jesse joked.
“I can’t,” she shouted back, “I’m too excited!”
“I can see that!” he laughed.
Suddenly, they reached a clearing. The grass looked like someone had cut it, or maybe a group of people had stomped on it. The surrounding trees kept this clearing in the shade. From the very center of it, one had a gorgeous view of the mountains. Right there, underneath a big oak tree that seemed to touch the heavens themselves, a small well lay.
“Over there…” Rene whispered, barely discernably.