By Reshat Kripa
Memorie.al / On one of the days of that autumn, from the Ministry of Education, several requests came for study rights, for higher education, for the former persecuted and politically persecuted. People who would continue their studies had to be selected. The requirements were collected and the leadership of the association began the discussion to determine who would benefit and in which faculty. After some of the members of the presidency had discussed, Fatosi stood up: – “I have always had a dream. I wanted to study. I wanted to be somebody. But the regime did not allow me. Now I am old. However, I still have this desire and it seems to me that today am the day to make it come true. That’s why I turn to you, dear friends, if you found it reasonable, give me one of the study rights”.
No one spoke. For several minutes there was silence. Finally Visar rose:
– “I agree and I have full confidence that he will honor us.”
They did not object. They approved the list of winning names and charged Fatos, as secretary, to make the corresponding letter. A few days passed. The document had been drawn up and was waiting for the mayor to come and sign it. Fatosi stood in the office of the association and waited for the persecuted who had problems.
Knock on the gate.
– “Enter”! – he said.
A girl entered the office. It looked like a familiar face to Fatos, but he couldn’t remember where! He extended his hand, invited him to sit down and said:
– “Why did you bother”?
The girl put her lip on the gas.
– “You don’t know me”?
Fatos stood stunned. It seemed as if in those moments his memory had flown. She understood and spoke:
– “I’m Sandra Mino”.
– “Sandra?! My friend’s daughter”?
He got up, hugged her tightly and kissed her on the forehead.
– “Uncle how is he”? – he asked.
– “Uncle is no longer alive,” she answered. “He has closed his eyes for several years.”
For a moment Fatosi felt himself cramped. He was very sorry that he had not heard this news before.
– “Why did you bother, my daughter”? – he asked.
– “I heard that you have received some study rights. Do you remember what you said to me the last day we met a few years ago? I thought that the day of fulfilling my dream had come.”
Fatosi remained bad. The lists were completed and made ready to be signed. How could he do it? Could someone remove and write her name? He didn’t have that right.
– “Yes, you remembered late, my daughter – he said. ”The lists have already been approved.”
– “Now I found out” – she said and a few drops of tears flowed from her eyes.
Fatosi remembered the event of a few years ago, when she had seen the same tears flowing from her eyes as today.
He was up early that morning. He had to catch the 6.00 train. It had become his habit, when he intended to travel, to get up several hours before the appointed time. He had to go to Tirana. His brother, Kreshnik, was hospitalized and he had to take care of him. In the afternoon, he had to return again, because he had to report to work the next day.
He arrived at the station and went to the ticket office. There was a long line in front of the counter. It was Sunday and people were looking to solve their problems, on the only day off. In line he saw Astrit, a friend of his. She gave him the money and he cut the ticket.
– “Come”, – said Astriti, after leaving the queue.
– “I have sent the wife and the son to take their seats.”
– “Where are you going”? – asked Fatosi.
– “In Fier”.
They boarded the train and began to search from wagon to wagon where his wife and son were. Finally they found them. Astrit sat in the place where they had stored them. The other seats were occupied. There was even a majority of people standing. The only way to transport passengers was overcrowded. Meanwhile, the siren sounded and the train started rolling its wheels according to the rhythm.
– “Where are you going”? – said to a man who was standing next to him.
– “In Tirana”, – he answered.
– “We will cross the road together, – he continued – but, as it looks like, we will all do it on foot”.
– “Don’t worry”, – answered Fatosi
– “This friend of mine will come down to Fier with his whole family and we will sit in their seats.”
– “You’re alive, because you took away my embarrassment”! – said the stranger in a voice that expressed satisfaction.
– “I don’t have a problem with myself, but with this mess that I have with me”.
Fatosi glanced in the direction he pointed and spotted a girl who couldn’t have been more than eighteen years old. It was a rare beauty. Black eyes, eyebrows in the shape of a newborn moon, a small nose and red lips, gave a special charm to that face.
Meanwhile they arrived in Fier. Astrit came down and they sat down. Fate to one side and the stranger in front of him, together with the girl.
– “Your daughter”? – he asked.
– “No, niece”, – he answered and in a low voice, so that she wouldn’t hear him, he continued:
– “It is an orphan. Two months ago, his father, my brother, died. Now I take care of him.”
The stranger was one of those types who made friends immediately.
– “I will go to Tirana to get interested in getting him the right to study, for the higher school”.
– “I didn’t get it”?
– “No”!
– “Why”? – Curiosity prompted Fatos to ask him.
The stranger opened the bag he was holding and showed him the certificate of maturity. Fatosi the barbell. All grades were tens. How could he? He looked at the girl and saw her beautiful eyes and it seemed to him that two drops of tears flowed from them. He thought that surely she should have something in her biography.
– “Keep your head up, girl”! – he said to calm him down.
– “I assure you that soon, you will go to university”!
She wiped away her tears and whispered: – “You say”?
In those two words, Fatosi recognized the desire to study and get out into life. The uncle took a look and made a sign, which he did not understand, what he meant. It didn’t last longer. He turned his gaze from the window and was watching the wood of the trees flying in the opposite direction of his movement. Suddenly near his ear he heard a voice that whispered: – “Eh, my friend! I can’t stay without saying two words to you”!
Fatosi turned his head and saw his uncle who had come close to his ear and was whispering in a low voice so that those who were nearby would not hear him.
– “I’m afraid! I’m afraid that we’ll have an empty road.”
– “Why”?
He didn’t answer. He remained silent for a few minutes, then continued:
– “To go out, where to go out. I will tell you”.
– “How is work”? – asked Fatosi.
– “Her father and my brother have been in prison for politics. He was sentenced to twenty years. After he was released, we married him to one of his peers. This girl was born. Two months ago, my brother fell ill, which took him from this life.”
Fatosi became curious to learn for what period his brother had been imprisoned.
– “When was he imprisoned”?
– “In the year ’45”.
– “What did they call it?”
– “Josif Mino”.
Fatosi’s face brightened. He had recognized him. Fate had brought them to wander together, from one camp to another. He was a real intellectual, but also a special person. He was very sorry when he learned that he was no longer alive.
– “Condolences”! – he said to his friend.
He looked back at the girl. She was engrossed in reading a book and could not hear what was being whispered around.
– “I’m very sorry, – he continued – I knew him. We were together”.
– “So? My heart stopped”! – he cried and laughed in his face. Then he continued: – “Joseph was the eldest son of the house. The father did what he did, and was able to secure a sum of money and send him to study in Rome. He finished it with excellent results Sandra, that’s the girl’s name, he likes it.”
– “Where are you going”?
– “I have a cousin in the Ministry of Education. I don’t know when the work will end, but, anyway, I will also throw this dice.”
Fatosi looked at the girl and his youth appeared before his eyes. He had finished high school with high results. He had applied to continue his studies, but was refused. A friend had suggested that he go to meet the Minister of Education in Tirana.
– “I hope it helps you,” the friend had told him. – We are patriotic. He knows your family.”
It had gone. The minister was not in Tirana. His deputy was waiting for him. He had told him everything, even about the prison he had done. Finally, he showed him his matriculation certificate. As he had seen it well, the deputy minister had said:
– “Good boy, go to work and live peacefully. Don’t try to ask for more.”
Those words had made him understand that the ways to continue were closed.
These things he thought, looking at the girl with two drops of tears in his eyes. In his conscience he felt that she too would receive the same answer. It was a time of great disappointments, unrealized dreams; locked dreams. Meanwhile a voice was heard from the center of the sound of the train:
– “We are arriving at Tirana station. We ask passengers not to forget their loot”.
They got up and went out. They traveled a short distance together, then parted, they to their cousin, while he to the hospital. After a month, Fatosi met the girl by chance.
– “You started”? – asked him curiously.
– “No”, – she answered, with a trembling voice and tears flowed from her eyes again.
– “Don’t worry, – he told her to calm her down, – you are young and the day will come when you will fulfill your dream”.
They broke up. She ran away with her head down and it seemed to him that she was still crying. It was these tears that he remembered in those moments. It seemed to him that the girl continued to live in that gloomy time.
He gathered himself. He thought for a moment and finally decided. There was an opportunity to help that girl. And that opportunity was he. She would take his place on the list. It was young, full of energy, while he was almost at the end of his road. How could he get in front of her?
– “Stop your tears,” he said. “You will be at the top of the list.”
-“Really”? – she called, without being able to understand what had happened.
– “Don’t ask more. Learn to shine like you did in high school and become valuable to this country. The homeland needs people like you.”
He got up and hugged her. Tears continued to cover her face. But this time they were tears of joy. Memorie.al
