By Zyba Hysen Hysa
Second part
Memorie.al / It was the last days for the graduates of the “Jani Minga” school in Vlora, who, after completing the exams, would receive their teaching diploma. Like every high school graduate, Xhevairja also felt the anxiety and joy of finishing school and often withdrew from society and dreamed. “How will I live without my friends? We have shared joys and worries… we have also shared our first emotions showing each other with a childlike sincerity and openness. How will I live without them?” – he thought and flipped through the notebook of memories which was not yet finished, but Klodi, Shpresa, Vitoria, Merushja, Penelope, Nadineja, Hamideja, Pashako, Vangjelia, Elpiniqi… had written them down in beautiful writing, where they expressed their love socially clean and the concern that one day he might forget them. He stopped at Klodi Kadut’s page, where among other things he wrote: “Xevo, I don’t believe you will forget me, and if you do, remember the jokes we used to make together…” He read them and started laughing to himself. “Well, where can I forget my four-year life, where we shared time and food together? Oh my friend, how much humor you brought me, you never left me bored…”
Continues from last issue
The jewel blushed even more…! In those moments, he wanted to leave the house and never return. This family was found to her as if it were her family, so any word that came out about her, would be a reason to leave them. They didn’t deserve to be shamed. One day the neighbor told him:
– Xhevo, you have become part of our family and we will not leave you from our family again…!
– I feel the same way… thank you for that.
– Besimi also has a brother, so do I, you see which one you like, we love you very much and you have entered our hearts.
She was blushing like today, but with a tickling and exhilarating feeling that comes from the appreciation of people you trust. How he wished it was like this even today! But today he was blushing with shame and anxiety about how he would avoid the inspector. The conversation moved on to the dailies, but Xhevua was sometimes not focused, and even gave unrelated answers.
– Xevo, if you have something that worries you, you can tell me that Besimi has a lot of company and helps you…!
– Here, I’m worried that I won’t be fired, because I don’t have the diploma for high school…!
– I will tell Besim, maybe the job position in the Youth Committee has not been filled…?! There you will have no worries, because you will be subordinate to Faith…!
– It would be good…!
– We discussed it two days ago with my husband, but he told me that; Xhevua did not answer me when I told him, so this has remained pending.
– As of tomorrow, I am ready to leave school…!
In the middle of the conversation, the door slams. Since the neighbor was pregnant, Xhevua got up and opened the door. It was Faith.
– Did you come, man?
– Yes, I would come, because the official schedule is over…!
– Come on, what we talked about with Xhevon…!
– Of course for the better…?!
They both laughed. He laughed too.
Besim was a direct person and he was not in the habit of saying the same thing twice, because there were two things: either yes or no and it was over. He took Xevo’s silence about his proposal to the Youth Committee as: “No” and thus did not tell him again. There was talk that another teacher would come from Berat, but the place was still vacant.
– Faith, Xhevua agrees to come to the Committee…?!
– Like Xevo? I was waiting for you to tell me an answer…! Tomorrow I will talk to my Party friends and when I come back, we will talk…!
– I’m going out, because my friend came, – she said, because she heard the opening of the bedroom door.
The conversation between the couple continued with enthusiasm.
– Listen man, we will take Xevo for my brother…!
– We said it once; my brother is more suitable for Xhevon. Your brother is still in University…!
– Well, so be it!
Sometimes it takes a lifetime for something to happen, sometimes something mysterious moves the chess pieces and wins in two moves. Even for Xhevo, it was truly unimaginable that she rose to the position, from a primary school teacher, directly to a high school and now in the Youth Committee. This is a little surprising for the time, but true. At any time and in any person, miracles happen and this was truly a miracle for Xevo. She welcomed the new appointment with great joy that she would finally escape from the “controls” of the Chief Inspector.
The work in the committee was both beautiful and difficult. Her position was to organize and lead the youth organization of the district in the irreconcilable war against backward customs and religious superstitions, and this really required courage and determination, required oratory and skill, which she did not lack. What was that one thing that fascinated people from the first conversations? This is what happens when a person’s soul and beauty are in unison, and Xhevua was beautiful in appearance and in spirit.
Like any job, committee work had its difficulties. She had to go through all the villages of Tepelena and wherever she went (mostly on foot), she was accompanied by Besimi and they both organized meetings and gatherings, they also participated in the destruction of religious cults, which she never wanted to do, but it was the duty and order of the Party, which did not have the courage to return the word man, that it would be declared “Enemy of the people”.
Work was giving her the opportunity to meet her friends. There was longing. He always thought that they had a hard job, that there was a lack of communication, food supply and the opportunity to come to the city, but when he went and met them, he really felt very lucky. In such a short time, they had transformed and adapted to the environment and the people, you say that the villagers had influenced them and not the villagers! This surprised him, but he said nothing. When he met Myzejen, tears poured down his neck and longing.
– I will talk to the school director to give permission and come to Tepelena with us, stay in my room these days and return on Monday.
– Oh God how I missed him…- said Myzua and threw himself on his neck again.
Luckily the nurse had gone to her house in Berat and they were alone in the room. They talked for a long time and Xhevua was very sad when her friend told about the vicissitudes in the village. He listened and finally the conversation was cut like a knife. Neither was speaking.
– Tell me, Xevo, how you are doing here. I’m glad you made it to the Committee, I’m proud of you.
– Really, Myzo, even I sometimes don’t believe how it happened, but I’ll say it, that fate is caressing me. My neighbors have helped me a lot.
– Really Comrade Besim, he was a good man.
– Not only that, they want to betroth me to his brother, who has graduated from medicine and works in a hospital.
– You will tell me that you have secured the city, who knows where the hoops will fall from; – she said with humor and laughed the loudest.
Xhevua tried to tell about the inspector, but he didn’t have the courage.
Again the conversation stalled.
– Hey, tell us some barsolet, like we used to do at school…?!
– School doesn’t repeat itself anymore, Myzo, I really haven’t forgotten those conversations, those laughs…! Yes, I have mine too. Remember what I told you about the professor… who invited me to the mandolin room and told me to lock the door?
– I remember…!
– These follow me; maybe I unconsciously let people understand that I am immoral?
– Who said this? If you were like that, Besimi wouldn’t want to take him for his brother!?
– Uuu, Myzo, that’s what happened to me with the inspector…- she said and told him about…! – Be careful with him, because even Besim’s wife told me that he is very mean.
– I have no relationship; there is no reason to come all the way there, when the most beautiful teachers have kept them in the city…!
– You are beautiful too…!
– But I have a biography; they don’t approach me easily…!
Meeting between friends is magical. A good friend is more than a sister, because there are some conversations that you can’t have with your sister, completely openly. Xhevua and Myzo were not only classmates, but also neighbors, they had grown up together. Myzo’s mother worked hard in her garden and always sent Myzo with bags full of vegetables and fruits, because they were very poor, so the relationship between them was both a friend and a sister, and neither of them had kept secrets from each other – the other.
Two days passed and Myzua got to know Xevo’s neighbors well. They were really good people and Besimi told him that he would try not to let him work, at least in a village near the city, so that he could come to Xevua every week.
The days were passing as if they were years, so busy with work and activities, that he had no time to stay and organize his thoughts. A few days ago, he had met his brother at Besim’s house. They didn’t talk about the engagement, but the way the conversation was going, all the words were silent about it. From the way he looked at Xhevon, the way he talked, it was clear that they both agreed to spend their lives together, but leaving the city every day, to all the villages for gatherings and meetings with the youth had made it difficult for them. a fait accompli, that they would have to go to Vlora to her parents to ask for her hand in marriage. The work was intense, sometimes in one village, sometimes in another, and she was lucky that Besimi accompanied her everywhere.
One day, while talking with her work friends, Myzua heard one of the darlings of the Party say:
– Here’s the foul smell of the city…!
– Who are you talking about? – She asked.
– Here, that Xevua of yours…!
– Why are you talking about my friend like that?
– Hey, you Vlonjats are like that, take it honest, but on the other hand, you do dirt…!
– My, do you know who you are talking about? She is not my friend, but my sister!
– Even worse then, she has embarrassed you.
– What has she done?
– Do you make love to the inspector?
“Oh God, has she given in to that mascara? What have you done my maid?” – Myzua thought and lowered her head worriedly.
– Huh, why don’t you speak? Or you can’t oppose me. The whole district is boiling for them! Shame on him for having two children and a wife pregnant with twins…!
– For whom inspector are you telling me, for Besim?
– They are completely broken, together in the office, together in the villages; it seems to me that they are together at home, that they live opposite each other in the same building.
– Shut up, they are an honest family and Xhevua will be engaged to Besim’s brother…!
– Hahaaaaaa, that’s how people cover up dirt, yes, how can you convince the whole circle already that there is no one left who doesn’t know this? As soon as they look at Faith, your Xhevua will be there too…!
– You’re going to sew that mouth shut, or… – and got up and slapped his face.
The other friends stood up and shared that they were stuck by the hair. Each sat down with a lock of the other’s hair in her hand.
One of the friends got up and alerted the director. It was a serious event for the team to beat two teachers, especially two teachers who should be an example for everyone in the village.
The principal came and ordered to take the students out and to hold an emergency meeting of the Pedagogical Council. After many discussions, “for” and “abstention”, finally the director decided to propose to the Education Section to send a communique about the event and the decision would come from there.
Myzua knew very well in whose hands the communication would fall and anxiously waited for the answer and not even two days passed, the chief inspector himself came and declared that Besimi and Xevahirja were immoral and not only that, they are preparing to escape. ..! Therefore, teacher Myzejeni, as a precaution, should transfer from here and go to the deepest village of the district. This will be done today. If this meets the Jewel, he will be fired.
The whole district was seething, only Besimi and Xhevo knew nothing, but what surprised them was that they were no longer assigned together in the villages and they saw that the society distanced itself as if they were seeing cholera.
One day the secretary of the youth committee calls the two to his office.
As soon as they were comfortable in the chairs, he spoke harshly:
– Stand up? Love and sit in my office! Shame on you, we’ve filled the whole circle with words, so I don’t dare go out the door. You put the stamp of shame on us!
– Comrade Secretary, we do not understand each other, what have we done?
– How do you not know what you have done? How hypocritical you are, but the Party is vigilant, you are immoral, and the Party condemns the immoral as traitors.
– I still don’t understand you, secretary friend, what do we have to do with immoral people?
– You are really driving me crazy, even the children on the streets laugh at you and of course you neither listen to them nor look at them, because love has blinded their eyes.
– What are you saying, secretary friend, I have Xhevo as a sister and not only that, but I will marry her for my brother…!
– It’s even worse, to leave your lover to your brother…!
– What are you saying, fellow secretary?! This is a serious and completely baseless accusation… please doesn’t say it again, because it’s bad for me as I have a family and for Xevahira because she’s a girl…!
– I’m not accusing, but I’m telling you what I have to say, you’re fired and you won’t get away with it, you’ll answer before the court as abuse of duty for immorality. You have been declared enemies of the people that the enemy strikes you with decadent bourgeois ideology…!
The jewel was speechless. He began to cry bitterly.
– You had cried before, friend Xhevahire, now not tears can wash away your shame, but even the sea…!
She added sobbing. Then the secretary ordered.
– Go to the office and prepare the documents for submission. Tomorrow the substitutes will come and the investigation will be done with you, – he ended the conversation emphatically and got up, because the official schedule had passed.
They came out head down and very shocked and not knowing where to go, they opened the door of the office and went inside.
Everyone sitting in their chair felt like they were in the electric chair and it seemed to them that at any moment the switch would be pressed and they would die. He knew well what was waiting for them, it was enough for them to enter the circle to become an example and that was enough, that the network worked in a chain to denigrate them and so many scenes were created that there was no lawyer in the world to protect them. Justice was the word of the Party and the word of the Party was law. Better to put that key down, than to appear before the court and be discredited in the eyes of the society, the whole tribe, the family…!
Neither spoke. She was crying aloud, he was holding his head with both hands and trying to connect his thoughts, but they were becoming vapor. “Oh god!” – He sighed deeply and loudly. He couldn’t connect any thoughts, but what did he need thoughts for? They were the last to find out what was being said and played on their backs, or rather, they found out their end with shame, without making any shame.
When a person intentionally or unintentionally commits a crime, a shame, or something that has harmed someone, he does it and why does he regret what he did, he accepts it and this is human, what should they accept? That they were honest and had worked with piety? Who would believe them? This would make them doubly burdensome in the court’s sentence. Yes, if they accepted, what would happen? They would remain alive and humiliated by anyone. What to do? When a crime is committed, accomplices try to find a way out, but where would they find the paths when they had done nothing?
Faith did not dare to raise her head to look at the Jewel. But her sobs terrified him and his soul trembled like a slaughtered lamb. What to say to him? He had already killed her unintentionally, but he also felt killed by her because it was the last thing that could happen between them. They found themselves in a closed circle from which they could no longer get out.
Time in times of calamity becomes heavy, but when one experiences time beyond the calamity of an uncompleted crime, time no more time has and one goes out of time and space. They were and were no longer alive.
Suddenly, Besmir got up with a whirl, when he noticed that night had fallen through the window. “Boboooo… What now? What will others think? What about my wife? How could we not sense the time?” – He thought and got up. Instead of going to the door, he opened the safe, took out his pistol, and without making a sound, fired at the Jewel. After the cry, her sobbing stopped.
His head fell on the table and the documents on it turned blood red. He didn’t look at the blood that flowed from her head, nor the brains that flew to the ceiling, he didn’t even look at the gun, nor did he think about what he had done, he just acted and turned the gun and put it in his mouth and the brains his joined the Jewels on the ceiling of the office and fell to the floor in a pool of his own blood.
The office was empty; there were only two victims of gossip and the malice of people without morals. Immoral people, to wash their dirty faces, throw mud at honest people, and as wickedness is installed everywhere, the wicked makes the law and punishes the good.
Three days and three nights, no news from Besmiri and Xvehirja. There were various, strange rumors circulating, but what prevailed was their escape abroad. In addition to immorality, their disappearance strengthened the opinions of the wordsmiths, and with unimaginable ferocity they were talked about as if they were criminals. All the police were searched, the whole area was alerted, but they were nowhere to be seen or found. Then the research was suspended and a very bad smell erupted in the Youth Committee and no one understood where it was coming from.
The two substitutes had come to the section chief’s office and it was decided to tear down the door so they could start work. A carpenter was called and with a chisel, he broke the lock and the door opened, spreading the smell of corpses. The carpenter turned around and went to the boss’s office in a daze.
– Boss friend, something happened in the office…!
– What happened?
– They were killed…!
The chief together with the two substitutes ordered. What did they see: two charred bodies and the office had turned into a cholera place?
The boss slammed the door and hurried back to his office and called the police. Not even three minutes passed and a team of policemen was at the door. They went to the office and put them in bags and took them out dragging them and walking through the streets of the city, shouting: “We found the traitors”, “We found the traitors…”!
All the people of Tepelena looked and someone spat, someone shouted dirty words and many turned away in terror and entered the walls of the house.
The next day, some policemen take Xevaire’s disheveled and humiliated sack to “Zuk” and drive him towards the seaside town. They didn’t call anyone, nor did they see anyone, they just took her out of the car and threw her into a mud pit near her house and ran away, leaving behind the pain and suffering of the poor family from Vlonia.
The fight against backward customs and religious superstitions continued to replace them with the hypocrisy of the New Communist Man…! Memorie.al
