E fundit!

08:34 CRIME

Anti-drug operation in Kruja Highlands, Kruja and Thumana

Authorities have conducted a large-scale anti-drug operati...

LIFE AS A MOVIE...

2024-06-23 11:46:00, Kulturë Agim Xhafka

Illustrative photo

Romeo and Elvira met and fell in love in the combine, in those years that today we call dictatorship. They worked together and as calm, wise, hard-working, polite and silent natures it was certain that they would join one day. They liked each other's behavior and the way they talked to each other. No pictures, no exaggerations, but in simple words as their clear thought. In the simple wedding, beautifully organized in the narrowness of the small house, many people filled the road outside where the cars passed.

After that, the flow of their lives went smoothly, without quarrels and fights, with those problems that the entire population of the country had. With food shortages first. But Romeo's mother and father, who lived with him, made that maneuver in the neighborhood as if they lived apart from the boy, so they provided another food stamp. So when Blerta, the first daughter, was born, they didn't feel a big void at the table. To that house full of light and sincerity was added the little girl who gave so much gas that it seemed as if the sun shone there even at night.

The modest life, but with such warmth, made the whole little house in the corner of the city happy. So until one day lightning struck the tiles of this family. After the regime broke its neck, the factory was closed, the first of the new government's reforms. Romeo and Elvira loved the change, but they didn't think that one day they would both be out of work.

They woke up like always and didn't know where to go. A few days with the elders, with some coffee and chats, and then insecurity entered the blood, like that fear when after the first earthquake passes in your brain, you are convinced that, after a while, the next stronger one will fall. Romeo was a mechanic, he did everything, but neither a new factory nor a workshop was being opened. People started trading, buy and sell was everyone's motto. One morning Nesti, a friend of the factory that closed down brought Romeo an ice cream machine.

- I got two in Greece, they were cheap. Pour milk and sugar and it's done, he said.

Romeo placed it at the door of the house. Fortunately, spring had just arrived and there were many children passing by their street because there was a school nearby. He worked for a few days, then left Elvira and fled to Tirana himself. He had an idea and from there he came up with a small machine that made keys. People were changing the doors of the houses and it was suspected that there would be work.

But not as much as he thought. It was dripping, but they won more with the ice creams. So they passed the days and at dusk they played in the small yard with Blerta who was growing up. Between these events, their second child was born. The house was full, said Romeo's mother. Meanwhile, the ice cream maker and the key maker continued their work.

One morning at the neighbor's door, across the street, another ice cream machine started working. And they bought it in Greece. Everyone has their own kismet, said Romeo, but he was saddened that they were making little income from the ice creams at dinner. Expenses were rising. As luck would have it, a distant cousin set up a dairy and wanted a driver to collect milk in several villages of Devolli.

A three-hour job, but he was paid as much as he got from ice cream and keys. Romeo was picked up at four in the morning and by eight o'clock he was at the key machine. His cheeky smile returned. They found time to play with the girls. Until one day, returning from Dishnica, he had dizziness and chest pain. He stopped the car and his head fell on the steering wheel. When he opened his eyes, he was taken to the hospital.

- You had a pre-infarction, - Elvira told him and wept.

There were no machines or medicine in the city then. He was forced to go to Tirana. They told him to find the opportunity to escape to Greece, he should definitely have a coronary angiography. He returned to Korça. He laughed and played with the oysters and at night he talked to himself, I will postpone it as I will postpone it, I have neither the opportunity nor the time to get sick. And at 4 o'clock, as always, he took the car to collect milk in the villages. Another week, another month and his heart beat again. He said, don't be brave with me, don't tire me anymore! At dinner he talked with his parents and Elvira. They decided to ask the tribe for debt. When they woke up, they started knocking. But they saw that all the cousins ??lived much worse than Romeo.

They were desperate until the father said, let's sell the house, son. Romeo jumped up and went out. The next day, many people knocked. The house was really small, but it had a yard and was on the side of the road. After a week, they left there and entered an adjacent apartment. Rented, but there was a space by the stairs where the ice cream maker was placed.

Romeo fled to Greece and when he returned he was healthy and summer. He had made a balloon and placed two rings in the aorta. My blood flows like that of a young man, he said. A peddler in Athens helped him. He did everything in the hospital with his insurance card. They had an age, they stuck it so much that no one suspected. He did not spend a single drachma, except for the travel and the expenses of those days.

The gas and joy returned. Now when he was driving he sang. They stabilized as a family. There were dramas like the death of Romeo's father, but age tells you and you prepare yourself. It went on for months and several years until one day the dairy cousin sold the factory, the family fled to Greece. The new owner took Romeo's car and when he least expected it, he found himself without a job. It was winter.

Elvira almost never made ice cream. The oysters grew up and just laughed. They were in the age of joy. Every morning Romeo went out to the town square, perhaps looking for a worker. Even manual labor, unless I earn something, he prayed. But it was not luck on his side. He became closed, speechless and stayed at home only in the bedroom. There was no money even for heart medicine. He left them completely and at night he woke up from anxiety, he was afraid of the arrhythmia that was becoming more frequent. One lunchtime he entered the house bowed and saw that Elvira and the two girls were laughing at him. It was not welcome. It was buzagaz that had news inside.

- What happened that you are so happy?

- Look, - they told him and left an envelope in his hand.

Above it read "American Embassy", inside "You are the winner of the lottery..on dt. that's it, at 8 o'clock in the morning you should be in the surroundings as a family.."

It seemed like a game. The American lottery was being talked about everywhere, but he hadn't applied. The girls explained. Together with Elvira, they made the request and lo and behold, luck came to them when the night was not dawning. You felt so torn after this news, just like when a car you're sure is going to run over you suddenly stops right at your feet.

They didn't wait any longer, they started preparing the documents. They had a painful conversation with their mother, but she was already urging them to run away. They went to the embassy, ??did the interview and after three months landed at the Chicago airport. The girls responded to the immigration officer's English. We learned English all these years because we knew we would win, they laughed. It became easier and after a few weeks they started work in a textile factory, just like the factory in Korça. Then they got comfortable, they didn't buy a house, they got tired, their dreams started and the girls went to school and every time they saw an ice cream shop in warm weather they ran there. They remembered their city, but they also thought that what was selling them was needy like Elvira once was.

Romeo's heart is a clock, he rechecks it every three months in hospitals so good that you want to get sick, he laughs. He talks and cries with his mother. She often goes to the other boy in Thessaloniki. But she feels happier after talking with Romeo.

- That you are far, far away, son, and that you have arranged yourself as your heart desires. God didn't see you.

I always say the same words. God sees the truly good, he is the scriptwriter of their lives.

It's warm in Chicago now. At the edge of the lake you will see Romeo, Elvira and their daughters every Saturday. They walk the same way as in Korça, with the scents of flowers and trees all around, but longing for what they left across the ocean. And with grandchildren holding hands.

- Do you feel the smell of Korça here? - says Romeo to the girls.

-Dad, get your mind together, we're in Chicago!

- I know, I know, but this city has been our Korça for years and years. It has become our commodity and our medicine…/ CNA