2
I arrive at the designated address. There are three cars parked in the yard. The house is large, the facade freshly painted. Immediately I plunge into imagining the separate part which is for sale. Perhaps it is this little wing here, in the form of “L”. I see a man and a woman sitting on the porch, I greet them, uncertainty echoing in my voice. They do not hear me. The path leads me to the left side of the house. On the right side is well cultivated, impressively green grass that leads to the main entrance and the porch on which the man and woman are sitting. A girl is running towards me, she hugs me strongly around my waist, holds me tight, so tight that I have problem breathing.
– Vera, let go of the woman – a bit older girl behind is saying.
Vera does not let me go. – It’s a letter – she says. I caress her gently on the head, hopeful that she will let me go, but she still holds me tight.
– You have to push her away. She won’t let go until you tell her to. Push her away – the older girl, probably her sister, advises me. But I cannot push Vera away.
– It’s a letter – Vera repeats.
– What does it mean? – I ask her.
– She doesn’t know how to explain. She’s been repeating that since May – the other girl answers.
Then she asks if I’m here for the sale advertisement, separates her younger sister from me with a dexterous move, and leads me on the path to the left side door. I wonder if the parents would come, but she does not intend to call them, as it seems. We stop in front of the door, and she realizes she has no key. She runs to the front of the house. Vera is looking straight at my eyes.
– It’s a letter.
– I’d love to see it.
Vera runs off.
The man walks towards one of the cars. He notices me, but does not greet me.
– Letka, take the keys, Elena has forgotten them – his exaggeratingly loud voice startles me.
– I’m coming, I’m coming – I hear a voice from inside the house. The woman comes out and knocks on the window of the car that has already started moving in reverse. – On your way back, take the curtains we ordered, the shop just called, and said they were ready.
– Oh, come on, we’re not going to argue about that again, are we? – the man replies and closes the window. It’s hot outside, the air conditioning in the car would be useless if the window were open.
– Violeta – the woman presents herself to me. – You can also call me Letka.
At that moment, Vera comes back, opens a math textbook, and shows me some equations with her hand.
– It’s a letter – she indicates one of the equations.
– Leave the woman alone, she has come for something else – her mother says.
– It’s okay, I taught physics in high school, I can see what she is talking about.
Violeta seems impatient, I probably take more of her time than she is willing to give to a buyer from whom, I presume, she will not earn anything, considering that the part of the house which is for sale belongs to her husband’s sister, as the woman on the phone said.
I nevertheless decide to look at the equations. Some results are written beside them with a pencil. One result, the one that Vera points out, is wrong. I solve the equation quickly, and point out the right result. Vera moves her head left and right for a long time, refusing to accept the result, she wants to say something, but she only manages to utter a sound of discontent.
– The results are given in the back of the book, that’s where we saw them, but something doesn’t match, according to her – her mother explains. – My husband’s sister doesn’t live in Skopje, so we are selling her part – she changes the tone while unlocking the wooden door, which is difficult to unlock, and which moves with a squealing sound.
What opens up in front of me is the subterranean cave from the childhood stories, situated somewhere on a secret location on the Run-Sar-Tijarna mountain, which hides those who have broken the law. The five stairs going down lead to another world, different from the warm garden around us, different from the freshly painted house, from the voices of the two girls and their parents, different from the apartment I lived in, from the town through which I walked to get here. Violeta makes a move with her hand, signaling that I should get inside first, without guidance, without comfort.