Inquiry Halfway Down The Stairs
Excuse my asking sir, but people say that the grandmother of the family in whose flat you have a furnished room is your mistress. Should that bother anyone? She is a good-looking woman who has just turned 56 and if you must know it, she is quite a spicy one. It was her who
That Sweet Word
I was chatting with actor P. S. of the theatre named after Nottara, when a youngster with a shock of hair typical of 1958 came up to us and addressed our tragedian with perfect politeness:Maestro, I'd like to have your advice, sir!Hearing the word maestro, my elderly
The First Story For Children Under 3
Josette is a big girl already, she is thirty-three months old. One morning, as she does every morning, she directs her small, faltering steps to the door of her parents' room. She tries to push the door open, like a puppy. She loses her patience and shouts, which jolts
Blind Man's Buff
It's two o'clock in the afternoon. In Mr. Nae Huiduma's inexpensive eating house (various hot and cold meals for prices that defy any competition) there are no more customers. The last one, Mr. Codica, from the Clerk's Office of the court, has left as
A Barrack Story
The barracks has always been an endless source of colorful and comic stories, of funny tales subsequently raised to the status of anecdotes… We heard them, we all keep hearing them and we transmit them to others. Who hasn't heard, for instance, the pieces attributed
The Apprentices Of Saint Anthony
excerptIAfter Shrovetide Reverend Ghelasie, mighty tired after the evening of Shrovetide that expended to till the matins service, spent in the company of his friend and neighbor Ghervasie, opened an eye only when the early March sun, also fatigued, cast a reddish-yellow
Local Civilization
'Make your stores - they're cutting it off,' calls the bobby, pushing the entrance door ajar. And every member of the household hurries to grab a pail, a mug or any of the tinier pots and pans, dashing forward to the tap (the house is endowed with a tap -
Long Autumn
In our parts, at Jassy, autumn starts late in May and lasts until Christmas. There is no summer in Jassy. If from time to time, winter did not come we could say we have only autumn over here. Nice weather begins with foul smells, green flies and heat. Then it turns nasty.
Ismail And Turnavitu
excerpt Ismail is made up of eyes, whiskers and an evening gown and nowadays he is in very short supply in the market. Formerly, he used to grow in the Botanical Garden too, and later on, thanks to the progress of modern science, one has managed to produce one chemically,
The Uninvited Guest
It was past midnight. I had gone to bed a long time ago but sleep refused to come. I was permanently lulled between sleep and wakefulness by the same strange dream. I woke up with a start: somebody must have knocked at the front door. I heard the knocking again. Rather dizzy
The Keys
Mitzu and Barutzu have grown up some and started conspiring. In the brief reprieves between a lot of hair-pulling and two-way jostling, with their generation's interests in mind, they eventually realize they are in duty bound to organize against the big guns: Mummy
Vegetarianism
In the forty-fifth year of his life, Mr. Matache Pisălog noticed he could no longer button up the last three buttons of his brand-new waistcoat he had had made barely three years before. He also noticed then that his belly had started following the fashion of balloons -