The Group

excerpt TEODOR: There's no need anyway. Bring me the notebook and you can manage it by yourself! (After a pause) Didn't you hear what I said?ILIE (in an undertone): Wait, I'll bring it to you later...TEODOR: I want now!ILIE: Now... I don't have it...TEODOR: What do you mean you don't have it?! I've been here while you were gone and I left it.ILIE: I know...TEODOR: So?ILIE: But I don't have it...TEODOR: You've lost my notebook?ILIE: I've told you that I'll bring it.TEODOR: But I don't need you to bring it! (Nataliţa and Aurel enter and Teodor addresses them) Or perhaps you have it?ILIE: No...NATALIŢA: What?TEODOR: Come on, stop playing mysterious, I'm not in the mood for jokes. Give me my notebook and that's all! As far as I'm concerned you can help him from now on....AUREL: And you.... As if you've helped him a lot till now...NATALIŢA: Don't worry; we'll help him from now on.TEODOR: Very well! You just give me my notebook and the rest is your business.NATALIŢA: That is our business too!TEODOR (understanding that he can't make any progress): You'll give it to me tomorrow at school...NATALIŢA: Let's be understood, Teodor. First of all, we don't have the notebook. AUREL: Secondly, don't threaten us.TEODOR: But I'm not threatening... (Father enters, with Costache, holding his hand)FATHER: What do you have with Costache? Why did you make him cry? What beans is he saying that the crow ate? (Ilie stays quiet, looking to one side, as if he would have nothing to do with the discussion. Father sees the water barrel and asks him, surprised): What did you start doing here? (To the colleagues) Look at him and see what he could come up with. (Ilie tries to leave) Wait, where are you going now? (Ilie stops) From this notebook, it wasn't hard for me to tell that for tomorrow you have some geometry problems as homework...TEODOR (quietly, more for himself): My notebook…FATHER (continuing): I ask him: "Did you study for tomorrow?" (Changing tone) Oh, yes, I forgot… before this, I asked him where he was gone. And what do you think he says to me? "At a colleague's (showing the notebook) who asked me to check if he had done well his math exercises!" (All laugh) Yes. He didn't know what happened in his absence. (Changing back to his previous tone) So… I ask him: "Did you study, Ilie?" What did he answer me?ILIE (hardly): That I did…FATHER: "How could I not, since I am checking another?" Is it so?ILIE: It is… (The children laugh, except for Nataliţa, whose look urges the others to stop)FATHER: "All right," I say. "Then tell me how much water this barrel can hold." I mean, calculating its volume… and look what he started to do! It is easier to carry twenty buckets of water – that's the number – than to find a formula…TEODOR (saying quickly, in one breath): 3.14 multiplied by the square of the radius and…FATHER: Is that easier?ILIE (mumbling) If I didn't know the formula…FATHER: How could you know it, if you don't learn? How could you know it? (After a pause) Your colleagues made a promise: not to have any grade less than…NATALIŢA (completing): Seven.FATHER: And because of you, they can't keep it. And that's that, all can, but you don't want to. That's how it is: you don't want to.ILIE: But I do want…FATHER: How come? "I want!" What, is it enough to want? You go to the teacher and say: "I want grade seven, so that I don't break the agreement that I made. And the teacher will give you a seven, perhaps eight, so as not to be on the borderline. (After a short pause) How come? Don't you have to study for this seven? That would mean, in my job, for me to say "I want this locomotive to start!" And it would start… What do you think, is it possible?ILIE: It's not possible. from Curtain Up!, Tineretului, 1965


by Vasile Cojocaru