FEM by Magda Cârneci

Author:Magda Cârneci
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Deep Vellum
Published: 2021-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

TWO WOMEN

Do you remember? A few years ago, we had some things to take care of in Constanţa. We climbed down from the crowded train in the morning, we walked through the heaps of luggage and groups of noisy kids on vacation who yelled insults and shouted at each other. We went through the tall, glass entryway of the station, almost empty at that hour, and we went to the street. In order to see the city a little, we decided to walk toward the center, avoiding the main street for some empty side streets. Cutting across a park, we found the earth was still damp, and a cool humidity, slightly salty, floated over it. Can you feel the sea? You asked and then bought me a small bouquet of white, spicy hyacinths.

Only that afternoon, killing time before the train left, did we go to the seaside. There were fairly few people there, older people mostly, walking up and down in the sharp and salty sea air. The cloudy morning had changed into a luminous day. On the top step of a concrete staircase leading down to the sea, we sat in dry grass, among some plastic glasses and torn paper left from the night before. Below, there was a happy group of kids running and shouting. They might be the same as from this morning, I thought. Only later, once we had calmed down from the agitation around us, trying to take in the vast and open atmosphere of the beach, did I see the women.

There was a couple below, at the other end of the concrete steps. Better put, there were two shadows holding each other, one taller woman with her arm around the smaller shadow. Like us, I thought. They were at the end of the stairs, two small shadows that looked so much like us; I felt close to them, fraternal, as though I were looking at us from outside. The immense sky, surprising for our city eyes used to thick, tall buildings, fell over us with its splendorous, giant towers of shining clouds, white and faraway. A kind of gentle liquefaction passed through me slowly. I watched the sea for a long time, there were tall, choppy waves, their churning white froth looked like the pure and precious saliva of a giant liquid mammal. Only later, when the taller of the shadows at the end of the stairs removed her arm from the other’s shoulders, turning to show something, was I surprised.

It was a woman. In fact, there were two women. Two young women, leaning against each other, embracing. Without intending to I jumped, I tensed. Something, like a bit of electricity, vibrated in my chest. Was it perhaps these girls? I leaned closer to you, while you did not seem to have noticed anything special—it’s good you exist, I surprised myself thinking, like a well-behaved woman. I tried to look just at the sea, its liquefaceous crashing, but I could not avoid glancing toward the two women.

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