Yes, only that she didn’t propose this and although he asked her to get married she didn’t even want to hear about it. When he used to mention this she started to laugh. Nobody knew why she was so special than “so many others”. For certainty Pavel was already addictive to her, he who used to laugh about the love of women that got into his life for more than 30 years, having a longer or shorter lay-over in his house. Could these be the “swan enchantment” of the affairs of a man of 50 years old? Nobody knows. They inhabited and lived in a happy dream for about six months. Pavel felt in love with Iulii day by day. All her wishes were as a rule for Pavel. What else, he adored her. He started to buy her countless presents, more and more expensive, more substantial, until one day, when not knowing how to act he proposed to her, to get married with him. If she makes that step everything that he has, house, fortune, will be on her name. Even so it seems he didn’t manage to impress Iuli, that lately seemed that nothing could impress her anymore, but Pavel, in his blind love, thought that Iuli believes he is not capable of this gesture, maybe that is why she was so unapproachable from this point of view. They might have lived one more month in this happiness, but this time at Iuli’s place, since Pavel “passed” all his fortuned and house on her. After committing this act, after this fateful prove of love, at a few days a guy shows up. Pavel, polite and gracious, invited him in the house, fastened him and seeing he is a stranger, proposed to stay the night over. At night Pavel went to sleep waiting for Iuli. Seeing she is late, he went after her, asking her to go to sleep. Iuli answered:
– Pavel, how do you expect me to sleep with you in front of my husband?
– Dear Iuli, what husband are you talking about?
– Emil, the man you invited inside the house is my husband.
– What are you talking about woman?!
– If you don’t believe me I can show you the wedding certificate. I’m his wife.
Pavel was as crippled. In such situation there was nothing else to say. He loved one time in his life and even then a married woman. Until now he didn’t even wish to know what this woman did in her 35 years lifetime, although all these could have straightened up if he had given a single phone call. The husband and wife, rejoining, slept, as it was normal, together. After a few hours their children and relatives showed up … The family reunited. Pavel moved back into the summer kitchen, becoming indulged by Iuli’s family that was managing and consuming his own fortune.

After this take-down of life and stupidity, Pavel lived for about 8 more months and than, with his soul full of sadness, died. After his death and the breathable life of those two, an untold question remains: How could it be that Pavel didn’t even move a finger for saving the fortune that was taken through blackmail by this woman? I mean by this woman that you see in the yard, specified Buia.
At a year or maybe two, a rumor that might have been an answer at the unexpressed question took place. Sometimes a long time ago, when Pavel was a young and handsome bachelor, had a mission in the home village of Iulica that was recently married. Being that Julia’s husband during those days wasn’t home; she and Pavel got to know and liked each other. From these love a baby was born, that goes to high school now. The funny part is that Pavel didn’t recognize Julie, the one from his adolescence that even then broke his heart, only after her husband came back. Then the situation became embarrassing. If Julie didn’t enmesh him in adolescence, Pavel couldn’t avoid it now. In such way ended the life of the only man, a convinced bachelor (until Julie) that I have known and that felt in love two times in his life by the same woman at different ages. So, the people that you see now in that yard are the relatives of Julie, the woman that opened the desire of living for Pavel, but also the door to his grave. And how it may be known: nobody built happiness behalf other’s sorrow. Julia’s big son, found out that his real father was, namely Pavel, how his father and mother treated him and gave them an ultimatum. As an inheritor of Pavel, his mother Julie and his husband should leave his house and fortune.
– Poor man, the teacher couldn’t resist, he lived a fully life with no worries, nothing missing, no gravity, after his own desires, but death came as a dart into the soul that for the first time choused to love.
– This is it. Who knows what’s left for us too, Thomas replied, Buia’s namesake, while they were slowly going ahead down the street.
They were going leisurely because Buia was hardly moving. He had a difficulty in walking because of a chronically rheumatism, after the hard work from the mine. In fact, as he was saying, he might have avoided the “earning” if Purcaret gallery wouldn’t have given itself for excavation in which the work itself wasn’t harder than in other places, but as it was an escarpment gallery, short enough it was as “warm” as it was outside.

I’m telling you this, Buia continued, because we started to work at this gallery in autumn and the winter that came it was a pretty cold one. However the winter might have been in other places, here in Handal a horrible draft gets you. We used to get out from second shift wet through the skin. Our clothes started to froze. So it won’t cut us under our arm how it got frozen, we kept rising our hands according the cold that caught us on our wet clothes. When we got home our hands were horizontal, at the arms level. We were some frozen crosses. Not by a long sight were we able to open the door. We were punching out the door with the boot, we stand behind a step or two when our wives will get outside, they turned us so we could get inside the house and we won’t slip, in this way they could break off anything from us and they pulled us inside. For a while we were sitting in the tray so the umber won’t pour on the door mats because the acids it was made from would burn. After our arms would fall near our body, they would carefully undress us in such way that the frozen clothes won’t tear us the skin tied up to it.
Now I begin to feel the remains of those days when we used to become frozen crosses. It was a hard time, but probably it was the most beautiful time from my mine digger life. My woman, the woman I got married with, had four kids, from whom only one boy. I liked him a lot although nobody ever called me down for not treating my wife’s kids as a real father, I loved that boy the way I think I would have loved my own child. I cared for him as for my own being. He was austere in work, serviceable, fast in decisions and for his sake “I cut down from my yard” and built him a house near my own so he would be close, to have him near me all the time. He was everything for me; he would carry my name and my reputation after I’m gone. I liked to know him close to me, to have him near me all the time, that’s why I took him near me in my team and taught him the handicraft of mining. I used him anywhere I needed him because he was very austere, he learned fast and even at the engines he was very skilled and if we wouldn’t have a man at the compressor we used to send him to turn it on, to give us air. We didn’t have pipe lines so he lengthens it so we could make holes. He managed great in everything and everybody cherished him and he pleased everyone. He is a very special boy, Buia concludes.
On the bank of the river an old restaurant stud up. Ion, the other guest of Buia, makes a sort of an observation that shocked us too: