I had forgotten about the army with all its miseries and continued living my life. More precisely, I resumed my life from where I had left off, continuing to do what I knew best: drinking.
Don’t ask me with what money. Or you can ask, it’s all the same.
“With what money?”
“Well… I started selling items from around the house.”
At first, my books found their way to the secondhand bookstore. After that, I continued to set my sights on various things in the attic. Then I moved down from the attic into the house. In the path of a man with a throat burning from thirst, there are neither obstacles nor strongholds.
One of those days when I lived engulfed in a sweet numbness, I was in a lousy tavern and barely managed to pull a wretched soul out of the hands of two neighborhood thugs.
After I pulled the poor guy outside, I asked him, half-amazed, half-amused:
“What the hell are you doing in this tavern, you mouse? You don’t seem to be from around here.”
The “mouse” was a skinny boy with glasses, dressed quite neatly. He had probably gotten lost there or was fed up with life and wanted to try some thrills.
“Let’s sit on this bench,” he said, blushing. “Thank you very much for lending me a hand! I don’t know what I would have done without you.”
I lit a cigarette and offered him one as well. He reached out, then looked more closely at the pack and said only: “Ah, you smoke unfiltered? No, thank you.”
From one conversation to another, he told me he was a second-year law student.
“Is it hard to be a law student?” I asked him, not knowing what else to ask.
The mouse told me it wasn’t hard, on the contrary, it was a piece of cake.
“The key is to try. The rest comes naturally.”
“Yes, but not everything in life turns out the way you want. Even if you try. Look, for example, you tried to talk to those two troglodytes and almost got beaten up.”
“True,” he replied smiling. “Listen, give me one of those cigarettes, even if it’s unfiltered. I feel the need to smoke with you.”
He coughed a few times, put out the cigarette resignedly, and continued:
“If you want, I can lend you the textbooks I used for the entrance exam. I don’t need them anymore; they’re just sitting on the bookshelf.”
“Do you think I could get into Law School?” I asked, surprised.
“Why not? If you finished high school and passed the baccalaureate, there’s no obstacle. If I can do it, you can too!” he said encouragingly.
I fell into thought. I did the math. It didn’t add up.
“But I’m crazy,” I whispered after a while. “Mad as a hatter.”
The mouse started laughing and patted me on the shoulder, as if I had told him some joke.
“That’s not an obstacle,” he added cheerfully. “It’s actually an advantage. You can’t be a good lawyer unless you’re a bit crazy. And the crazier you are, the better. You can become an even more valuable lawyer!”
“You’re a joker!” I said, feeling the hair on the back of my neck stand up. The mouse’s hand was still there, on my shoulder. I coughed awkwardly and politely withdrew my shoulder from under his palm. “What’s your name, joker?”
“Alfredo,” he said, pushing his glasses up his nose with a finger. “Nice to meet you!”
“Alfredo?” I snorted. “What kind of name is that?”
“An Italian name,” he replied, looking at me innocently through the lenses of his glasses.
“Are your parents snobs or what? Couldn’t they give you a real name? A more… native one?”
“Well, it’s not my real name,” he clarified with an offended princess-like air. “It’s a name I chose because I like it. And you know, it’s not polite at all to make such remarks,” he added in a strange tone.
I looked at him carefully. Something was wrong with that mouse named Alfredo. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but I felt from all my pores that the guy wasn’t okay. Sometimes, his voice had strange modulations. It was like he wasn’t talking, but singing. And the gestures. They were somehow inappropriate. That hand on my shoulder. Something didn’t fit.
Then the light bulb went off in my head, and I squinted at him, looking him up and down.
I took another cigarette from the pack, and this time, it was my turn to choke on the smoke. My fingers were trembling, and I felt an unhealthy tension in the air. I took a deep breath and asked him directly:
“Alfredo, I hope I don’t offend you, but I have to know. Are you, by any chance, an inverted?”
“If I am… what?” he said, wide-eyed.
“You know… how do you say… a fag. Are you?”
“Where did you get that idea?” he replied with an icy tone.
“Sorry!” I said quickly. “I don’t know what came over me, but for a moment, I had the feeling that you were one of those… you know, the other way around. Thank God you’re not!” I continued, relieved. “Again, sorry, buddy. Don’t take it the wrong way. I told you I’m crazy! Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me and jumps around like a monkey. Do you want another cigarette, Alfredo?”
The guy raised his hand to refuse, then took off his glasses and started wiping the lenses with the hem of his coat.
“And if I were, what’s the problem?” he asked, wiping his glasses absentmindedly.
Hearing him, I jumped. My blood pressure shot up, like a bull seeing a red flag. I jumped up from the bench.
That was the moment when I had to either throw a right hook or… turn on my heel and get the hell out of there. I knew that, but I couldn’t decide which option to choose.
Then I thought sadly that if I sent the mouse to the hospital, there would be no one to give me the books, and I wouldn’t be able to study to get into Law School.
“There’s no problem if… you’re homosexual,” I said in a faint voice.
The next second, I couldn’t believe what I had said. Had I said that? Really?
“I prefer the term ‘gay,’” he replied calmly, looking me straight in the eye. “It’s a shorter word and doesn’t sound so ugly. Yes, I’m gay. Do you hate me because I’m gay?”
“I don’t hate you, damn it!” I said, curling my lower lip. “So? Will you give me those books or not?”
***
That day, even though I had been drinking, I went home sober and clear-headed.
“What are those?” my father asked. I had a stack of books under my arm.
“They’re the textbooks I’ll study from. I’m going to be a student at the Faculty of Law. The entrance exam is in five months.”
“A student?” my father said, blinking rapidly. “Seriously?”
“Seriously!” I confirmed proudly. “I’ve decided; law is the most suitable career for a madman!”
“You’re not mad!” my father protested, getting a bit worked up. “Don’t say that again. A lawyer, then… Well, good luck!” he added and then left me alone.
I admit, it wasn’t easy, but after five months of studying, I got into Law.
All my life, I had been an extraordinarily lazy guy, but sometimes I set my mind on something that seemed very important to me. In those moments, I focused so intensely on the object of my passion that… it had to happen.
So, through my determination and encouraged from time to time by Alfredo, I studied like a maniac, and in the end, I succeeded. Stubbornness is good for something if you direct it properly.
“So, in the end, you graduated from Law and became a lawyer!” Eva said excitedly. “Very nice, Tiberiu!”
“Who, me?” I asked, suddenly pulled from my reverie.
I burst into laughter. Listen to her, what nonsense she’s saying.
Ha, ha, ha! A lawyer!
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