I was with my brother, a lame child, in the forest, looking for mushrooms. I couldn’t just tear myself away from him because I felt lost, nobody’s. For this reason, the poor brother did not know how to get rid of me. Maybe he had personal needs too. But I’m still after him.
And as we were near a barn in the forest, me being a child, the grass reached above my waist. There it was like a forsaken fold and like a detour in the middle of the forest. They were big, mean sheepdogs. These dogs started chasing us.
Fratemiu told me something: get ready to run! And then we both ran away from the dogs, and we ran so hard through that waist-deep grass that we ended up with bleeding feet. I only had one slipper left, which I threw away as well, because I couldn’t walk with only one slipper on my feet. The world would have thought me crazy.
It was in the middle of the forest, and no one could see us, no one had anyone to jump to our aid. I was on my own. His brother considered me his equal, he did not take me in his arms. He trusted me.
We ran away from the sheepdogs, hid, left so that they wouldn’t notice us, then as I said, I threw away the flip flop that was still intact, then walked barefoot about 5 Km to home. That’s how bread was earned back then, with pain, walking directly on stones, without shoes, running away from other animals, and fear.
I don’t remember if we came home with some mushrooms from the forest, because we both went for mushrooms. He probably sent our mother or took me as a brother with him. I was too young, and I don’t remember exactly, but I would probably remember if I stayed awake for a long time at the gate of the memory box to see what memories emerge.