Part 2 The translator - Glimpse III

It was a beautiful sunny afternoon. The fresh snow glistened in the sun, bathing the buildings in a warm glow.

Snow cheerfully cracked under her feet as she walked down Bratislava’s tourist plaza and she herself had a big smile that day because she would get to buy more books for herself, from her favorite antique’s shop no less.

She entered the empty shop and began to search for books she liked to ad to her collection: like happy ending science fiction, mysterious horror and amusing detective stories. She then moved onto the random bizarre section to see what gems she may find there and then started to return to the cash register in the hopes that now maybe the old clerk had returned.

On her was back her eye caught a book in the poetry section. “It couldn’t be!” She thought. Someone had translated the book she refused to, so she dropped her books and picked up the little poetry booklet and immediately opened it to confirm it was it.

When you hear the dark maiden’s song,

You’ll know what you’ve been waiting for so long

The end of all sorrow and grief

Death will no longer seem like a thief.

Loneliness will be a distant memory,

There will be no burden to carry.

The moon shines bright

In the dead of night

And the wind whispers in your ear

That there is nothing to fear.

So the storm in your heart breaks out

Blocking the light and all doubt.

The river sits still

And silent is the mill.

It stopped grinding bone

While I cross on my own.

I cross the river’s ill waters,

Sickened by the blood of sons and daughters.

Behind me the river resumes its course

Washing away that which was worse,

I then lose myself in the shadow forest,

My soul hanged from the branch tallest…

“No.” She whispered softly then frantically she turned the pages to see who had translated and published it. When she got to the first page her fingers tore the page from its binding before she could turn it, but it didn’t hurt her no more than the hands tearing the skin from her body. The men’s hands tore at her flesh relentlessly as white plump maggots crawled on the dirty dishes in her kitchen sink. The sound of torn paper cut deeper than anything they could do to her, in the end it even felt like a release.

She awoke suddenly like from a fall. But this time she was grateful for being pulled out of her horrible nightmare. She had fallen asleep this time on the veranda bench and so she looked around confused then checked her hands and neck for injuries.

Aside from the neck pain not much else seemed to be wrong. It was cold outside even if someone put a blanket over her and it was dark now, so she wondered what time it could have been. She felt scared and dirty and confused, so she didn’t linger under the open sky any further.

After arriving in her room, she checked her emails, before going out to eat something since the hot spring spa inn only offered a decent breakfast, the menu was pretty simple rest of the time. For something interesting and tasty she would have to leave the retreat.

Her boyfriend had messaged her, telling her how much she loved her and was eager to have her back home. She gave a polite reply because she was waiting to get back home before she would dump him in person, she didn’t want to do it over a text. She didn’t want to do it before she left because they had common friends, and this would undoubtedly cause much drama in her absence. Next was Halloween, then comes Christmas, then his birthday, then Valentine, then his sick dad’s birthday … “no good moment to escape” in the foreseeable future.

She closed the laptop with sadness. “His promises and words never aligned with his behavior, I should have never taken him back”. She thought to herself as she lamented her weakness for big flower bouquets and sweet promises.

Bundled up she set of for the town’s food street and all along the way a mish mash of Jidai Matsuri, Halloween and Mid-autumn moon festival decorations had been set up as ongoing costumed processions were parading the streets. In one Biru Shopu east asians in blond wigs were celebrating Oktoberfest and the whole town was alive with celebration. Even the dwarf red maple trees picked up the jolly light from shops as though they themselves danced drunk to the karaoke music.

She turned right into the main street only to be confronted with a long line of traditional japanese monster floats, gently gliding down the street behind a group of dancers and theater actors. People were taking pictures and the cameras flashing really annoyed her.

Looking around for some good local food she noticed an outdoor tiny ramen stand, and as she was looking at it trying to decide if it was worth the effort to squeeze between the tourists the shopkeeper waved at her calling her to him and raised a big steamy bowl of ramen. She was hooked so she squeezed her way past tourists and then over the street bridge, passing above the procession until she finally reached the stand on the other side of the street.

He was nestled in tightly on an alee between two other restaurants and at the stand a middle-aged couple was already seated and eating.

- Welcome! Welcome! What can I get ya’? The japanese shopkeeper asked her in japanese.

- Hi there! Added the customer in spanish and his wife repeated after him.

- Hi, thank you! She replied in spanish to the customers then turned to the shopkeeper and asked in japanese for the house special.

- Right away! He answered in spanish since he saw everyone could understand spanish.

She noticed a faint line in the shopkeeper’s hair, above his right ear. “It’s probably where he had his implant”, she thought to herself. “A pretty sloppy surgery, it left a hairless scar underneath”, she concluded.

- This is the best ramen around here, the miso is great! The customer added as his wife tried to look at her over his husband’s hands waving above his bowl.

- Yes, looks very tasty. She replied as she turned to the shopkeeper and smiled at him.

- Where are you from?

- Europe, east Europe.

- Ohhh! We’re from Peru!

- Yes, we are on our summer vacation! His wife shouted trying to make herself heard over the music in the street. We’re teachers, what do you do? Do you like it here? We like it very much!

- Yes, we're celebrating 30 years of marriage. The husband added.

- Oh, you’re from the future? She was surprised they could go so recently back.

- Yes! He, he! He laughed cheekily. We got special permission. And he winked at her.

- I thought the South American Union abides by the same laws as the European Union since they are both in the Earth United Nations.

- You can get special permission from the ministry if you are an “outstanding” citizen, didn’t get to use your vacation days for the past 5 years and of course you can’t be in the same union zone for the duration of your traveling time and so on.

- Interesting I didn’t know that! She proclaimed. Anyway, I guess this is congratulations then! We must drink to your health and good fortunes and 30 more happy years together!

- Yes, thank you! Oji-san more beer! The husband jokingly demanded to the shopkeeper.

- Here you are ladies and gentlemen. Declared the shopkeeper as he placed the beer and rest of the food orders in front of his customers.

Miso ramen, grilled eel, grilled calamari, tako yaki, avocado and crab sushi, just a plethora of delicious dishes no one person could hope to eat alone but together all three customers seemed to have a chance.

- Where are you staying? Have you been up the mountain yet? The wife asked.

- At the hot spring inn and no I haven’t yet. She replied then asked a question of her own. What do you teach?

This time the husband answered not wanting to be left out of the conversation he was literally in the middle of.

- She teaches programming and I teach chemistry. Is the spa any good? We saw it in our guide, but we haven’t been to it yet.

- I haven’t either, I just arrived but I plan to go. She then stopped herself short of saying the date, realizing they may invite themselves to her spa day. They seemed nice, but they also seemed like the kind of people you can get tired of very quickly.

- We should try it, the wife insisted, I think it’s worth the money.

Sensing the danger of being stuck with the nosy wife she quickly added:

- It not unisex, men and women have to go to different bath and it’s a nude bath. And then she looked at the shopkeeper for confirmation to her statement. He then nodded in approval.

- Nude?! Oh no, I don’t want to go anymore. The wife laughed, and the husband blushed in silence staring at his bowl.

The nudity part was not mandatory, especially not for tourists, still the locals were not obliged to adhere to pool dress code, after all it was a public bath hot spring not a lukewarm swimming pool.

A moment of awkward silence followed, and she relished in it as she stuffed her face with ramen and sushi and tako yaki.