The same exercise as in this post, in Andrei Zbrînea’s imagination.

He wrote this text for Revista de povestiri’s workshop in Vama Veche. Dan Coman proposed we read The Beach by Roberto Bolaño and re-write the story from another character’s perspective:

Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada 

Dominika, not the other two. Lest he be that kind of drugaddict that will beg to raise a few cents. Perhaps I will squeeze some money out of him. I think his name is Henrique, he is from Peru and he collects airplane models. This guy looks a little like those unctuous guys from the railway station in Sinaia. I called them Los Platanos for fun. I was in my first years in the industry and I gave one of the South-Americans 30 RON for an original CD. I took it from the kid’s fund, I wanted to give her a nice Christmas present. She did not not like it. He even gave me an autograph, in their language. Those were the best times, the shell game, the first girls with a pedigree. I understood from the beginning it’s best to have a diverse activity, be like Amazon, sell more than books. I was the Jack-of-all-trades. I started off with prostitution, I continued with drugs, gambling, sporting bets, everything you can think of. I opened up branches all over the country. Angelique was my first employee, then Masha came about (she looked exactly like Sharapova) and much later the Slovak – Dominika. I prefered not to work with Romanian girls, you know why.

This guy is acting suspiciously. It is the third time he passes by the front of the terrace, in the last 10 minutes. The girls are in place, lost, they seem a little desperate and somehow with their guards down. I am not going to get out of the car to deliver their training. The parking lot job has always been the winning combination for me.

Henrique has not approached Dominika yet. I have back-up plans for a possible fiasco. Henrique is the kind of person who plays the slot machines and, I am sure about this, Henrique is a drug addict or he just quit. I am looking at this from the perspective of retention, I want to win the customer in the long term. Dominika speaks Spanish. Masha knows a little French, and Angelique is my favorite polyglot. I’ll play it safe.

How did I not see the Suárez T-shirt. Barcelona scored 2 before the break, ended with 2. Or maybe total goals, to please everybody. Dominika is also good with bets. ‘stop Banderas, make him believe you are lost. he’s the one in the Suárez T-shirt and has Zlatan’s hair in his PSG period. You must have recognized him. debe hablar español. tell Masha to handle the lawyer’ sent -> seen. Dominika is typing…

I saw a phycologist on TV a while ago who said people do not live or die, people float. I think that motivated me for the last couple of years. Message from Dominika: ‘the guy is super creepy, he recited to me from a poet for five minutes (neruda? Chilean?), then he proposed. I thought about accepting for a second or two, I need a change and it would not hurt if they called me dominika suárez machado. but I’d rather not. chill, igor, I am not getting married’.

That message does not make me feel comfortable.

Still, another one comes which relaxes me: ‘igor, we agreed on 1.500 euro for the whole day. I will take 35%, the rest goes to you. ok? p.s.: this includes a session of poetry. I have to recite from Neruda. I’d say it’s worth it.’

The lawyer is much more at ease, Masha promised him a lot of decibels, like in Wimbledon 2004.

Quiero hacer contigo lo que la primavera hace con los cerezos.

If you liked Andrei’s story, a few information about him: he is a graduate of the Probation Master from the Faculty of Sociology and Social Assistance. He published the volume Rock in Prague in 2011 – Herg Benet publishing house, followed by #kazim(contemporary with the arab spring), at the same publishing house, în 2014. His poems were published by the literary magazines Zona Nouă, Tiuk!, Conta, Zona Literară, Tribuna, Timpul, Poesis Internațional and Familia. His work was included in a series of anthologies, such as: Cele mai frumoase poeme din 2011 – Tracus Arte, 2012, Cele mai frumoase poezii ale anului – Adenium, 2014, Ziduri între vii – Zona Publishers, 2015, #Rezist!Poezia – Paralela 45, 2017. In 2015 he obtained the great prize of the Antares Festival – Galați, Brăila, Sulina – for poetry. He is the musical editor for the Observator Cultural magazine and he initiated, together with Iulia Militaru și Felix Nicolau, the poetic performance evenings – Blitz Show Revival. In the autumn of 2-17, he published the volume of poetry Turneul celor cinci națiuni with frACTalia publishing house.

^ Fotografia este din portofoliul Mihaelei Niţulescu, vezi mai multe pe pagina ei de facebook.