E fundit!

09:39 CRIME

Tragedy in Klos, 33-year-old loses his life in the Mat River while climbing a rope

A serious incident has shaken the Klos area, where a 33-ye...

The beauty in the palace opposite

2026-07-12 08:27:00, Kulturë Agim Xhafka

When I turned 10, another building was built in front of our palace in Korça. Until then, it was a beautiful lawn, with short grass, and in the summer, the old women of the neighborhood would sit there with their grandchildren. One part was our football field. We would place two stones as a goal and there would be endless joy, joy and shouts. The shouts of “gooooollll” still ring in my ears, they still bring butterflies to my stomach and my heart.

Even after the building opposite was built, the field did not shrink much, a large space was left. Only the elderly women who came out no longer sat on the lawn, but on some small benches. They did not cry at all, they cheered for our matches. I remember that right in front of the kitchen window in the building opposite, after a few months of it being populated, a very beautiful girl would come out and straighten her clothes. With almond-shaped eyes, with eyebrows visible from afar, sad and always singing.

As only happens in Korça, within a few hours it was learned that she had just married Gaqo, a mechanic in the park. She didn't work, she was from the city, but she was Egyptian to us. Today they are called Roma, but back then this word was unknown. Beautiful as hell, smiling like joy itself. Involuntarily, eyes would come to Teuta, because that was her name, running from the room to the kitchen, from the annex to the bathroom. The windows were always open on warm days and her movement seemed to be all falling on us, the building opposite. I don't know about the girls, but we guys started to make up some stories about her.

As if Gaqo kidnapped Teuta because her parents wouldn't give her to him. It seemed absurd to us because Gaqo was a hard worker, speechless, and often when he came home from work he would hug his wife, stroke her hair, and they would both just laugh. I don't know why, but they laughed a lot. Some said that Gaqo's parents didn't like Teuta because she was Egyptian. So he ran away and got this entrance. When the derogatory word for Teuta was mentioned, Calja, my classmate, would say:

-I wish I had an Egyptian bride too!

Maybe we all thought so, but only he said it out loud.

Years passed, Teuta became more beautiful. We grew up in the palace's courtyard, we went to high school and she sang, washed clothes, hung them to dry and no wonder for so many years they had no children. Now we saw her as a character in our dreams. We were introduced to the eroticism of our age and Teuta was probably "enjoyed" perhaps all of us in one night. She became a movie character to us, like Sophia Loren or Anna Magnani that we saw at the cinema at that time. She seemed so beautiful and so beloved to us.

I went to university and met lots of girls and lots of dreams. But why did I compare every pretty girl to Teuta? Does she have eyes like hers, teeth as white, skin as clear...?

That's how the first summer in Korca found me for vacation. As soon as I woke up in the morning, I went straight to the window. The view in front of me made me happy. Teuta painting the bedroom. With a newspaper hat on her head, with a stick with a brush tied to the top, she sang. When I was contemplating this engraving of happiness, my father entered.

-She always sings. - she told me.

"But why didn't we see him once on the street? Never, why?" I asked.

-Gaqo has loved her since she was eight years old, immature. Their houses were close together. He protected her from her father who beat her as soon as he got drunk. - my father began to tell me. - Teuta saw in him the fortress that protected her. Years passed and it took so long that Gaqo even quarreled with Teuta's father because he called him a robber of a little heart, and with his own parents who did not accept a black woman as a bride. Then Gaqo took this house and they locked themselves inside. Because outside as a couple they would be gossiped about and slandered. When even relatives did not enter the house, they found a solution to build happiness within the walls. Their corridor is a boulevard, they take walks there. Their window is a cinema, they see what is going on and what is happening. You know they have a lot of flowers, it is their "Youth Park". So they lock themselves inside, they cannot break the mentality, but they also do not want to fight, life is short, it is not worth it. What if they lose?!

-Why don't they have children?

-Teuta's father is the culprit, he beat her so much one day that she had irreversible damage. Gaqo knew about it in time and since then he called it unimportant in their love.

That's what my father told me, and Teuta became divine to me. She became more beautiful, more human, like a fairy from the books. I often think of Teuta. When I go to Korca now, I don't look out her window anymore. Since my parents left me and the house has a new owner, but also because I don't want to know if Gaqo lives or not, or if Teuta is sick, maybe dressed in black?

I want that brunette to stand over my eye like a great gas, like a source of kindness, like an orbit of love. I want the Teuta I saw in front of me and who grew up with me. I want the beloved wife of Gaqo and the lady locked within the four walls of the palace next door. She was not exiled far away, but imprisoned by the evil mentality of people, by openly displayed racism.

Teuta, you taught me that love comes first in life, it is the most important thing. The rest comes later, but then. I still have you in my eyes, my beauty! Sometimes, I won't lie, it even comes to me in my dreams. Sometimes…/ CNA