FOR A PLANE TICKET

2024-01-07 10:00:00, Opinione Agim Xhafka

Illustrative photo

In the morning, Leonard sat down on the sofa in the living room and fixed his eyes on his friend, Vjosa. He followed her every move. Even when he entered and left the kitchen, even when he dusted the furniture, even when he made breakfast. He has become a fashion manager since he observes every action of his employees from the glass cabin. Every time Vjosa approached Frosa, Leonardi's mother, he would raise his torso a little on the couch and stare.

Just like a panther when you see a gazelle feeding around. Several times his wife looked at him with surprise, but Leonardi gave her an icy look as if to say to him, what are you wondering about! In fact, there was little wonder that the couple got along so well. They remembered some fight in the weather that were few, like two small clouds in a clear sky. Even though they had been married for 10 years, even though they had two children, they still looked at each other full of arrows of romanticism.

Frosa, the mother, had been living with Leonard for years. She had another son, Ligor. But he had a life full of zigzags. He was smaller than Leonard and was pampered more. When he finished high school, he didn't tell him about studies.

Gaqo, the father, put him in an electrician's course. And when they believed that he would have taken the trade, Ligori fell in love with betting. So much so that after a few months, so many debtors appeared at the door that Gaqo and Frosa sold the house, paid off the debts and knocked on the apartment of Leonardi, who had just gotten married.

The bride, Vjosa, opened the door for them and from that day they felt there as their son, but also as their daughter. Ligori left for Italy out of shame. When they parted, he apologized to his parents with tears in his eyes, promising that he would never, ever forget the love they planted in him.

But the pain of selling Gaqon's house put him down. One morning he never got out of bed. He suffered cerebral hemorrhage and escaped as he lived. Without falling on anyone's neck, without asking anything from anyone. From that day on, Vjosa became more connected with her mother-in-law. They looked just like mother and daughter. Except they laughed and helped each other in the housework.

Meanwhile, Ligori met a beautiful and wise girl in Italy. They both worked, did not get a house, did not get married and gave birth to a child. They called her Alba. Frosa was giggling with joy, homesick and asked Ligor several times to buy her a plane ticket and go to Italy to see her little girl first, but also her daughter-in-law and son.

- It's been years without being poisoned, without smelling, - she begged him.

But Ligori always ended Skype with the words, in a few days I will buy the ticket, definitely, ma. Do not worry!

A few years passed like this, the girl in Italy went to the first grade. Frosa was feeling the weight of his age, it became necessary for him to meet the boy's family. But that's all she had in her hand. The others did not depend on her.

While Leonard on the couch was remembering these episodes of his father and mother:

- Why are you sitting on the couch, son? Go outside, stretch your legs, don't hang around in the living room. As you know, the man at home is like a hair on the tongue.

Leonard frowned even more, looked at his wife and shouted:

-I have a score to settle with my wife!

Vjosa understood from the intonation that a storm of quarrel was coming. She also approached.

- Mom, I'm asking you, how are you doing with Vjosa?

- As if I have a maid.

- Has there been any quarrel between you?

- Never.

-Vjosa grabbed you by the arms and wanted to take you out of the house?

- What are these words, my son!

-Mama, don't lie, don't deceive me! Leonardi shouted and threw a half-scratched letter on her bottle.

- Read it out loud, read it so I can hear it too, even Vjosa, apparently this is your daughter, Leonardi mocked.

Frosa opened the letter, put on his glasses and started:

- My son Ligor, I got into a big trouble with Vjosa, with Leonardi's daughter-in-law. She hates me, doesn't look me in the eye, even when she brings my plate to the table, she throws it at me like I'm a dog. One day he grabbed me by the arms and almost forced me out of the house. I can't stay in this house one more day. Or else I will kill myself.

Leonard's eyes were bulging. She was almost beating Vjosa with her looks, but surprisingly she was calm, she even had a light smile on her face.

- Ligori sent me this letter, your son was almost crying from sadness, mother! It's normal that he has a mother too. So tell me, did you write this letter?

- Yes, I wrote it. With my hand. I don't deny it, said the mother.

-Why do you say then that you and Vjosa didn't have any problems?

- I really don't have any problems.

- Don't make me crazy now!

-If Ligori were to go crazy, your brother and my son first, - Frosa got mad. - I have no quarrel with Vjosa. And I would never write this letter, but

- Why did you do it then?

- What the bride told me, your wife told me, Vjosa. She pushed me to write it.

- Did Vjosa tell you to write a letter and to insult Vjosa in this letter?!- wondered Leonardi.

- Yes, man, I told him. - intervened Vjosa in a loud voice. - The mother has been going to see her son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter for years, but the son almost does not accept her. By delaying the purchase of a ticket over the years, his mother almost forbade him to go there. He blocked them, do you understand? So I urged my mother to write a letter as if she felt bad here and only because of me. I believed that as soon as Ligori read it, he would come running himself and take his mother. He would even kidnap her. This is how pain, love, hurt, anger, resentment are expressed. But he again behaved as always, he sent back the letter as if it was a mail that returns a shipment from which the address is written incorrectly.

Leonard's face was red as if he had been stung by the July sun. He took out his cell phone from his pocket and dialed the first two numbers before shaking his mother's hand.

- Son, don't spoil the blood. Leave Ligor in his coldness, in his world.

- How can you leave it, he will punish, right?

- He is punished. This lack of love, this icy behavior, this forgetfulness towards the mother will remain a hostage. See this mark on your arm? It's from the vaccine you had when you were a baby. Over the years you have rubbed it, washed it and rinsed it, but you couldn't remove it, there it is. You will leave this world with it, you will have it with you. Even the abandonment of the mother leaves a mark like this. No matter how many years you justify yourself, no matter how many excuses you find, the pledge will still be stamped on the wing of conscience. It doesn't really kill you, but sometimes it bites, stings, stabs you, many times it makes you cry during the day or even in your sleep.

That's what Frosa said, then he tore the paper, gave it to Vjosa and said:

- Throw it in the fire, my daughter. Let these pieces burn, become ashes together with our quarrels, white as snow./ CNA