Sul Campo Del Mare - Vilenica

V2-2010.PM52376/13/100, 12:14 PMVeronika ŠikulováI wear his coat, I find a shopping list and a speckled bean in the pocket.At any hour in the morning we would drink white wine and maybe sing.Other times he brought a lettuce in from the garden and they wereboth covered in mud.He would buy seeds.He carried a bean around in his pocket.Wine in plastic bottles.Every now and then I poured some of it down the sink, so there’d beless of it.He used to bake flat cakes.We phoned each other at night.You asleep? No, I’m not.Can you hear me? Yes, I can!Hello!At other times we went swimming together.When it’s summer and I’m swimming, I’m surprised I can’t see him.Are you asleep?On his name day in winter, the feast of St. Vincent, we celebrated together.He told Agáta she could obey less and I could obey more and everyone.And at Christmas the tale of the three groschen... 1When it rained, he was glad. And then the sun came out and he wasglad too.From time to time I tried to persuade him not to drink wine. Yet I keptpouring us the red wine from Valent Gloznek. We ended up dancing together.He often told me to tread on his back. And then he would shout, Ahhand ow. I was a little girl.At the swimming pool I would rub cream on his back. I know that backlike the back of my hand. The times I rubbed and massaged it! Don’t makea noise, don’t disturb, don’t ask for anything and listen, listen! Rub creamon my back! Nubian and Kreola. I hop up and down his back, laughinglike mad. It’s slippery. Nubian and Kreola.In the morning his knees would crack.He’d begin cooking soup and by six the smell was delicious.While he was swimming, I would sit on the bank and watch the waterspiders strumming the surface with their feet. Agáta was as brown as aberry.He was always cooking and talking.And his shirts smelled nice.As he walked up the hill he’d pretend to lose coins and we picked themup. Or he’d jokingly throw a stick for us to fetch.1In the Slovak folk tale the king wanted to know how the poor man could surviveon only 3 groschen a day, but in fact the man kept only one for himself as he“returned” one by taking care of his old father and “lent” one to his children, whowould take care of him in his old age.237