TE15 Lithuanian Honey Cake

The Grand Piano Room

so incredible, that it almost stopped hurting. I lay on the bed and watched how, there, in the same bedroom, my wife bathed our fully naked children (the bathroom seemed to have disappeared as well), and I smiled. Was it possible to believe it all? The splashes of water and soap on the floor, my canvasses leaning against the wall, stood in the soapy water. And in the wardrobe – my turning bench. In the wardrobe! ‘Are you okay, Jura?’ ‘Why?’ ‘Your smile seems a bit strange. Have you bought a candle?’ ‘What for?’ ‘I told you already. You’ll have to smear the zip. Lora’s shoe won’t zip up.’ I kept on smiling. ‘And sew her school bag.’ She went into the same wardrobe and pulled out an

awl and a thick thread. ‘There!’ She threw the bag towards me.

I took the awl, turned it in my hand, then sat down and began to sew my daughter’s ripped bag. I could hear how, on the other side of the wall, in the living room, my mother was quarrelling with my father about something (a couple of days before I had discovered my

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