Trafika Europe 8 - Romanian Holiday

Mircea Cartarescu

for, never worked. It was the greatest disillusion and defeat in the inventor’s life. He had started the machine on the first evening. Besides thegreat coil, it also included several engines, as well as other machineries, partly invented by him. The air started humming, the floor was vibrating lightly, but the miracle (the old man, with unexpected stubbornness after so many disclosures, refused to give me the least indication about it) did not occur. So he advised me to forget about the coil and, if I still wanted the house, to enjoy it as if it were an ordinary one, although… Although, he added resentfully, it’s a shame… Mikola hadn’t even enjoyed the ordinary house. Immediately after the

regimechangehewas locked up for political reasons (former Legionnaire 9 ? member of a historical party?) and not released until 1964. The property rights on his house were restored to him with great difficulty, only after a friend intervened with high party authorities. Fortunately, it hadn’t attracted the greediness of any of the new hot shots because it was in a miserable and ill-famed neighbourhood. After having stayed empty and being gradually consumed by rain and snow, the old man had leased it to this guy and the other, but he hadn’t found tenants for a while. Now, when he 9  Member of the Legion of Arch- angel Michael, Nazi organization and later political party in interwar Roma- nia

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