Free Sworn Virgin by Elvira Dones Page B

behave?’ he complains. ‘What’s a girl like you doing out alone at this time of night?’
    Gjergj Doda goes in for surgery two days later. The doctors say it has gone well.
    â€˜Better than we hoped,’ the village doctor, who had to go back to Rrnajë that day, pronounces. ‘I’ll come and pick Gjergj up when they discharge him. I’ll get an ambulance. He’ll be in the hospital here for at least two weeks.’
    Hana notices that the village doctor wears the expression of a prisoner condemned to death. She’d like to ask him if he has a girlfriend in Tirana; what he misses most – the movies, or restaurants where they serve rice and spinach; what foreign books he reads in secret.
    While he is talking to her, he observes her intensely. She focuses on some graffiti painted on a broken wall. There are two letters missing: IN ONE HAND A ICKAXE, IN THE OTHER A RI LE .
    She adores Tirana. She never thought she’d be able to love asphalt in the bottom of a valley. So she understands the doctor’s desolation.
    She has also realized that she does not pass unobserved in the school corridors. Her silence strikes people. Especially the boys, who try everything to get her to talk. Hana does talk to them, and their discussions tire her. She has got used to them; sometimes she’ll even laugh.
    â€˜Why are you always sad?’ a girl studying Turkish had asked her one day.
    â€˜I’m not sad. I’m waiting for something to happen that’s worth talking about; anything else I just contemplate.’
    â€˜I was told you write poems.’
    â€˜Sometimes.’
    â€˜Can I read some of them?’
    â€˜No.’
    The girl laughed
    â€˜You’re weird.’
    Hana gave a hint of a smile. The other girl had a head of hair the color of straw not yet burnt by the sun.
    â€˜My name is Neve and I’m studying Turkish literature. Do you know Nâzim Hikmet?’
    â€˜I’ve only read two of his poems, so I can’t really say I know him.’
    â€˜Well, I’ll give you some of his poems translated into Albanian. You’ll really like him. I’ll give you some that I had a go at translating myself.’
    Hikmet sealed the friendship between the two girls. Hana fell deeply in love with the poet, and this might be one more reason why she loves Tirana. Here you could unearth new passions and meet new people, like Hikmet, like Neve, like the new words in her language, like all these writers who would never make it up to the mountains.
    â€˜Hana, focus now,’ the doctor says. ‘There’s no more time. I have to go.’
    â€˜Thanks for everything.’
    â€˜Thank you , for the books, and for existing.’
    Hana smiles shyly.
    â€˜Sometimes I feel really lonely up there. My friends are here in Tirana, and so … see you around. Will I see you in two weeks when I come back?’
    Hana turns around and goes into the hospital. She’s not ready for questions like that.
    While they’re waiting for Gjergj to recover from the surgery, Hana decides to surprise Aunt Katrina.
    â€˜I want to show you where I live,’ she says, one day.
    Gjergj is still wired up to the machines, but he smiles anyway.
    â€˜I’m borrowing her for a while, Uncle Gjergj.’
    His woman-wife-friend-lover bends over and kisses him on the forehead. He can’t stop her. He’s immobilized. She kisses him again on the eyelids, right in front of Hana and a nurse. And then again. And again. Then Katrina and her niece leave the room arm in arm. Hana loves the way her aunt walks. When she was younger she used to try and walk like her but could never get it right. Her stride is vigorous and fast, despite her weak heart.
    Hana guides Katrina onto a bus and sits her down. Her colorful outfit rings out like music among the dowdy passengers.
    â€˜How much is the bus ticket here?’ her aunt asks her, intimidated and curious at the same