"RETURN FROM HELL" "Take this load to the village." "I'll pay you." "Uncle Florea says he's known Dumitru since he was a gendarme at the Rosia mines." "He was mean and feared." "I remember when he left the village." "He was very young, barely 18." "Now that the old man is dead, he left him his fortune." "Not even Grigor Albu is as rich as him." "Surely there must be money in that box." "Come!" "Don't let go!" "Good day!" "He was a gendarme..." "So what?" "!" "Fine thing not to recognize the folks in one's village!" "I like it." "How much do you want for it?" "Now that our lands are bordering, we'll settle something!" "How are you, Veronica?" "As you see!" "You married Ion!" "Ever since I got back, I sensed you avoided me." "We didn't happen to meet, Mitre." "Still, if I wanted to meet we did!" "Don't say you won't come to the big nut tree tonight!" "I'm loath sleeping home tonight." "What's the matter with you, Veronica?" "You know, Ion is away and last night I heard the owl." "As if you never slept alone before and neverheard it before." "But you didn't complain!" "Let father come and sleep at my place tonight, ma." "What's up, girl?" "You're feverish!" " I don't know, ma, I'm scared." " Never mind, my girl, I'll come." "May your home be blessed with kids and your yard full of cattle!" "Grigor Albu's daughter is a gem." "Come brothers, let's drink to Catarina's health." "Long live!" "Long live the bride and the groom!" "Long live the newly weds!" "Who said gendermes can't make merry?" "!" " You care so much for weapons, Dumitru!" " More than anything in this world!" "No, let me be!" "Calm down, wife." "Why do you hit her?" "!" "Why, man?" "If I catch you hit her again.." "For all the gendarme you are I'll break your neck just like this!" "Why, Mitru?" "What did I do?" "Seven dragons with 99 stabbing tongues..." " Now go into the world." " Go out in the world." " Across the world, into the ground." " Across the world, into the ground." " Come to me." " Come to me." " Go into the world." " Go into the world." " Across the world, into the ground." " Across the world, into the ground." " Come to me." " Come to me." " So we eat from the same pot." " So we eat from the same pot." " So we sleep in the same bed," " So we sleep in the same bed," " Come to me, come to me, come to me!" " Come to me, to me, to me!" "Let everybody know that war has started!" "Imperial decree:" "All the lads in the village must take their trunks and food and come to the village hall!" "Ma, ma, is it true?" "Yes!" "The bells have been tolling since morning and the telegraph's been working non-stop!" "less than a week after the wedding to let him go to his death?" "!" "God, Catarina, you forgot the beatings and the shame!" "There wasn't much joy still I'd live with him even if he beat me for ever!" "If only he didn't leave!" "You're so stupid, girl!" "Let him break her bones." "Until he returns the bitch'll have calmed down!" "You too think that?" "!" "I'm not deaf and dumb!" "They've been together before." "After he maimed you and put you to shame he's taken on that trollop!" "Mother!" "To the army..." "Mitru!" "Mitru!" "What do you want with him?" "!" "Go to hell!" "Let me be!" "Let me be!" "What do you want with him?" "!" "Well, Dumitru, well..." "Ion, you're not the first to brag like this!" "Only that I'm not afraid of anyone!" "You hear me?" " Show 'em to me!" " Show you what?" " The letters from him!" " You're the crazy one!" " Show 'em to me!" " I don't have any letter!" "Don't tell me you don't write him?" "!" "Don't tell me you don't know his address!" "I do!" "The notary learnt it!" "But I didn't get a single line from him." " As if the earth swallowed him!" " Better it swallowed you!" " Trollop!" "You went with him." " We loved each other, yes." "I loved him since we were kids." "I waited for him years on end.." "but you're so mean and miscreant." "You and the people in the village!" "You took him away..." "only that made me love him more than anything and he returned to me." "Damn you!" "Veronica, perhaps if I write to him, I'll be luckier." "SOMEWHERE IN GALITIA SUMMER OF 1916" "You hurting bad?" "When ma sent me to school, she wanted me to be a girl." "Bought me shoes." "Line up!" "Private Ion Rosu, I gave an order!" "Attention!" "Forward march!" "Forward march!" "What are we doing in Galitia?" "!" "You'll die of my hand!" " Romanians?" " Yes." "Have some." "Your brother?" " No." " Friend?" " Where you take him?" " You think he'll die?" "No, he won't die so easily." "I just know he won't." "You must!" " You saw?" " What?" "The grass here is dry..." "And the fields at Poiana Mare, it's harvest time." "Better shoot me, loan." "After all, you wanted to shoot me." "After having carried you so long..." "God'd strike me dead!" "Come, Dumitru!" "Do what I tell you or I'll cut off your hands!" "We die on the front and your people fall on us from behind!" "They entered the war?" "You lied to me shamelessly!" "Dig your pit!" "Go in peace!" "That you, Dumitru?" "Dumitru, that you?" "Nicodim, you saw anybody?" "Nope." "Who did the dogs bark at?" "At this goddam male, hell!" "Nicodim, there's been somebody here." "How can that be, mistress?" " Catarina, what happened?" " Dumitru wrote to you?" "You won't catch me there, not for the life of me!" "Catarina, my girl it doesn't behoove, my girl not to go there in day time." "What will people say, what will he say when he returns?" "You come and sleep with us at night." "I won't go to sleep in daytime, ma." "I won't ever again go into that cursed house." "You can't let it go to the dogs." " Dumitru is dead, ma!" " What are you saying, how do you know?" "I had signs." "All my waiting is for nothing." "Geez!" "The shell hit the roof!" "Bad sign!" "The front is drawing close on us!" "I saw it with my own eyes going out of the window." "What did it look like?" "It was floating like a white mist, and then, it hid in the bowels of the earth." "Don't say that, I saw it was a woman." "Where did you see a woman walking at night in such a place?" "The two of us were coming from the mill, late last night." "We left our carts there and we came down the road on foot." "When we got to the house, a long black shadow stretched secretly on the porch." "Whatever you may think, that's what we saw!" "Last night I saw the gendarme." "You too saw the shadow?" "You, an old man to say such a stupid thing!" "What, now you too believe in ghosts?" "I believe in no ghost, master!" "I only said that Il saw the gendarme, not his shadow!" "You imagined." "If it had been him, the dog'd have barked at Catarina, or at Veronica." "Maybe it's his apparition!" "Did you take a close look?" "Am I a woman to see things and apparitions?" "!" "Veronica!" "Hey!" "Who's there?" "Anybody out there?" "Mitre!" "Mitre!" "Mitre!" "Mitre!" "Mitre, that you?" "I don't want anybody to hear us." "Mitre, my love, I didn't recognize you!" "Don't shout!" "I've deserted." "The patrols are looking for me!" "Dear me!" "Mitre, love, I've been waiting for so long!" "Feel the cut?" "They broke my head!" "At the hospital they told me I hanged between life and death for 10 days" " But they're lying!" " Why should they?" "They're lying!" "I didn't hang between life an death." "I actually died then." "Mitre, what kind of talk is this?" "You're sick!" "Tell it again!" "They sent me to the front the second time so I ran away!" "Don't worry, I'll hide you." "No patrol will find you!" " I don't want you to hide me!" " Mitre!" "I can't stay put, I feel like taking off!" "Rambling through the woods..." "They're calling for me and I can't get there." "I'm walking, walking and I can't go back." " Hear?" " What is it?" "I'm wanted." "Mitre, what happened to you, Mitre?" "To me?" "Nothing." "Not a thing, but to the other..." " To whom?" " Ion!" " Mitre!" " He was good." " Shut up!" " If he shows up, don't chase him away." "Give him water for he's thirsty!" "Give him food for he's hungry!" "Put on clean bed sheets!" "Ion's dead!" "Ion is my mate!" "He held to me when the going got tough!" "But I saw the list with my own eyes." "Ion was good, it's true but I didn't love him." "Before he left I told him everything." "He understood and forgave me." "You hear?" "He forgave me!" "Wait, don't go!" "God punished me enough!" "People cursed me, don't you hurt me, too." "It's only you that I have!" "Wicked woman, you're wallowing in sin for your pleasure!" " Veronica!" " Veronica!" "What's the matter with her?" "Veronica!" "Veronica!" "You're wasting your breath." "Let's send for her parents." "Put her in the cart and take her to the hospital." "Looking for the gendarme, for Dumitru, son of Bogdan." " Hear the bells?" " Yea." " Who died?" " God knows." " Who died?" " I don't know, my girl." "Many are on the verge." "My girl, what's wrong with you?" "It's nothing, father." "Nothing at all!" "You have problems, my lass." "It will pass, father, I'm sure it will." " Who died?" " The wife of neighbor Vasile." " Poor kids, what a helpless brood!" " And the poor man's on the front." "Ilie, man!" "You're crazy or what?" "Let me be!" "Who the hell made you steal in here?" "Greenhorn!" "Aren't you ashamed?" "Let me alone!" "What do you think I am?" "Leave me be!" "Go, go if I say so, it's not nice to look at me like that!" " Alright like this?" " Alright." "Enough." "Now go!" "Ilie, nothing foolish please." "Ilie!" "Somebody could walk in on us, Ilie." "Go, run!" "Ilie!" "Ilie, where are you?" "Ilie, where are you?" "Ilie, where are you?" "How are you, Veronica?" "So..." "How are your parents?" "They' re fine, in good health." "Stop, man!" "Dumitru!" "Dumitru!" "Dumitru!" "Dumitre!" "Dumitru, you hear me?" "It's me, Grigor!" "Dumitru!" " From what village?" " From Virtopi." " You're from there, too?" " As you see, lawyer." " Dumitru Bogdan?" " That's right!" "Listen, this man was caught by a patrol a year ago and was brought here for desertion." " Goodness, they shot him?" " No, they didn't shoot him." "He stood trial?" "A great misfortune hit this gendarme!" "We began the trial and we realized we had no culprit!" " He wasn't guilty?" " Deserting is always a fault!" "I said we had no culprit since the man the patrol caught was insane." "Insane?" "Yes, yes." "At first we thought he was feigning like so many others." " They confirmed it in writing." " And what became of him?" "He must be in a madhouse." "I don't remember where but I can find out." "No!" "It's not necessary." "Grigore!" "Grigore!" "Grigore, man!" "The gendarme's house is on fire." "I've never seen such a terrible thing." "Grigore!" "Dumitru!" "Dumitru!" "Dumitru!"