It was 11 pm doing the usual 7 h train ride. Walked into the compartment, and instead of the usual unusual characters, 3 seemingly decent people occupied the seats next to me: two middle aged women and one chick my age.
At first I felt releaved, but after 1 h of uninterrupted loud conversation, from which not even the 2 newspapers I was naively trying to dive into could save me, I was seriously considering finding my own lonely piece of heaven. Was about then when one of the two women stopped babbling about her daughter that can speak 3 different languages and has the greatest job in the best company in the world, doing school and having straight A's , and started talking about her husband that apparently is a priest and was just about to finish his forth university. That's when it happened ...
The ultimate mistake of getting involved in the conversation, driven by my irrational curiosity. "Quite interesting...I said...Which faculties would those be?" It just didn't make any sense..how thirsty for knowledge do u have to be to study 4 different fields one after another in our educational system? Why?
"History, Medicine, Theology and Management and International Studies" she proudly replied, with a glooming sparkle in her eyes, giving a bigger dimension to my mystery.
"What's his current occupation ?", I asked, trying to understand why he would pick those sciences ..how did they relate...and what practical use would they have in his current occupation.
"He's a priest, he works for his hollyness Orthodox Patriarch Daniel"
"I see, it's funny you said that, I was just reading an article about him saying his hollynesses' file was the first one to disappear after the communist SRI (the spying communist apparatus) files were made public...".. somehow I didn't think ahead before saying that...My second big mistake...
My last words were followed by a rain of appraisals and considerate thoughts about the head of the Romanian orthodox church, about his activity and his life time achievements. Then I started thinking..why did the conversation feel so superficial? The man was probably there for a reason, for his high character, for his kind deeds...but then again, the thought of him being a collaborator...after everything communism did for this nation...then came my third mistake...
"Do you have any idea how many victims communism made in Romania?"
That of course triggered a storm of sweet words towards anyone who doubts followed by very loud confessions of how believing changed her life...and ridiculous metaphysical stories of how she got to believe...each of them had a rational scientific explanation that was burning on my lips...she also mentioned her son in law was a "gifted" person, that he could just touch people and say whatever they are suffering from...That of course made some sense into his restless desire to learn all sort of sciences..nonetheless, after the way the conversation evolved I decided to shut up.
This thought was quite far away from my neighbor's mind..she kept on talking for hours. she started asking the girl next to me all sort of questions exploring her lack of self defense...where she was going, working, if she had a boyfriend, what was his job, her job, her mum's job..followed by malicious comments the girl was bravely ignoring..he only wants to fuck her, that's why she's going there, then they started sharing all sorts of sexually related stories, some of them included animals, and then theories about men, ending with the story of her 2 marriages, how she was cheated, and how she made her latter husband swear on his health with the hand on the bible he'd never do it again..
All this time I kept my eyes shut simulating a deep sleep up to a point when a big yawn gave me away...
"You cannot sleep because of us can you, she asked with a Machiavellian smile on her face"
"No, I was just thinking.."
"What about?"
"People who believe..."
"Are you talking about me?"
"No, I am not"
