Ava's Beloved: A Narrative Fiction

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Ava's father wrinkled his nose at laziness, scoffing at failure. Just days before, when a young man had run through his garden completely naked, muttering something incomprehensible, he rolled his eyes, turned back to his corn field and pushed the plow forward. If every young Romani lad from the neighboring adobe huts finally lost it, so what? If they all ran past, muttering in a weeping voice, “I give up! I give up! I can’t take it anymore,” he didn’t care. Every shabby house on that road fended for itself, now. With public street fights over food and men fighting over everything they found, the village food reserves were nearly depleted. Even dry vegetables like beans and peas had been scavenged, as villagers dug up hidden food that a few had successfully kept from the State. The cruelly treated livestock was now gone too, with their skin clinging to bony rib cages, eaten to keep them from grazing on bare pasture land. Mostly, livestock that the State …show more content…

Entire families shared one piece of bread, weighing about a kilogram. But to Németh Dózsa? So be it. Now, keeping a leery watch each night. Overseeing his yard, fully aware that the lads were taking everything that wasn’t attached, placing things worth any amount on old carts -- vessels, shoes, tools, and the alarm clocks, and selling them on the black market. By now, they had looted all of the houses of neighbors marched away by the Russians. When Németh drew water from his well, they lined up, thirsty, with that strong smell of Palinka on their breath. When his neighbors seemed unable to grasp how he continued to work, smarter and harder, he rolled up his sleeves and dug in. When they complained about the system, forcing farmers to deliver part of their harvested produce to the state? He tightened his belt and turned the other way. Always the tough

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