Bessarabian Nights – Stela Brinzeanu (1)

“T can’t believe you too are doing this to me,” Larisa grumbled. “Not good to react like that. The way you start the new year is the way you will end up spending it,” she teased. “I am only wishing you well.” “It’s not you who has to sleep in a bed full of cereal tonight.

Where is the fun in that? I’ll be thinking of you when I’m picking seeds out of my hair and sheets.” Sweeping the grains out is not to be done until the following day. Otherwise it means chasing away abundance and wealth. | “You sound like Ksenia now. Don’t worry, you can throw them to the floor – just don’t take them out of the house, Miss Grumpy.” “Thanks for enlightening me. I feel a lot better now.”

Doina nudged. “Come on, forget about that. Let’s go see Florica, the cow.” The suggestion made Larisa smile. It was something the three of them used to do as young teens. One of the many customs on this particular day is that young girls can find out when they’ll marry by asking a cow. Doina, Ksenia and Larisa visited the mangy, dun animal in the barn first thing in the morning to update the information they had got from the yesteryear.

“Florica darling, tell me – when am I going to get married? This year? Next year?” – all the while kicking the resting cow every time a year was added. At whatever number the animal stood up, the custom said, that would be the year the girl gets married. Doina and Ksenia took turns every other year.

Unwilling to entrust her future to a dumb creature, Larisa was always out of the game.

Published by AUROCHS 2014 Copyright @ Stela Brinzeanu 2014. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system, copied in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise transmitted without written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review. This is a work of fiction inspired by real life stories and events. Except in the case of historical fact, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual names and places is purely coincidental.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. To Helena Acknowledgements I’d like to start by thanking my friends and beta- readers who read the book prior to publication and made invaluable suggestions to it time and again: William Johns, Richard Blackwell, Veronica Pinon and George Stanica. Thank you for putting your valuable time into this story! Special thanks must also go to Professor Dennis Deletant who kindly agreed to act as history consultant on this project.

Sa traiti! Further thanks are due to Lilia Gorceag and Nadejada Radu — psychologist and social assistant respectively — at the IOM (International Organization for Migration) Mission in Moldova. Your answers to my plethora of questions and information offered about victims of human trafficking have been vital to this project. I am indebted to Paul Moynihan for his patient editing and elaborate proofreading. Your efforts have been phenomenal! The publishing process wouldn’t have been as smooth without the expert advice and help from the excellent team at Authoright, who amongst many other things, helped with the design of the book cover and website.

Many thanks to all my family and friends – your unfailing encouragement and support along the way was, is and forever will be greatly appreciated. Once again – I thank you all! Nipeen ® 4 F, Te) ovenetia tre ieee ts _ SVR ew. + cont welled emit ke son ‘Hesifag 7 ies # and teat ie |, thboa a 7 mateo 98: saa i ca it « tessa tom

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 305ce0f076318e89
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 14,753,424 bytes (14.07 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• Pages: 389
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 457.9 minutes
• Total Words: 91,581
• Total Characters: 530,276
• Average Words per Page: 235.43
• Average Characters per Page: 1363.18

Most Frequent Words

larisa (684), ksenia (513), doina (315), one (295), like (265), time (257), don’t (206), know (186), it’s (179), girls (177), get (176), back (164), people (156), many (150), two (132), nadea (131), way (130), got (129), away (127), didn’t (124), life (121), day (119), now (117), long (112), never (108), much (105), even (105), world (104), see (103), still (103), going (102), right (102), ksenia’s (97), house (97), thought (95), think (88), help (87), left (87), eyes (86), around (85), silvia (85), want (84), make (84), take (83), mother (83), made (82), can’t (82), first (82), come (81), something (81), home (80), well (78), always (77), said (76), tell (76), went (76), soon (75), village (74), work (73), asked (73), find (71), that’s (71), country (69), yet (69), carried (69), took (69), another (68), years (67), three (66), mind (66), enough (66), used (66), old (65), body (65), towards (65), looked (64), nothing (64), night (63), despite (63), i’m (63), felt (62), head (62), wasn’t (62), without (60), side (60), anything (59), say (58), let (58), kept (58), keep (58), end (57), last (57), place (57), new (57), look (56), able (56), started (56), moldova (55), things (55), water (55).

PDF Download