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separated from his lovingparents and that he has to lie under the cold and stinking sheepskins.
    While he is sunk in that frightening vision, Hugo hears a voice in Mariana’s room. It is the voice of a man who isn’t satisfied and who expresses his dissatisfaction with blunt words. The man speaks in German, but a German different from his. Hugo doesn’t understand most of the words. At first it amuses him to eavesdrop, but as the disagreements grow stronger, a clear threat is heard in the man’s voice.
    Mariana, whose voice he definitely recognized, tries to mollify the man, but he sticks to his opinion. In the end Mariana says a few things that make him laugh. The differences of opinion die down, and there are whispers that Hugo can barely catch.
    Sleep has been stolen from him. He is awake, with an alertness that grows steadily sharper. Sounds of scraping come from Mariana’s room, as though they are trying to move a heavy piece of furniture. The sounds of movement intensify, and it is clear that the words have stopped and only the unseen movements are doing what they are doing.
    Then he hears Mariana say, “If I’m not what you want, you can pick another woman. I’m not the only girl in this house.” Hugo doesn’t catch the man’s answer. They argue, but there isn’t any anger. In the end he hears the man say, “You know very well what my conditions are.”
    “I try, but I don’t always manage.”
    “That’s your problem.”
    “I’ve always drunk, and you just started complaining recently.”
    “Because you overdo it. A drunken woman is a damaged woman.”
    “You’re wrong. A drunken woman is a woman liberated from all restraints, who knows how to love right.”
    “I don’t like it when people mix things up. Drinking is one thing and love is another.”
    “And I actually think that it’s a good idea to mix them. Love without a drink is dull love, full of inhibitions and tasteless.”
    “I understand you,” he says, but it is clear that he doesn’t agree with her.
    “What can you do? That’s how I am. It’s clear I won’t change.”
    Though he is tired, Hugo catches the whole conversation. The words “drunk” and “brandy” are no strangers to him. His uncle Sigmund, his mother’s brother, was addicted to brandy, and in Hugo’s house that subject was constantly discussed. Hugo loved his uncle even when he was drunk. When he came to their house drunk, his mother kept Hugo out of the living room and ordered him to go up to his room. Uncle Sigmund was a happy drunk. He would joke about his drunkenness and make everyone laugh. Only Hugo’s mother wouldn’t laugh. Sigmund’s drunkenness made her sad, and sometimes she would cry.
    Meanwhile, Hugo falls asleep.
    In his dream he is with his parents, and they are swimming in the Prut River. Suddenly Uncle Sigmund appears, and he is drunk and dirty. His mother, in her despair, tries to hide the shameful sight from Hugo. Because her hands can’t do it, she throws a big bath towel over his head, and it covers him completely. Hugo is suffocating and tries to throw the towel off, but his mother tightens it with both hands and refuses to heed his shout. Then her hands weaken, and Hugo falls into the waters of the Prut, which suddenly change color and become black and sticky.
    His mother grabs him with both hands and picks him up, shouting, “The boy has drowned, the boy has drowned, help!” Because of the suffocation, or perhaps because of the scream, Hugo wakes from the nightmare.
    The first morning light filters into the closet. From Mariana’s room merry voices can now be heard, as if Mariana and aman were rolling around in the bed, throwing pillows at each other. Clearly this isn’t the same man who grumbled before. This is a cheerful man, who is amusing Mariana.
    “You’re funny,” she keeps saying.
    “I don’t mean to make you laugh.”
    “But you do make me laugh. You’re good to me.”
    “I’m going to eat some of