Marius Ritiu
Odysseus
Before entering the Hoia Baciu forest, Odysseus encountered a man selling rings on the side of the road. His name was Johnny and he presented himself as the best jewelry maker from the area, saying he was the most talented amongst the Roma’s. He offered Odysseus a copper ring that would protect him from the evil spirits of the forest, in exchange of the leather suitcase he was carrying, but the Greek declined, confessing that it was a present from his wife back in Ithaca. Johnny warned him that, in the forest he was about to enter, he would need the ring much more than that suitcase, which would only slow him down anyway. Odysseus refused the jeweler’s proposal and he walked into the forest. After a few steps, he turned back to ask Johnny if he knew what the time was, but he was no longer there. Odysseus didn’t know what to make of it, the man seemed to have vanished.
The deeper he walked into the forest, the darker it became. The sounds he was hearing were otherworldly. The trees that he came across were very different in size and shape from any other that he had ever seen before. Some were growing in spirals and it felt like he was surrounded by giant snakes bursting out of the ground. Others seemed to have women’s silhouettes, while other ones looked like stacked bricks. It was a strange looking forest, or at least that’s what he was thinking at the time. The thought of the evil spirits that Johnny mentioned began to grow roots in the back of his mind and while he was getting closer to the heart of the forest, he started seeing faces behind the strangely shaped trees. They were floating in the air without being attached to a body, appearing and disappearing in the blink of an eye. Now he knew that he should have listened to Johnny and taken that ring. But it was too late. One of the faces evaporated into thin air, leaving behind a cloud of mist. Then suddenly, it took shape again and demanded the copper ring. “I don’t have it...”, said Odysseus. At that point, the strange entity transformed into a rock in a rocking-chair and started swinging back and forth 9 times. Odysseus disappeared inside of his leather luggage and only his feet were sticking out.
It took him ten years to get out of the haunted forest and only when he reached the edge of the forest, his body was released from the leather suitcase. Here, he met Johnny again, who was still selling copper rings, in the same place where they met. Odysseus asked him if he would like to trade a copper ring for his leather suitcase and Johnny agreed. “I will take the ring back to Ithaca and give it to my wife”, Odysseus concluded.
Marius Ritiu
