Raluca, who was a student, fell in love with a university mate, Mircea. Being friend with his sister Helen, with whom she was going all the time to discos they tried to lure him in a trap.
The boy was living alone in a studio. He left his home because he was not getting along with his parents anymore, since they didn’t want to let him go to the church. They said that the church stultifies people, turning them into some robots who don’t know how to enjoy the pleasures of life.
One night the two girls came to his place:
“Please house Raluca here tonight.” “At her place there is a party going on because it’s her sister’s birthday.” “But we didn’t want to stay any longer because tomorrow we’re going to have a difficult exam.” “And we didn’t like the music either.” “I would have taken her home but you know there’s no place where she could have slept.”
“And do you think here’s more space?”
“No, but you have two beds.” “And in fact she doesn’t want to come to us anymore because she’s not in quite good terms with our father.” “I don’t remember why but they had a disagreement.”
Before he had the time to wake up to the situation, his sister had already left. Raluca brought some cookies. After they ate them, she lied in bed and didn’t take her eyes off him.
He went to the kitchen and started to read from the Psalter. He felt attracted by her.
“May I take a shower?” she asked him.
“If you want that, then do it.”
After a couple of minutes Raluca came to him with her breasts naked:
“Can you give me a towel, please?”
Seeing her, Mircea blushed. He gave her the towel and started reading aloud. When the girl got in the bathroom, he took his belt and started whipping his legs. He whipped himself till his legs turned red. He didn’t realize that Raluca was looking at him, covering her body with the towel.
“Why are you whipping yourself, what’s wrong with you?”
“I am whipping myself so that you could not hurt me.” “If I stay any longer near your, I feel I’m on fire.” “There was another girl who stayed here once overnight and then I couldn’t resist.” “I confessed myself after that and decided that I won’t ever touch again a girl until I get married.” “You know something, stay here till dawn, I’ll go to sleep somewhere else.”
He put on his shoes in a rush and went out, without asking the girl if she agreed with that.
In the morning when she came to see them expecting they had already befriended, Helen found Raluca very upset.
“What’s the matter with you, what has he done to you?” “Have you already had a row?”
“No, no. He just told me he has another girlfriend and went to her”, Raluca said, trying to hide her tears. When she was about to leave, she stealthily took the Psalter and put it in her bag. Instead of going to the university, she went in the park and mused on what had happened to her. She didn’t believe there are still young men who put their faith in God above the satisfaction of the fleshly pleasures.
She read for a while from the Psalter and felt sorry that she didn’t know almost anything about God. She went to the bank and took out her savings she intended to use for paying her silicone implant surgery and instead of silicone she bought some Christian books. From that day she changed her life.
From the Paterikon of the Laymen, Parables for the 21st century published by Egumenita Publishing House, Galati, 2004
