Heavenly Calling

1. Heavenly Calling

by George Dimitriu

Gicu, a corpulent and bearded individual, arrived one summer in Poiana Braşov together with his sons. The first thing they did was to eat fried potatoes with various toppings, out of some cardboard Mexican hats. Fatty! Very fat, so they went for a quick walk to recover.

At one point, Gicu sees a large, transparent sphere, guarded by two men, so he goes towards them:

– Hello! What's with this sphere? Is it for zorbing?

– Yes!

– I want to use it too!

He had heard about the new fun in Poiana and was curious to try it too. Basically, you entered that sphere, let yourself be tied with some harnesses and then you started downhill, in a fraternal communion with it.

He informs his children that such a thing is not for them and leaves them at the arrival point with one of the men, after which he begins to climb the hill with the other. On the way, he tries to pull the tongue of the man who was pushing the sphere towards the top of the hill, a lanky man with a mustache:

– Can a person easily fit inside?

– It is designed for two people. Are you going alone or are you waiting for another client to come?

– Alone! If I get sick, I don't want to dirty the other – declares he firmly. I guess you clean it inside often!

– Quite often!

– I, however, think it's not really that bad! I can face this challenge – announces he the man of the sphere. So how will it stop when it reaches the bottom?

– There is straight ground, so my colleague will stop it easily.

Arriving at the top of the hill, Gicu entered in the sphere – through a door – together with the lanky man, after which he allowed himself to be tied by him.

The man came out after barring him inside and the bearded man heard, as if whispered, the question:

– Ready?

– Done! he shouted at the top of his lungs and the lanky man pushed the sphere downhill.

By the time he got up to speed, he had gotten used to the rolling motion and the fact that the sky would, from time to time, exchange with the ground. He even saw out of the corner of his eye the lanky running near the sphere. It's not a big deal! said to himself. I did it too! At one point, however, he felt thrown as if from a sling towards the sky decorated with clouds and began to scream, hoping at the same time to avoid the impact with them. The hope was not in vain, but he had a much harder collision – with the ground: due to the unevenness, the sphere had started to bounce like a ping-pong ball.

He was hoarse from shouting by the time he reached the bottom of the hill. The most unpleasant was the feeling of helplessness – once bound in the sphere, you could no longer influence the course of things. The two men joined forces and stopped the sphere, and Gicu came out of it with a bang – he still had the impression that was describing a plane-parallel movement. One of the sphere men checked its inside: it was clean. The bearded man left, leaning on the children, but the running man caught up with him:

– Don't you want one more time? I could see you really enjoyed it – while the sphere was rolling, I even heard you singing along! What song was it?