ASSIGNMENT

There was only the party assignment. An order one did not discuss, but executed. The missing words were ? yes, sir?. One did not discuss about the pregnancy of the women considered as child producers (the Romanian for assignment and pregnancy is the same, ?sarcina?). By forbidding abortion, pregnancy became compulsory.

            The Party order was that each comrade should have minimum 4 children. There was derogation, of course. (51)

At some point while I was young, I became an atheist, I stopped believing in God. I didn?t tell my family in Banat, but my parents realized it anyway; my father used to stand up before we started eating and bless the bread, say a prayer and then we all crossed ourselves. I stopped crossing myself and my mother asked me what happened; I answered that that was what they had taught us at school, that there was no God. This hurt my mother beyond words. My father, in turn, who was a sober and harsh man, said ?leave him alone, he?ll find the right way in the end?. The same thing happened with the fishermen in the Danube Delta, who are bigots, a very strange thing happened: until I started fishing myself, they had caught a lot of fish, but then I refused to bless the sweep net before throwing it into the water, and they didn?t catch any fish anymore. For a month they didn?t fish enough to eat. One of the fishermen, Petrov, started telling people that I was an ill omen. But then a smart guy from Sulina told me ?Ilie, why don?t you cross yourself even though you don?t believe in God?? I didn?t have a choice, people didn?t accept me, kept sending me home and preferred to pay me just as well, because they would catch more fish when I wasn?t there, so I crossed myself. Starting the very next, fishing was good again. (I. P., 134)

Things weren?t better back then. Things aren?t good now, wither, with these small pensions, but you didn?t live better in those times. Not only that you couldn?t find any food to buy, but you were not allowed to do what you wanted. For instance, if you were a party member you were not allowed to go to church, as if there was any connection. But that was exactly the point: they wanted to impose a new religion on people. It was such an unthinkable thing, that only a sick mind could entertain the idea of annulling God and taking his place. But that new religion, as opposed to the Christian religion of love, promoted hatred and envy. (M. C. J., 109)