Broken Hearts On Boulevard Unirii novel Chapter 4

Gert let me know that his flight was scheduled to arrive about an hour and a half after ours, so we should wait for each other at Bucharest's Otopeni airport.

It was on August 2, 2000, that Claudio, Fabrizio, Elia and I boarded Alitalia flight 244 from Leonardo da Vinci Airport in Rome to Bucharest. Two hours later the plane landed at Otopeni Airport in Bucharest.

"You bunch of geriatrics. Look what you look like," Angelo growled as he warmly embraced each one of us.

"Surely, I seem elderly in your eyes too," he laughed. "Come," he said as he pulled me by my elbow. "Look who is waiting for you."

Sitting at a table in the café-bar we saw Sebastian drinking coffee. As he didn't notice us, I crept up behind him and shouted, "Fantasmino, this is unbelievable. You actually travelled from Australia to the third world."

Sebastian just sat and stared at us, as if the movie of his childhood were passing through his mind in twenty seconds. When he recovered from his passing thoughts, he came towards us.

"Where did you get the name Fantasmino from?" he protested.

"Would you prefer if we called you Sabi? Actually seeing you here with us is like a seeing a ghost. We didn't believe you would come."

We helped Sebastian carry the two heavy suitcases that he had brought with him. Although we had advised everyone not to bring too many bags so that there would be room in the trunk of the car for everybody's luggage, Sebastian, as usual, had ignored our request.

We now waited for Gert, who was supposed to land shortly. A little later, the sign on the arrivals board was flashing next to the Tarom Airlines flight from Zurich to Bucharest.

Cautious Gert had seen that the only convenient flight was with Tarom. Not knowing much about the airline, he was hesitant to fly with them, however he bought a ticket when, after a careful investigation, he discovered that its aircraft were new and maintained by Air France.

Angelo drove ahead, leading the way. Not far from the airport there is a forest called Baenasa. Deep inside the forest there is a huge clearing among the old trees, where a hotel has been built. The hotel consists of log cabins arranged in a circular shape. In the center, there is a basketball court and paths that lead to the cabins. There is also a large building that serves as a kitchen and a common dining room. The entire area is surrounded by a high wooden fence with an electronic gate at the entrance.

Angelo had booked, well in advance, all the cabins of the hotel for a night. For that, he received a special price from the owner. Since Angelo was in possession of the keys to all the cabins, we were immediately able to settle comfortably into our rooms.

Angelo didn't keep us waiting long, but left immediately to fetch the girls. We were all in great suspense as to what the day would bring. As soon as Angelo's car passed through the gate of the hotel, we knew that shortly the adventure would begin, but we couldn't imagine how it would end.

Two hours later Angelo arrived with four girls in his car. Right behind him a taxi pulled up with three more girls. When they got out of the vehicles, there was a look of total confusion on their faces. It seemed that either they were shocked, as we were easily old enough to be their parents, or were embarrassed because all our eyes focused right on them. We must have looked like predatory animals waiting for the right moment to jump on and subdue their prey.

Angelo broke the ice with his fluent Romanian. He invited everyone into one of the large cabins where they could comfortably sit on the double bed and two chairs that stood in front of the TV from the sixties, that looked like a big piece of furniture.