Old dreams, new memories

Growing up in communist Romania, we did not have much other than dreams. The society was closed shut, very little was coming in and even less was going out. Our communication with the world behind the Iron curtain was limited to the Voice of America and Free Europe radio stations. Most of the time the transmission was jammed, and we had to guess the missing words.

My mom had a cousin who was lucky enough to work on a commercial ship. He would travel around the world, experience things we could only dream of. We were not very close, but once in a while we would see him. I so vividly remember listening to his stories. I was fascinated! We even got two gifts from the uncle. One was a coconut. We did not dare touch it for a long while, maybe because we were trying to prolong the magic. When we did it, it had already dried up. That was just fine, we still kept it in our living room, the same way an art collector would keep a precious painting. The second gift was a post card. A post card showing the Singapore skyline I still recall looking at it for minutes at a time, trying to observe any little detail. I am not sure what happened to the post card when I moved away. Maybe it got lost or ended up in some trash bin. But the picture of the skyline is still imprinted in my brain. Getting a chance to see it for myself now? How do I even describe the experience or the emotions? Priceless!!!