Inspired by Lev Rubinstein
1. Tulips bloom by the electrical box.
2. Vērtūži is about four kilometres away.
3. Bombis was always hungry.
4. Dad died, and Latvenergo took off the meter.
5. It seemed that my heart opened only after two thousand and ten.
6. Juris was a wonderful cat, proud and wilful. He softened with age.
7. Betija played the piano.
8. Ernests lived in Moscow.
9. In ninety-three, I lived alone in Bīnāti in June, subsisting on condensed milk and rhubarb.
10. Some are allowed not to have children.
11. If we don’t let him out at night, it will be even worse.
12. Sonya too lived in Moscow.
13. Dad was fumbling around for pain medication.
14. Jana and Mitya lived in St Petersburg.
15. In eighty-six, my sister and I went to Vērtūži, hoping to buy sour cream. On the way back, it was raining, and we hid in a piece of a concrete pipe like two embryos in a womb.
16. Anna had five children: daughters Mīle, Minna and Olga; sons Kārlis and Jānis.
17. Rhythms and colours.
18. My bag contains my bra, razor and toothbrush. They fall out in front of the lecture-hall as I take out Baudelaire.
19. Bombis was run over. Then he was shot to take him out of his misery.
20. I was naïve and very cruel.
21. Kārlis promised to help Olga to become a doctor but he died in the World War.
22. Hell was a clearing behind the temple where the remains of the sacrificed animals stank.
23. I did not turn off my phone, I rose at dawn to pee. At seven, mum called.
24. The following spring we brought rhubarb ourselves.
25. I was good at calculating, I had trouble with thinking.
26. At Velta and Roald’s place, there were strawberries.
27. Marija is twelve.
28. I think that I was conceived in Asari.
29. Olga had worked since the age of ten.
30. Juris is buried in the Bīnāti yard.
31. Otto told me about Normandy.
32. Colours are semiotic.
33. We arrived, and Olga poured us sorrel soup.
34. My sister and her husband slept in the hay.
35. There are people, whose heart opens already in childhood.
36. It is difficult with mum. And also with Marija.
37. I talked about Lermontov and got mixed up.
38. It was hard to give birth.
39. Grandpa Viktors died in sixty-three, while painting the floor.
40. The Bīnāti garden was shady. You couldn’t feel the heat.
41. In eighty-seven, Klāvs fell out the window in Dubulti.
42. If God gives us the next day, he will give us bread.
43. I don’t know when dad’s heart opened.
44. Little chicks were busy in the Bīnāti yard.
45. Mum’s mum was also Olga.
46. An exam on 2 June.
47. Mum’s grandma Baba Lyuba. I walk and talk like her.
48. Dad compiled Lermontov.
49. Andrītis, too, is a cool cat. He bites you on the nose.
50. Rainy afternoons with tea. The family women.
51. Marija plays the piano.
52. Tolstoy. Write it down: the real history is birth, love and death.
53. Mum went off to write.
54. Matīss and Evija buried Juris.
55. I am Anna. Olga is a shepherd.
56. Trees are flickering by, the vice-chancellor and I are riding on the train and laughing.
57. Dad died and Bombis was run over.
58. Mārtiņš is my husband.
59. Maigonis was born in Ozolnieki.
60. In eighty-four we came to Bīnāti after grandpa was dead. Half of the house had rotted and was sawn off, the other side was under repair.
61. Baudelaire, yuk, says the student, disgusting. She cries because she hasn’t got a ten.
62. Only some are allowed not to have children.
63. In ninety-eight, the ante-room ceiling fell in. Mārtiņš used a spade to dig into the house. I was expecting Marģers.
64. Betija was hiding in Ārītes.
65. Paps was probably born in Auziņi. I should check the book.
66. In eighty-five, we moved to an abandoned building in Mežamuiža. There were fancy broken tile and old toys with the stuffing sticking out.
67. Children of course also open one’s heart.
68. Marģers got dreads. He is upset with god that he is different.
69. Inside the foundation of the barn we found a typewriter.
70. I had a good colour sense.
71. I wanted to call the priest, but dad asked for notary.
72. If God gives a child, he also provides the layette.
73. Rimbaud and Verlaine.
74. The large circle is behind Mežamuiža.
75. Ieva didn’t say that she was going to give birth at home.
76. Maigonis was baptized, but dad was not.
77. The small circle goes up to the swamp.
78. In empty years, I brought back forty some ceps, said dad in his last autumn.
79. Mum got married while pregnant. Lyolya cried.
80. The maple is growing big and will knock over the outhouse.
81. I went to Moscow at the age of ten, then at twelve.
82. The tractor is ruining the mushroom spots.
83. My daughter needs girlfriends.
84. Dad is buried at Rainis cemetery. Juris is buried in the Bīnāti garden.
85. I went to St Petersburg at the age of thirteen, I vomited at the train station. In two thousand, I went with Inga and Kārlis. A year later, I talked Mārtiņš into it.
86. He will give the next day and bread and baby and a layette.
87. Mum’s mum Baba Lyolya.
88. The kids talk about hell in class.
89. During the blockade, some babushka wanted to eat a baby.
90. My sister was born in fifty-eight. Women in childbed were told to stay in bed and they were watered like flowers, their legs spread.
91. Mum’s grandpa was a pastry-cook in Tashkent.
92. They all died: Otto and Olga, then Maigonis, Little Imants, as well as Lyolya and Sea Dog.
93. Tallinn used to be called Reval.
94. Sleep, my baby, my sweet, hear my song, the shiny moon will look after you all night long.
95. A friend and a girlfriend in third grade.
96. Sister was taken to the hospital, but mum was not let near her. The green cat had to be left at the ward for infectious disease. When I heard that, I felt sorry.
97. In eighty-five, Raimonds put in a floor in the big room. The unplanned boards soaked up much of the paint, yet it stayed on really well.
98. Dad died and I forgot the name of the swamp.
99. I’ll begin to tell you tales, I will sing you songs.
100. After that, we sat by the river and sucked on bonbons.
101. I gave birth to my son at the paid ward.
102. In ninety-three, during the autumn holidays, dad and I tried to goad Ieva and Matīss to come with us on the small circle, but they pretended to be ill.
103. Mum was not in the Leningrad blockade.
104. Kaspars Ivuškāns took offence, when I said “let me by, fatty”. I flew against the window, but all ended well. Teacher Ruciņa admonished us.
105. One shop was at the people’s house and then, for some time, near the post office. There is a shop also in Vērtūži. The Zalve shop was before the church.
106. Windows should be changed.
107. In eighty-two, Matīss was born.
108. The idea was to put in particle board, but we failed to get it, and it’s a good thing, otherwise the floor would rot.
109. Everyone, except Ēriks Jurevskis, got to be a member of the Young Pioneers.
110. Aunt Velta died this winter.
111. Mum really wanted me.
112. Paps was buried in Rainis Cemetery, Juris was buried in Bīnāti garden. Bombis was buried I don’t know where.
113. Lukass knows German.
114. There was lemonade at the shop. But no sour cream.
115. Dad was taken ill, and we became more loving to one another.
116. As I was giving birth to my daughter, I stayed home till the last. I arrived right off the street and did not pay a red cent. Yet they broke my waters.
117. Matīss got married. Evija is a doctor.
118. There were frogs in the cellar.
119. In eighty-six, Liene Vasermane sat with Signe. My heart broke.
120. Lyolya gave birth to four children, the first ones in St Petersburg, the ones that followed in Moscow. One died while still a baby, mum’s sister, still a baby. The brother was coddled and later named Sea Dog.
121. You worked and I read the old magazines.
122. In fourth grade, I enjoyed playing alone in the sand and the kids called me Badger. Later, Amālija. It hurt a little.
123. Olga gave birth to dad and Maigonis.
124. Mum was evacuated.
125. I don’t want a grave. Scatter the ashes.
126. Andis Liepiņš was good with numbers, but I was better.
127. In eighty-three, my sister came to Bīnāti for the first time with children.
128. In tenth grade, we laughed that Ivo and his roommate were pansies. It turned out that they were in fact a couple. Later they moved to London.
129. Evija is expecting.
130. In fourth grade, I read that young ladies slap impudent young men and so I slapped a classmate several times. I became notorious
131. We came just the two of us, dad and I, and we ate whatever.
132. Cousin Viktors shot himself to death in the army.
133. Aunt Velta called for milk.
134. Teacher Vasermane became Jēgermane.
135. By accident, I saw Ēriks Jurevskis peeing against a pine-tree. He thought that it was intentional.
136. An old black-currant bush behind the foundation of the barn. Its branches should be bent down, earth dug over and then the young shoots dug up and replanted, otherwise it’s not producing.
137. I got married pregnant.
138. Mum’s other grandma was called Baba Tanya.
139. The plaster was all white dust. The repairmen were drinking. You slept and I wandered through the meadows unwatched.
140. For fourth grade, Andis Liepiņš went to Secondary School No. 1.
141. Bombis, it turns out, has a grave just behind the lindens.
142. We brought a little girl from St Petersburg.
143. I cannot remember Lyuba.
144. In ninety-nine, it was dry. Marģers crawled on a dusty path.
145. Ēriks Jurevskis rocked me very high. I felt guilty.
146. Olga died in eighty-two, Lyolya in eighty-nine.
147. I am Anna. This is my daughter Marija.
148. Signe boasted later on that Andis loved her. The bitch, Liene was not enough.
149. A hairy head emerged, you said. A good thing that it happened so quickly.
150. Juris climbed trees.
151. Life with teenagers is cheerful and full of challenges.
152. God, let Marģers drive with six horses.
153. A pump can be put in and a shower installed.
154. Another baby. If it does not come on its own, let’s adopt.
155. Perhaps my heart opened already earlier.
156. I signed a contract, and they put a meter in the little box again.
157. Dad died, and we became more affectionate.
