In 1964, Andrei had been the strongest lad in the valley. He loved Elena, the blacksmith’s daughter, with a quiet intensity that felt like a slow-burning ember. They had plans—a house near the birch forest, a life built on calloused hands and shared bread. But Andrei was a man of "later." He believed that love was a prize you earned only after you had secured the world.
He treated his youth as an infinite well, pouring his days into labor and his nights into exhausted sleep, always pushing Elena’s hand away when she reached for him to dance. He thought he was being responsible; he didn't realize he was being hollow. Cine-n tinerete n-o iubit destul
Then came the Great Flood. The river reclaimed the valley in a single, violent night. Andrei spent those hours saving his livestock, hauling sacks of grain to higher ground, obsessed with preserving his "future." When he finally fought his way to Elena’s house, the porch was gone, and the girl who had waited for a "later" that never came had been swept away by the current. In 1964, Andrei had been the strongest lad in the valley