PREJUDICE

For a whole year, Viorel Stamate had been counting his days, weeks, and months, eagerly awaiting the great day of his release from prison. He had endured much and witnessed much human misery. And when the day of freedom finally came, he was overjoyed to leave that sinister place behind and return to civilian life. He was only twenty-nine and had been sentenced to a year in prison because he had been part of a gang of car thieves. They had stolen a few cars and sold them. Normally, he should have received several years in prison, but his parents had hired a good lawyer who pleaded his case before the court with great professionalism, and so he got away with only one year.

On that day of his release, Viorel set out for home in high spirits, firmly resolved never to return to the place where, for a year, he had lived among all sorts of people at odds with the law. He was a tall young man, not very heavyset, his facial features revealing a pleasant-looking youth with great potential for doing something noble in life. He became very likable whenever his face lit up with his youthful smile, and his green eyes, along with his demeanor, gave him a bold air. Viorel was also very skilled with his hands; if someone showed him what needed to be done, he would set to work immediately and carry it out with great dexterity.

Viorel was a young man easily influenced. If he found himself in the company of people who lived outside the law, he would quickly fall in line with their spirit, and at times even with their deeds. But if he was among decent folk, he would just as quickly bring out all the nobility within him. He had joined that gang of car thieves mostly out of a desire to make his time more enjoyable and break the monotony of village life, where everything seemed only a crushing routine. He had wanted to taste a little adventure without thinking too much about the consequences, and so he ended up in prison. His father was a truck driver, while his two older brothers had long since moved with their families to Germany, where they worked in a factory. When his involvement with the gang had been uncovered and he was convicted, his father had told him:

“Viorel, it seems you want to take the hardest road in life and learn what it means to be a man by knocking your head against many obstacles. Though I believe you should have thought, before taking this road, that you would bring shame upon us, your parents, in front of everyone.”

On that day of his release, as he walked the streets of the village, he felt that some people looked at him strangely, with a certain reserve. When he arrived home, his parents welcomed him kindly. He took a bath, changed his clothes, and rejoiced at seeing the family home again and his own room, with all his things just as he had left them before his imprisonment. His father said to him:

“Here you are back home. I hope that from this day on you will set out on the right path.”

But his mother promptly intervened, as always, taking his side:

“Oh, leave him be now, he’s just come home. From now on he will be a good boy.”

He had dinner with his parents, listening in silence to his father’s words of encouragement about becoming a man of worth. Then he went out to visit a few friends from the village. Two weeks after his release, Viorel found a job at a construction materials warehouse. At his workplace, he behaved exemplarily, listening carefully to everything he was told and fulfilling his tasks responsibly. His boss was very pleased with him. He even managed to make friends with some of the workers there, who didn’t seem bothered by the fact that he had been in prison.

One day, after finishing work, he went to a currency exchange office with two hundred euros that his mother had given him to exchange. His parents had received that money from his brothers. At that evening hour, there was hardly anyone in the office. Viorel was taken aback by the beauty of the young woman working there, whose name was Adina. He struck up a conversation with her, as if bewitched by her graceful figure, her chestnut hair cascading down her back, her lovely eyes tinged green with blue, and the smile and melodious voice that captivated him instantly. In the following days, he passed by again, and then one evening he waited until the office closed and, pretending to pass by by chance, walked Adina home.

That was followed by their first date, and then by other meetings, until Viorel was overcome by the wondrous thrill of love. It seemed that love would bring great changes in his life. Adina was twenty-six, and she had already had two relationships with other young men that had left her heartbroken. She now sought healing in a new relationship. Adina was also an educated young woman who had begun thinking about starting a family. She had a close friend named Veronica; they had grown up together, gone to the same school, and always shared everything. Veronica was a nurse and not yet married. With her trained eye, Veronica noticed that Adina had changed a lot recently and quickly guessed the cause. She pressed her insistently until Adina confided everything about herself and Viorel.

Then Veronica, after learning his address, birth date, and full name, went to her father, a policeman, and asked him to find out if Viorel had a criminal record. A few days later, she received the information about Viorel’s conviction and the fact that he had been part of a gang of car thieves. She immediately called Adina and told her it was very important they meet and talk. They arranged to meet at a café one morning before Adina started work. Sitting at a quiet table, Veronica said:

“You are my best friend, and the two great disappointments you’ve had in your life have saddened me too, for I felt part of your pain. That’s why now I don’t want to let you suffer again. The men who have passed through your life were far beneath you and never deserved the nobility of your feelings. And this Viorel Stamate, even less so—for in reality he is nothing, a former convict who, tomorrow or the next day, might well fall back in with his gang. I checked him out: he served a year in prison because he and others like him committed crimes.”

Adina sat stunned under her friend’s insistent gaze. What hurt her most was the thought that Viorel had told her, at her urging, all about his past—yet had said nothing about prison.

“I knew it!” Veronica pressed on. “A wretch who kept his time in prison from you. Do you really think such a man could be sincere in his feelings for you? No! He only wants to take advantage of you. I beg you, break off with this scoundrel—he doesn’t deserve you.”

For a few moments Adina was speechless, then she said:

“Why do such things always happen to me? Oh, how could he lie to me like this? If I had known everything from the start, I never would have ventured into such a relationship…”

“Now you do know—and you must leave him. Believe me, it’s for your own good.”

“But maybe…”

“No. For those who come out of prison, total rehabilitation is possible only in the rarest cases. Most go back inside after committing more crimes. My father has told me many things about these people.”

That morning, Veronica managed to convince Adina that it was for her own good to break up with Viorel, for a life lived beside such a man could only bring trouble. That same evening, after finishing work, Viorel set out joyfully to meet Adina. He wanted to tell her that his mother wished to meet her and that, if she agreed, he hoped to introduce her to his parents at the end of the week. But when Adina appeared at their meeting place, Viorel noticed she was upset. Strangely, her anger made her seem even more beautiful to him.

“You look a little sad today,” he said. “But I can cheer you up.”

“Really? You can cheer me up? What a wonderful boy! Tell me, have you met up lately with your buddies from the car-thieving gang?”

Viorel was stunned, as if struck by a sudden blow. All his happiness evaporated at once, and his heart ached.

“I didn’t dare confess everything to you at first, but I was going to…”

“Going to what? Tell me more lies? Aren’t you ashamed? But it’s no surprise—you people can’t be trusted. From now on, please leave me in peace and go your own way.”

“Adina, but I can and I want to become a different man. That dark episode in my life was nothing but an accident, something that will never happen again. I promise to change! What’s more, I’ve cut ties completely with those people…”

“Enough! Get out of my sight and out of my life. Leave me this instant and never let me see you near me again!”

Adina spoke those final words with fury and harshness, then strode away quickly, eager to put as much distance as possible between herself and Viorel. For a few moments he stood there, thunderstruck, staring after her. His first impulse, once he regained his senses, was to run after her, to beg her, to plead for forgiveness. But he stopped himself, realizing he had lost her, that everything between them was over. All that had been so beautiful had crumbled. He walked away, heavy-hearted, like a defeated man who had built so many plans with Adina only to see them suddenly collapse. He was once again alone, full of grief. He felt as though a crushing weight had settled on his shoulders, on his soul, pressing down and suffocating him.

A terrible thought seized him—that he might seek out his old friends again, and the shady bars he had once frequented. But shame overcame him, and he understood that if he went down that road, he would only sink deeper into the mire, and no decent soul would ever come near him again. Then, like a drowning man clutching at a straw, he clung to the hope that perhaps he could be reconciled with Adina.

But that thin thread of hope snapped within him, for he realized the rupture between them was final. He had not had the courage to confess everything from the beginning; he had thought he could get away with it, but no—it was impossible. A former convict—that was all he was, and people would never see him otherwise. The realization was deeply painful. All his sorrow, all the noble and beautiful feelings he had shared with Adina, had to be smothered. Who cared about his feelings now? All his aspirations of beginning a new life by her side had vanished, because he was given not the slightest chance. Was he now condemned to live only among those at odds with the law? Did he have no right to a new life, a fresh start? Was society, by branding him an irredeemable ex-convict and casting him to the margins, sentencing him to remain there forever, with no right to aspire to something better? Yes, he had erred, that was clear. But those who condemned him so harshly and forced Adina to think like them—they were wrong as well. Life seemed unbearably unjust, and so did the way people perceived it.

Three months later, Viorel was in Germany, working at the factory where his brothers had been employed for years. Many other young men and women from Romania worked there too. His brothers introduced him to a remarkable young woman, though for the time being he kept his distance—he did not want to start a new relationship, for the wounds in his heart were still raw. Sometimes he looked at his phone, hoping for a message from Adina, a word of forgiveness. Yet he would rebuke himself, telling himself such a thing was impossible, and that he would do better to begin another story, with another girl. And gradually, life abroad began to open beautifully before him, like a bright road stretching ahead.

Eugen Oniscu is a Romanian writer living in Germany. He is the author of several collections of short stories and personal testimonies exploring exile, faith, and resilience. His work has appeared in international literary magazines and on Amazon KDP. He writes in Romanian and English, often focusing on human dignity and the transformative power of hope.