Les Noces

As far as my memory goes, weddings have always seemed to me like strange tragedies: by Balkan tradition or just the fantasy of a temperamental child, I knew that the mystery would grow progressively around the bride, always absent from the festivities. The bridesmaids would change her into currency, passing from one family to another, and then she would appear at the ultimate moment, when all the spirits dim from a full day of ecstasy, staring at her, a veiled reflection of the drama which they could no longer ignore.

Then offering herself in a back-to-front version of a funeral ritual, she would walk slowly, her eyes brimming with tears, towards the consented rape.