The story happens in 1947. I am only fourteen and I am studying at the tailoring school^[1] in Brasov, where I also meet Maria, my best friend. I grew up^[2] in Constanta, a flat area, with plains and the Black Sea. When I saw^[3] the mountains for the first time in my life, I was^[4] amazed^[5] by their beauty and all the vegetation. I remember meeting Maria at school and feeling so surprised to hear that she also comes from Constanta, just like me.

Our teacher, Paraschiva, a fifty-year-old woman, is teaching us something new every day and treats us like her own children. One day, the teacher sends us to get honey for breakfast from the downtown store. It is a warm day and we are surprised by this because we knew that it is always cooler in the mountains. Arriving there, at only four meters away, we see two bears entering the store and after a while, they come out with a face full of honey. We feel so scared at the moment that we almost faint out of fear. A seller is telling us to take shelter in the store. He asks us where we come from because he realizes that it is the first time in our lives when we see a bear. Maria starts asking him all kinds of questions about bears, because we know that they only eat forest fruits such as blueberries or raspberries. He explains to us that bears eat honey, but also meat, telling us that he himself saw a bear stealing two chickens from him.

The bears run back to the forest, but unfortunately, two hunters come and shoot them.  Everyone around is surprised, saying that they never see bears coming downtown to steal honey from a store. The hunters say that the bears are starting to multiply and warn us to be as careful as possible when we go hiking. A woman was happy with what the hunters did^[6], saying that she saw the same bears stealing her chickens. Hearing this and feeling scared, we turn back to the teacher and we tell her what we saw. She tells us that although she doesn’t agree with these things (violence against animals), the event has nothing to do with that. I also tell her about the woman who was happy about the bears dying and she tells us that lady Otilia is a crazy woman. We spend the rest of the day talking about this and the teacher tells us that she herself saw hunters shooting a black goat, an animal which is protected by law.

Now we never go alone to school. We join our colleagues, Florica, from Galati, Marilena, from Bucharest and our teacher, together with her children, Marius and Florin. Those three years passed^[7] very quickly and I would like to take the time to relive those important and beautiful moments in life. I still talk to Maria and every time, we remember the moment of meeting the two bears and the teacher’s words about violence against animals. Maria also adds that if strict measures are not taken^[8] in this regard^[9] soon, the animals will continue to suffer.