2. A fish with artistic aspirations

It’s midnight, March 6, 1844. The city of Siatista is covered by darkness. Silence everywhere. Somewhere only dogs can be heard in the distance.

In the house of the teacher Dimitrios Argyriadis, everyone is asleep. The fire in the fireplace has long been extinguished. The silence is broken by the pendulum clock brought by the host from Bucharest, where he has been working for the last few years as a teacher and newspaper editor. Twelve ticks and then silence again. And suddenly a scream…”.

– “Ahh! I want to get out of here,” came a voice from the “good room” of the ground floor. “I was waiting for the painter to finish the painting so I could see who I’d have next to me, but I never expected this. What am I doing painted here? Me, a big ocean fish, in a river?”

The big fish in the wall painting looked terribly disappointed. It decided to go to the other side of the river to think about what to do, but traffic was blocking it. Ships, boats, smaller fish and geese stand in the way of his escape. So many that there’s not much room left to move.

– “But what has this man done? What “folk art” work is this? Is he calling himself an artist? Was he so afraid to leave some space to move freely in this river? How am I going to get through now?”

The fish makes a sudden movement causing a large wave that rocks the boat next to him.

– “Hold on!” the captain’s voice was heard from the deck. We are approaching a dangerous whale. Look out, my sailors.”

– “Well, not a dangerous whale, my captain! I am a desperate little fish of the ocean who by the mistake of a folk artist found myself trapped in your river. Sorry to disturb you. I’m leaving,” he shouts angrily and sets off for the other side of the river to get over his distress. On the way he forgets his anger and gazes at the city, Frankfurt as he saw it called in the inscription in the center of the painting.

– “Frankfurt, eh? Hmm, odd name,” he thinks to himself and approaches the boat again. “Excuse me captain, could you tell me exactly where this Frankfurt is?”

The captain looks at the fish in confusion. He has heard of mermaids, but not of talking fish. He sees the fish looking at him in despair and answers back:

– “It is in Germany. It’s a great city and a great trading center.”

– “Thanks” he replies and starts to move around. He sees a bridge and soldiers on it. He approaches and looks at it closely.

– “What are these soldiers doing here? Are they protecting the bridge to keep foreign ships from passing by or are they border guards?” he wonders.

– “It has walls and towers and tall buildings.

But what are those on top of the towers? In some places I see crosses, in others crescents. Do Christians or Muslims live here?” he whispers. “No, no, it’s all wrong,” he cries confidently. The Ottomans do not live here. I heard a fisherman on the Bosphorus say it once. See the artist messed up again. He was influenced by Siatista, which is still in the hands of the Turks, and he thought the same was true of Frankfurt.”

He approaches a part of the river where large trees line the banks. On the left bank he sees soldiers in red costumes on horses doing exercises. He passes under an impressive bridge and notices on his right six figures in curiously twisted hats looking at it.

– “What strange hats these people are wearing! I suspect they don’t wear them in this town. It must be another mistake,” he mutters, and continues on his way, resolving no longer to bemoan his fate, but to see other cities in Europe, now that he has had the chance. He even decides to forgive the unknown ” folk painter”, as he called him, the artists who placed this fish there without its permission.