The heating has been strong these days, and when it’s warm at night, I always dream something unpleasant. Last night, I was on my way to Uncle Boshko’s for coffee, but I was shot at by a sniper, so I had to run from cover to cover. The night before, I dreamed that Milica and I were figures on a tray of an old magician, and he was keeping us in the oven. We were frozen and couldn’t move, communicating only with our eyes. In the morning, I read the messages, and Milica had sent me one, sharing her dream. She dreamed that we were back in high school. This time in a well-equipped building. Every classroom was equipped with computers and projectors, science labs… There was an amphitheater, too. They had planted rich flora in the yard and built a fountain, which fed into an artificial stream that flowed through the yard and passed under a wooden half-circle bridge.
I couldn’t connect the dream to the image of our post-war school. Schools just aren’t like that, and if ours were like that, it would be some glitch in the social system. I also dreamed about our high school recently, but it was in the place of the student dorm “Slobodan Bajić” in Novi Sad. It only took me two minutes from high school to the university. Maybe I dreamed it because the buildings of the school and the dorm are made of the same brick, or at least similar.
Elena appears.
Elena: You have to hear this. Uncle Mika, who offered you the space for the team, is in charge of transporting professors in the university’s official car, but on the way, he also takes students from his university to another university, promising them better conditions there. Yesterday, a professor was late for the lecture because he was waiting in front of another university for the students to finish their conversation.
David: Oh, the times, oh, the manners…
Elena: And for that activity, Mika is going to receive a master’s degree from that other university.
David: Oh, bread…
Elena: I was there today to check the space. I’ve been laughing all day, I can’t study.
Elena: Did you notice that this new graphic with a bunch of details is working so slowly in Flash
David: It seemed that way to me too, but I didn’t know why it was like that.
Elena: It’s too detailed, and I think it has to do with the format. Everything freezes in the animation.
David: Yes, everything freezes. Are you happy that he’ll have to redo it?
Elena: Yes, of course.
David: Me too, in a way.
Elena: Now he has iterations, and let him grow through the circles or whatever.
Elena: I’m in a rush, just quickly, how are you?
David: Well… yesterday was a pointless day.
Elena: You’ll see me later today. 🙂
David: My knee hurts a little, nothing special.
Elena: I’m off…
My knee has been hurting for several days. When I was training, it was a cause for concern. Now, I don’t care at all. I’ll be able to walk, that’s enough. Tonight, we’re all at Ian’s, but we’re not talking about the game. We’re going to play Worms. Elena will be with us, and then she’ll go out with Iovana. I haven’t turned on the TV in ten days, they’re showing some movie on Channel 92.
In the movie, they just called an IT expert to read the data from some secure system. He sits down, doesn’t think, doesn’t ask anything, presses the keys on the keyboard as if playing the piano, very vivaciously. Symbols fly on the screen, and everything opens up within two minutes. I turn off the TV.
Worms isn’t going well for me; my worms always die first. Elena recalls the conversations she had with me:
“In David’s area, they fight in their own way. They gather in the forest, dig trenches, and everything looks like a real war. They just don’t shoot, so no one gets hurt. At night, everyone sleeps, and in the morning, they wake up and go for coffee in the enemy’s trench. Then they return and do some programming in their trench, because some work has to be done. And when his uncle is on leave, he walks down the railway tracks and then stops the train with his thumb when it comes. In the end, when peace is signed, they reluctantly go home to their wives, waiting for the next joyful armed conflict.”
I didn’t like the tone of Elena’s story. She deserved some kind of punishment. When she was leaving for the city, I had already fallen out of the game. I saw her off, and while she was putting on her shoes, I clipped a clothespin on her purse.
“Have fun in the city…”
