Last night we gathered at Yanko’s and later we went out. I wasn’t fully present, my mind still back at home. Something changed there with my friends from the neighborhood, Veljko, Goran, and Aleksandar (Max called them VGA for short). We grew up with my older brother, who was always in some funny predicament. His experiences entertained us. That’s how it was until this summer. Now, to me, my brother is still my brother, but to them, he has become an idol. I don’t understand anything.
Another friend in the neighborhood was Marko. A bit older than us. But he moved out this summer. Now he works as a night guard in Switzerland. Actually, he doesn’t work, he just sits at the company at night. He actually works by bringing his laptop every night and making some software.
I remember, it was 1996 or 1997, we were walking—Veljko, Goran, Aleksandar, and I. We ran into Marko with a friend.
“What are you doing, Marko?”
“We’re trying to network two computers.”
That was a feat back then, especially for high school students. I assumed they had modems on each computer and would use the phone line. I wanted to hear more from them, but Veljko hurried the conversation. They were heading from Marko’s apartment to his friend’s, carrying the software they needed to install. When we finished talking and moved on, Veljko just briefly commented:
“I hate smart people.”
Yeah, now that I think about it, Veljko’s respect for my brother doesn’t seem so strange.
Petar pulled me out of my thoughts. He was talking about the photos he takes and adds text to. He was presenting some complex theory about it. I asked if he was telling me about demotivational posters. He seemed a bit offended. He said that it was nothing like that, what he was doing was the next step in art. Sanya interrupted him, suggesting we should organize a trip to the Book Fair and spend a night in Belgrade. Elena threw in over the table that we should all take Italian course and how beautiful a language it is. I was surrounded by culture. I was thinking of supporting that trip to the Fair. That weekend, Partizan was playing Vojvodina in Belgrade, so we could watch it.
Elena came online.
David: Elena…
Elena: David…
David: Elena…
Elena: David…
David: Elena…
Elena: What is it?
David: Nothing. How are you?
Elena: I’m just dozing off. I’ll be going to bed soon.
David: You had fun last night?
Elena: It wasn’t bad.
David: I should have sat next to you…
Elena: I was about to tell you that we need to be more careful with these group outings to make them more interesting. I had a long conversation with Sanya and Mirna. It was interesting in some way. You had Petar next to you, if he only could read your face, he wouldn’t have talked that much.
David: Can’t I hide it?
Elena: No way, you’ve never been able to.
David: Well, it was still, in some way, interesting. I can’t say I regret hearing everything he said. His presentation of what he’s doing.
Elena: Motivational posters?
David: No, no, you don’t understand. Neither do I. 🙂
David: It’s strange. But not as strange as Sanya suggesting we go to the Book Fair.
Elena: You know, I was thinking today about all of this, about the outing, about the project, about the Book Fair.
David: I was at Sanya’s apartment before the summer break. Man, big living room full of books, shelves from floor to ceiling, almost all the walls covered. And the ceilings are high, you know. Some interesting pictures on the wall, unusual. In the corner, an old piano. And Sanya in all of that. She took that apartment just because it’s in the center, close to clubs. Someone interesting used to live there. And someone who would know how to enjoy that apartment, but it means nothing to her. Anyway, the point is, maybe the number of books affects her willingness to visit the Book Fair.
Elena: What books? Shopping, sleeping, and going out in Belgrade, that is the idea behind the trip to the Fair. What were you doing at Sanya’s apartment??
David: Stopped by with Obradović, you get everywhere with Obradović. Don’t worry, when it comes to those kinds of girls, you know that Mirna is my favorite.
Elena: I know, you mentioned it. You would really do that?
David: I wouldn’t.
Elena: But you said you would. It seemed like you were going to be with her before the June exam.
David: At one point, I thought I would. When I said there might be something, I meant it. But I don’t know what she thought or if she thought anything.
Elena: But I don’t understand why. What motivates you, maybe that she talks nicely? 🙂
David: Nothing. I don’t know. I don’t know why I thought that way. I was alone almost all of my third year, I had no girlfriend.
And what were you thinking about the project?
Elena: Well… I hope we’ll make something, that we won’t be disorganized, that it’ll make sense.
David: It could be good. I believe we can make something interesting. It’s just a shame we’re doing it from here. If we were in a more developed country, we’d probably get some support. Some business incubator would give us office space, a meeting room, fast internet access, meetings with investors and mentors. Now we’ll have to do everything ourselves from home.
Elena: Yeah, imagine if we were in a more interesting place. Like New York, for example.
David: Interesting place. Right there.
Elena: And in some interesting time. Like the late 70s, early 80s. Can you imagine that? Going out at CBGB.
David: Elena would dance there to Blondie, I can picture that scene. Well, we would hang out there for days, we wouldn’t do anything else, not even studying. We would not work on our project. And about the project, the West Coast is better than New York. That’s when everything started happening there.
And Mirna and Sanya would lining in front of Studio 54, hoping they’ll get in. 🙂
Elena: I can totally see them there. 🙂
Elena: And now they’re just the Novi Sad pink version.
Elena: Hey, whenever I drink a little, I dream strange dreams.
David: Me too. What did you dream last night?
Elena: A lot of strange things… and you were there too…
David:Did you dream that you intellectually dominated me in a TV duel??
Elena: Haha
David: I guess I’ll try again, and now I’ll be serious…
Like this…
An endless park… paths covered in fine gravel, tall bushes around the paths, neatly trimmed… private property.
(That was the description of the setting)
Mirna and I are walking.
(Introduction)
You come along…
(That’s where the plot begins)
Surprised by your appearance, because you had long been married in a neighboring kingdom, and I hadn’t seen you for a long time…
…I thought I never would…
…in a moment, I realize that nothing else makes sense but to be with you and tell Mirna that it’s all over.
(That’s when I thought the resolution began)
From the neighboring kingdom, they send an army to bring back the runaway Elena.
(Twist)
We run far into the mountains so no one can find us… you’re holding your long dress with your hands so it doesn’t catch…
…and it looks like we’ll escape…
And then you wake up. 🙂
Did you dream that??
Elena: No.
But it’s the most beautiful story I’ve read.
David:Yeah, sure.
Elena: Yes, really.
David: Then why didn’t you dream that?
Elena: Because I’m stupid.
David: If you were smart, you’d come in jeans or a tracksuit… you wouldn’t be running around in a dress.
Elena: Hahahah… crazy…
Elena: Wait, someone else is messaging me.
My colleague Iovana.
David: What does the colleague say?
Elena: She asks if “femily” in some regions means “family.” And she’s asking something about Yanko. She chatted with Sanya, and Sanya was writing about relatives from both her mother’s and father’s sides, but she wasn’t sure if it’s correct to say two “femilies.”
David: And she didn’t ask about me. 🙂
Elena: Sorry. What do you want, she doesn’t speak in a drawl and her grammar is correct. She’s not your type, David. 🙂
Elena: But she’s cute, she is.
David: Exactly the type I was hoping for.
Elena: What type?
David: The ones who don’t speak in a drawl and speak correctly.
Elena: She’s cute, as I said.
David: That doesn’t bother me.
Elena: Not at all.
Elena: I can tell you I really like her.
Elena: I’m just thinking about something now.
Elena: We’ve spent so much time together, and she never bothered me in any way. Quite the opposite.
David: Well, seems like a nice colleague, but she doesn’t ask about me. But that’s okay. What matters is that I have you.
Elena: Just to tell you. Your messages don’t seem like they used to. When you were alone, they made sense, I could even believe them. Now you think about Aliki, but you’re talking about a dream with the two of us.
Elena had a boyfriend all along since we started at university. Still, we often texted each other until morning, mostly last summer, when we were both at home. I always had some story where it was the two of us, and she never seemed bothered by it. Sometimes it seemed like we had crossed a line, and I still have her message on my phone when I was late for the start of a lecture last year:
I miss you, David. By the time of the message you will know that I am drunk, but you know that I would say the same thing when I am sober too. I wished to tell you this one hundred times, but I don’t want to bother you. Yet, in the end, I had to write it. Now, don’t think I am boring and understand this. Everything is more interesting when you are here and I can’t wait for your return.
At some earlier point, our gravitation connected into some strange kind of a binary star, but this summer we only had a few short chats. What should I answer to her now?
David: What did you say, what did you dream? 🙂
Elena: I’m dreaming, you, Yanko, Maxim, and Ian are playing hide and seek. You’re in some house with glass walls, and the doors are made of glass, so everything is visible and you can all see each other. But Yanko hides from you behind the door when you enter the room. You, of course, see him, but since it’s a door, you act like he’s hidden. And you keep hiding like that while seeing each other. One room has real walls, and I went in there. Inside, there’s a green, worn-out armchair, stylish. In front of it, there’s a table with a small, old TV… it said “Goldstar,” but it actually said “Goldberg,” only in Goldstar font.
I sat down and started switching channels, there were only 4 channels. And on those channels, I could see what you four are dreaming. I watched Yanko’s dream, switched to Ian’s, and so on. I know you’ll ask what was on your channel, but I don’t remember any of your dreams. I just know they were dreams. And dreams of my little “Rube Goldberg” people.
David: Nice dream. I like it. It’s like a movie.
Elena: Yeah, a horror.
David: You know, I’ve cooled off a bit from Greece and everything. But ever since we started texting again, those words come to me on their own, the ones I’m sending you, I’m not making any of it up. I didn’t answer you earlier, but I don’t want to run away from an answer.
Elena: The coffee smells.
Elena: We’ll have to work on our friendship again.
David: Definitely. I’ll try.
Elena: You need to find a girlfriend. Here, in Novi Sad.
David: I will, not for myself. For our friendship. 🙂
Elena: I believe you will. You’re a good friend, and you always do things right.
Elena: Okay… I have to go to bed now.
David: When do you wake up??
Elena: At 6:30.
David: Sorry for being interesting.
Elena: We’ll go to chat at 6 and be there until 10 so I can go to bed on time.
David: Can’t do that, from 6 to 8 is Mirna’s time.
Elena: It’s not a fun experience if you don’t listen to her.
David: It is if she uses the letters with the diacritical marks.
Elena: Oh, we’re terrible.
David: Okay, we won’t be terrible anymore… and we’re only not terrible when we sleep.
At the end of the second year, Elena and I were walking and we were somewhere on Liman 41. The fog was thick, like we were wrapped in steam, like a stick in cotton candy. I was telling her some nice details about the girl I was dating at the time, with whom I stopped seeing a month after that conversation, and she was complaining about her relationship with a guy from Skopje, with whom she’s still seeing. She asked me if I loved my girlfriend. At that moment, I smelled a strong coffee scent from some roasting place we were passing by, but we couldn’t see it.
“It smells like coffee,” I noticed.
“What smells like coffee, what are you talking about? You won’t answer? You don’t love her.”
“No, I smelled the coffee, it’s a strong scent.”
“What smells? You’re changing the subject… wait, it really smells. Strongly. Looks like we’re passing by some roasting place.”
Since then, we say “the coffee smells” whenever we find ourselves in a sensitive situation.
David: Are you still there?
Elena: Tell me.
David: Can I say one more thing?
Elena: Go ahead.
David: Sanya is The Lady of the Femilies.
Elena: Go to sleep, you’re rude.
1Neighborhood in Novi Sad.
