“I have to move, Elena.”
“From Novi Sad?”
“No, from the apartment.”
“What’s wrong with the apartment? You’ve been living there for two years.”
“Everything is fine. It’s just that until now I’ve been paying the rent on the doorstep or somewhere along the way. Every time the landlord invites me for coffee, but we always have somewhere to go. Yesterday, I came in, I did not want to make him think I’m avoiding him.”
“And did you two argue?”
“No, but we have distant political views. He’s something like Boshko’s evil friend Matija. In short, I think he doesn’t deserve such a tenant. He needs some idiot to suffer with him. The guy loves to suffer with idiots, and we shouldn’t deprive him of that.”
“Are you serious?”
“I am.”
“But now is the worst time, exams, our game. How long will it take you to move?”
“Maybe a little longer than I’ve already wasted in front of the cathedral waiting for you.”
“Was I late?”
“I can move all the stuff in an hour, but I need to clean thoroughly. That will take a few hours. Leaving the apartment messy just doesn’t feel… democratic.”
We were passing by Uncle Zmaj1 and he nodded and lowered the corners of his mouth, approving the plans.
“I know who will help you.”
“I wasn’t planning on calling anyone.”
“You don’t need to call anyone. There’s someone who will offer help.”
“You?”
“Definitely not. Yanko will help you.”
“Yanko?”
“Yes. He’s always there for you and acts like a real friend, and you kind of downgrade him.”
“I’m not downgrading him.”
“You make fun of him in front of everyone, and that amuses you.”
“I’m not downgrading him at all, it just looks like that when we retell his stories.”
Elena insisted that I was being rude, I couldn’t explain to her that it might just look that way. Suddenly, Yanko’s voice was heard from above us. We saw him peeking out from the first-floor window.
“Come up for a shot of rakija2.”
“It’s ten in the morning.”
“It’s almost half past ten now. It doesn’t matter.”
“Whose apartment is this?”
“Marin’s.“
We went up. Last night, he drank with Lazar and Marin at the ruined Freedom Bridge and now they’re “recovering.” This was our first time in this apartment, which was about a hundred meters from the Matica Srpska Library, with the window facing library direction. The ceilings were high, and I believe that was why Elena liked to climb up. She enjoys exploring such apartments. She looked at me with that “what do you think, who has lived here before and what were their lives like” look. Whoever had lived there, they didn’t have a more interesting life than the current tenant, Marin, and his friends. Last night when they left the bridge, Lazar was driving, Marin sat next to him, and Yanko was sitting on the hood. They decided to all take off their shirts and tie them as blindfolds, then go through the intersection where they didn’t have the right of way, with all the turn signals on. Luckily, no one was at the intersection… except for a police patrol. I didn’t understand why it was important for Yanko to blindfold himself, and Elena didn’t understand why they turned on the blinkers. I gave her a meaningful look in response to her claim that I downgrade Yanko, but he doesn’t do it himself. On the dining table was a laptop playing music, and right next to it, Yanko had left his coffee. Elena took the cup and moved it to the small table in front of the couch, commenting, “I’ll leave this here.” Yanko often accidentally dropped, spilled, or broke things, and the sight of his coffee next to the laptop disturbed Elena, and it would have disturbed me too if I had noticed. I think she used that moment to change the subject so I would stop using my triumphant look.
“So where are you moving to? Have you found a new apartment?”
“To a student dorm, temporarily, until my new apartment becomes available. I’ll wait there for a few days.“
Marin joined the conversation.
“You’re going to live illegally?”
“No. I have a place there, but I haven’t used it. I applied in October, did the medical check, and everything. I gave the spot to Ian’s brother so he could have a room to himself.”
Elena remembered that I don’t like to do blood tests.
“You did the medical check and gave blood just to give the spot to Ian’s brother?”
“I didn’t think about that when he asked me for the spot and offered me a hundred euros. And then when I got there, they took my blood and I had to undress in front of a nurse. What could I do? It would have been stupid to back out.”
We laughed a little, and Marin commented that blood test was probably a pointless activity because it serves no purpose, and they just do it for the sake of it.
“What are you talking about, Marin?”
“Well, about blood test. They take it like that and supposedly look at something, but they can’t see anything that way. What can they see in blood?”
“Well… you’re right, man. I think the same.“
Yanko offered to help me move. I thanked him, but he insisted. He said he was surprised that I had made an arrangement with Ian’s brother because that meant someone else couldn’t get the spot.
“I literally didn’t think about that. I guess you’re right.”
“Looks like Tantal wasn’t hungry,” Elena said when we left Marin’s apartment and went out into the street.
In the afternoon, Yanko and I arrived at my place. I was thinking where to start. I took a deep breath and checked my phone.
“What’s bothering you, man?”
“I really don’t want to move now, and I sent an SMS to Boyana from Italian class, but she hasn’t replied in four hours. Let’s gather the stuff and take it to the dorm first. It will be easier to clean the empty apartment.“
I packed my clothes into a travel bag, while Yanko was packing the larger items into boxes. With a little luck, we would move everything in one trip. In less than an hour, everything was packed.
“Dude, you didn’t have to put the pillow on the floor like that.”
“Oh… sorry, bro.”
“It’s nothing. We’ll shake it out. Oh, I almost forgot. Did you pay any fines last night?”
“We gave them twenty euros.”
“That’s great. Now… let’s take the stuff.”
“Do you want me to clean the bathroom?”
“Sure. I’ll carry the things.”
I took the travel bag to the car, and when I came back, half the hallway was wet. Yanko was standing on the dry side, scratching his head.
“I didn’t account for the backflow.”
“What backflow?”
Yanko had filled a basin with water and poured it into the bathroom. The water bounced off the opposite wall and some of it spilled into the hallway.
“…and so, I’m telling you, I didn’t account for that backflow.”
“Dude, it’s done a little differently.”
“I see that now. We’ll do it differently now.“
I took the bedding to the car, and when I came back, Yanko was laying crumpled towels on the bathroom threshold.
“Hey man, where did you find those?”
“In the dirty laundry.”
“Almost forgot them. What are you doing?”
“I’m making a dam, so when I spill water, it won’t go into the hallway.”
“Would you vacuum the apartment while I clean the bathroom?”
“Sure.”
“Great. Let me just take the rest of the stuff.‘
I took the remaining items. I left only the laptop so we could have some music while we worked. I cleaned the bathroom while Yanko vacuumed the hallway. He was a little clumsy, but still helping a lot. Soon, Yanko moved into the room, and the vacuum cleaner was still plugged in the kitchen. I never could reach the room from the kitchen socket. I followed the cord to the kitchen and saw the socket sticking out a meter from the wall and a mark on the wall where the cord had been. I unplugged the vacuum cleaner.
“Your vacuum cleaner is dead, bro!”
“No, it’s just that we need to plug it in over there.”
“Oh yeah, it’ll be easier.”
Yanko finished vacuuming the room, and I finished cleaning the bathroom. In the meantime, he figured out what had happened with the socket.
“What should we do now?”
“Hey, man, take the laptop and play the manager game. Don’t touch anything. Okay?”
“Sure.”
“And don’t touch anything. Don’t get up from the chair.“
There was only a little left to do, and I did it alone. Yanko shouted.
“Hey, Elena is texting you on chat.”
“What’s she saying?”
“I don’t know.”
“Read it.”
“She’s asking how the cleaning is going.”
“Tell her it’s going great.”
Soon, Yanko shouted again.
“Hey, bro…”
“What?”
“Can I use the bathroom?”
“Of course.”
He came back a few minutes later with lunch and a rope for pulling water in his hands, laughing hysterically.
I arrived at the dorm and lay down to rest. I received an SMS from Boyana. She’s free to walk on Sunday. The exhaustion seemed to vanish.
1The monument dedicated to writer Jovan Jovanovic Zmaj known as uncle Zmaj.
2Serbian brandy, most often it is home made.
