The chosen vessel. Fighting of the spirits. Miki Lazović

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СКАЧАТЬ We collected wild strawberry, raspberry, blackberry and other wild berries. Grandmother cooked various jams from it. Grandfather daily massed me and put lotions and the leg became almost like right. I didn’t drag it anymore and I could do almost everything, as with the right. My restoration was just amazing.

      And then came the second of August. That day grandfather dressed me beautifully and we set out on the road. As always by the way we talked a little. We went by bus and arrived our home in the city of Pech[19], and many people gathered there. Many of them cried. Getting closer to them, I remembered the words told by grandfather when he took away me with him:

      “A few mouths remained to him”.

      Now I understood – these words concerned my father. We reached there. Tear – stained mother embraced us. And I began to cry. It was terrible. I approached to brothers and sisters. They looked at me with surprise at first, without believing that I managed to recover so quickly. I looked at them with surprise too. It seemed that only I one grew up and they remained thin and not fed. There were also children of our relatives. We, having moved away from all, began to play. A bit later the priest came and my father was incurred to bury.

      All this ended quickly. We came back home. There were several relatives who after a lunch went home. Grandfather remained to spend the night. I thought that I will remain with my family, but grandfather and mother explained that I need to go with him for my recovery again. He told me that everything changed now and we will return soon.

      Then a new period in my life began. Grandfather signed up me in a school and I had to go there every day on foot about five and a half kilometers. Only about one and a half kilometer from our house I met the first student, and then four more joined us. There were six of us, four boys and two girls. These September days everything was good. Nobody forbade children to regale on fruit from his garden. Quite often old people offered to take apple, pear, quince, grapes or what was chosen. In the afternoon we could take everything we wanted, but as soon as darkened – we didn’t dare to enter others garden because it was considered as theft. Any of children in the dark didn’t get into others garden or a kitchen garden to break something – neither we, nor elderly people.

      Two boys and one girl were one year senior, and a boy and a girl – first graders as well as I. On the way to school and from school we played, chased one after another. I didn’t lag behind all. We competed who gets a stone to the tree for distance, who will jump higher, who will throw a stone further from a shoulder, who is quicker, etc. At first all beat me, but very quickly I became the best. Almost always I won. Nobody could ever that some time ago I had to be operated and amputated a leg. I liked very much to communicate with children. Only those one and a half kilometers which I went one were for me the most difficult and boring.

      There passed days, there has come the late autumn. Less people came to grandfather for the help. With the turned yellow leaves cold days have come. The first snow has fallen through the winter hasn’t begun yet. So are nature whims in these mountains. The second, third, fourth will fall to this snow so that won’t thaw to the end of April. These winter days we thought out new games which enjoyed. Almost always we came to school wet from snow. We gathered at the furnace and so dried until teacher will come. Not better we looked when came back home from school. It, however, disturbed nobody because we always were in the movement, and woolen socks and sweaters didn’t allow overcooling. Grandfather saw me off these one and a half kilometers and in the same place met me when I came back from school. I was an excellent student. My grandfather has made a toy pistol which he for fun called a small gun. It, in fact, was a can from jam with a tin cover. It was extended, similar to a gun trunk and therefore grandfather called it. He has drilled it from two ends and made a hole so I could carry it on my neck. In the back lower part he has punched three holes with a nail. He put inside a piece of carbide, closed a tin cover and to the back lower part with three holes brought fire from a lighter. Carbide lit up. There was a detonation, explosion as if someone has laid down a bomb. He also gave it to me that I could try as these small top shoots. I managed. I was delirious with delight.

      Grandfather has explained to me that it needs to be carried with myself when I go and when I come back from school:

      “They say, sonny that fox is cunning, and I can tell you that the wolf is more cunning than it. It will never attack a person or on an animal before, it won’t check whether it is save for it. Therefore, sonny, you will carry this top with you. It is required in cases when you see a wolf, and it will always appear before attack you. If it will find out that you were frightened and you begin to run away from it, it will attack at once because for you it is impossible to escape from it. This animal is very quickly. As a rule, it appears before a person on fifteen – twenty meters and observes his reaction. This observation lasts about one and a half minutes. Most of people are frightened, and this a wolf feels and then it freely attacks. Fear will paralyze the opponent and, thus, guarantees itself a victory. Therefore, you don’t dare to be afraid and has to be quiet. You will pull out a lighter which always has to be in a pocket and you will kindle the small gun. When the flame will escape from it and explosion will sound, the wolf will be frightened and will escape from you. This wolf will nevermore attack you, but don’t relax because there are also other wolves”.

      I don’t know how many times grandfather allowed me to test the top and to blow up it. It seemed to me that I have completely mastered it. I have frightened by it the dogs barking at us on the way to school. This dramatic incident has happened on that part of a way home which I should pass alone. Friends have gone home and I needed to pass one and a half more kilometers uphill on the wood. I passed about seven hundred – eight hundred meters and there was some presentiment so that I several times groped a lighter in a pocket, pulled out and cleaned again. The concern has seized me. In the depth of the road on which I had to pass, I have seen a wolf. With fear, it has seemed to me huge. So, it was. It stood and looked directly in my party. The first reaction was to run, but grandfathers’ words were remembered here that this animal is quick so that to a person is impossible to escape from it. I have calmed myself and began to prepare the top. I have noticed that hands were uncontrollably shaving. Only I have pulled out a lighter from a pocket and wanted to strike as it has dropped out of hands directly into snow. I have tried to bend down and pull out coolly it from there. The wolf still looked in my party. I looked too while I rummaged fingers on snow so far and, at last, have found it. Now simplification and confidence have appeared in me. While hands brought a lighter to a toy pistol, they didn’t shiver any more.

      “I won’t let out it anymore and I will kindle a toy pistol” – I thought self – confidently. I have struck. There was nothing. I struck the second and the third time. There was nothing again. “Flint has got wet…” – a thought has flown by and I was captured by panic. The wolf as though waited only for it. It has made a step, then the second one. And when it was going to rush for me a roar was distributed. During that moment, I looked at it and have thought that it is my toy pistol have so thumped. No. Because of a tree, in fifteen meters further of wolf, my grandfather with a gun in a hand has appeared. The wolf lay between us, quietly shaking.

      “Grandfather, this time it was dangerous” – I could hardly speak.

      “Don’t be afraid, grandfather’s Parapanats, – grandfather have accepted me in the embraces, – here is your grandfather to protect you from any danger.

      “What would happen to me if you were late for couple of seconds”.

      “If you allowed a wolf to cavort, it would seize to you a throat and would break your neck but only my bullet has caught up with it. I have hidden here and was waiting for ten minutes before you appear here”.

      “Did you see again what would occur?”’

      “Yes, sonny, my spirit follows you and as soon as I feel something wrongly, I always hurry to help you. Let’s take off the skin from the wolf and we will carry it to Stana” – grandfather СКАЧАТЬ