Expert from chapter seven:
"You common cry of curs! Whose breath I hate
As reek o’ the rotten fens, whose loves I prize
As the death carcasses of unburied man
That do corrupt my air, I banish you
And here remain with your uncertainty
Let every feeble rumor shake your hearts your enemies with nodding
of their plumes
Fan you into despair! Have the power still
To banish your defenders; till at length
Your ignorance, - which finds not, till it feels, - Making but reservation
of yourselves Still your own foes, - deliver you as most Abated captives
of some nation That won you without blows!
Despising, For you, the city, thus I turn my back:
There is a world elsewhere."
W. Shakespeare – Coriolanus (Act III, scene III)
25th of March 1999. – Thursday07: 23 AM – Radio Television of Serbia – breaking
news
"During the night the NATO fascistic alliance savages dropped lethal and
dangerous bombs from their metal eagles near the Kosmaj Mountain and devastated
the national park famous for its rare birds. Kosmaj has been totally destroyed
by this maniacal attack conducted by the perverted saxophone player’s slaves
… and how back to our reporter at Kosmaj…."
07: 55 AM
"The unofficial news is that our heroic Army won another space battle
over the technically equipped enemy. A pilot -less plane was taken down.
There are no human victims."
That morning, after the severe bombing, all fifty prisoners of the best-kept dungeon in Europe were killed. The prison was special one for people who posed a threat to the Yugoslav government during the past 50 years. Officially, this place never existed. This news has never been published or announced - anywhere.
10: 04
Vukan Stamenkovic, a soldier in the Yugoslav army, was watching birds
while lying on a wet grass, with his hands behind his head. He saw the
eagles and clouds and felt the sun’s warmth on his skin. He was feeling
calm. He used to lie like this in the park, on the first days of spring,
staring at the sky, and thinking about the things that kids often ask themselves
about: What is cosmos and where does it end? Why are the clouds moving?
If I step on the cloud, what will happen? Is there a God anywhere up there
and, if so, what does he do? I know the answer to some of these questions
I got the answer – he said, while trying to stand, helping himself up with
rifle. God does nothing, because he doesn’t exist.Battlefield represented
a place where he considered himself useful. Everything else in normal life
was pretty boring. He felt like lion in its cage, he walked, but never
moved. Sometimes, he sounded like someone from the movies, speaking those
screenplay dialogues the sound as if someone had goofed when they had written the script. Occasionally he imagined he was a fictitious character
, addressing himself in that manner.I am, he repeated., Colonel Kurtz,Snake
Plisken, William Volace, Ethan Hunt, Bud White, John Rambo...
Introduction to 25th of March and other stories from Kingdom:
The idea of writing this kind of story came from a discussion I had with
friends a few years ago while Serbia was engaged in one of the wars it
has fought with
its neighbors (Croatia or Bosnia). We talked about the extent to which the place
and time of someone's birth determines that person’s destiny and how that destiny
is manifested. If the place and time of our births (and we were all born in early
1970’s in Belgrade) had such a major impact on our destiny, in what way has it
influenced our character? We were reminded of some quote concerning the equality
of character and destiny. This is the premise of my book. If someone had made
a different decision at any one moment, then how much would that decision have
changed their life? It has nothing to do with Serbia or with the time when we
actually lived, but primarily about the universal question: What is the determining
factor in our life – free will, circumstance or destiny (God, some might say)?
And how much do geography and history have to do with our life decisions?
I illustrate this through nine of what, in my opinion, are the most important
dates in Yugoslav history. Each of the stories in this collection represents
a different genre. The seventh chapter, which is presented on this web site,
is introspective drama, and primarily takes place at Kosmaj Mountain, in central
Serbia.
Other dates are:
- 4 May 1980. - Marshall Tito dies
- 28 June 1989. - Slobodan Milosevic’s first big speech in Kosovo
- 9 March 1991. - Big anti - Milosevic demonstrations in Belgrade
- 29 April 1991. - "Red Star", a football team from Belgrade, wins the European championship
- 6 April 1992. - Beginning of war in Sarajevo
- 21 November 1995. - Signing of the Dayton peace agreement
- 24 March 1999. – NATO bombing begins
- 31. December 1999. - As part of the planet believed, the new millennium
begins
- 5. October 2000. - Revolution in Belgrade, the end of Milosevic’s
era
The stories take place in Belgrade (Serbia and Montenegro), Dubrovnik
(Croatia), London (Great Britain), Dayton (Ohio, USA), Kosmaj Mountain
(central Serbia)
and in Cairo (Egypt).
The fate of the main character in one story will be decided in the next story;
a minor character in one becomes the leading one in the next.
Published in “Balkan Anthology:Voices from a faultline”, “ZAYUPRESS” Hampton,Va.


