– ‘You don’t believe me? You want to see for yourself? Here, look!’ Jon was numb, while she lightly stepped to the sofa opposite Jon, laid on it, took a deep breath and kept it for several very long seconds, only to release it and for her body to stiffen. ‘Oh my God, she is dead’ Jon said to himself. This is what it seemed like, his Mother’s face was stiff, slowly losing its colour, sort of yellowish in the beginning, then turning blue. Her skin stuck to the bones. ‘Her body must have lost all its fluids’, thought Jon, and because he couldn’t do anything else, he could only look at his Mother lying dead. She died suddenly and just was there dead in front of him. Jon gathered the last ounces of his strength to get up and all he could feel were tears rolling down his face. Then, he slowly bent over his Mother’s lifeless body covered in tears. He touched her hand softly, it wasn’t cold but it lacked warmth, he kissed that beloved hand which he felt as a part of his own being. Suddenly, his Mother’s hand moved, but Jon was not perturbed, as if he was expecting something like this to happen. The blue shade disappeared from her face and she regained her original colour, he also felt the warmth of her hand. His Mother opened her eyes and stood up Jon was still standing hunched over when Mother kissed him on his sweaty forehead. He could only look at her, unable to move.
– ‘Did you see? I shall be like this, but only beautiful. I was beautiful, wasn’t’ I? Sheesh, I’m tired and thirsty, I shall drink a glass of water’, his Mother said and went to the kitchen, the sound of water running from the just turned faucet could be heard. The entrance door opened and Arsa appeared in front of Jon, holding in her hands her new pair of shoes, followed by Arijanisa and his wife.
– Dad, look at the lovely shoes mother bought me, aren’t they “cool”, chirped Arsa showing him her shoes. Jon stood still and didn’t react, all he could do was listen to the sound of the running water coming from the kitchen. He slowly sat down as if he was dead tired. Arijanisa noticed this, so she stopped showing her shoes and just stared at him. His wife seemed to have heard the water running from the hallway and said to Jon.
– ‘Go and make another round of coffee or did you just let the water run to make it cold?’ Jon made no reply, he just couldn’t, nor did he know what to say! His wife turned off the faucet and then the telephone rang. Arijanisa ran to pick up the phone, but said nothing and just passed the phone to Jon.
– ‘Daddy, it’s Uncle Saimir!’
– ‘Yes’, Jon replied curtly to his brother. Saimir talked on.
– ‘I didn’t want to upset you with the news last night, but Mother is very ill, her condition is very serious, the doctor told me…’
– ‘I know!’, Jon cut him off.