– O.K. I’m feeling better now – He finally said, trying to keep a smile on his face. – Well then, are we done with the protocol? Where did you say the village was?
He addressed Tonino in an informal manner, so as to prevent that bit of authoritative air from turning into something bigger.
– Here, above… Hmmm, how do I say it?… behind this hillside.
– Great. Let’s reach the village before night.
– Dae ye efter tae cairy this cuddie?3F – One man asked him, pulling a donkey with his left hand and pointing at him with his right hand. Siniša understood his pantomime.
– I can walk, thank you. It can’t be that far.
No one said a single word.
The winding path led by the sea. It was paved with stone for a short while, and afterwards it turned into a dirt road, wide enough to accommodate two people side by side. Siniša walked behind the donkey burdened with his luggage. He turned around to look at the reception committee. They lined up in columns of two, resembling school children on an excursion. One thing wasn’t clear, though. Who was the class-master? Him or the donkey? Or Siniša – the ass? Or this peasant walking next to the donkey and holding an umbrella above the pack-saddle and bags?
– Pay attention to the underbrush to our right. – Tonino whispered to him. – Notice how logically arranged and carefully groomed it is. It hides this path from curious eyes.
Siniša stopped and took a good look around. Tonino was right, the underbrush grew all along the path, with the exception of a puny tree here and there. This path was well hidden from the sea. But what intrigued him even more was the bay itself. He failed to notice it on the boat, but here, almost ten meters above sea level, he saw that Trećić Bay was completely surrounded by land and it looked like a lake. At the lowest point in the northwest, (actually, he wasn’t sure if it was the northwest) under the low clouds, he could make out uniform pale red lights from a distant lighthouse.
– My oh my! This is a hell of a hideout you have here, ha? – Siniša asked Tonino, who only shrugged his shoulders and put on a stupid smile. – Is that light coming from a lighthouse? – Siniša pointed his finger.
Tonino stared at the flickers on the low horizon and jerked his head backwards a little. His face had the expression of a child watching some fascinating scene for the first time in its life.
– Do you see it? That reddish light behind the hill? – Siniša asked him. – Hello! Tonino, Earth calling! Hey! Are you here?
– Isi, poveri, this is Tonino’s kyndly. He will cheenge in a wee. 4F – Said the man who greeted Siniša on the waterfront.
Siniša sighed slowly, and then said:
– Sir, I don’t understand a word you’re saying. My interpreter is, as far as I can see, stiff as a log. I have to remind you that I have been traveling for more than ten hours and I’m not in the mood for your local jokes. What the hell is going on?
The peasant’s face twisted in an effort to pronounce something this poveri could understand:
– Toninoto haes a wee crabbit laik dees… each day. It will awa in faiv minit. Nating!5F
– He shuts down for five minutes?! You mean, he just becomes stiff and shuts down?!
– Ši.
– And then what, he comes back around to his old self?
– Pazitiv.
The rest of the peasants nodded in affirmation of their spokesperson’s every sentence.
Siniša then remembered something he had not thought about for twenty years. He remembered this kid who moved into his neighborhood in fifth grade and moved out the next summer. Something similar had happened to this kid. The first time was horrible. They were playing soccer in front of the school with two small goal-posts. They placed the newcomer in the goal. Just about when he was getting ready to run a little, he became stiff. The whole team shouted at him because of the received goal, but he was unmoved. Crazy Fish from the opponent team figured out what was going on and started to dribble around the brick-made goal-post.
“Goal… goal… goal… Another one…” All the other kids were terrified, but Crazy Fish kept spinning the ball. By the time the new kid woke up from his trance, the score read 32:1. He stood there all confused, looking at everyone and repeating, “What happened? What happened?” Poor guy, at first he started falling into his autistic canyons once or twice a week, and then shortly afterwards on a daily basis. Just when he and the whole school got used to it, the summer came and the kid moved with his parents, supposedly to Slovenia. Better climate, they said. Siniša thought of him once or twice later on in life. Now it seemed that the kid’s clone became his only connection to a rather logically arranged universe.
– What do we do now? Will he really regain consciousness in five minutes, or do we wait for him to catch pneumonia?
– We ken koan, he will kam bihain us.6F
– And if he starts sleepwalking and falls down into the sea?
– Daen’t be feart. He waen’t flit.7F
– Hmmmm…If I understood you right, you suggest that we move on, and he will come after us once this passes?
– Pazitiv!
Siniša tried to take the newspaper bundle from Tonino’s shoulder. He figured he’d at least keep this treasure out of the rain, but the poor guy’s fingers turned blue from the force of his grasp on the rope.
– Never mind, let’s go. – Siniša said.
3. Do you want to ride this donkey?
4. Easy, commissioner, this is Tonino’s usual behaviour…He will snap out of it, as always.
5. Toninoto…shuts down like this….every day. It will pass in five minutes. It’s nothing!
6. We can go, he will come after us.
7. Don’t be afraid. He won’t move at all.