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Lucija has been run over, Mama says. Karlo will take me to
Trieste. Ballerina is coming with me.
I stand on tiptoe in the corner.
Tata
is standing in the door.
He doesn’t speak. He takes off his coat. His hat. He walks to
the window. I know what he’s doing. He’s looking at the
thermometer. It’s only ten, he says. Then he takes a pencil
from the top of the refrigerator. The pencil is always on top
of the refrigerator and he takes it now. He writes something
down. Mama says that he writes the temperature on a
calendar. Every day. Then he turns on the Grundig to listen
to the weather forecast. I know. Everyone is quiet then.
Sometimes not, because I sing, but
Tata
says nothing. He
turns off the radio and turns on the lights on the gondola.
And then he looks at the gondola. And falls asleep at the
table.
He’s sitting now. I’m sitting, too. Karlo is looking at me. I
know he’s been in the woods. Mama says he guards the
woods so that they’re not cut down. Mama says he also
looks after the animals in the woods so that they’re not
killed.
Mama is changing me. Karlo is also changing.
Tata
is in the
kitchen. He’s sleeping with his head on the table, holding
his ear with his hand. I see him. From the hall. Mama
dresses me, the dress with the butterflies. Then the coat.
Let’s go and see Aunt Lucija, she says. I look at the