Trafika Europe 1 - Northern Idyll

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

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