TE17 Mysterious Montenegro

Serioja, Maria and the Mop

room—he wouldn’t starve, oh no! It wouldn’t be anything fancy, potatoes, cabbage, bacon, you know, poor folks’ food, but what taste, what aromas… Nothing like the plastic-tasting dishes he’d had since he’d been here—no offense.

“None taken,” Bill replied, and with a pat on the back, let Serioja out and closed the door behind him.

This is how Serioja-and-suitcase found themselves out in the cold in the middle of January, and without wasting any time, they went back to Sammy’s.

*

When they sawhimstanding in thedoorwith his suitcase, Sammy and Maria stared at him as if they had trouble remembering who hewas. Hewalked in, gave Sammy a strong handshake, kissed his wife on both cheeks, and putting his suitcase down, announced:

“Pack your things. We’re going back.”

“You’re free to go wherever you want. I’m not going anywhere,” the wife replied.

As they exchanged words in a language he didn’t understand, Sammy watched them apprehensively, realizing how different the woman was from the mysterious creature he’d spent a week with. The woman’s tone was harsh, and the sounds coming from her mouth had a roughness that contrasted with the reassuring calmness he’d felt around her. It was as if an invisible hand had suddenly drawn a precise contour around a body of mist, and 181