TE22 Potpourri

Special Needs (novel excerpt) Lada Vukić

Translated from Croatian by Christina Pribićević-Zorić

Butterflies The teacher said that the butterflies were no good. I didn’t understand why not, since they’d arrived in the classroom in one piece and undamaged. Someof the childrenwere surprised by them, others laughed. Thereweremore of these others, who always laughed at whatever I made or said. As usual, I didn’t understand a thing because I’m never sure about funny things. How they should look or be heard. For example, I never know exactly when to laugh. Sometimes I try to guess, but I start either too soon or too late. So, I always wait for the others to laugh first, before joining in. Everybody, I mean everybody, reacts by saying: “Look at the imbecile stupidly laughing! Admit it, again you didn’t understand anything!” I shake my head, because naturally I didn’t understand, I was simply trying to guess, and everybody found that even funnier. Again, I’m never sure what they find funny: that I don’t get it or that I admit that I don’t get it. Mum says that first I have to understand the joke and then the laughter will come of itself. 143

Lada Vukić