TE17 Mysterious Montenegro

Serioja, Maria and the Mop

in a glass so full that upon reaching its bottom, Serioja fell into alcoholic coma. Olga’s desperate screams when she discovered him lying motionless in his own vomit woke up the entire neighborhood at three a.m., and as a consequence, the white van of theMunicipal Hospital’s EmergencyDepartment showed up in record time (truth be told, most of the city’s residents had never seen this van, which for reasons having to do with endemic lack of fuel and the necessity of repairs the hospital couldn’t afford, only made occasional appearances on TV). Whenhewokeup inastrange roomwitha tube inhisveins, Serioja thought that he was back in Santa Barbara after what appeared to have been an accident, but the sight of Olga sleeping with her mouth open in a nearby chair brought him back to reality. It was a reality he wanted no part of, so he closed his eyes, pretending he was still asleep. All he wanted was to die in that hospital, “like a dog among strangers,” and for Maria to find out and be “tortured by remorse” for the rest of her life. His strategy worked with the nurses but not with the doctor, a no-nonsense woman who dismissed him right away, claiming that they needed his bed for patients with “real problems.” Back home, an ugly surprise awaited him: everything that belonged to Maria—clothes, a few paintings, even a Romanian- English dictionary—had disappeared. Faced with Serioja’s threats, Olga confessed that she had burned everything, hoping to cleanse the apartment of Maria’s evil spirit, and to free Serioja fromherdiabolical spell. But instead of being freed, Serioja broke all the porcelain once bought by his sister—cleanse the place, you say? There, how about this? Is this clean enough for you?—and cups and plates flew about, landing in a thousand pieces on the 185