TE21 Serbian Moments

Kristina Dimitrova

The Smile

“Can I take the dentures?”

“You can,” he said. “And in the end everything scatters, doesn’t it?” No, I thought to myself afterwards on the plane back, you are a historian, you are writing a scientific paper, it won’t scatter, that’s what historians are for, right, to collect events so they don’t scatter, and you’ll leave this behind, and all that I’ll leave behind is a pile of changed nappies. Or maybe we all scatter completelyand thenextonescome totakeourplace - itdepends on the elevation of your point of view. We have been given a short time in which to find some sense. Near the cottage I am renting there is a small forest. I dug a hole with a spoon under a tall lime-tree and carefully placed the dentures inside. Rest in peace mum, I am returning your smile.

___

116

117