TE21 Serbian Moments

Nikola Tutek

The Widower

“He practically raped her,” Egan said after some time.

pain. Hester made it. Domino, that’s how people called him. Yes, Aggy and Domino. Domino had a peculiar temper. He was always in a good mood in the morning, and he’d get gradually more and more agitated by the noon. He’d be very violent from noon to 12:35 pm. At 12:40 pm he’d already be drunk. And then he’d be a happy man until 06:00 pm. But at 06:01 pm he’d go in a violent rampage, and even alcohol could not help. He’d calmdown by 06:30 pm. Hewas especially tender and tameuntil 11:00 pmwhen troubles started again. There were two options for the night: go to sleep early, get drunk, or wait until he calms down, and that would happen around midnight. That’s why Aggy called the yellow- blue-red-brown marks all over her body the noon bruises, the six o’clock bruises and the midnight bruises. Her body was like a clock. Domino said that. Domino died a bizarre death. He was in his early thirties when he collapsed playing soccer with his ex-high school mates on the field just behind the Post Office. Actually, his death was so unexpected that many people in the town rumored about Aggy’s involvement with black magic. They said she brought it on Domino using some abracadabra she had imported from the old country. To be more precise, only those people who thought she had come from Romania believed in that. Those who were more inclined to believe in Aggy’s German descent claimed that too much beer had killed Domino. Whatever the truth was, Egan saw the commotion through the window of his old office on the day Domino died. Egan heard the sirens.

Then he walked down the dark alley. He hurried home. Made coffee. He thought of calling Richard but had no idea what the time could be at his end of the world. Two coffee cups, filled. The table. An envelope of silence.

“I feel like someone poked my eye out.” III. Aggy and Gerda Transform

The third widow on the list was quite an exotic catch. She had movedtothetownbytheageof sixteen. SomesayfromRomania. Others say froma much less exotic place like Germany. Shewas a very attractive woman and many local guys soon went nuts over her. Interestingly enough, Egan met her for the first time on his own wedding day. He had no idea who invited her, and how she got there in the first place. Her name was Augustine, but everyone called her Aggy. She landed a job as a typist in a local company. To everyone’s surprise, she married Hester. Hester was a truck driver but sometime in his late twenties, he started suffering from severe hemorrhoids. He was quite opened about it; the whole city knew about his problem. Egan too because he and Hester used to be drinking buddies. Hester was a boozer and that did not help his condition at all. Finally, Hester got the job of a city bus driver. The local routes were not so long, and bars were on the way. He could drink, drive, and avoid most of the background

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