TE23 Double Feature

The President Shop

Vesna Mari ć

at the time. Having gone to work in Germany and Austria for various automobile factories, where he had already been in-volved with workers’ unions, earning himself a reputation as a socialist agitator, the President was drafted into mili-tary service, and since he found himself feeling lonely amid foreigners, he applied for a transfer to a town near his fami-ly home. This he achieved, but soon regretted. Upon arriving at his new station with his blond mane intact—since the Aus trians had not deemed it necessary that new soldiers’ heads be shaven—a local commander with a panache for sadism took a shaver to the President’s head and made a cross in his locks, thus humiliating the President and making him regret his decision to transfer; his hair was thoroughly shaved off thereafter. The young man, who was a keen and skilful fenc er, also won various fencing competitions. Yet his dexterity was met with disapproval by the commanders, who did not like seeing a peasant boy excel at anything above his station. Thus 299

punish him, for she could tell the difference between the boy’s gullibility and her sister’s vexing meddling. The Pres-ident ruled over the Nation, Mona thought, the same way his mother had ruled over her children—with a firm yet fair hand. He rationed the Nation’s goods with prudence and wisdom, and if someone did err, the President acted justly, thought Mona. Everyone also knew the story of the President’s ad-olescent apprenticeship as a locksmith, and his wandering around from one mentor to another, where he learned the skills of a machinist, fixing various engines and agricultural machines, walking to Trieste in search of work, and return-ing home, empty handed; this is how he also learned his most useful skill of all—that of survival. Mona was fascinated by the origin and shaping of the Pres-ident’s revolutionary character through his service in the Austro-Hungarian Army; the country that was not yet the Nation was part of that glamorous and expansive empire

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