THE WINDOW

Hristo Karastoyanov

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‘...Are you listening to what I am saying?!’

‘No. I had moved the receiver from my ear, and was drawing some small human figures. Why? Did you say anything important?’

‘I was explaining to you that when the cart wrecks, there are many roads! But is there anybody who can guarantee that those roads are not going to be covered with pebbles? Down! Down, I tell you!’

‘Pardon me?’

‘I am speaking to the dog! He's jumping on the coach, and I haven't bathed him yet. I took him for a walk earlier and I wasn’t... yet... Down, I said!’

‘And what did you say was done with the pebbles?’

‘The roads! The other roads! Those roads, which, after the cart wrecks, are so many!’

‘Eh, why with pebbles... Aaah, yes, I remembered why...’

‘How old are you, you idiot?’

‘I am as old as I want to be!’

‘Well, why don’t you behave correspondingly then? I am talking seriously to you!’

‘And what was so serious?’

‘Well, I remembered that... Somebody there had said that we all came out of Gogol’s overcoat!’

‘Is that not true?’

‘It is, it is, but some people's overcoats remained. Only their overcoats got silky insides... Phu! Phu, I am telling you!’

‘Ah... I understand you now... but I am fine in Bulgaria. I am not moving out of Bulgaria.’

‘And precisely because people like you feel good in Bulgaria, our children emigrate!’

‘Ah, because you have children...’

‘I don’t, but I would have had!’

‘Eh... did the dog move out yet from the...’

‘Doesn’t want to, the beast! Perhaps, he thinks that... Do you know what I am going to do right now, you shit! Do you know what I am going to do now!’

‘You will throw him out, what else!’

...He said that, but he heard the receiver at the other side slammed down and the window shattered. And he heard a shout! It was a victorious and happy shout, until it became thin and then ended abruptly.

It became quiet for a second... and then he heard the dog beginning to yell.

It yelled in the way dogs yell when they sense death.

© Hristo Karastoyanov, 2003
© eRunsmagazine - translated, 2003
© Publishing LiterNet, 01. 08. 2003
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First edition, electonic.