kosta the earthquake (part 1)

7/23/2019 Kosta the Earthquake (part 1)

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KOSTA THE EARTHQUAKE

Under the big branch of the renowned walnut tree on the borough1 graveyardthe remains of Kosta the Earthquake’s grave still can be seen. The grave was a poorman’s grave and yet it was always stepped on by children when the time of grownwalnuts comes. !oor Kosta the Earthquake. "either had at the time of his funeral thetree been the royal walnut it is now nor had the branch wanted to make shade to his

very grave nor had in this unhappy man been anything of an earthquake. Thatnickname was and remained #ust an accidental and secondary thing in artisan Kosta’slife.$nce well known to everyone in his borough the little tailor Kosta was a small poorquiet being. %s a born and real tailor he couldn’t have been any di&erent. 'ave youever peaked into a workshop in which tailor apprentices are sitting in vests and woolsocks( %nd those hard quadrangural chairs withouth a rear where they don’t sit upfrom for hours and which scrape their bones and transect their thighs so they #ustdefer it with their legs. Their heads are always bent down. Their noses and mouthsand eyes are constantly tugging along with the thread pushing the face out of thehead and pulling the long neck out. %nd their right hand is pricking stabbing and

#erking the thread from morning till evening) %nd as the thread is getting shorter andshorter their arm is more o&ten lugging their sunken chest and shaky head. *astly asthe thread tears they shake their heads so fast that their #aws slam and the tonguegets in danger.

*ittle Kosta was somehow measly) his beard was trimmed like it didn’t evene+ist his shoulders were so small as if he was meant to be a ,sh. -mall feet andfeeble voice) thin arms with anguished ,ngers on which last knuckles looked gnawedfrom all the solid buttons tanned linnings strong threads and hot matter under thesadiron that simply peels the ,ngers of tailors.

*ittle Kosta was one of those children who were the only children in the family

but one of those who are such at the e+pense of being born as orphans. 'is parentswere % village priest’s daughter /who really got on in years0 and who moved to aborough and comforted herself there by marrying a worldold gunsmith) and thatgunsmith once the ,rst guy and later #ust a ,rm leader of a store which is lead longsince buy his married sons from his ,rst marriage. $ld newlyweds on their ownwonderment had a son and started hiding him. The borough then rushed on themidwife and she wrote down to the authorities an unheardof thing that she thinksthat the baby is a boy.

%ll three foes of the little Kosta soon passed away) then the child was acceptedby a young gunsmith and was given a bed in the drawer for primers. The kid wassleeping on bullet primers until one day he showed a talent at tailoring and sewing for

the girls’ dolls. The gunsmiths then kicked him out and that’s how the boy got into hisprofession correctly on the basis of his talent. The little #ourneyman carried some kindof anatomy and aesthetics in himself. 'e carried and sewed through anything thatwas a curved line. 'is sleeves were famous as if they were alive. 'is artisanappreciated him and once and again he would whistle some message to his younger

#ourneyman Kosta or put a pack of a cutout piece of fabric in his lap.$ne day a theoretical conversation was struck up in the tailor’s shop. Kosta the

second #ourneyman was silent until he put his feet in his shoes stood up and begantalking 2!ants are a di3cult thing master. *ook there at those army o3cers who arewalking there across the street. *ook at their steps look at their pants’ legs.'owever that suit wasn’t made in here. 'ere’s what 4 think master. 4f his sleeves

1 % small town

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aren’t made properly he has a coat and if the coat is faulty he has the sleeves. 5utpants they #ust have legs and that’s all. 4 know 4 know there’s skill there arepracticed hands but there’s more and 4 mean the scissors. 6eal tailor scissors thetool7 "ot those that you and the others are having an awful time with. -nip snip thescissors are gnawing the coat and the coat is gnawing the scissors) and when youlook at it you see that your cut is all shaggy of thread pieces and under the cut thereis such amount of cloth dust as if someone sawed wood there. 4 know what 4’m talkingabout master and 4 saw it) and that’s all 4 wanted to say. 4 thank you for listening.8

The whole tailor’s shop was astonished. %rtisan changed ten face e+pressionsand ,rst #ourneyman even twenty. 29ell then where have you seen the scissors thatcut on their own(8 asked artisan in the end. 24 have seen them) thank you for notgetting angry.8

4t seemed like Kosta passed some important e+am that day. 'e got a rank in theworkshop and the street and especially in the craftmen’s library in which he wasgoing a lot more often than anyone else. To tell the truth *ittle Kosta started liking thelibrary) especially when he felt that midwife’s note bothered him in both male andfemale company. %fter some time he started to enlighten and nationalise himself inthe library. 'e didn’t link things that well but he has made a register about some

geographic and political facts about -erbs. 'e was especially fond of provincialpapers and of letters of simple people in them which were full of facts. 'e carried itall in himself like a secret. 'e told it only once to the librarian 2:ou know when 4’mreading about -erbia 5osnia ;ontenegro and especially about -an#ak whoselocation and state 4 can never ,gure out 4 feel that my heart is getting bigger so bigthat my chest becomes tight.8

$ne morning Kosta entered the tailor’s shop with an oblong bo+ in his hands. 'etook out the new ,ne tailor scissors two di&erent knives a pin on the spring andthimbles for ,ngers. Kosta took a piece of cloth spread it all around tailor’s table tookscissors in his right hand clenched his left hand’s ,ngers like a tailor’s pencil andmade a few moves in the air with them like he’s drawing and then decisively and

somehow elegantly dove his scissors in the cloth. %s they snipped a few momentslater they got out of the cloth. 'e did that two or three times until a ,ne model ofpants appeared.

% lot of things were told between the tailors of that borough. -uch as those thatthe Kosta has the scissors for the long time and he has always know how to sewpants surely frock coats and pelerines too) also that he is a sly fo+ and that he shouldbe banned out of society and craftsmen’s library and < that noone proves theirmasculinity with sewing.

'owever all of that turned out to be a good turning point in Kosta’s life. 'estayed at his old master’s place for a while after but now he was the one who sewed

whistled and put the fabric in laps. 'e freed himself later got a diploma and workedparttime at various places. $ne day he rented a store and started workingindependently. The people from library were the ,rst ones to welcome him with a newname ;aster Kosta.

*ater he was heard of more and more at the market place on craftmen’scomittees in whole municipality. Tailor apprentices without work and small tailorswithout fabric didn’t ever stop talking about ;aster Kosta. 4t seemed to some girlsthat the new artisan got bigger and stronger. The others and probably the most of thetown kept doing the old thing the thing they claim to be ’funny’ to look if somebummer or shame will strike a person. %n argument was once almost struck upamong one company in a tavern over the reasons for and against Kosta’s professional

and physical traits and riches. $ne of them then started to calm others. 29e mustadmit that he progressed and gradually overcame all di3culties as a man should. 'estarted from the sleeves then went on to the coat and then on pants. "ow he only

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needs to show o& as a master of skirts and then we’ll accept his mastership intailoring and everything else.8

>ust when the laughter quieted down ;aster Kosta enters the tavern and headsstraight to that table and that speaker. There are moments when a ,lthy word andpunishment are so close but they still pass over each other. ;aster Kosta sat orderedsome sweets as he always does and felt that nobody really was happy to see him. 'egot confused and hurt and he became clumsy. 24 went by and saw that here are myfriends so 4 thought 4 should come in and complain and now 4’m really ashamed. 5utas 4 have already started come on and tell me why does everyone spite me and mireme( 'ave 4 ever seen any luck and fortune( 'ave 4 done anything wrong to anyone(%m 4 bothering anyone( 4 work all day long like a horse with one apprentice. 4n theevening 4 get completely numb l lie down on my small bed and 4 cry it all out inmyself as weak and feverish as 4 am. "obody knows what my life is like yet everyonestill keeps spiting me. 9hy didn’t 4 go somewhere abroad so 4 can be a servant until 4die( That way 4 wouldn’t be pressed to watch this streets and neighborhoods who actlike they’re bigger than the ?od. 9hatever they want and agree about it’s going tohappen... 5ut there’s no use in speaking about that now. ;y best years are gone.9herever the goat is tied there she will always pasture1. 9ell then < thank you for

company.8 >ust as ;aster Kosta left the speaker from before started singing singing a sad songsilently and ironically.

Kosta felt the power of the borough and felt that he couldn’t get any furtherthan that as well. "ot only he stayed in the borough but he also bought a house in itwhen he was fourty years old. % simple borough house at the corner with threewindows the store on the front side of it two windows looking to the smaller streetand a backyard. "ow he has a few apprentices in his workshop. 4t is said that he wenta bit strange. 'e’s sewing for gentlemen more and more and he became so accuratethat nobody can ful,ll him with their work so it isn’t even worthwhile anymore to workfor him. Even the ;aster Kosta alone felt an old guy in himself growing. 'e can see

that he got sloppy when it comes to himself. 'e puts on the suits that his apprenticesspoil. 'e is afraid of old age. -hould he get married( 'e was o&ered girls and widowswith and without children but he somehow chose to turn himself away fromeverything that suits him and that should @atter him. 'e came in that age where aman still makes some wishes but he never wants them to actually happen.

$ne year around the Aair of %ssumption which was also his slava he invitedsome customers of his from the neighborhood with their families. %long with thatcompany came one tall burly girl who by the way belonged to someone and noone <half orphan half adopted by the rich tanner. -he’s not beautiful but she’s somehow allclean. 'er name was 6istana. ;aster -pasa the tanner a big liar in conversation but

always honest when he promises something and a generous man to the poorbrought 6istana with him #ust because he promised her so not with some otherintentions. Even if he was thinking about some marriage opportunity ;aster Kostawouldn’t ever cross his mind for a such thing. 'owever Kosta noticed 6istana’shealth humbleness a sweet voice and especially the smile which stayed for a whileon her face as it usually happens when someone is dreading foreign things. ;asterKosta started thinking about what master -pasa didn’t think about < he invited6istana to the backyard.

The %ssumption is a sweet feast in the sweet nature of preautumn. :ellowleaves are still decorating it it’s warm and every garden bed is ,lled with @owers.

1 % -erbian saying. 'e compares himself to a tied goat who must forever Bpasture’ /in hiscase < work and live0 at the same place because he Btied’ himself to the borough in a similarway.

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%lso our native @owers are always somehow sweetcoloured. ;aster Kosta startedasking his guest things about this and that. 6istana was talking about her squalid life)life full of work and wishes youth full of fear of old age. $nce and again she would saysome strange word. % -erbian word but an unusual one. 2;y mother was somewherefrom -an#ak so 4 still say a thing or two like she did even though 4 became an orphanwhen 4 was very young.8 ;aster Kosta felt that his heart was getting bigger. -omefoggy knowledge from the library reappeared in his head. Terms about that mysterious-an#ak started mi+ing up with current circumstances. 6istana seemed to him like aholy martyr. ;aster -pasa although blond and plump like a pumpkin seemed now toKosta like a bad black Turk like he was guilty of something. 'e felt in himself a needto do a patriotic act. 4n one word little tailor hurried to marry her.

6istana of course accepted it without any hesitation. ;aster -pasa told somelies about his predictions straightaway and promised to the girl that he would give hera modest training which he did around the wedding time. %nd that’s how she becamean artisan and her own boss une+pectedly.

The borough residents divided the roles. $n one side a board in a wooden fencecomes loose. $n the other side drying linens are @ying over into ;aster Kosta’sbackyard and somebody has to go and apologise. %rtisan 6istana was glad. -he grew

even more in body and strength. ;aster Kosta doesn’t look bad either but his betterhalf overshadows him. The 5orough calls him Bthe pocket husband’ and her Bthe merrywidow’ and they are waiting to see who fooled whom better.

4t turned out that the artisans fooled the borough. The Bmerry widow’ gave birthto a son. They christened the child B-reDko1’ because he brought them happiness.-hortly after came another child of happiness to whom ;aster Kosta out of gratitudefor his wife gave the name 6ista=. Two years later little girl -ekaC was born. anitygrew in ;aster Kosta. 'e even started bragging and avenging himself. 2Thank youdear ?od for everything being as you command and not as the borough wants. ’9hatdo you need two children for(’ There are three7 Fome and see7 They’re all healthy andloud. %nd my wife and 4 are not doing that bad either < the more kids we have we’re

having more customers as well72 %nd he didn’t e+aggerate. They were getting ordersall the time and buying new things for their house) the kids were cheerful and thriving.%rtisan 6istana liked to buy metal things. -he was saying 24t is because kids cannotbreak them.2 5ut it was clear that she en#oyed the trenchant appearance of metalthings. The borough peaked through all ,ve windows 2Everything on her is so shiny.-he should have married a tinsmith.2 The kids truly did make a lot of noise andmischief. There was a plenty of something unknown in each of them. -reDko turns thewheel on the well with his one hand. 6ista outsmarts and outtalks all the guys whenthey pick on him. -eka is racing with the dogs and the foal. 5ut they were all good inthe main. They never did anything malicious or harmful to anyone. Their mother

however sometimes complains about the rumpus and repudiates them and ;asterKosta defends his children and his en#oyment 2*et them be this is not a minster.8;aster Kosta lately started e+pressing his feelings more and more through hispaintings. -ome happiness and going to library makes a man’s imagination grow.$nce when he was speaking enthusiastically again about the liveliness of his childrenhe said 29hat do you mean the noise the rumble( 9hen they really get into playingthere’s a real earthquake in my house78 %fter he used that word once he began reallyliking it and could not separate himself from it. 2The man who wrote one letter for

1 B'appy’

= ;ale version of his mother’s name B6istana’

C B*ittle -ister’

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papers said really nicely BThe tHar is sleeping there’s no money and the people arerising above. 4’ve been predicting to you long since that there would be rumpus andearthquake.’ %nd if a sewing table is messy they ask B'as an earthquake happenedhere(’ 4f a drunkard is staggering and wavering in the street they say BThis one thinkshe’s walking on an earthquake.’8 %nd that’s how Kosta got his nickname during thehappiest days of his life. $f course he was never angry. That e+pression appearedthanks to his three healthy children. 'e cherished that nickname with somesuperstition. 4t seemed to him that this earthquake and these children were a greatwin in a game he thought it was impossible to win.

'owever since everything in one’s environment gets di&erent meanings withtime the words are not an e+ception. The word that was once an e+pression ofen#oyment became an e+pression of irony and even worse than that. ;aster Kosta’sfate started shaking. 4t turned out that his children also had their fates everyone afate of their own and that all words are going to get a di&erent meaning with time.B-leeping’ for e+ample became Bstaying awake’ or Bhaving bad dreams’. $ne night;aster Kosta dreamt that there were three roads getting out of him as if he were acrossroad and on each road one of his children was running as small as everyelementary school pupil is. 4t seemed to him that they didn’t know each other and

that they couldn’t hear their father when he was calling for them. 9henever hereached for them and tried to get them closer to him the road would decay anddissapear. Then he woke up rubbed his forehead took a sip of water and then fellasleep again. %nd he dreamt again. There was a marketplace and there stood a

#udge some mister IuriD speaking to the people 24 proclaim with regrets that aftermany years a big fallacy and in#ustice was discovered. -ava ;rasiD who wasconvicted of arson of personal property and imprisoned and whose all possesionswere con,scated < is innocent. The government will now ,+ everything they can. Theywill redeem his property release him out of prison and also compensate his son.8

;aster Kosta #umped out of his bed looked if all his children were asleep in theirbeds and then he remembered that people were long ago saying that the court didn’t

give a #ust sentence and he remembered that -ava’s son has died a long time agoand that no #ustice can be done now. Trembling he woke up his wife crossed himselfand felt guilty for what happened to -ava or guilty of some uknown in#ustice.

;aster Kosta’s children learned what means to worry and fear when theystarted going to school. -reDko didn’t want to study. 'e had the worst grades but hebehaved the best. 6ista was a very good student but some truculence emerged out of him. -eka became sickly < she gets sick then recovers and then after a short whileshe would get sick again. There were a lot of somber unappetising and even criedthrough lunches in ;aster Kosta’s house since then. % lot of feasts and holidays werespoiled. Then they started punishing their children ,rst by giving them old clothes to

wear then by closing them in fabric storage room then in the end by beating them.6ista was mostly the one to provoke beating and was only beaten by his mother.;aster Kosta would #ust sink his ,ngers into his neck and go somewhere to let steamo&. ?radually he was getting upset more easily and he would then throw his scissorson the table or slam some drawer which someone had left open. $nce when thelunch had already been meant to start nobody of the kids appeared. 'e then foundthem and made -eka kneel on the corn1 which has never happened before. -reDkowas locked in the fabric storage room and 6ista had already @ed before because hedamaged his mother’s metal alarm clock and was insolent to her afterwards. Kosta raninto the workshop grabbed some heavy ob#ect and broke the mirror with it. Then hiswife came in and yelled 2-o this is where 6ista got his insolent nature from78 Kosta

then did a thing he’s never done before. 'e yelled back 24 got it from that -an#ak

1 %n old form of child punishment < it was common in the 5alkan region.

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mutt not him from me78 6istana then broke down crying.2There’s an earthquake in the neighbourhood78 < the borough is talking.

-reDko ,nished elementary school after si+ years learned how to read andwrite and rewrote a lot of poems and poem books to his notebook. Then his fathertook him to the workshop. 'e wasted the whole two years < he was a good helparound the house but he was useless in the workshop. They made him go to theFrafts -chool. 'e spent two years there but got out without a diploma. 'e wasalready a lad and he still hasn’t started to work. They were asking him 29hat do youwant to do( o you want to become a monk(8 5ut he said he wanted to play music onfunerals and in taverns with a band. 'is mother started yammering. Kosta kept calmand asked 2:ou craHy child. 'ow can you play in a band when you cannot sing orplay an instrument( 9hat would you do with musicians( ?et a cup and start beggingfor change along with them( :ou want that(8

9hile he was speaking he started to observe -reDko. 'e was si+teen butstopped developing as a young boy should. They completely forgot that. 'e hassomething in his eyes that his father has never seen before. Kosta shivered. 'eremembered his own birth and childhood his youth and his latter impulsive decisionto marry an unknown woman. 'e ran out to the backyard and started whispering to

himself 2;aybe the boy is sick. ;aybe it is an in#ustice to make him do things hecannot do.8 Then he started speaking through the tears 24 don’t want to beremorseful later. 4 don’t want to force him and be unrighteous. 4’ll let him do whateverhe wants and go wherever he wants.8

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kosta the earthquake (part 1)

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