23-VIII-1979.

She's in the hospital since yesterday. (... 125 words...)

It's my birthday, and I don't know whether to celebrate or what.

Around noon, I'm on my bicycle and at the maternity ward. I manage to find a nurse to ask about her, she should be in the prep room (actually, "na odležavanju", where they are just lying and being somewhat monitored, as they are still a week or so before giving birth). First I get the news she was moved from that room... and then that she gave birth this morning. The nurse says she'll go up and see her. She returns with a note from Zeta, saying "the klincess is honeyly" and a few more sentences. I'm a father... and so Go is born.

The rest of the day is a blur. I remember rushing the bike to the city - visiting the city library first, to return some books, then rushing home to tell my parents (didn't occur to me to call them from a booth at the post office, which is next to the library, probably had no change in my pockets). Didn't drink any booze all day, because I was driving the fresh grandparents to drink together.

A footnote re "klincess" - the common word for a kid here is "klinac" - little spike. Rhymes with princ (prince), though not as well as when the female "klinka" is transformed, so we get "klinci i klinceze" - spikelets and spikelesses (the plural of princ is prinčevi, so this is a quite poet-style play on morphology, the inventor was playful with words).


Mentions: A word from the author, Gorana Sredljević (Go), Rozeta Gunaroši (Zeta), in serbian