25-III-2011.: Grandparents
У ствари је била стигла и порука, „2011.03.25 18:27 Baby *** нема ги падеж _кјо овди *** was born march 25 at 1240pm!“. Временска разлика је само 5 сати у ово доба године, јер њих тамо летње време качи три недеље пре него нас овде (а у јесен две недеље дуже). Дакле вест смо добили за 47 минута... Само што је нисам приметио.
Actually we did get a SMS, „2011.03.25 18:27 Baby Raja was born march 25 at 1240pm!“. The timezone difference is only five hours this time of year, because they get the summertimes three weeks ahead of us (and two weeks behind us in the fall). So we got the news in 47 minutes, just that I didn't notice.
Late in the afternoon we got a brief message on my cell from Ender, just saying that Raja is born, at 9lb and 22". We have become a grandfather, grandmother and aunts. I spread the news further.
The next day we went to Čankovo to plant fruit. Bought something to eat on the busodrom, caught the bus at 7 and went there to dig. The dig itself I shot with nokla, but also had shots with Fujica, before and after and in between. Neither batch of files has any metadata, and the files are timestamped a couple of days later, so I have no clue of which came first.
In the ditches around the garden, where the neighbor left them deeper as he ploughed it this winter, water lay. The neighbor on the side had it worse, he had big puddles. As a spade takes a chunk of soil out, the hole begins filling with water. Lots of soil sticks to the spade, making it hard to work, but we pushed on. That day we planted most of the hundred saplings we had. The first batch was the red currant, ten of them, which we planted from the gate to the house's corner and in the left corner of the garden, by the fence. (three of them survived to bring fruit, then only one; the annual crop was around 150g, which I really picked only once, and she made a liquor of it, which then nobody drank so we redistilled it a few years later)
We inherited about two cubic meters of corn cobs, under an improvised leanto shed, made of flattened barrels and kind of posts, made by famous spit-and-stick technology. It sort of holds, so far. (the cobs were later the main fuel for the brandy still, until about the last quarter of it; the remainder was wet and rotten and the roof was as low as 1m, but that's 2018)
Along with the cobs and buckets, we also inherited Bobi, the dog. He initially couldn't stand us, but then he saw where his bread comes from (literally, he'd get half a loaf of stale bread each visit, he was as hapy as a puppy). He was in the way while we were digging, as he thought himself an expert and wanted to show us how it's done.
Everywhere around the house we find old razor blades - on the sink, by the mirror, in the kitchen table drawer, beneath each window... incredible. Seems like the old man never discarded an old blade.
Outside, everywhere the old hag's stockings. Old build, indestructible. Stab the spade into the soil, it hits a stocking halfway through. Whether the old man used these as twine, or had she hung them to dry and didn't fasten them to the line, so they flew around, who'd know that. Ten years in, and I'm still not sure I exterminated them all.
At some point my nokla rings - it's Nina, calling from the hospital (!). Some fever, whatever, so the midwife insisted that she goes there, (the good old CYA and fear of litigation at work). There they lowered her temperature right away, but didn't want to let her go home until they wait it out a bit, just in case it returns, and so that she's in there for some chargeable hours.
The scene was surreal - they talk across the ocean, while we're in the middle of a, well, field here, two steps from a mud patch, standing by a rusty chain link fence. Nice day, not too cloudy, not too windy, and the storks are flying around.
That was finally over somehow, now how long did she stay at the hospital and how much was the pleasure, I don't remember exactly, but even so, this is so much better than giving birth at the hospital (and cheaper by an order of magnitude). In the comfort of home, in one of those inflatable pools, a beauty. And the father is there, so lots of photos. And the midwife's nurse also takes shots.
Which is why the news that Škrba launched suština overyester went unnoticed.
Mentions: Čankovo, Ender Aquila (Ender), Fujica, Gradivoj Škrbić (Škrba), Nevena Sredljević (Nina), nokla, Ryu (Raja), suština, in serbian