“Who does organize this massacre with these unfortunate students of the school?”
All eyes went to me and Bilja. The director grabbed my elbow, started shaking and shouting:
“One would send to prison for this. With knife and chain you’ve crippled so many students! “
I disengaged my hand. And other teachers came to see what was happened. None of them could believe that eight bandits attacked me. Therefore, I sought help from witnesses who saw all:
“First ask the witnesses who attacked whom and who had the knife and chain, and then grab the hand.”
The director was startled by my insolence, and then my words reached his consciousness. Unbelief was visible on the faces of those present. First, no one believed that I would answer the director in such a manner and he could not believe how I did it all myself. To regain his fallen authority, he raised his hand with his index finger and shouted:
“Let them all say that they attacked you, but you did not dare to use knife and chain. For this I will now kick you out of school and the police already knows about the fight that has taken place. “
He turned to the students and asked:
“Who did attack whom?”
The crowd answered:
“They’re at him!”
“Who did attack with chain and knife?”
“They attacked, and he only defended himself” – there were even more loudly cries from the crowd of students.
The sound of a police siren was heard. The students broke apart. The car stopped in front of us. The police officers looked around, looking for someone to be arrested. They Saw me and Bilja before the director and other students who pretended and groaned in pain to stir to pity. And they decided that I used a knife and chain and moved towards me. The director stopped them and explained that they attacked me using knife and chain as a weapon, and I only defended myself. A stupid expression on their faces showed distrust. One of the policemen proclaimed that the use of martial arts is prohibited by law. To defeat eight peers who were using knife and chain one must be a master in any of the martial arts. They pressed forward to me again. I had to react immediately:
“I have no belt and I am not a master in any fight. Director, am I here accused party or person defending against eight attackers? Look how many witnesses are on my side?”
A number of the students began to chatter loudly again. Bucked by the defeat of the abusers, many students began to blame them and confessed that they were treaded under foot. The police called for an ambulance. Students, realizing that they would not see anything interesting, went to their classes. After a couple of days, the perpetrators were punished. The two guys, who used knife and chain, were expelled from school. The so – called leader of the gang was punished with the last warning before being expelled from the school and the other hooligans received a simple warning. Soon this event began to fade from memory. There were still some fights, but nobody else touched me. I continued to meet with Bilja. We were at ease together. However, because of her, I blew off my studies and everything else.
These days, when everything was not important to me and my thoughts were occupied only by Bilja, my mother said that tomorrow we must leave. Stan’s grandmother departed out of this world. A person cannot immediately accept many things. They seem unreal to him. So, it seemed to me that this news was impossible. I could not believe it at all. How could Grandfather allow it? I asked myself questions, as if the grandfather’s hands could decide about life and death. That night I could not fall asleep. As the old people say, “not sleep a wink.” In the morning we went to the village where I spent my childhood. After the funeral of my father I did not attend such events. It was hard for me. I remembered how she loved me and how she cared of me. I remember the song she was singing for me:
The old granny loves me, cares for me,
She’ll fulfill all my wishes.
But nobody can replace the boy his parents
On the whole white world…
And now, like once, when I was little boy and heard this song for the first time, I wept bitterly. Her melodious speech recurred to me and tears streamed down my face. Everyone came up to console me. Grandfather came up and embraced me with his warm hands. Then I calmed down a little. All my sorrow, pain and suffering resulted in a few words, one question that I asked him:
“Grandpa, why did you not help her to live?”
He embraced me again and I felt his body shake:
“Sonny, do you think that I didn’t do this? I can help anyone to whom the Lord gives to live, but I cannot help myself or anyone, if his life comes to an end by the will of God. Let God take her to His paradise. You cannot resist the fate and will of God. What must be, will be While God destine then you’ll die. Sonny, this is the rest of the body. You will see it in the notebooks that you will receive after my death, everything is described there and then it’ll be black and white for you.”
It’s been said that one lives and learns and I also got another life lesson at her funeral. I realized that we, the Elects, although we have tremendous power in relation to the rest of humanity, are ordinary mortals, like the whole world. This thought did not please me. Then my grandfather reassured me with the words:
“Sonny, it’s all according to God’s will and we must obey it. You must remember forever that you do not dare to lose heart, you should be proud that you are God’s chosen.”
These words fell on my soul like a balm and later I always remembered them when it was hard for me. He always knew how to cheer up and not lose heart. As the popular saying goes: “A fun heart spins yarn.” From that day on I adopted this principle of life. Always be cheerful and calm. Thus, it was possible to cheer up the most saddened people, set patient’s mind at rest and melt any pain. This lesson I received at my grandmother’s funeral.
We returned from the funeral. I was tortured for several days and then I continued the studies. I'd gotten a number of bad marks. I was sure that I could easily correct them, but they followed one after another. At the end of the half – year I had already eight bad marks. They did not bother me. It was more important to me that I was at odd with Bilja and I think about her ceaselessly. I was in love with her and she had all the good marks. At the beginning of the second half of the year Tanya came up to talk to me:
“Miki, Bilja does not know what to do. Many times, when I was with her, I saw how she was crying.”
“What? What happens to her, what would I not know?” – I asked Tanya.
“You see, Miki, she and I are best friends and we are talking a lot. You are always the topic of our conversations. When you protected her from these bandits, she fell in love with you. The more time passed, the less attention you paid to her. Sometimes you hug and kiss her and that’s all. She expected much more from you. And because of this she cried many times.”
And this time, as when I heard about my grandmother’s death for the first time, my mind did not want to understand such kind of the words, but Tanya