JOURNEY TO AMERICA

By Jesenko Tesan

— 1989 When the Berlin Wall fell: I was late teenager. I had a cat whose name was Beki. That cat was something else. I found her in a flower pot when she was a very small kitten near the restaurant “Amerikanac” (now it is McDonalds). I took her into my coat pocket so that I did not need to pay a tram ticket for her. She stayed almost till the end very close to me. The last time I saw her was in 1993 during the siege of Sarajevo. Refugees were in my babushka’s house and they kick Baki out. During the war the city was divided and under the constant sniper shelling. One summer day in 1993, I managed to visit my babushka. Beki was sitting before the wooden gates to the house. She was very frail and emaciated. She seemed to be missing one eye. Apparently, from the distance I too looked to her emaciated, frail and injured. But Beki recognised me in spite of this and stood up—though she could not walk. I picked her up and brought her inside the house. Yes, I wanted to take her with me again in my pocket to America.