Uncle Krsto

It was late spring in 1917. Seventy-five-year-old Krsto tapped a stick on the chapped, heavy door of Staniya's home. Krsto was a tall, skinny man, slightly curved with broad shoulders and a big, loose, grizzled mustache. A large, aquiline nose and thick eyebrows, which towered over his eyes, revealed the rough look of a highlander from Montenegro's karsts. In fact he was a good-natured old man, despite being crushed by poverty, impoverishment, bitter hardships, and hard farmwork.

When he moved from Montenegro to Toplica, he was about forty years old and still unmarried. Upon arrival at Bechov Karst (Beov Krs), he found several families from his old countryside. He quickly became a close friend to them. In a small dell below Bechov Karst, he built a wooden hut with only one room. He plastered it with mud and covered it with beech boards he cut, carved, and processed to make it waterproof.

In the middle of the hut, he placed a sizable number of flat stones to make into his new home's fireplace. Between the beams above the fireplace, he positioned a strong pole made from a cer tree, on which he hung large chains (verige) to hold cooking dishes he brought from Montenegro.

Around Uncle Krsto's hut was dense forest on all sides, from which a small island peeped. There had been many stories and legends about this karst. It was told that, on the night of a full moon, fires and evil spirits were jumping around it, dropping various sounds, playing some unknown instruments, and calling some of the settlers' names. Some talked about how they witnessed a vision of red silk, which fell from the top down and behind tree branches, before sunset. Others claimed they listened to a crying child around midnight. Yet others said they watched kids jumping and moving across the karst in the moonlight and listened to the bleating and scratching of claws on the rocks.

Although he had heard all these stories about Bechov Karst, Uncle Krsto decided to settle right there under the karst to build his wooden hut. No one knew what guided him to become a neighbor of the unholy, but after his hut emerged, no one at Bechov Karst noticed anything unusual any longer.

The new neighbor of Bechov Karst soon married a beautiful, dark-haired woman named Lucia, who soon bore him a son, Masho, and another child, a girl who soon died afterward of smallpox. Masho grew and developed into a burly guy. He was as tall as his father was, and black curly hair and a thin, black mustache adorned his head. Lucia died when he was sixteen years old, and since then they had no female in the house.

Masho married Miruna right after the family gave Lucia the first-year commemoration after her death. Young Miruna bore a son to Masho, Dyoko, who was only five years old when Masho hung a colorful wool bag on his shoulder, embraced a Turkish shooting rifle, and headed to Merdare with uncertainty to join the Serbo-Turkish war. Uncle Krsto stayed with his daughter-in-law Miruna and grandson Dyoko.

Staniya, a small, dark-haired woman from the city of Pech in Metohia, was about twenty-five years old when the Turkish War broke out and Stevan went with the others to Merdare to join the Serbian fighters. She was left with three small children, of whom the eldest was five and the youngest was just a year old.

Staniya looked over the house and nursed the children, and she never complained of loneliness or adversity. She attended to all male affairs: plowing, harvesting the crops, turning the heavy grindstone wheel, milling flower, cutting wood for fires, carrying wood on her backside, and feeding dozens of red goats and a cow. She was eloquent and open as well as free and brave. And above all, she had good character, always cheerful and smiling, and she was a loyal wife and mother. She had a small body, and she was attractive and beautifully built.

Staniya jumped up and opened the door, and she was pleasantly surprised when she saw the old man, Uncle Krsto.

"God help you, young woman," said Krsto with a gentle smile.

"God bless you, Uncle Krsto. Come sit and relax." Staniya moved aside from the door to allow the man to enter.

Uncle Krsto entered, put his stick against the wall, and sat down in a small tripod chair that Staniya passed to him. He pulled a smoking pipe made of clay from his pocket, and he filled it with tobacco. Staniya carefully held a piece of ember to help Uncle Krsto light the tobacco. The man pulled two to three puffs, and blue smoke and the stench of mold and nicotine filled the room. Staniya flung open the door and placed another tripod chair against it so it would not close.

Outside was a summer day. The sun baked the land as if it were August, although it was only the end of June. A large, thin dog was gasping with his tongue hanging out, defending himself from aggressive flies that had been savagely attacking his eyes and mouth. Chickens were almost collapsing from thirst as they revolved around the empty tap made of a piece of oak tree that formerly served to feed pigs. The chickens clumsily excavated remainders of food and liquid.

"How are you, Staniya? How are the kids?" The man crossed his left leg over his right knee.

"Praise God, Uncle, we're alive and there's still something to eat. God forbid it get worse, but we will manage to make it another day. How are you, old man? Did you hear anything from Masho?"

"I do not know anything, Staniya. I was told he survived Albania and typhoid, and now he is somewhere in Thessaloniki with the Allied armies. Something is being prepared there, but only God knows what and how."

"Let's just hope in God's name that he is alive and healthy back there. We are used to suffering around here already. If it weren't for those Bulgarian dogs, we would somehow be all right, but we are in constant fear and uncertainty because of them. And it seems that time is not passing by quickly enough. I heard they ravaged Racha; even women were not left in peace." She raised a coffee pot from the stove, poured a cup of hot liquid made from barley, and gave it to Uncle Krsto. "Take the cup, old man. It's from barley, but we got used to it. It's good when there is no real coffee."

"Oh, thank you, my dear Staniya. I have not had a cup of it for more than ten days. There is no sugar, and nowhere can it be obtained around here, even if we had a lot of money to pay for it. No one can even go buy it in Koorshoomliya. It's too far to go there in this hot, terrible weather."

The dog in the yard violently jerked a rusty chain and grunted.

Staniya ran to the door and then immediately turned and whispered, "A Chetnick!"

"What kind of Chetnick at this time?" muttered Uncle Krsto, as if he were saying it to himself. He stood up and leaned against the doorframe.

A well-built man on a horse approached the gate of Staniya's yard. His small horse was typical for those seen in the mountainous regions in Serbia. The tall and broad-shouldered man might have been about twenty-five years old. The sun and wind had tanned him. He had a thin, black mustache and black curly hair, which he had carelessly pushed under a tilted fur hat, which presented him as more handsome and imposing.

He wore a pinstriped peasant suit, still in good condition, and short leather boots, above which Serbian woolen embroidered socks could be seen. Below the...