Spring 2024 - Recrudescence

“Through the Plague”

the faces of the dead.

Hadji Dragan’s yard was still full of people. They were wait ing to take the bride out. But then something happened that caused great confusion amongst everyone: eagles appeared from the north, high above the barns. Everyone watched them. So many eagles. They had spread their wings wide and they didn’t seem to fly but glide as if carried by the wind. Where could these eagles be headed, the people thought, if not to a place where there was a carcass or a corpse? They were surely headed straight to the lower villages, which is where the plague was, where people were dying. No one said that aloud, but everyone thought it. “What are you staring at?” Hadji Dragan’s strong voice echoed. “Play!”, he shouted to the astonished bagpipers. “Play the chorbadjiisko horo. The heavy one. Go ahead, play!” And the bagpipers, each with a golden coin given by Had ji Dragan shining on their foreheads, blew the bagpipes. And the dance swayed from one end of the yard to the other. Hadji Dragan himself led it, two heads taller than the others.

Everyone was overcome with delirious joy again. But there

were a few who were whispering something on the side.

“Look at how red Hadji Dragan’s eyes are!” someone said.

“He must have drunk too much.”

“No, he has been crying!”

Inside the house, there was no one left in the room where they had dressed Tiha except for her. Her friends had gone out to watch the eagles. When Rada, who was Tiha’s most loyal compan ion, came back inside, she saw that Tiha had covered her face with her hands.

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