Things Nobody Knows But Me by Amra Pajalić

Author:Amra Pajalić
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781925760200
Publisher: Transit Lounge

POISON PEN

While I was missing my mother in Bosnia, she was experiencing her own tribulations in Australia. Mum felt like she was missing an appendage by leaving us behind, but in Bosnia she had felt like she was suffocating, with the ever-present threat of being admitted to hospital and the horror that awaited her there.

When Mum and Izet returned to Australia, the house she had shared with my father was vacant. Her friends returned the belongings she had asked them to store before she left for Bosnia. The house was furnished and looked as if she had never left, but whenever she walked past our empty bedrooms Mum felt a pang.

Izet began renovating the house. His first job was painting every room and removing the stains of neglect left by years of renters. They settled into the Bosnian social life of exchanging visits with other Bosnians, but Izet was always taciturn and subdued afterwards.

Mum thought it was just because he was a natural introvert and found it hard to socialise, but when her friend Mujo came to visit with his family, she found out what his aversion to Bosnians actually was. Mujo was my dad’s best friend and they shared the same uncouth sense of humour. Izet had helped Mujo paint his house the day before.

‘I asked him to paint the living room and he painted the lounge room. What a dill.’ Izet’s mistake was an easy one to make. In Bosanska Gradiška there wasn’t such a thing as a dedicated room just to eat or sit; all spaces were communal and multi-purpose. Mujo was laughing so hard he had turned red. The louder he laughed, the more subdued Izet became. Mujo continued his comedy routine with Izet as the butt of every joke. He laughed about Izet’s pronunciation of English when he ordered a sandwich, and about Izet becoming lost when he went to the buy coffee.

‘I’ve had enough.’ Izet stood. ‘I’m leaving and I won’t return until he’s gone.’

Mujo found this reaction even funnier, and his peals of laughter chased Izet out.

‘Well, I’m going to stay all night until he returns.’ Mujo settled into the sofa to wait.

Mum continued talking to Mujo’s wife, and she kept glancing at the clock, fretting about where Izet had gone. He knew no one and had nowhere to go. He’d left in such a rush he’d even forgotten his wallet.

‘Are you worrying about your beloved?’ Mujo teased. ‘He’s probably lurking outside waiting for me to leave.’ He stood and looked through the curtains. ‘I’m going to stay all night so he can’t come back.’

‘Enough,’ his wife warned. ‘We’ll get going.’

After her visitors left Mum cleaned the house, constantly on the alert for Izet’s return.

Two hours later she heard the door and rushed into the hallway. ‘Where were you?’ she asked.

Izet shrugged as he took off his shoes. ‘I was walking.’

‘I’m sorry about that. Mujo thinks he’s funny, but he’s not.’

‘I’m not visiting any of these people anymore. They are not my friends and I won’t waste my time.

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