Prologue

AFTER A HUNDRED YEARS OF WANDERING
An Ordinary Miracle of Belgrade

We rehearse disaster as a chronicle of a death foretold. We repeat to oblivion, disgusted or at peace, so that when it really happens we would not even notice it. Even when we do not go to the theater, it comes to all of us at least twice a month. The performances are insultingly bad, barely sketches, but what will you, at least will kill time. Or ourselves. We are haunted by the smiles from the leftover electoral posters: some semi-human creatures grin to our faces, swear loyalty to us The arsons have surrounded our home, and we pack our bags and leave it, so that our cheap tour package on the warm seas would not be wasted. It is important that they do not withhold something from our pension and that we did not lose at the bookmaker’s.
But there is in us something bigger than us. Some wonder. It appears abruptly, is not easy to calculate. Some Hand of Justice, some Heart of Freedom, some superhuman power. Something that binds the Oath and Rank. Those who underestimate it have committed an irreversible mistake. Such a mistake, exactly one hundred years ago, swallowed four empires here. No one believed it would happen, but we did. Our grandfathers. Nothing was more important to us than the wounded martyr of Serbia. The Mother.
When King Petar I, after almost three years of exile, returned to Belgrade, in November 1918, one could not hear a fly on Terazije Square. In front of the lined troops of the victorious army, tight like a wire, the old duke Živojin Mišić, Chief of Staff of the Supreme Command, marched over the furrowed cobble stone. He raised his sword at the height of his forehead and loudly reported: “Your Majesty, the task is completed, the Fatherland is free!”
The eyes of King and Duke were full of tears. Belgrade cried, silently, its forehead lifted high. Bells were ringing at the Cathedral. And the one who records this, in 2018, is crying.
That miracle, that something bigger than us, is still alive in us now. It is more alive than us. Nobody should forget it, especially not us. If we fail the miracle, we will become monsters.