Love's Requiem

Of course I woke up the following morning, to morning sickness as my alarm clock.

“This is why I slept so late the other day, I’m used to being woken up to the sounds of you gagging.” Alex joked handing me a bottle of water to rinse with.

“I wish I would just get all big and fat so cause I hear that’s when you stop getting sick.” I groaned as he helped me up.

“Not all the time.” He told me kissing my forehead.

“You’re no help.” I mumbled, as I turned on the shower.

“So today I finally get to see where you grew up, and were born.” Alex stated while I was tying my hair in a ponytail after getting dressed in a plaid short-sleeved shirt and shorts.

“Yippee.” I said sarcastically, still feeling that sense of fear I get whenever I think back to
Zadar. “We should get a move on, everyone should be heading to the train station about now.” I told him dismissing the subject and grabbing my bag.

We checked out of the hotel, and headed straight to the train station to meet up with everyone who was going to Zadar that was Jack, Zack, Rian, Kara, Jesse, Niko and Angela.
“And here come the newly weds!” Niko exclaimed as he spotted Alex and I.

“Why do you look so happy to be going back there?” I asked him in Croatian as I hugged him.

“You can’t keep living in the past, what happened has happened Bella. Did you give Niko this hard a time last summer?” He replied back, as we walked to check in.

“Probably worst, it took me two days to prepare mentally to go.”

“Look, there was nothing we could do. They refused to leave, you were too young to understand that.” He told me, as I felt a lump form in my throat.

“No, we should have forced them to go with mom and dad.” I said shaking my head.

“We’ll talk about this later.” He said noticing that Alex was now glancing at us.

I just nodded my head and took Alex’s hand walking next to him.

“You okay?” Alex whispered in my ear as he kissed the side of my head.

“Yeah, everything’s good.” I lied.

“So, are do you have any hot cousins in Zadar?” Jack asked as he sat across from Alex and me on the train.

“Is all you care about is hooking up with some member of my family?” I asked him, with a chuckle. “In case you haven’t looked around all the women and men here are beautiful.” I
told him.

“This may be true, but they don’t speak English and every time I tell a girl that line you taught me they give me a disgusted look and one even slapped me!”

“Well how do you expect them to react to you telling them that you’re going to stretch their cunt over their head?” I asked him laughing.

“That’s what that means?” He exclaimed making Alex and I laugh harder.

“Sorry, never have me teach you Croatian.” I laughed.

“You suck, I’m going to sit with Niko I like him more than you!” He said getting up.

“Most people do, he’s the nicer more attractive Sladovic!” I shouted to him.

“Peace and quite.” Alex mumbled putting an arm around me as we looked out the window.

For the majority of the 6 hours it took for us to get to Zadar, I slept for two, played poker with Jesse, Niko, Jack, and Kara for another two, and then the last two messing around with Jack and Jesse’s hair.

“I look like I should be in the casualties.” Jack said looking in the compact mirror I passed to
him when I finished his hair.

“But think about all the Balkan ass that will be crawling over you.” I told him, as the train came to a stop.

“Yeah, sure I’ll really believe that. You better have a hot cousin for me to hit on.” He told me as we got up and I went to get my stuff from where Alex was.

“Ready?” Alex asked me as we headed off the train.

Nope, I thought in my head as he helped me off the train. “Yeah,” I told him as he kissed me.

We took two cabs to the hotel, and from there we checked in to the rooms.

“Unlike you most people can’t sleep on a cramped train.” Jack told me while I had him on the phone.

“So what are you all doing then?” I asked, as Alex came out of the bathroom.

“Probably going to nap for a bit, how about we all just meet up for dinner at like 8 since its almost four now?”

“That could work, I’ll give you a call later.” I told him.

“Sounds good you two crazy kids have fun.” He chuckled hanging up.

“So what’s the deal?” Alex asked me.

“Looks like we’re on our own until 8.”

“Wanna give me the grand tour from a local?”

“Uh sure.” I told him nodding my head. “We’re going to be doing a lot of walking so have comfortable shoes on.” I warned him getting up.

“Let’s get out of here.” He told me putting an arm around me as we left.

So I showed him around the old city, the churches and the Roman ruins. I showed him the market, and parts of the new city.

“So where’s your old house?” Alex asked me as we walked around the market.

“Too far to walk to.” I told him.

“How far?” He pressed.

“By car it’d take us about 40 minutes to get there.” I explained. “When we go to my aunt’s
house tomorrow, we’ll go. We’ll borrow my uncles car and I’ll take you”

“So it is still in Zadar?”

“It is but it’s in the town of Obrovac.” I explained “My aunt and uncle live in another town outside of that called Benkovac.” I explained, as I led him to the monument of the sun.

“Where does Luka live now?”

“Luka has a summer house in Novigrad, his parents still live in Obrobac I believe.” I told him.

As we walked and after I showed him the monument of the sun that he found very interesting, he kept pressing questions about where I grew up.

“You’re awfully full of questions today aren’t you?” I asked him as we made it to the sea organ.

“I can’t learn about where my wife comes from?”

“You can, but I feel like you have an underlying question that you’re trying to answer with all these minor ones.” I told him, as I sat on one of the steps.

“So is-“ He began but I cut him off.

“Shh” I said lightly, “Just listen.” I told him as I watched the sun start to set.

As the waves crashed in to the steps of the organ soon the airy, sounds played.

“How is it doing that?” He asked a few minutes later.

“As the waves go in they hit these tubes that produce the sound.”

“Was this here when you were a kid?” He asked.

“Nope, this opened when I was long gone.”

I looked over at him, after a few minutes of silence it looked like he was trying to figure out how to tell me something.

“What’s on your mind?” I asked him, as I rested my head on my hand in my lap.

“It’s just,” He began “A little while ago when you were still with Niko him and I sort of had an argument slash conversation and he said something along the lines of if you really opened up to me you’d have told me what happened here when you were a kid.” He explained.

Note to self; break Niko’s foot when I get back to Zagreb.

“I did already tell you Alex, the war but that was every where.” I lied.

“That’s what I had told him, but he said there was more to it.” He pressed.

Scratch that, I’m going to kill Niko when I get back to Zagreb.

I let out a sigh as I buried my face in my hands really not wanting to have this conversation.

“Bella what happened?” He asked me.

Well he had to find out sooner or later I guess.

“Okay,” I began. “What’s your first question?”

“What happened that you didn’t want to come back?” He asked me.

I closed my eyes, and pictured the whole scene again in my head.

“Two months before my fourth birthday, the Serbian army began shelling cities in Dalmatia. This being one of them, my town had a very high Serbian population so we weren’t hit right away. That gave my parents enough time for us to escape to Zagreb and stay with my grandparents. They left two days later for America, leaving Niko and I in Zagreb. The night before we left, we went to see my dad’s parents in Benkovac me being a shit head three year old refused to leave. I wanted to stay with my deda, he was my best friend and I didn’t want to leave. That night when they were packing up the car to leave, I jumped out and started running. While I was running an air raid began, they shelled a house that was maybe five feet away from me. All I remember was the explosion and being knocked down.” I explained to him. “See this?” I asked him extending my arm where my nesting doll tattoo was.

“It’s your tattoo.” He said confused.

“I want you to run your finger along the center.” I told him.

“Is that a scar?” He asked in disbelief as he did so.

“A piece of metal from what they said was a car was lodged in to my arm from the blast.” I explained. “They took me to the hospital, as soon as I was patched up we headed right for Zagreb. My deda went in to the army because the demand began for any men between 18 and 50 to join. Of course he wanted to fight for Croatia and his family and he did so. My Baka was a nurse so she did what she could to help any civilians and soldiers that were wounded. When my parents sent for us my aunt took Niko and I to Hungary as refugees and from there we were sent to America. Once we got to America a year later, we began sending for them to come to America and be safe. Every time they refused, everything kept getting worse and soon we lost contact because the city was cut off from everything. New Years day 1996, we received a phone call from my dad’s brother explaining my Baka died when they bombed the hospital and my Deda still hadn’t been found.”

“Why did you never tell me about this?” He asked me as I wiped the tears from my cheek.

“I never want to relive it. I never want to talk about it. They should have come with us.” I told him as I felt myself begin to cry. “They would still be alive if they weren’t so stubborn.” I told him as he hugged me tightly.

“It’s not your fault Bella.” He told me trying to calm me down.

Once I was calmed down we headed back to the hotel, where we waited to meet everyone for dinner.

“How are you feeling?” Alex asked me while we waited in the lobby.

“Tired, really, really tired.” I yawned. “Please, don’t say anything to anyone about what I told you today?” I asked him.

“Didn’t plan on it.” He assured me, giving me a kiss. “I love you Bella.” He added.

“I love you too.” I told him kissing him again.

“Jeez get a fucking room we get it already!” Jack exclaimed.

“So what did you guys do?” Rian asked us over dinner that night.

“Went around the city, nothing to crazy.” Alex told him.

“Dude the sea organ, isn’t it nuts?” Jesse exclaimed.

“You’re talking with the sea organ’s biggest fan.” I snickered.

“I’m a believer of art and music.” Jesse said in a stuck up voice.

I threw a piece of a roll at his head, and laughed even harder. Dinner was what I needed to get in better spirits; everyone was cracking jokes and laughing. After dinner we walked back to the monument to the sun to show them how beautiful it looked at night. After that everyone wanted to go to a bar, so Alex and I passed while Niko took everyone out.

“So what’s the plan for tomorrow?” Alex asked me.

“Well Niko’s been talking with my uncle and he wants to take me and him to the graves tomorrow and supposedly he has something for me.” I explained. “Mind you this is the first time I’m seeing him since I was three.” I added.

“Do you want me to go with you?”

“Do you want to go with me?” I asked him.

“Of course you idiot.” He chuckled.

“Okay,” I nodded my head. “After that I think we’re going to the beach and then to my aunts house for a barbeque.” I explained.

“That sounds pretty good to me.” He smiled giving me a kiss.