Page 38 - To Family with Love

me why I was the only one to play dodgeball, skillfully jumping around and dodging every ball. I was wise enough to just remain silent. I saw that I had made her quite happy as a goalkeeper – I didn’t need to make her laugh by stuttering, too.
I rushed into my hideout like the wind, started howling Hr- vatine loudly, and let my dear stray dogs lick my bloody knees and elbows, while complete sadness overflowed my endurance.
Later, in the park, I was comforted by my friend Blindy’s candy. For the first time, he didn’t ask me anything about what had happened because he had also attended the game, and al- though there had been nothing to see, there had certainly been a lot to hear.
We would lose more often than not, no matter what I did at the goal post, because the other team had a significant advantage when it came to energy resources, as most of them were sitting on the bench, which allowed them to switch players quite often. Even when we would start cringing like beaten dogs, they would still be running like crazy. That is a textbook example of three vs. one, as was the case in our war. As if they didn’t already have everything going for them, their center forward was Dado, who played for Lokomotiva and was unstoppable in terms of attitude, as well as merciless in terms of scoring goals, respecting my age and my relationship with Marina. Since I instantly noticed, be- cause as a goalkeeper you have the best view, that there would be no hope whatsoever as long as that bastard played for them, it became obvious to me that something needed to be done right away. So, I did everything that I could think of to make his old man enlist in the army, since he hadn’t done that voluntarily. I wrote and sent his father a conscription letter, and even used my pop’s staff-command-military connections so he would be sent away to Lika, Vukovar, Dubrovnik or anywhere where military or any other uniforms were worn, all with the aim of realizing the transfer of his son to our five-a-side football team. Yet, all
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