Moving Tomislav Takač   © Copyright 2024 by Tomislav Takač

Photo courtesy of Pixabay.

Milan had just had breakfast and put coffee to brew for himself. He looked out the window of his house and observed the almost finished overpass and the new road that crosses his farm. The house and the farm itself were almost a hundred years old and had not bothered anyone...until now At any moment, a representative of the construction company "Ling Dong" was supposed to come to buy the house and the land. He doesn't need money, he will give everything to his sister and relatives, but he doesn't like the fact that his grandfather's house will be demolished to build a damn highway, he tried to convince them to move it by about fifty meters, but in vain, like he tried to talk to the wall. He decided to use what his grandfather left him hidden in an old tin box for Christmas cookies. He had never lived in an apartment and by no means could he imagine himself living in those "concrete boxes" as his grandfather called them, and he didn't want to move in with his sister to be on her back. A brand new silver painted car with chromed bumper parked in front of his house. A black-haired man, around thirty years old, in an expensive light blue suit with a tie of the same color and a black briefcase, got out. 'Good afternoon, Mr. Feketić! Can I come in? What else will I do? Should I shoot him with a double barrel or a carbine? Milan thought and gestured for him to enter. The dog house had been empty since his dear Jacky died last year of old age at the age of fifteen. He went in, they shook hands and sat down at the kitchen table, he offered him coffee and cookies, but he refused. - Let me introduce myself, sir, my name is Stevan Topanović and I am a representative of the company "Ling Dong" and I am very sorry that this has come to this because.... Yeah right! Six months I asked your boss and his deputies and what not, to change the plan and move the road by fifty meters, but they won't listen to me, half didn't take me seriously and the rest were grinning like idiots. I'd rather move away than waste my time with those idiots or you! Mr. Feketić! You can't talk like that! What kind of a way do you call those wonderful people such derogatory terms? Milan started laughing almost hysterically, which left his guest speechless. He stopped laughing and said - Let me sign where I need and you get out of my house. The company representative wanted to say something, but when he looked into Milan's eyes, he looked down, took out all the papers and left as fast as he could. Milan calmly watched his car drive away and then took out a letter from his jeans pocket for his sister and put it on the table. He went to his gun cabinet and took out his two rifles, a double-barrelled and a boltaction rifle, as well as ammunition belt and all the other accessories for them. He put on his hunting cap and put on his old army boots that he brought from the army surplus store, and then went to the food pantry where two hams and a couple of sausages were still hanging and took the Christmas tin box off the shelf. The box was on the top shelf hidden behind jars of jam and pickles. He leaves all the food in the pantry to his sister .He opened the box and first took out a revolver wrapped in a cloth with all the ammunition, a large hunting knife made of stainless steel and under all that there was something wrapped in a piece of newspaper that was pleasantly warm to the touch,it was a small silver key engraved with some runes,which glowed with a soft, pleasant light. He put the key in his pocket and filled his hunting backpack with all the necessary things, hung both rifles on his shoulders, and the revolver in the holster, hooked it on the belt of his jeans, took a deep breath and once again looked at his house where he grew up and the surrounding fields with corn and oilseed rape, and turned to the pantry, closed its door and put the silver key in the keyhole and turned it. The key and the door lit up slightly and when he opened it, he didn't see the old dusty shelf with jars and hams and sausages hanging, but the door led to a small cave lit by the rising sun. He wished that idiot was here to see this, his brain would have short circuited to see this. He stepped inside and closed the door behind him and then placed the key on a stone he stepped on it with all his might breaking it. It was a nice key, but he decided there was no going back. The cave was no bigger than his house, usually a hollow in the hill, lit by two blood-red suns that were just rising. It was early morning, all the vegetation and trees were covered with dew, insects were buzzing and birds were chirping happily. When he came out of the cave, he saw a seemingly endless forest of violet-dark green and pink trees, some of which grew over two hundred meters in height, leaving even the tallest sequoias in the dust behind. Grandfather bought a magic key at a fair in Pirot when he was still a young man, not even thinking that the key opens a portal to another world warmed by two red suns, but there are no states in this world or bureaucracies, kings, only a few tribes of peaceful cat-like natives who spend all their life singing and playing . Grandpa became a kind of hero or even a demigod for them when forty years ago he saved a young mother and her child by killing a huge reptile with a rifle. Twenty years ago, three years after grandma passed away, he permanently moved to this world, leaving him the key should he ever decided to join him. He noticed a thin wisp of smoke from his grandfather's house and headed in that direction with a smile on his face as brightly colored eagle-sized butterflies drank nectar from equally brightly colored umbrella-sized flowers.