Zlata's Diary by Zlata Filipovic Read Free Book Online Page B

over to our apartment and brought us back some sandwiches. He said he could smell something burning and that the phones weren’t working. He brought our TV set down to the cellar. That’s when we learned that the main post office (near us) was on fire and that they had kidnapped our President. At around 8:00 we went back up to our apartment. Almost every window in our street was broken. Ours were all right, thank God. I saw the post office in flames. A terrible sight. The fire-fighters battled with the raging fire. Daddy took a few photos of the post office being devoured by the flames. He said they wouldn’t come out because I had been fiddling with something on the camera. I was sorry. The whole apartment smelled of the burning fire. God, and I used to pass by there every day. It had just been done up. It was huge and beautiful, and now it was being swallowed up by the flames. It was disappearing. That’s what this neighborhood of mine looks like, my Mimmy. I wonder what it’s like in other parts of town? I heard on the radio that it was awful around the Eternal Flame. The place is knee-deep in glass. We’re worried about Grandma and Granddad. They live there. Tomorrow, if we can go out, we’ll see how they are. A terrible day.
    This has been the worst, most awful day in my eleven-year-old life. I hope it will be the only one. Mommy and Daddy are very edgy. I have to go to bed.
    Ciao!
Zlata

Sunday, May 3, 1992
    Dear Mimmy,
    Daddy managed to run across the bridge over the Miljacka and get to Grandma and Granddad. He came running back, all upset, sweating with fear and sadness. They’re all right, thank God. Tito Street looks awful. The heavy shelling has destroyed shop windows, cars, apartments, the fronts and roofs of buildings. Luckily, not too many people were hurt because they managed to take shelter. Neda (Mommy’s girlfriend) rushed over to see how we were and to tell us that they were OK and hadn’t had any damage. But it was terrible.
    We talked through the window with Auntie Boda and Bojana just now. They were in the street yesterday when that heavy shooting broke out. They managed to get to Stela’s cellar.
    Zlata

Tuesday, May, 5, 1992
    Dear Mimmy,
    The shooting seems to be dying down. I guess they’ve caused enough misery, although I don’t know why. It has something to do with politics. I just hope the “kids” come to some agreement. Oh, if only they would, so we could live and breathe as human beings again. The things that have happened here these past few days are terrible. I want it to stop forever. PEACE! PEACE!
    I didn’t tell you, Mimmy, that we’ve rearranged things in the apartment. My room and Mommy and Daddy’s are too dangerous to be in. They face the hills, which is where they’re shooting from. If only you knew how scared I am to go near the windows and into those rooms. So, we turned a safe corner of the sitting room into a “bedroom.” We sleep on mattresses on the floor. It’s strange and awful. But, it’s safer that way. We’ve turned everything around for safety. We put Cicko in the kitchen. He’s safe there, although once the shooting starts there’s nowhere safe except the cellar. I suppose all this will stop and we’ll all go back to our usual places. Ciao!
    Zlata

Thursday, May, 7 1992
    Dear Mimmy,
    I was almost positive the war would stop, but today ... Today a shell fell on the park in front of my house, the park where I used to play and sit with my girlfriends. A lot of people were hurt. From what I hear Jaca, Jaca’s mother, Selma, Nina, our neighbor Dado and who knows how many other people who happened to be there were wounded. Dado, Jaca and her mother have come home from the hospital, Selma lost a kidney but I don’t know how she is, because she’s still in the hospital. AND NINA IS DEAD. A piece of shrapnel lodged in her brain and she died. She was such a sweet,