Free Zlata's Diary by Zlata Filipovic Page B

that he mustn’t lift anything heavy anymore. Mustn’t? But somebody has to bring the water! Mommy will have to do it alone now. How will she manage?
    Zlata

Tuesday, August 18, 1992
    Dear Mimmy,
    Mommy is carrying home the water. It’s hard on her, but she has to do it. The water hasn’t come back on. Nor has the electricity.
    I didn’t tell you, Mimmy, but I’ve forgotten what it’s like to have water pouring out of a tap, what it’s like to shower. We use a jug now. The jug has replaced the shower. We wash dishes and clothes like in the Middle Ages. This war is taking us back to olden times. And we take it, we suffer it, but we don’t know for how long?
    Zlata

Friday, August 21, 1992
    Dear Mimmy,
    I’m not in any of the classes I thought I’d be in at summer school. I’ve signed up for the literature and drama club. They gave me Abdulah Sidran’s “Sarajevo Prayer” to recite. It’s great.
    Zlata

Tuesday, August 25, 1992
    Dear Mimmy,
    I go regularly to summer school. I like it. We’re together. We don’t think about the shelling or the war. Maja and Lela, who help our teacher Irena Vidovic, cheer us up. We write, we recite, we spend the hours together. It takes me back to the days before the war. I’m also glad to be able to go out into the street. True, it’s not far away (200 meters from my house), but I’ve finally stepped outside. Daddy takes me. Children mustn’t walk in the street alone in Sarajevo. I was already going stir crazy. And I “do” myself up, I wear something nice. I mustn’t show off too much?
    Ciao!
Zlata

Saturday, August 29, 1992
    Dear Mimmy,
    I’m feeling good today. There’s no shooting, I go to summer school, play with Maja, Bojana and Nedo. We fool around, we have our own kind of humor. Sometimes we laugh so much we even forget about the war. We simply get carried away and it’s peacetime again. But only until something bursts or explodes. Then we come back to reality. Sometimes I think that if it weren’t for them I don’t know how I’d be able to stand it. Thank you Maja, Bojana and Nedo, for making it easier for me to take everything that’s happening, for killing my boredom and my thoughts about all these ugly things.
    Remember them, Mimmy, don’t ever forget them. I certainly won’t.
    Your Zlata

Thursday, September 3, 1992
    Dear Mimmy,
    The days are passing by more pleasantly. There’s no shooting in our neighborhood, but we’ve been without electricity now for more than a month. If only the electricity would come back on. If only I could cross the bridge and at least go to Grandma and Granddad’s! I’m working on it. I’m putting pressure on Mommy and Daddy. Will it work???? We’ll find out!
    Â 
    Zlata

Tuesday, September 8, 1992
    Dear Mimmy,
YES! YES! YES! THE ELECTRICITY IS BACK!!!!!!
    Tomorrow is Mommy’s birthday. I made a paper heart and wrote HAPPY BIRTHDAY on it ... and I cut a bouquet of roses out of the newspaper.
    Mommy started making a cake, the kind you don’t need to cook, and when everything was finished, the electricity came back on ...
    OOOHHHH!!!!!!!
Your Zlata

Saturday, September 12, 1992
    Dear Mimmy, Today is Auntie Boda’s birthday. We gave her a pair of stockings and a packet of coffee. The hurmasice [sweet cakes] were super!
    Ciao!
Zlata

Sunday, September 13, 1992
    Dear Mimmy, Remember, Mimmy, how I told you about two-and-a-half-year-old little Nejra, whom Samra and Emina keep talking about (how cute and talkative she is), and how I’d like to meet her? Well, she came to the neighborhood today. A shell fell into their apartment and they had to leave the place. Now they’re with Samra and Emina. Samra and Emina were right. SHE’S SOOO CUTE!
    Samra found a job. She’s a mechanical engineer and she’s working twelve hours a day now. I hardly ever see her.
    Your Zlata

Monday,