Dear dad,

I was happy about your letter, and then mum entered the room in tears. She found out that uncle Grujo had died. I went with her to the Administration Office to request a written confirmation which would allow her to ride the train without a ticket. Obtaining it wasn’t easy and it took a few hours. This morning she went to the funeral and asked me to look after Stane. He’s outside with Ivica now. I’m watching them play out the window. I didn’t tell Stane where mum had gone. I only told him she was coming back tomorrow.

We moved to the Igman Inn a couple of months ago so now I’m hanging out with Siniša. At first, I longed for the Sutjeska, but now I’m proud to be one of the Igman boys. The ones from Sutjeska attack us cowardly with pine cones, but they avoid real open combat. I still haven’t received a letter from Mihajlo. Maybe he hasn’t written to me because he had found out about my becoming an Igman boy or perhaps had forgotten all about me. (I don’t know why but I’m certain Samir hadn’t forgotten about me. He would write to me if he could.)

We fifth-graders have lessons at the Igman Inn. A teacher comes over from Niš every day. All I have to do to get to school is go down the stairs. And during the break, I can go up to our room and have a snack. After school, Siniša and I leave our notebooks in our rooms, and we rush right out. Jelena and Aleksandra often join us. The two of them are our best friends. Jelena is from the Sutjeska but I’ve convinced Siniša that it doesn’t matter because she’s a girl so she isn’t participating in the war anyway. To be honest, I like Jelena. I think I’m in love with her.

I showed Jelena your letters. She said she’d love to learn to draw as well as you. She also read my letters to you. She promised not to say a word about them to anyone. I hope you’ll read them soon too.