Vlaho Vlaho kako si kako si Vlaho no answer, his eyes are closed, his heart is beating very quickly, very quickly and weakly, I grab the wound to check it blood flows through my fingers two other comrades come to the rescue, they put a makeshift tourniquet on it and drag him to cover, he’s bleeding from his side too, the shrapnel burned the canvas jacket and opened a blackish wound below his ribs, I realize I’m still holding Vlaho’s severed arm, I let it go, I feel nauseous all of a sudden, Andi arrives with a nurse, I look at the pale contorted hand on the ground, the friendly hand with the pink bone, the right hand, right or left I have no idea I sit down on the ground no I collapse rather I collapse onto the ground and pass out, with probably Vlaho’s dead palm on my forehead, to sponge away my sweat one last time: when I come to Andi is next to me, pale too, I say to him his hand his hand give him back his hand, as if it were still on me, Andrija looks at me without understanding, the hand isn’t there anymore, I hear the noise of gunfire straight ahead, we have to go there, all the rest of the day we fight thinking that Vlaho is dead, dazed and too caught up in the battle to think, Andi explains to me that the nurses covered Vlaho with a blanket his hand with a plastic bag and carried all of it to a first-aid post, might as well say to Hades, here Machaon lacks supplies and above all it is almost impossible to evacuate the wounded, I feel empty, empty weary and sad, no shouts of revenge, no cries, no tears for now, just the rifle that feels a little heavier than usual, Vlaho so loved to feel girls up with both hands, one on each buttock, I have the secret hope that they’ll be able to sew it back on, so cleanly cut off by the metal, that should be easy, a good cast a few stitches and we’ll see him tomorrow or the day after alive and bawdy as ever, Vlaho is just twenty years old, twenty he needs his life his two arms to drive badly at breakneck speed and trim his vines, fortunately our counter-attack comes to an abrupt end, the Serbs give us a good kick in the butt and we climb back up the hill with many losses and a lot of trouble to position ourselves in a destroyed village, our unit is lagging a little behind as soon as we’re settled in we send our guys to go find out about Vlaho, relieved we learn that he’s out of danger, a haughty medic tells us he’s been evacuated, so with a naïve childlike voice impressed by expertise Andi asks the question I had on my lips, and. . and his arm, did they put it back on? the doctor makes him repeat it before bursting out laughing, he replies