Today is April 14th, 2026.
The day my friend Jana Kunovska was born, and also the day the Titanic sank, night from 14th to 15th.
Jana once told me that she has dreamed almost the same dream many times in her life – dreams full of water, liquid dreams. Then I told her that maybe she was one of the people who sank with the Titanic in her past life, and that now, in this incarnation, her soul remembers that event through dreams.
Whatever the case may be, I am happy that Jana was born and that we love each other in this life. I love Jana because she is real.
This morning I sent her B-day WhatsApp message and Jana texted me back :
“ Дојди одма. / Come over immediately.”
I picked white daisies and small violets in front of my building, and I wrote her radical empathy on a piece of translucent paper: JANA, NE BRINI… and headed to Meksička Street 6 in the Taftalidze neighborhood.
That street in Skopje is known as an artistic street because many artists live there. Jana is a painter, just like her father Spase Kunovski.
When I arrived at Jana’s place, there was Jameson, Johnnie Walker, and another whiskey whose name I forgot, but I know Jana likes it because she says it doesn’t give her a hangover the next day.
Then I went inside to see Jana’s mother, Nada, who is like the Virgin Mary – gentle and serene. Next to her were two white cats, a mother and her daughter.
Nada and I hugged, with tears in our eyes, and she pointed at the cats and said,
“Look at my treasure…”… then Nada massaged me with her hands, which carry a kind of bioenergy, and then said,
“Go now, God bless you…’’
One by one, Jana’s friends started arriving.
In the meantime, I had to go home for 30 minutes for a Zoom meeting, and when I came back, everyone was already gathered around the table: Kikić, Endži, Djovani, Andrijana, Verče, Litka, Iskra, Duko, Natalija, Sonja, Danče… later on Amazonki, Saška, Anče, Jon, Masin showed up…
Jana was very happy when Danče gave her the leather backpack as a b-day present.
We all love Jana, because Jana is real.
We were sitting on the terrace, but it got cold, so some of us moved inside to her studio. There were Duko, Endži, Kikić, and Djovani.
Endzi noticed that Duko was wearing sneakers for the first time in his life – no one had ever seen him in sneakers before, and he is 57 years old. Because of that, Endzi suddenly said out loud:
“ Луѓе, ние стварно ли постоиме? / Guys, do we even really exist?”
No one answered. We changed the topic and started debating whether Trump was in the hospital or not. Then Kikić said:
“ Кај има болница за него и тие такви новостечени лудаци ” / There are no hospitals for such newly-developed madmen…”
I love Kikić and his humor. He always brings me tears of joy.
Then everyone came inside atelier because it got cold outside. Litka arrived – Jana’s friend who loves techno music -and took control of the playlist. Until then, we were listening to Radio 202. Then Litka played techno, and Djovani said:
“ Не можам да служам техно, невлечен сум на Славе Димитров / I can’t listen to techno, I’m addicted to Slave Dimitrov…”
But it was useless – Litka kept her playlist.
this is Litka, she loves everybody.
Everyone started dancing, and meanwhile I was knitting embroidery, weaving stories from what I hear.
Slowly the crowd thinned out… only a few of us remained. We were listening to Beatles, Vlada Divljan, Grace Jones, and Laurie Anderson.
On the table were empty bottles of Jameson, Johnnie Walker, and that third whiskey whose name I still can’t remember.
Then Djovani drank a glass of water and said:
“ Ох што убаво, вода… па јас всушност пијам виски, за да пијам вода / Ah, water… so nice. I actually drink whiskey just so I can drink water.”
