◉ 064 | Mazalo

Last week,

I told the story

of how I bribed

the cops.

I wrote

the text first,

then browsed

my photo library.

I found

a photo

of the exact

place where

the cops

stopped me.

Nighttime.

Yellow light

from street lamps.

A church

in the background.

But it felt

like an illustration.

Then I found

a folder:

2011-04-18 Workshop Bachrach-Krištofić

Inside,

249 photos.

Fifteen years old.

Last opened

thirteen years ago.

Here he was.

Mazalo.

A legendary character

from the Croatian

TV series

Smogovci.

I didn’t know

why,

but he belonged

with the story.

I had seen him

many times

on TV

and only once

in real life.

He posed.

He performed.

He played

to the camera.

And none of it

felt false.

He was

himself.

An actor.

I wondered

how old

he had been

in the photos.

In his fifties,

I thought.

I googled him.

Born in 1958.

One year younger

than my mum.

He was 53

in the photos.

Two days later,

I opened

a Croatian

news portal:

Actor Damir Šaban has died.

He had suddenly

become unwell

on a street

in Zagreb.

He was 68.