Atdtda34: Serbian bumblebees and simple needs, 965-967

[Paul Nightingale]

And then Reef/Yashmeen/Ljubica are finally located in the middle of the
action as 'this antiquated world of bolt-action weaponry' is introduced to
'the future of warfare'. What price Reef-as-scavenger here?

The previous pages have been leading up to this moment, and now the new
weaponry can be both seen and heard: '... the shells were visible, rising
and falling slowly', then 'descending with a harsh, buzzing shriek' (966).
Ljubica's response, 'screaming, not in fear but in anger', might be seen as
something of a parody. However, going back to 'the horizons of the
unimaginable', one might see this insert as an attempt, by way of analogy,
to render 'the unimaginable' somehow recognisable. This passage ends with
Reef/Yashmeen focused on the child: 'It was a minute before they understood
that the machine-gun fire had stopped.'

Reference here to 'the premises' (965) indicates that Reef/Yashmeen/Ljubica
are inside, sheltered, but there is no description of their location here,
in keeping with the writing generally since they separated from Cyprian on
962. Hence their proximity to warfare. Yashmeen puts 'the premises' into the
same statement as 'line and length' (965), a phrase she must explain to
Reef: this 'cricketing term' (966) is as much out of place ('I once played
briefly at Girton a million years ago') as the Webley Reef has given to her
(965; and see Cyprian giving Reef the pistol on 961, 'Reef pretend[ing] to
look it over'). Similarly, the 'chitchat' (966) they use to distance Ljubica
from the war is designed to distance them from the present: '... it kept
Reef and Yash occupied'. Cf the passage that closes the section, top of 967,
and 'a world about to embrace its end'.

When 'the machine-gun fire ha[s] stopped' (966) Reef leaves, 'off in the
direction the machine-gun fire had been coming from': as on 964, 'scavenging
weapons wherever he could', he separates from Yashmeen and Ljubica to follow
the war, returning here with 'a peculiar-looking rifle ...' etc (966),
something he has 'been hearing about ... for a while now'. Again, hearsay,
the popular account, as well as, possibly, an echo of another return, when
he gave her the Webley Cyprian had given him on 961. Here, on 965, there is
a reference to that moment ('he had said, when he gave it to her'); and, a
page later, Yashmeen's comments ('... and so it wouldn't surprise me if ...'
followed, down the page, by 'I'm happy for you, of course') draw our
attention to the repetitive nature of his 'scavenging' (964) as a return to
the moment when Cyprian gave him the Webley.

This paragraph then concludes with another echo ('He had also managed to
scavenge ...' etc) the earlier passage. One might also see his display of
expertise here as a continuation of the exchange at the top of the page when
he tries to correct Yashmeen following her 'cricketing term'. The 'patch of
wildflowers' transformed into 'small bouquet[s]' cannot hide their retreat,
following the departure from Cyprian, into interior worlds. The final
paragraph, top of 967, sees them 'wondering - though they could never find
the time to just sit and talk it through'.