At the exhibition of B. there was one painting in a cheap frame. In the painting B. had drawn a box, from which you could see the head of a man holding a pencil in his right hand.

The exhibition had many visitors. You might think that the whole country was there. Among the guests were governmental and non-governmental onlookers, MPs and ministers -- even the Prime Minister was there, inspired by advertisements in the newspapers, internet portals and billboards.

Everybody ran to see the painting of B. and, standing in front of the single painting, everybody gasped delightfully, turned towards each other, saying:

“Glorious!”

“Europe deserves to see something like this!”

“Authentic, original!”

“This is outstanding!”

“Unique!”

The man in the painting lifted his head up and threw the pencil at the startled audience. He broke the frame in which he was held, came out of the box, and walked out of the café.

He never returned to his country.

DRAGANA EVTIMOVA is a poet, fiction writer, translator and editor from Skopje, Macedonia. A former student of literature and cultural studies at St Cyril and Methodius University, her published works include “Through the concise footnotes of time” (PNV 2014) and  “See you soon. E.”, an epistolary novel (Antolog 2017). Her poems and short stories have been translated into more than 20 languages.