When they returned Dragić said he wanted a counsel. Judge Banda made rebukes, demanded apologies for the record and then turned to Dragić and told him briskly that a new counsel would be found for him.

Court was adjourned for three weeks.

—

I walked the long way home, breathing in salt air. I phoned Jacques Payac from my balcony overlooking the sea. I said, The trial is delayed. I’m going to Sarajevo to see Edina for a few days, then I’m coming home. Can you give me a few weeks’ work?

Jet-setter, said Jacques. Young man, what is this trial about?

About the women.

More detail.

About violence.

What else?

I am not going to call you anymore if you do this.

Yes, you will. What else? What are you going to write about a defendant who says he was only following orders, or about a defence lawyer who can’t control his own client? They will say the generals knew nothing. Tyrannical regimes are captive to their own lies. But the law too can be a tyrant.

I will resist those lies, I said. I will dispute the tyrannical habit of pretending not to pretend.

How?

By telling the truth. I want Edina’s story engraved in the air we breathe.

All right, young man. Come home. I need a lively feature on how to pack for carry-on. Fais de beaux rêves. By the way, I got you a free air pass for a year. Ciao. See you soon.

—

I found Edina and Kosmos in the lobby at the Sartr Theatre on Gabelina Street. Kosmos said, Come, see where we watch the trial.

On the stage were two old chintz-covered armchairs once used as props. In front of them was a small television on a chest of drawers. Kosmos had told all the actors that he and Edina would use the stage during the days until the trial was over.

The actors argued, What about our play?

He laughed at them and said, Eat shit. You can have the theatre at night.

Eat it yourself, they said to him, but they left.

We sat on the stage and had coffee together and Kosmos said, I do not want to watch alone in an office. Here at least are hairy-balls actors complaining in the halls.

Edina said, I like my office.

I will stay with you, said Kosmos. After the trials I will write my play. Right now I am too fucking sad.

Edina handed me a cake.

I felt how close they were. I also felt the strangeness of their war being retold in a faraway court. In a foreign language. Under a foreign system.

I told Edina this and she nodded but Kosmos said, I like that shit-on-your-sunshine court.

We both had to laugh.

She said, They’d never do it here.

—

Everywhere in Sarajevo, people were half watching the trials, adjusting screens and volume, complaining, gossiping, lawyers take more breaks than our politicians, why no America?

People went for walks, to the park to watch men playing chess on the big chessboard with pieces each a metre tall. They called out jokes and mocked each other. One player took three pieces in a row and said, Now I have enough wood to keep me warm all winter.