The Cuckoo's Song Quotes

“I sullenly walked to the park. I was seven; old enough to understand why I was sent away.
When I returned, Mum and Muamer were not in the living room where I’d left them. I ran through the hallway in panic. Hearing them talk from a closed bedroom door I pushed it open. Muamer was standing beside the bed in a dark blue silk robe that shimmered over his potbelly. The short robe barely grazed his thighs; his hairy legs stuck out of the bottom of the robe. He looked embarrassed when I walked in. Mum didn’t move from where she lay. Muamer picked something up from the bed and headed for the door.” Woman on Fire”
― Amra Pajalic, The Cuckoo's Song

“The students carried the boy spread-eagled and slammed his genitals against a pole. He dropped on the concrete like a sack of potatoes, holding his crotch, squirming in pain. Sounds that I didn’t think a human could produce came out of his throat.
‘Bastard just got knackered.’ Kayla laughed, noticing my horror. ‘Every school tour starts like this.’” School of Hardknocks”
― Amra Pajalic, The Cuckoo's Song

“She tucked the sheet around Shirley and fluffed her pillow. Shirley stared blankly at her. The nurse’s composure broke for a moment. Shirley’s stare had a habit of doing that to people, at least until you got used to it. Most Alzheimer patients looked blank. As if the lights were switched off in their brain, but not Shirley. She looked like there was a part of herself fighting to come back. Her eyes were full of terror. Like there was something horrific only she could see and she was screaming for help, but she couldn’t get any part of her body to cooperate.” Friends Forever”
― Amra Pajalic, The Cuckoo's Song

“I undid the buttons of my school uniform and the doctor saw what only a few people have seen. There in full view was the memento of my defective heart and the operation to correct it when I was two years old. The long raggedy scar dissected my chest in two as if I was struck by a knight’s sword. It stretched from my collarbone to belly button, but as I grew it shrunk a bit until it reached the end of my ribcage. When we were little I let my younger brother touch the jagged line once and he said it felt like squashed blue tack under his fingers. That was the result of the scar tissue thickening and thinning at different parts like a river on a map.” The Heart of the Matter”
― Amra Pajalic, The Cuckoo's Song

“For a moment I held the box, holding onto the feeling of anticipation as I tried to imagine what was inside. I didn’t expect much from Marie, who was my ‘back up’ friend. Our parents were best friends and we were forced into proximity at least once a month. I looked at the long box, my hands sliding on the lush wrapping paper. It was gold and almost felt like fabric under my searching hands. There was a big ribbon, carefully tied.” Teddy”
― Amra Pajalic, The Cuckoo's Song

“If you want to talk, I’m here to help.'
I barely restrained myself from rolling my eyes. Instead I slouched deeper into my chair and breathed out heavily, making my fringe lift and flop back onto my forehead. It was one lousy sentence that had condemned me to this. One lousy not-thought-out sentence.” Suicide Watch”
― Amra Pajalic, The Cuckoo's Song

“Even though things were changing in post-World War II Yugoslavia, nothing much had changed in our little backward village. While women in the city had jobs and some freedom, here our brothers could come and go as they pleased, but we girls always missed out. To guarantee our chastity and keep our reputations safe Babo kept us close to home and our brothers never wanted to chaperone us, but now, thanks to Senada’s quick thinking, we were finally going to have a night out.” The Choice”
― Amra Pajalic, The Cuckoo's Song

“When I arrived home, I knocked on the door, as I wanted the option of a quick get-away if Mum got agro. I had never before feared my mother, but I had become infected with fear after living in a Communist regime where people who were different from the so-called ‘norm’ were viewed as dangerous and often locked in institutions. While we lived in Bosnia Mum, too, was incarcerated in hospital whenever she demonstrated the tiniest indication of her illness.” Nervous Breakdowns”
― Amra Pajalic, The Cuckoo's Song

“Mama clutched the wall, her face white with terror. 'Stupid girl!' She shook me by my shoulders. 'You can’t run out like that! Snipers will get you.' Like a long thin finger, my hometown of Srebrenica stretched in the valley between steep hills, clustered along the main road leading in and out of town. The green canopy of the birch tree forest looked like green fairy floss dotted with the burgundy terracotta tile roofs of white rendered houses. The nearby hills were a perfect vantage point for snipers. In the time it took them to shoot once, miss, and correct their target, an innocent bystander would have time to take just one step.” Fragments”
― Amra Pajalic, The Cuckoo's Song

“As they walked back to Dr Russell’s office she remembered the day it all began. She was in the kitchen on the farm, washing the dishes when she heard voices coming from the living room. She dried her hands with a tea towel and went to turn off the television. When she entered the living room she stopped abruptly. The television was off, but she could still hear voices coming from it.” In Treatment”
― Amra Pajalic, The Cuckoo's Song

“When people ask me if I have any siblings I say, 'One, an older brother,' but that’s not the truth. I have a sister, or at least I had a sister one summer years ago.
The one thing I remember most about that summer is my sister’s 'f**k me eyes.' Not that I knew what that meant, or that I would have thought of that as a description of my sister, but her 'f**k me eyes' were the reason that she lived with us, and the reason that she left.” Flirty Eyes”
― Amra Pajalic, The Cuckoo's Song