Somewhere in Scotland, and I was eight years old, I remember there were children running about, and we were near a lake. The late Princess Margaret, sister to the Queen of England, was one of the guests. Perhaps it was Easter.

My cousins were there along with one of my three sisters. None of us sisters have much in common, they’re ladylike while I was always a tomboy. My favorite cousin Dimitri and I are a few years apart in age but when we were together we were always looking to stir up fun. Some of us kids got into a small boat and rowed to the center of the lake.

When we were far from land Dimitri and I started to rock the rowboat as violently as we could so that water splashed in over the sides. Soon my sister was screaming, “I am too young to die”. This made us laugh and we rocked the boat all the harder. We forced her to beg for her life. When we tired with our game we rowed back to shore and released her. Because we were wet and my sister was crying grownups came over and told us we needed to change into dry clothes. For some reason Princess Margaret offered Dimitri her knee length brown leather coat. This was the late 60s, it was probably the height of chic. I remember her saying to him to please not ruin the coat.

Part of the entertainment was an ice cream cart and all you did was lineup and receive a cone with a ball of whatever flavor you wanted. Dimitri and I received our ice creams and then immediately hunted my sister, she saw us coming and started running. We chased hard and caught her. “Not my hair!,” she wailed, “I washed it today!” We pinned her down and spread our ice creams into her tresses.

A battle ensued and Princess Margaret’s brown leather coat got the worst of it. But Dimitri and I couldn’t stop laughing for the rest of the holiday in Scotland.

image by talented Serb

MOMČILO MOMA BJEKOVIĆ