different shopping

I am waiting to pay and leave the shopping kingdom. Under the plastic sky in a hypnotized crowd I have flashback of the very opposite experience in Sabac, small town in western Serbia. Sunfall on a large field near Sava river and endless row of people, tents, sidecars and stands. I am in the mass that is gently slipping through the hectic open air mall. My steps are synchronized with the rhytm of the pink flushed pork rotating on electrical skewer. Jim Morisson is staring from T-shirt on a corpulent vendor that is selling red horns. His long black curly hair is framed with diabolic annex. I decide to buy one because there is a saying that not buying anything here brings bad luck. Jerseys, flags, magic rags, birds in a cage or iron model from eighties. Three pair of socks only hudred dinar, let jelousy kill my enemies is written in black letters on a cardboard on a top of the socks pyramide. Witty curse opposite to the enterance in the House of fear. And the fearless one is an old guy with moustache riding a motorcycle inside the wall of death. My senses are ovestimulated with all the smells, sounds and colors and I almost step on a little gipsy boy playing harmonica on the middle of dusty narrow road. – Oh my little sister you are so pretty. He is smiling. Give me 100 dinars. I give the money just a little later to my personal singer. High heels and glittering dress on a middle aged woman with rare teeths and fingers. She is dancing on our table while crumpled bills are held in her left hand and wrapped with three fingers. The rest ones are cut. Pink lipstick is smeared all over her lips. She is wailing eclectic mix of bizzare lyrics and turbo folk music that euthanized all the inhibitions from the audience. I am part of the ecstatic bunch of youngsters dancing around the table and screaming the song. Rakija, home made brandy is burning our stomach. Cheap bottle of imported booze is scanned by stone face cashier. With automatized courtesy she is asking do I need a bag. I am almost sure she would react the same If there was a big robbery now. -No thanks. I´ll drink it immediately. She smiles. And the exchange becomes less robotised.