Mischiefs of Mutko Genius

By Bajruzin Hajro Planjac

"Rarely has any contemporary Bosnian writer for children lived that publicity and literary reputation in the last few decades, as is the case with Bajruzin Hajro Planjac.

Ljiljana Klaić, a writer (SRB)

Planjac managed to light up narration on the family hearth as it earlier was done with Ivana Brlić Mažuranić.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ukiyoto Publishing
• Release date: Oct 20, 2023
• ISBN: 9789361725838

Book preview

My Friend Mutko

I

had the pleasure of hanging out with Mujo Bajrektarević when I was fifteen years old. I met him when he was ten years old, on his first day when he came as a refugee from Makljenovci next to Doboj and moved into my place and enrolled in my school. He was one of the tallest boys in the fourth class. He had black curly hair and brown freckles on his face, which reminded us of the magpie eggs that we stole that summer from trees and hedges. His muscles and hands were so big and his fingers were like hot dogs and no one could mess with him, so not to feel the strength of his fists. He had as white teeth as blossom, nicely cleaned, and a small dimple on his cheek when he smiled. That smile attracted everyone around him, especially girls. On the PE when we competed in running, throwing a stone from the shoulder, he was the biggest and the strongest. From the first day the two of us became great friends or better to say, pals.

Whenever  I had a problem and was stuck in a fight with some other guys, he would save me and solve it with the strength of his fists.  Even Hamza, the angry boy from the seventh class, when he got in a fight with me, felt Mutkos fists and he avoided me very often. My friend was not afraid of anyone in the school. My friend was not afraid of anyone at school, and because of that, I was not afraid, too. I knew how to refuse other boys from me when Mutko was not around.

The teacher Safet gave him the name Mutko when he was in the first week of school because he did not know anything. He got a bad mark instantly. After a few days, he wanted to give another impression so the teacher was astonished. Mutko knew everything. Everything the teacher asked him he said on the first.:

-Well, you are a genius!- the teacher said and gave him an excellent mark,

Since that moment we all called him Mutko Genius and he wasn’t angry because of that.

When I asked him where he learned all of that he showed me a big atlas that his father got on a gift in his company.

He gave it to me later so I got an excellent mark in geography, too. But the teacher never gave me the title of genius. It was only reserved for him.

I remember how he blushed in the seventh grade when he fell in love with Živana Miljić and how he was confused.

That time he almost lost that genius title because he didn’t learn and the boys called him just Mutko. His school loves were a special story because when he fell in love he didn’t eat or learn. He just imagined and dreamed so he got all bad marks, and when he woke up he was like a genius. He got an excellent mark to repair all that he messed up in the teacher's notebook.

Later he fell in love with our neighbor Mara, whose husband worked in a distanced Germany and who came just twice a year to his home. He fell in love with Aida. That was a girl from Tuzla who came in the summer to her grandmother in our village and he then felt for the first time a passion for women's kisses and the magic of women's bodies.

In our class, we had one student and his name was Mujo, we welcomed him as Mujo from Doboj and he didn’t get angry. He even called himself like that. When we didn’t know who we were talking about we added that Mujo was from Doboj or however: not from Doboj.

Mutko ’S Pets

M

utko Genius was a good man. He wanted to help everyone. It was true that he sometimes knew how to threaten with his large fist and to those who would harm his friends and especially me.

I was tall to his shoulder and I usually entered in the different fights and fist battles. I always got a painful end but Mutko always saved me. Once I teased Šefik a boy from eighth class and I can not tell you why I did it because he was as twice tall as I was. Šefik was a calm boy,  he didn’t want to get in a fight, but when he got tired of me he kicked me on the ground and started to hit me. At that moment Mutko came in and started to kick Šefik with his fists and legs. He had never touched me again, no matter if I teased him or not. I could do to him whatever I wanted and he was afraid to touch me again. Everything is because of Mutko. 

They told me earlier that Mutko loved to take off nests from the trees and to take eggs so that he could break them. He sometimes even took small birds from the nest destroyed the nest and put a stone in it. Mutko had a strange relationship with other animals too, He knew how to kill a snake with a stone and put her body on the fence. He even knew how to catch a crow that stole his eggs from the hen house and he hung her tied on the tree in front of his house and she died like that- the poor one.

Suddenly Mutko became a real animal lover. He suddenly stepped into a cold river to save one small kitty. He took him home and took care of it in his room, in the paper box. Not long after that, one host took a sack full of small puppies in the river. Mutko saw that and jumped in there to save them. Unfortunately, he saved only one small black puppy with white dots on his nose and legs so it looked like the dog had socks or some paint on himself. He took the puppy home, gave him milk, and a warm blanket, and put him near the kitty in the paper box. The bad man who threw the puppies away followed for some time to see if he would do something like this again. He swore to God if he did something like this again that he would kill him.

Days were passing by and Mutko rarely came into the playground, river of fields where we took care of our flock. Whenever I asked his sister Sena where was Mutko, she told me that he was at home. 

At home he had two small sweet pets, I can imagine how large were there at that moment. He had in that big paper box, a kitty Keri, and her friend Šarov.

Sena was not there most of the time. Mutko Genius was occupied with his pets and I visited him every day to see what were they doing, I even played with his pets, too. So Keri and Šarov were growing up quickly, surrounded by the attention of Mutko Genius and mine, too.

Days were passing by like a cloud over our shelter where he hid his animals, but they were prettier and bigger every day.

-      Will you Damir, help me to put Keri and Šarov in their home in the yard?- Mutko asked me in the spring.

-      With pleasure- I said with excitement.

-      Are you coming with me after our classes?- he said.

-      Deal.- I confirmed.

-      Can I go, too? – Saldo Parasite asked with a begging voice.

-       No, not now. The other time you and Džemo Boxer will go with us. – Mutko told him.

-      Oh how much I yearned to that meeting with Keri and Šarov and how happy I was that finally, they would get their shelter and live in a yard and not in the room. After the classes, I rushed to the home of Mutko Genius.

-      Well, don’t you have two houses for them both, and not to live in one house like a cat and a dog?- I asked in astonishment.

-      Keri