Bogey Woman

JELENA ŽIVANOVIĆ BOGEYWOMAN

9 788652 909377

JELENA ŽIVANOVIĆ

BOGEYWOMAN I l lus t r a te d b y B or is Ku zmanov ić

JELENA ŽIVANOVIĆ

BOGEYWOMAN Il lu s t r a t e d b y B o r i s Ku z m a n o v i ć

Have you ever drawn a bogeywoman?

I have.

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This is how it went: line by line, up and down, up and down, up and down, then a little diagonally, sideways, and after that straight on, then at a corner.

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And – voilà!

A real bogeywoman!

Mine is green.

Because it is my favourite colour.

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You wond e a bo geyw r if I have ever s e o Yes, I hav man because I ca en n e te ll you s , and now I’m goi draw her? ng ome thin g abou t her to .

But just a little, as the rest is our secret.

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Bogeywoman lives in my room.

In daytime she sleeps behind the old tall tile stove.

In winter it is nice and warm there, and in summer it is cool.

The perfect place!

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At times she falls asleep in another corner of the room, under Mum’s grand piano.

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When the darkness begins to descend and shadows start to play, rush and dance across the ceiling, the walls, the furniture, the floor, Bogeywoman stretches herself and opens her eyes.

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As all the household are still awake, she cautiously hides herself.

When she wants to move to another place in the room, she sneaks around, following the shadows.

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And she waits...

Impatiently she waits for the lights to go out, for all of us to fall asleep and for silence to prevail.

Only then does she slowly, really slowly peek behind the stove.

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But what does she do at night, when it’s dark and there’s no-one around?

All kinds of things!

Anything her heart desires.

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,

mps u j e h S

and so

mersa

ults,

d,

roun a , d n u o s ar and spin

until she feels dizzy.

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ts of h g i l d e hea by. r h a t e y n b ar kin g leavin g s cast p w o r d o a t walls the sh g the stree e s e h t s ins. a s a h s t n c o r o l r u e a c c h a g S drivin nd that dart atter n of ou r s r a c the he ki the p t h f t o i s w S hadow bright trail a be hind

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If the curtain is smooth, Bogeywoman simply slips down.

If it is striped, such as the one in Mum and Dad’s room, then she simply goes down as if on a slide.

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The curtain in my room is like a net.

Bogeywoman might even get entangled in it.

My Bogeywoman, however, is deft. That almost never happens to her.

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