The Fighter

Christopher M. Rance

Sixty-two years old, tall, wiry with broad shoulders, Abu Zimar could easily be mistaken for one of the many beech trees that sprawl across the Balkan Mountains. The trees there often grow into the shapes of men, as unbending and stalwart as its human inhabitants. He is our family’s fighter. The father of my mother, Abu is the man who has the honor and responsibility of killing the lamb for us when we celebrate…