THE TIDES OF TIME

- Chapter 1 -

The light of the morning sun shining in his eyes bothered Jovan. More than he cared to admit. Regardless of what hour of the day it was, it was evidently too early to get up. But he had to. He had to face the reality and the world around him. And frankly, it sucked. 

Until recently, he was eager to wake up and face the day with all of its challenges. He thrived on them. He was ready to accomplish what each day would bring. He had a job to do and he was the best at it. The very best of the best and he took pride in that. Well-deserved and well-justified pride. Being a top ranked Navy Seal filled his heart with gratification and respect. Not only for his own accomplishments but most importantly for the uniform that he wore. The Navy Seals had made a man out of him. That mattered to a man like Jovan. 

Being raised by his paternal grandmother wasn't always easy. Although Jovan considered himself a well-raised man who followed his grandmother's guidance, he still rebelled from time to time. Not because he was a difficult child. On the contrary. After his parents died when he was seven, he realized that his Macedonian grandmother was the only family he had and he took this to heart. Yet there was something in his blood that made him feel that he was somehow grander than the moment of life he lived in. That there was always something more out there. And he always felt that he needed to try his best because... he could and should have always done more.

Maybe it was his imagination. Maybe it was the fact that he never took a single day of his life for granted after his parents lost their lives. Or maybe it was because of his grandmother's stories of the olden days and how valor and honor mattered to people. He always loved listening to his grandmother's stories as a young child. She would always speak to him in their old native Macedonian dialect as she would weave a web of tales of the days that had passed centuries ago. Kings, queens, knights, sultans, and regular folks striving to do their very best for the greater good. Day or night, whether on their way to his school, or as he lay in bed right before going to sleep. He would drift off to dreamland listening to the tales of the brave Jovan the Valiant. A man who came from nowhere and earned his nobility in helping to unite and lead the Rumelia Region of the Ottoman Empire.

And now... all of that lay in the past and he was still the same man. He still had a heart geared toward honesty. A mind geared toward ambition and finding purpose in his life. But over the last few days, he had become a crushed man. He was not proud to admit that he wanted to disappear. He wanted nothing more than to forget these last few days altogether. He wanted to see his grandmother and he needed to confide in her. He was not ashamed that he needed her loving and guiding heart to help get him through what he was going through now. The raw scar that ripped through him right down to his very core was too painful to deal with it on his own. Being part of the Navy Seals meant everything to him. Now he was portrayed as a traitor to the values of the uniform he wore. Worst of all, he had been labeled a coward. 

He flew to visit his grandmother in North Macedonia. The trip wasn't going to be easy nor would it be short. He wanted to leave what bothered him behind and start a new life. He was ready for it and strong enough to admit that. It took one look at Jovan from his grandmother to figure out what was going on. She could see that he was not searching for a new path in life but closing the door to his old one. This did not sit too well with his grandmother. 

Bojana was not a woman who accepted defeat nor did she ever tolerate giving up. She came from a long blood line of warriors who knew that standing up for one's beliefs and for righteousness mattered. She knew Jovan carried that same blood in his veins. Jovan drove them along the shores of Lake Prespa in North Macedonia back to her home in Stenje. They passed through the picturesque towns he remembered from photographs his grandmother often showed him as he was growing up. He had only come here once before, when he helped his grandmother move back from the United States. The GPS in the car led the way to her home but Jovan recognized the regions and scenery much sooner than the navigation map did. 

Although Bojana was polite to her grandson, she was anything but quiet. Not that he expected anything less of her. It was not a matter of her being nosy. It was due to the concern she felt for him from the moment she first saw him at the airport. Or perhaps it was the fact that she realized what life would soon have in store for him...