Page 39 of The Storyteller of Krakow

The soldier laughed. ‘He eats everything. Even things a bear probably shouldn’t have.’

‘Here you go.’ I handed him the sweet treat and it disappeared into his mouth.

He then rolled over, and got on all fours paws as if he were going to walk away, but then he turned to look at me.

‘He wants you to go with him,’ the soldier said.

‘Where?’

He shrugged. ‘Who knows. He just wants to stroll. Go with him, would you? I’m meant to be minding him for his keeper, Piotr, but at the same time, I’m meant to be unloading all this. I’ll come find you when I’m done.’

I was more than happy to follow him, and together, we walked around the dusty, tent-filled camp, my hand on his back as we walked.

‘Do you like it here?’ I asked Wojtek.

Now, I knew he couldn’t respond – I knew that – but at the same time, I was so desperate for some connection, seeing as though Zosia was MIA, that I made up answers in my head for him.

‘I know, it can’t be that fun. I don’t know what bears like, come to think of it. Perhaps a forest, I expect you like trees, yes?’

Wojtek gave me a look, and I decided that that was a yes.

‘I miss home, you know. I miss the rivers and the green. Everything here is so brown and yellow. Some say that if I drive further out, or closer into the Delta, near the river, I’d see some green, but no one has given me orders to go there yet. Perhaps you and I could go?’

Wojtek grunted.

‘Some of the other women, I hear them talking when I’m trying to sleep. They say they went to the markets in Cairo. They say they saw the pyramids, and then they went to see this mystic woman that everyone talked about. She can see your true desires. They say that she could tell your future, too. Do you believe that?’

Wojtek stopped under a fig tree and sat under its thin branches, stirring up the sand and creating a cloud of dust as his rump hit the ground.

I coughed then sat beside him. He placed his heavy head on my shoulder. I wasn’t a bit scared and enjoyed the feel of his weight leaning on me. He smelled musty, almost like my grandmother’s dog when it got wet, and something else, something earthy that I could not pinpoint.

‘It’s nice that they adopted you,’ I said. ‘I heard your story, how you were given to the men by a small boy who said your mother had been killed. My mother was killed, too. I know it couldn’t have been easy for you, coming here, being with humans. I’m human, and even I find it difficult.’

Wojtek yawned, and his head got a little heavier.

‘Lena!’

Suddenly, Wojtek raised his head and gave a deep rumble, not quite a growl, but I knew he was not happy.

‘Lena!’ It was Janek. He came loping towards us, his face all screwed up.

‘Are you mad?’ he asked, standing in front of me, his hands on his hips. ‘I mean, patting that thing and fussing it like it’s a lap dog is one thing, but then here you are, a woman, with his head on your shoulder. He could kill you, for God’s sake.’

‘He hasn’t killed any of you.’

‘That’s because we are men,’ he said authoritatively. ‘He knows we would shoot him if he stepped out of line. Stand up, Lena, get away from him.’

I did not move.

‘Lena, I’m warning you,’ he said.

Then, he grabbed my arm and tried to hoist me up.

Suddenly, Wojtek let out a growl, then bared his teeth.

‘I told you!’ Janek said, dragging me to my feet.

In that moment, the soldier I had talked with earlier appeared.