Page 48 of The Storyteller of Krakow

‘You must be you,’ she said and let go of my hand. ‘You can fight like a man, yes? You save your brother once.’

‘I – I,’ I stammered.

‘Then you travel. And you hide. Like rabbit. You hide yourself. You hide Lena. You read, you learn. Yes very good. Now you must to be angry at those who hurt you. You must be Lena.’

‘How?’ I managed to say. ‘That girl was in the past. She was brave and loud, but this is different. How can I be her again?’

She looked me dead in the eye and I knew in that moment she could see everything about me: Janek, Zosia, how I had been in this strange state for years now.

‘You trying to survive. Now is time for fight.’

‘How?’ I asked again.

‘Bear showed you,’ she said.

‘Wait, what? Did you say bear?’

‘Yes. Bear. You see bear. You see strength. You see how he is made to be soldier. If bear can be, why not Lena?’

‘We can’t be soldiers,’ I said. ‘I’m a driver.’

‘No!’ She stood. ‘You are warrior. You must be warrior. You must do it. You must save your new friend.’

‘Which new friend?’ I asked.

She didn’t answer; instead, she went to a chest of drawers, opened the top drawer, and took something out.

‘Here.’ She placed in my palm a necklace, gold, with a small coin hanging from it. ‘Bear,’ she said.

I looked closely and saw that an imprint of a bear was on the coin, standing on its hind legs, its mouth open as if in mid-roar.

‘Take.’

‘I don’t want it.’ I handed it back to her.

‘Take. Gift. No money. You must to take it.’ She placed it in my hand once more, and just as Heba had done, closed my fingers around it.

‘You go now,’ she said.

I stood, not wanting to stay but not sure I was ready to leave either.

‘Soon it will come,’ she said. ‘Soon you will have answer. You will see how to be warrior. I make it happen for you.’

‘I’m not sure I understand,’ I said, still standing awkwardly with the gold necklace in my hand.

She sighed, seemingly annoyed with me, or tired, I couldn’t tell.

‘Soon, you will see. New job. New country. Answer will be there. It is waiting now.’

Then she took me by the shoulders and turned me around to face the door. It was time to go.

‘Lena,’ she said, just as I opened the door, ‘he loves you.’

‘Who?’ I turned my head, but saw that she was gone.

‘Noor? Who loves me?’ I asked the room.

But I was met with only silence and the thud of my own heart.