Page 56 of The Storyteller of Krakow

‘Where did you get this?’ I asked.

He made a soft sound and reached for it again.

I stood, more to keep it away from his teeth than for any other reason. The jacket hung from my hands. Without thinking too much, I held it against myself.

It was too big in the shoulders. The sleeves would swallow my hands. Still, it wasn’t absurd. Just wrong enough to notice.

And then I thought of Noor.

Now I looked at the jacket and felt something tighten in my chest – was this it? Was this what she meant? I literally had to pretend to be a man to be a warrior?

Wojtek rose onto his hind legs without warning and reached through the crate and placed his paws on my shoulders. He was careful, in his way. Heavy, but careful.

I let out a breath. ‘You’re impossible.’

Up close, I could hear him breathing.

He didn’t care what I wore. He didn’t care what anyone called me. If I showed up with food or company or scratched the right place behind his ear, that was enough.

I lowered the jacket and folded it over my arm.

‘If I wore this,’ I said, ‘it wouldn’t make me any braver. It wouldn’t teach me how to shoot.’

He dropped back down.

‘Driving the truck,’ I went on, ‘that might be enough.’

He pawed at my knee.

‘I’ll be there,’ I said. ‘That’s what matters.’

The thought settled in me more quietly than I expected. I didn’t need to carry a rifle to be in it. I didn’t need a man’s jacket to prove I wasn’t afraid.

Wojtek tried again for the sleeve. I pulled it away.

‘This doesn’t belong to you,’ I told him. ‘Or to me.’

I placed it on top of a crate, out of reach.

He looked at it, then at me.

‘It’s absurd!’ I said.

He looked again at the jacket and back at me.

‘I mean, what am I meant to do? Just wander into a battlefield?’

Then, I remembered what Noor had said, too. That I had to be a warrior to save my friend. Which friend? Wojtek? Anka, perhaps?

Wojtek gave a hearty yawn.

‘Fine. I’ll take it. But I won’t use it,’ I told him. ‘Noor doesn’t know what she’s talking about. But, you know, just in case. I doubt I’ll need it.’ I laughed.

Wojtek lay down and curled up into a ball.

‘Fine. Yes. I’ll just keep it for now. At least it will be out of your reach.’

I patted him before I left, then went back to my bunk, wondering if Noor had been right, or if this was simply me wanting this to happen – was I simply fulfilling my own desires?