Page 71 of The Storyteller of Krakow

He nodded. ‘Say. If you come again, maybe you might want to play chess?’

He looked so hopeful, so like Piotr, I agreed that I would.

‘Cool. I’ll see you!’ He started to walk away.

‘What’s your name?’ I asked.

‘Piotr,’ he said, without turning round. Then, he was gone.

I waited a moment before knocking on Kasia’s door. I mean, Piotr was a common enough name. It really was. But I felt like this was a sign, another one from my dead brother who kept reappearing in life. It was just too much of a coincidence – him missing his grandmother, who he thought had sent me, and me missing my brother, and here was a youth, with his name and mannerisms.

‘Stop it, Lena.’ I shook my head at my foolishness.

‘Lena, who are you talking to?’ Kasia was at the door. ‘I was just about to come down and get you.’

‘I got here early,’ I said, following her inside, delighting in the smell of a chicken roasting in the oven.

The apartment was much tidier since a few nights ago, but it still held that homely look – a book open on the table, half a cup of coffee on a coaster, Hana’s toys scattered about.

‘Sit, sit.’ Kasia pointed at the couch. ‘I’ll get Hana.’

Hana was all smiles when she saw me, and it seemed, in just one night, she had become a chatterbox.

‘I got a book from the library about Wojtek,’ she told me, handing me a children’s book, a cartoon bear on the cover. ‘I’ve learned more about him. Lots more. It says he went to Italy. I knew that. But it says he ate with the soldiers and ate human food. Is that right, Lena, did he?’

‘He did. He ate whatever you would give him,’ I said, omitting the part that he would also take whatever you gave him to drink – including beer and vodka.

‘I’m going to tell Dina tomorrow at school.’

‘Dina?’ I enquired, and looked to Kasia, who stood over boiling pots in the kitchen, her hair escaping from its ponytail in the heat.

Kasia came in, wiping her hands on a blue chequered tea towel. ‘She met Dina yesterday,’ she said with a smile.

‘Dina is new at school. And at playtime, some of the others were playing this game, and it was really loud. Dina doesn’t like loud sounds. She has to wear these headphones sometimes. She was all crouching down in the corner of the playground, so I thought of that story you told me, about Wojtek and the scared soldier, and went over and told her I don’t like loud sounds either. So I sat with her, and we talked, and she said she didn’t hear the sounds as much when we talked. So we went inside, and we went in the classroom. And I told her about Wojtek. And she says that she likes bears too. She likes all animals, and she said⁠—’

‘All right.’ Kasia held her hand up and laughed. ‘I think Lena understands.’

‘We’re friends,’ Hana said proudly. ‘She’s coming round on Friday for a sleepover. And then on Saturday, we are going to the zoo.’

‘Indeed, we are,’ Kasia said. ‘Now, shall we eat?’

We sat at her small kitchen table that she filled with a juicy roast chicken, mushroom sauce, vegetables and boiled potatoes with dill.

My stomach rumbled, and I realised I hadn’t eaten today. Had I even eaten yesterday?

‘Are you all right?’ Kasia asked, a fork hovering halfway to her mouth.

‘I’m just a little tired,’ I said.

‘You should have said so,’ Kasia said. ‘You didn’t need to come. I just wanted to do this as a thank you for the other night, and for Hana.’

‘Hana?’

‘You made her make friends,’ she whispered, her hand over the side of her mouth so Hana couldn’t see. Not that Hana was interested; as she ate, she would stop to draw pictures of two girls walking through a zoo, misshapen animals all around them.

‘I didn’t do that,’ I said.

‘You did,’ Kasia said. ‘Honestly, Lena, you have done something for both of us in such a short amount of time. I feel like someone has sent you to us! A guardian angel!’ She laughed.