Page 21 of The Storyteller of Krakow

‘When’s he back?’ she asked.

I shrugged. I secretly hoped he wouldn’t be back. These past few weeks without him, and just me and Zosia, had been nice, calm even.

‘Still. I’d like to meet him,’ she said.

Of course, it was only a few days later that he returned and immediately lumbered over to see who I was talking to.

‘Zosia,’ I said, ‘this is Janek.’

He stopped a few paces away, his eyes scanning us. When he settled on me, he gave an odd smirk. ‘Lena,’ he said, ‘seems you’ve made a friend.’

‘This is Zosia. I’ve been telling her all about you,’ I said.

‘Have you now?’

He eyed Zosia up and down.

‘Lena’s been great,’ Zosia said. ‘She tells me these stories of hers. Ones she makes up, and it makes me think of other things and not of the past, you know? She’s really great, isn’t she?’

‘She is,’ Janek said.

‘She says you’ve helped her a lot,’ Zosia tried.

‘I do my best. She was a frail little thing, you know, when I found her. Looks like she’s getting a bit better now, though.’

‘And I’m sure that’s down to you, Janek.’ Zosia smiled sweetly.

It worked.

‘Well,’ he said, his body slackening a little from his statue stance. ‘You know, I do like to take care of my friends. Especially women. They need extra help sometimes. That’s what these brutes here don’t understand.’ He gave a quick glance behind him at the men who ambled about. ‘So I suppose a friend of Lena’s is a friend of mine,’ he added, then took a step forward, took Zosia’s hand and gave it a quick, light kiss.

Zosia giggled.

‘Now, I’ll leave you ladies to talk, and I’ll be back soon with a few extra rations, how’s that?’ He winked.

‘Sounds lovely,’ Zosia said.

As soon as he was gone, I apologised for him.

‘He just gets a bit odd, a bit jealous or something,’ I said, then tried to explain how he had been since I met him.

‘He’s just trying his best,’ Zosia said, and sat under what was now our tree. ‘He seems nice.’

I shrugged. I wasn’t sure what Janek was. Nice, helpful, annoying, jealous, irritable, childish?

‘He’s nice,’ Zosia said again.

* * *

A few weeks later, the cold had settled in, an unyielding frost that wrapped around us. We finished the few morning duties we had, fetching water, collecting rations, and decided to go back to the barn, to my bunk where we could talk through the rest of the day.

‘It’s almost unbearable today,’ Zosia said, pulling her coat tightly around her.

‘Cold enough to freeze your thoughts,’ I said.

She laughed softly, her breath visible in the air. ‘Tell me a story.’

‘A story?’