Chapter 16

After Alex left the room, I started to think about everything he had told me. However, there was only one sentence stuck in my head, which I did not fully understand. It was the opening piece about German soldiers who beat, torture and murder. I couldn't figure out if it only related to his punishment of whipping and beating, or whether it had a second meaning that I could only understand. I saw with my own eyes who the German soldiers are and what they can do. However, in a month and a few days Alex managed to change my view of them, but not completely. I still preferred to stay away from them, so I hardly left the tenement house. The street was swarming with greenish uniforms and snow creaking under the weight of black military boots.

After I finished dusting the whole apartment, and it was around twelve or one in the afternoon, I decided to start preparing lunch downstairs. Before I left his apartment, I invited him downstairs to accompany me while I was cooking, or possibly to talk. I must admit that he reluctantly agreed to it. As we were going down the stairs, I noticed that he had already rolled off the sleeves of his snow-white shirt and hid his scars from the unauthorized eyesight of the rest of the tenement house.

We entered the kitchen in Grandma's apartment, and there we found Mateusz and that Monika, who just jumped away from each other as if they were caught at something forbiden.

"This is not what you think ." Mateusz said quickly.

"Oh God !"  Monika moved all the way to the other end of the kitchen when she noticed who was standing behind me. She was wearing a gray and green ground-length gown and a brown bolero with long sleeves.

"Don't be afraid. He is our friend. He won't do anything to you. '' The boy calmed her down, and Alex just looked at me in pain and went to the living room. I followed him because I did not want to join Mateusz's explanations. We sat on the couch together, what I realized after a few moments. There was silence between us, broken by nervous whispers from the kitchen.

In the end, I couldn't stand it because I felt that the atmosphere in the living room was thickening.

"I won't tell them about your... price. Don't worry. '' I calmed Alex down with a quiet voice, not even looking at him.

"Thanks." I couldn't see his expression, but I could have sworn to my soul that right now they would smile gently with that smile of theirs that I personally liked. However, after a while, I couldn't help looking at him. And I saw that longed-for smile. I felt satisfaction and my heart skipped a different way. What the ...?, I thought, but I didn't finish this thought, because Monika entered the living room accompanied by Mateusz.

"I wanted to apologize very much for my reaction ." She stammered out in Polish, and Mateusz translated her words into English, then Alex became lively and they started a short conversation.

I took the moment to go back to the kitchen to finally cook today's dinner.

I was only wondering where Grandma had gone to?