A New Beginning

What a strange feeling it is to leave all your worries and troubles behind, driving along a smooth road at almost 100 km/h! It seemed nothing changed, everything that had happened remained the same, remained, but still, behind. You could always imagine being somewhere completely different, in a different world, surrounded by completely different people. Ida Maliszewska observed the outside world with a calm expression, a slight sense of relief in her heart that she didn't have to tell anyone what she was thinking or explain anything. Her father, sitting next to her, rarely asked anything, and if he did, he could always be satisfied with a completely short and vague answer. She particularly liked the stretch of road where they passed through a completely uninhabited area, occupied only by large and imposing buildings, beckoning with their simplicity and order. This place is technically called the "Tyska Economic Zone" because of its location in that Silesian city. But it wasn't these factories that had a particularly soothing and melancholic effect on her, something that was rare for someone like Ida. In this very place, she loved observing the vast fields and forests, especially when the sun began to set, delightfully coloring these natural wonders. Today, the view was much more interesting, as tiny, fuzzy clouds joined the entire spectacle, creating a mystical network reminiscent of a delicate spider's web. The still-blue sky glowed behind these clouds, which, being dark in color, contrasted perfectly with the orange sun, as if burning its last breath. The girl's hazel-green eyes absorbed this image, simultaneously banishing all disturbing thoughts from her mind. And when something else suddenly struck her young, fourteen-year-old head, she immediately quelled it with the phrase: "Think, what are your worries compared to the existence of the world?" Just then, her beautiful view was obscured by a large billboard advertising toothpaste, featuring the large mug of some woman sticking out all her teeth as if to say, "You don't have any!" A moment later, the scattered apartment buildings completely ruined the pleasant atmosphere. She became a little nervous, as she now had absolutely nothing to do. She began shifting restlessly in her seat, which caught the attention of her father, who was occupying the driver's seat.

"What's wrong with you? Do you have pinworms or something?" he asked her in a pleasant and warm voice. But Ida wasn't thinking about pleasant conversations. Lately, she hadn't been in the mood for anything at all, which manifested itself in her constant dissatisfaction, which greatly worried her parents.

"The seatbelt is bothering me," she snapped sarcastically, hoping he wouldn't say anything more because she'd soon start arguing with him.

"What's wrong with you again? I thought you were over it; you've been acting strange lately. You're starting to resemble Eliza.

Ugh, here we go again! Eliza, her older sister, always had a reputation for being "naughty," which, in her parents' eyes, meant "not submitting to their will." Ida has always been the saintly, good, and hard-working daughter. Her parents don't understand a thing. Not that she needs to be important, nor that she's no longer a little girl who can be dictated to. Maybe it's time for a change...

Anyway, Ida Maliszewska sits here, in her Fiat, restrained by her seat belt. Nothing remains for her except her own thoughts.

Oh no, and she certainly doesn't like them.

"Okay, since they're bothering me, I have to know how to resist them," she thought determinedly. Maybe this is some way to get them to leave her alone? It's interesting how when you really want to stop thinking about something, your mind, as if out of spite, tries to do it with double the force. And what's most interesting, she subconsciously begins to want to do it. But she doesn't really know what's bothering her. There's no one specific thing that's making her depressed. All of her worries, each and every one of them, overwhelm her so much that she can't function normally.

"Why can't I be like the others?" she thought despairingly. By "OTHERS" she means her peers from class, from school. They all wander around the squares, playing volleyball, basketball, and similar games, unconcerned about the future, school, or their parents. And if there is an exception, he's either stupid enough to not be able to play these pointless games and is ashamed of it in front of his friends, or he's just like Ida, only ugly and impossible to talk to. Why am I talking about boys? Because this problem bothers the girl the most. She always dreamed of a boy who would understand her, be able to comfort her, be knowledgeable about many things, and with whom she could talk about everything. It's just a shame that, unfortunately, there are no perfect men.

"Being like everyone else forces you to conform to your surroundings, and it's like taking the easy way out. It's probably easier to do what 20 other people are doing than to do something completely different from everyone else." Ida's interests are certainly not the same as everyone else's, and what's more, they differ significantly. Her passion is shooting, and while it may seem strange, she's quite good at it. She'd love to compete in shooting competitions, but for now, it's impossible due to a lack of suitable (and expensive) equipment.

"If a person lived only for themselves and wanted to achieve everything on their own, life wouldn't be enough. Just think how many generations of people have created knowledge about the universe, mathematics, and medicine. What we learn every day was created many years before we were born. Many people didn't sleep at night to discover something that future generations would learn. The entire world, the entire history of its existence, is created by people, passing their knowledge from generation to generation. Just look at Socrates or Pythagoras, for example. How many years ago did they live, and we're still using what they discovered! We, as young people, often accept knowledge as a cruel necessity, even though we don't realize that it's the most certain thing we know in life. I recently read that the universe isn't as perfectly arranged as it seemed in ancient times, and that in a few million years, a catastrophe could occur that will destroy our planet and the entire solar system. Poor people, those few million years will be the ones who will suffer!" And how much they'll have to learn! History keeps bringing new events, and I doubt if anyone will remember the Polish partitions, the fight for independence, World Wars I and II. I wonder what the Earth will look like then. Will Tychy still be a city? The bottomless cauldron of thoughts gives Ida no peace, and certainly doesn't quell her inner turmoil. "Echeu me miserum!" (Woe to me, unfortunate one; Latin is one of the things Ida loves to learn). "And the worst thing is that I can't change anything about this situation."

They were just approaching the gas station when a gigantic line of cars appeared in front of them. It was clear that this situation had been going on for quite some time, as the drivers and passengers of the other cars, leaning against their vehicles, seemed a bit bored. Dad got out of the car.

"Wait here a moment, I'll ask the others what's going on," Dad said discontentedly.

- Okay - said the girl unconsciously, who, having been shaken from her thoughts, was only now beginning to realize the situation.

She rolled down the automatic car window and stuck her head out. "Oh my god!" she thought. Putting it back inside, she slapped herself so hard that at first she cursed out loud, though she usually didn't do that in public. The guy talking to Ida's dad blew a smoke ring and looked at her critically, as if thinking, "Stupid brat, she thinks she's someone when she swears." "At least I don't smoke cigarettes and I won't get lung cancer like you, you old goat," she thought in retaliation, looking at the guy with vindictive satisfaction. Strange, she was just now imagining that her classmate, Paweł Notecki, was somehow walking past, starting to talk to her, getting into the backseat of the car... "No, that's pointless," she thought immediately. Why imagine such things? Probably just to feel even more sorry for herself.

She opened the car door with a decisive movement.

"Dad, I'm going to go for a walk, maybe I'll find out what's going on!" she shouted, knowing the man talking to him was still staring at her.

"Okay, just don't go too far!"

There she was again. Does she look like the kind of person who would want to walk the next 50 kilometers to her grandmother (their destination), come back, and tell her the traffic jam stretches right up to her house?

She moved forward. Who could she ask? Ida didn't really want to ask anyone anything, but since she was already out of the car, it wouldn't do to stand there like a stick. She'd already spotted her target for that pointless question. A boy, about her age, stood next to the Skoda Oktavia. "What's the harm in asking..." "

Sorry, don't you know what happened back there and how much longer we'll be standing here like idiots?

" "I'll tell you if you count all my hairs.

" "Well, I guess he really is an idiot," she thought. Up close, he looked, one might say, very handsome. He had black, slightly curled hair, and one of those curly strands fell rakishly over his eye. But the girl wasn't so easily surprised.

"I can say you have, for example, 3 billion hairs, and you won't be able to say it's not true, because you'd have to count them yourself, which is impossible. So practically, whatever I say, I'll be right. But theoretically, you could insist and count those curls of hair and thus prove me wrong. This means that you can't definitively say whether I'm wrong or not, which means, just like in mathematics, that one vote for + and one for - cancel out, and eo ipso (therefore), your vote will remain neutral. And consequently, returning to the starting point, what you proposed is completely pointless. So, can you now answer my earlier question?"

She looked at him with a challenging gaze. Instead of an answer, she received a warm, wide smile.

"I was looking for you," he said mysteriously. He pulled an envelope from his pocket and gave it to the girl. "Read this in your car."

Ida hesitantly took the envelope from his hands, wondering whether to throw it away as soon as they reached the car.

"Um... so what about my question?"

"Unfortunately, I don't know the answer," he said, smiling disarmingly.

What Ida did with the envelope will remain a sweet mystery. But maybe it's worth believing that even in the most hopeless situations, there can be light at the end of the tunnel?