2

Gordon Haskell and the smell of pancakes with jam filled the kitchen. It was a small, elongated room with a huge window adorned with yellow curtains.

The walls were golden, the cabinets the color of coffee with milk, and he...

admired.

"You have a beautiful kitchen," he said with a delight he couldn't and didn't want to hide.

The woman smiled broadly.

"My name is Helena, maybe we can call each other first names? We're neighbors after all..." Her teaspoon hung in the air, halfway to the sugar bowl. "Did I say something wrong? Of course, if you don't mind?"

"No, of course..." He tried to smile again, but instead his face contorted into something that could be called a grimace of pain. "Call me Dawid."

"So, Dawid, where did you live before?"

David frowned unconsciously, his eyes fixed on the last pancake. Helena looked at him more intently, waiting for an answer, but he buried his lips in his mug of tea.

"Sorry, I don't mean to pry..." she explained hastily. "I just asked..."

"It doesn't matter... It's just that I don't know if I want to talk about it..."

"I understand." Her face was filled with calm.

"I doubt it..." he said dryly, but kind, brown eyes made him add in a slightly softer tone. "I don't know if I even want to talk about it..."

Helena nodded thoughtfully, but he read nothing in her eyes but understanding. And yet she couldn't understand anything, and yet... She understood. Why?

"Mommy!" came a cry from the room. "Mommy! David's run away under the sofa again!"

Helena laughed. She had a beautiful smile, and he was surprised that he'd only just noticed it now.

She wasn't a very pretty woman, but her smile was like the touch of the sun, and her eyes were like stars burning in the night sky... Those eyes...

He felt like he was suffocating.

"Maybe we should look for him, or he'll chew the wallpaper again." She laughed even more cheerfully and headed for the living room, tossing him over her shoulder, "So, Dawid? Do you want to be a catcher?"

He rose briskly from the chair and plunged into the orange light of the hallway with her. The prospect of his newly entrusted position seemed rather amusing to him.

The living room was quite large and very cozy. In the corner of the yellow room stood a cream-colored sofa, and next to it was its twin, an armchair. There was also a large bookcase with books and a television, a small table, and a few chairs.

"Don't just stand there, Dawid... You're a catcher!" Helena shouted, somewhere into the crack between the floor and the sofa.

Dawid knelt at the other end of the sofa and peered under it.

"It's there. I can see his head."

"Head!" Hania corrected him, settling comfortably in the armchair. "Hamsters don't have heads."

"Don't bother me, honey... Try to get him out, and I'll make sure he doesn't run off under the shelf," Helena's voice held the determination and experience of an old hamster tamer.

Dawid reached deep into his hand and pulled out the hamster.

"It's just a doll's shoe," he stated with disappointment, staring at the strange shoe with pompoms.

"It's Cinderella's!" Hania exclaimed, adding in a voice full of enthusiasm, "Put it back in there!" Cinderella lost that shoe under the sofa on her way home from the ball.

"I always thought he lost them on the stairs," he muttered under his breath, stuffing the shoe under the sofa again.

Helena giggled.

"I have it."

Helena straightened. She held the hamster in a gentle embrace.

Dawid rose from his knees and looked sideways at the animal, whose eyes were filled with terror. The hamster twitched its whiskers nervously, squeaking softly.

"Hania, remember not to take David out of the cage when I'm not in the room," her mother admonished her gently, placing the animal in her arms. "Put it down and go wash it. Time for bed."

Hania smiled and slid down from the armchair without protest. She walked over to the bookshelf and placed the hamster in the glass aquarium on the lowest shelf.

"Goodnight, Dawid," she said, leaving the room.

Dawid wasn't sure if the farewell was directed at him, but just in case, he replied quietly, "Goodnight."

Hania's small hand guided her to the bathroom, leaving an invisible mark on the coffee tabletop and the yellow tablecloth, patterned with large wildflowers.

"She's very independent for..." he cursed silently, seeing Helena's saddened look.

The sadness in her eyes, in her kind eyes...

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..."

"For a blind child. Don't be afraid to call a spade a spade, Dawid," she said, her voice a bit hollow. "Yes, for a blind child, Hania is very independent. She's more independent than many healthy children I know." But you must know, Dawid, that she wasn't always blind... Four years ago, that accident happened... My husband died, and Hania...

The silence that fell in the room was saturated with her sadness and his confusion. And suddenly he wanted to apologize, to hug her, to kiss her forehead, and lose himself in her eyes... But he knew it wasn't possible.

"I'm sorry... I... I'd better go. I have to get up very early tomorrow. Thank you for dinner, it was really delicious," he blurted out in one breath and headed for the door.

She accompanied him in silence, and only as he grabbed the doorknob did she speak in a hushed voice:

"See you then, Dawid."

He grew sad, wondering if she would say the same if she knew everything.

"See you. "

He closed the door behind him.

*

"You should quit smoking," Hania had instructed him for the second time, one winter evening, as they sat, as usual, on the swings in front of their apartment building.

"After a hard day's work, it's good to light up sometimes..." he said, somewhere in the space bathed in artificial light. "

Working in a shop isn't hard at all. After all, you're just putting things on the shelves. "

Dawid inhaled deeply.

"You see, Hania, this shop job is the hardest job I've ever had. I have to be punctual, polite, obedient to the boss, and nice... Nice even when I don't feel like it.

" "Even to Mrs. Winiarska?" Hania asked in surprise, tilting her head.

A large white pompom fell over her ear, making her remind him now of the elf from the fairy tale about Orphan Marysia.

"Even to her.

" "But she's conceited and stinks." The girl's mouth twisted in a grimace of distaste.

Dawid exhaled smoke through his nostrils.

"Well. But everyone deserves respect, right?"

"I guess so..." Hania replied, looking over his shoulder with her glassy gaze. "David?

" "Yes?"

"Yesterday, the first snow fell... I was walking home from school with my mom, we caught a flake, and you know what?

" "Well?

" I made a wish.

Dawid threw the cigarette butt onto the frozen ground and smothered it with the heel of his shoe.

"What was that wish?"

"If I tell you, it won't come true..." She lowered her head, and the pompom fell over her eyes. "Okay, if that's what you want, I'll tell you. I asked for a friend because I really want one. I've never had anyone except Dawid, Cinderella, and my mom. And you?"

Dawid looked at her more closely.

"What about me?

" "Are you my friend?

" "Yes. I think I am. "

Hania smiled serenely.

"Dawid? Can I ask you something else?"

"Ask.

" "What is happiness? Tell me, Dawid? I'm not a child, Dawid, don't tell me like my mom. Tell me the truth."

Dawid stared at the snow-covered tree, then smiled slightly.

He didn't even know when he'd learned to smile again, but he was certain that his regained ability brought him immense joy.

"Happiness, Hania, it's hard to describe..."

"But try, Dawid. You can do everything."

Dawid looked at her focused face, looked deep into her glassy eyes until his gaze reached her heart.

"A long time ago, I was walking through the village. As I passed a meadow, I stopped, enchanted, hearing music... I walked closer, closer still, and... I saw Gypsies sitting on the grass. They played instruments and sang, and their beautiful women twirled in the dance, tinkling their ornaments. Children clapped, snuggled up to their elders, or frolicked in the grass, imitating hopping hares. It was so beautiful, Hania... They had each other, the dance, the music, and the sun. Do you understand what happiness is now?"

Hania's face suddenly brightened.

"Yes," she nodded, "Thank you, David."

"You're welcome," he tugged at her pom-pom.

"Let's go, then, because Mom will be calling me soon.

" "Let's go."

He took the girl by the hand and led her along the frosty sidewalk, and she began humming her favorite tune.

It was a cold evening, but he didn't feel the cold.

He felt only warmth in his heart and the almost-forgotten closeness of...

A FRIEND.

*