5

A few weeks later, Janek, now receiving pre-retirement benefits, sold his apartment in Trzcianka and moved with Irena to Zielonów. It took him a long time to convince his wife that nothing unpleasant would ever happen to her in that house. At first, she swore she would never set foot in that cursed place again, but then the gullible woman allowed herself to be convinced that she had had a terrible, nightmarish, and very realistic dream, because surely such a thing could not have happened. Finally, to her husband's satisfaction, she agreed to the move.

To celebrate, they organized a party for friends, to which about twenty people were invited. Food and drink were plentiful, and everyone had a wonderful time, dancing in the largest room to oldies.

When the old cuckoo clock struck midnight, all the lights suddenly went out. A second later, they came on and then went out again. Janek shuddered, remembering the housewarming party.

"It must be some kind of power outage," Henryk stood at the window, staring into the darkness. "The streetlights aren't lit either. There's no power in the entire village.

" "Or the wind knocked out the power," Grzegorz added. "Look how it's blowing, how hard the trees are swaying!"

Janek breathed a sigh of relief.

*****

Two days later, Mika went to the parish priest to thank him for his good advice. As before, there was no one in the rectory, so he entered the church. Not a single candle burned in the dark sanctuary. The church was lit only by faint reflections of sunlight, barely penetrating through the dark stained glass windows. Inside, an almost deathly silence reigned. Janek slowly walked between two rows of old, worn wooden pews. He looked around carefully, searching for the parish priest. He saw no one. He sat down in the front row in front of the wooden, antique altar.

"Has the peace you were so eager for arrived?" he heard a soft, male voice coming from behind him.

Mika turned and noticed the parish priest emerging from the confessional. Janek approached him and replied,

"Yes. I came to thank you, Father, for your good advice.

" "Thank you," the old man smiled. "I'm glad you made it."

"Just tell me, priest, why did it take so long? Couldn't the spirits of the dead tell anyone else what needs to be done to finally find peace?

"Unfortunately, they couldn't. You can't tell people who are afraid and flee in panic. And to be precise, I'm no longer the parish priest. Not for years."

With that, the old man turned, walked toward the exit, and disappeared into the brightness of the wide-open church doors. Janek ran after him, but the man was already gone.

"Father!" he shouted. "Father!"

No one answered him. He looked around, but couldn't see the gray-haired priest anywhere. He was about to go home when a green Renault Clio pulled up in front of the rectory door and an obese, balding priest of about fifty got out.

"Father, have you seen the parish priest anywhere?

" "The parish priest?" the priest replied, genuinely surprised. "But I'm the parish priest!" "Who are you looking for?

" "A very old, gray-haired priest. With a wart on his forehead and a mouse on his chin.

" "I don't know anyone like that. There's no other priest at the rectory today except me. "

Janek was stunned and didn't know what to say.

*****

Mika couldn't sleep that night, thinking about meeting a man who claimed to be the parish priest, though he certainly wasn't. In the morning, he went to the Piła Municipal Library, intending to check a few things.

"Good morning, I'd like to find some information about Zielonów," he said to the young librarian sitting at the computer monitor.

"What exactly are you looking for? Are you looking for any books on the subject?"

"No, I'd be more interested in newspaper clippings. For example, I'd like to find out what the parish priests in Zielonów were like after World War II."

"Please wait a moment. I'll check the computer. We have a large database here with scans of most of the library's books and back issues of daily newspapers. It's just that searching through that much data will take some time. "

She typed something into the computer, and after a few minutes, she said,

"I have it. Can I print it out for you?

" "Yes, please."

A moment later, a sheet of paper popped out of the printer. Janek took it and read:

"Zielonowo Parish.

1945-1958 – Parish Priest Andrzej Krawat

1958-1977 – Parish Priest Antoni Magdzik

1977-1992 – Parish Priest Wojciech Dobosz

1992-1998 – Parish Priest Stanisław Kubiak

1998-? – Parish Priest Czesław Birek"

Beneath were short notes about each parish priest and small photographs. Janek noticed that the photo of Wojciech Dobosz showed a man with a wart on his forehead and a round mouse below his mouth.

"Look, look..." he said to himself, surprised. "That's the one I talked to yesterday in church..."

He quickly read the note about the parish priest, located under his photo.

"Wojciech Dobosz (1927-1992), parish priest in Zielonowo from 1972 to 1992, a man of great distinction in the local community. He came to Zielonowo in 1972 from a parish in the Lublin Voivodeship and was parish priest until his death in a car accident near Zielonowo. At his initiative, the parish house and farmers' club were built, and running water was brought to the village. He organized numerous pilgrimages to religious sites (including the Vatican, where pilgrims had an audience with Pope John Paul II). He cared for the sick and the poor." "

I would also be interested in news about Zielonowo from the newspapers from 1945," he asked.

A few minutes later, Janek was holding a printout of two pages with two articles. They were written in faint font, and he could barely read them.

"The Mysterious Disappearance of the Klauses"

On January 12, 1945, during the liberation of the village of Zielonowo by the Red Army, a young German couple, Marlena and Jurgen Klauze, disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Russian soldiers claim that after entering the Klauses' property, they found the house empty. Neighbors saw Wojciech Skalkowski, a boy living in Zielonów, talking to soldiers stationed near the forest a few hours before the Russians entered the village. He was interrogated by the police, but he confessed nothing and denied having spoken to the Russians. The case is ongoing."

With trembling hands, he read the second article, dated three days later.

"On January 15, 1945, a dying Red Army soldier was found in the forest near the village of Zielonowo. He had been shot in a skirmish with a German unit and abandoned by the Russians fleeing from superior enemy forces. Shortly before his death, the soldier confessed that before the capture of Zielonowo, his unit had been informed by a local boy that a young German couple collaborating with the Nazis lived in the village. Therefore, the militia decided to re-interrogate Wojciech Skalkowski about the disappearance of the Klauzes, but the boy had fled the village and has not yet been caught."

Janek glanced at the small, blurry photo of a young man, around twenty years old, below the article. He took a magnifying glass from his pocket and examined his face closely. Wojtek Skalkowski had a small, round mouse near the left corner of his mouth. Janek felt his face heat up and unbuttoned his jacket. He wiped the sweat from his forehead. He felt his heart pounding wildly in his chest.

Mika recalled the words spoken by the old priest in the dark church: "I loved her like my first, childhood love. I would have done anything to be with her. But Marlena was already married and, of course, paid no attention to me."

He was beginning to understand...

THE END