Franek Duda drove by in his wagon bringing sheaves from the fields. You haven’t seen my Michał anywhere have you, Franek? What, is he missing? Yeah. I’m telling you, pal, right now even neighbors don’t see each other. Everyone’s in the fields, they’re mowing, gathering, they leave before dawn and don’t get back till it’s dark again. He might be out in the fields with someone and you’ll never find him here. Giddyup! Hang on a minute. Whoa! I think I might have seen him. It would’ve been last week, I was going over to the pub for a beer, he was sitting under an ash tree at the Malec place rocking a stroller. Their girl Elka had a baby. Go try them.
I hobbled over to the Malecs’ place, Elka Malec was actually there, she was giving her baby the breast. You had a baby, Elka? Boy or girl? A boy. When did you get back, uncle? Mama cried when she heard you were going to lose your legs. She was beside herself. She kept saying, dear Lord, dear Lord, a man like that. Does he have a name? It’s Miruś, Mirosław. That’s what Zenek wanted to christen him. Because my dad was all, call him Walenty. But that’s no kind of name for a child. Miruś, Miruś, you’re a pretty little boy. I heard Michał was here, Franek Duda told me, I’m looking for him. Yes, he was, just yesterday. He’s been here a lot. He often looked after Miruś when I had an errand to run. He’d take him out in the stroller, rock him. One time they went all the way down to the river, I couldn’t find them. They say he can’t talk, uncle. But he talked to Miruś.
I went out onto the road. I thought, I’ll knock my sticks on Malec’s ash tree, maybe it’ll tell me. Goddammit! Evidently I was going to have to go from house to house. Only, in which direction? Toward the co-op? Or was it better to go toward the mill? No, the co-op. The mill. Co-op. Mill. It was like the road had a hundred directions. I called by Bąk’s. They’d not seen him. I went to Sójka’s. They hadn’t seen him. Sobczyński’s. There was no one in and the place was padlocked. I was shocked. They’d padlock the door when they were out working in the fields? No one ever used to lock their door. Unless these days you need to. At Madej’s I shouted, Walek! Walek! Because since they built their new house you have to go up some steps, and by this point I could barely walk on the level. I even thought I saw a curtain twitch in the window, either that or my eyes were starting to play up.
Heat poured down from the sky, and the earth was hot underfoot. I could feel it, not just in my feet and through the sticks, but even up under my ribs. My back was in agony. I’d never had any problems with my back before. I could lift all I wanted, walk anywhere, didn’t feel a thing. I needed to rest up at least a short while.
“Afternoon, Seweryn!” Old Grabiec was sitting on the bench outside his house. I’d been sure he was dead already. I don’t know where I got the idea. It was another matter that at his age he could have been dead three times over. Perhaps someone told me in the hospital. “I’ll join you for a minute.”
“Help yourself, there’s room enough for the both of us. And who are you?”
“Don’t you know me? It’s Szymek Pietruszka.”
“Right, Szymek. My eyes are going dark, son, I can only half see. But now I see you. You used to be quite the fighter at the dances, you put on a show. And you used to like to drink. Are you coming from the fields?”
“No, I’m looking for my brother Michał. He’s gone off somewhere.”
“Doesn’t he know where he’s gone?”
“He probably does, but in his own way.”
“How else is he supposed to know? Everyone knows in their own way. Is he older than you or younger?”
“Older.”
“Then he’ll know better than you. Are your folks still alive?”
“No, they died a long time ago.”
“They did right. There’s no sense living too long. One war for one life, then a person should move on. Not like me, four of them. Were you in a war as well?”
“I was. But that was a while back.”
“I thought you might have been, cause you’ve got walking sticks.”
“That’s not from the war. It was on the road.”
“You fell off a wagonload of sheaves.”
“Kind of.”
“There’s no point taking too many at one go. The wagon can rock. And it’s harder for the horse. It’s better to make two trips. Tell me now, is it true about them Sputniks?”
“Well, they’re flying up there, it must be.”
“I guess, though who’s actually seen them. You can see the stars on a clear night. And the dogs would bark.”
“It’s too high for dogs.”
“The moon’s even higher, and they bark at that. Have you heard anything about a war, maybe? Are they getting ready to fight?”
“Why are you so interested in war? It’s not been that long since the last one.”
“Because the powers that be have to go head-to-head. Otherwise they wouldn’t be powers. At least I might get out of paying my taxes. It’s got to the point I owe thousands, dammit. They keep adding penalties. And I’ve got nothing.”
“No one does, Seweryn. One harvest goes well, then the next one rots. How’s your grain been?”
“Like everyone else’s.”
“Kernels big?”
“Neither big nor small.”
“Why aren’t you mowing yet?”
“I’m waiting for one of them to bring their wagon.”
“What did you sow?”
“Nothing. What’s the point in sowing when there’s no one to get the harvest in.”
“Doesn’t it pain you that the land’s just lying there?”
“Why should it pain me. Pain doesn’t feel pain. The world was there, then it went away. You have to accept it.”
“Get your scythes! Get your scythes! Get out into the fields! Another day or two and the weather might turn.” Gula had appeared in front of us, his missus had sent him out to buy salt for their dinner and he was on his way back from the co-op.
“Say, Marian, you haven’t seen my Michał anywhere, have you?” I was only asking, because I knew he wouldn’t know. And Gula just casually says:
“Yeah, he’s mucking out at Skobel’s place.”
“Mucking out at Skobel’s?” I jumped up and grabbed my walking sticks. “Damn, and here I am looking all over the village for him!”
“What were you looking for him for? You should have just gone straight to Skobel’s.”
Luckily Skobel’s place wasn’t far, he lived right the other side of the co-op, it was just a bit downhill, closer to the river. It would never have occurred to me to go ask Skobel if Michał was there. No one ever went to Skobel’s even to borrow a whetstone for a scythe, or leaven for bread, base for żurek, you wouldn’t borrow his plow or wagon or horse, not to mention money. I walk into his yard and his dog comes out at me, it won’t let me take a step farther, just stands there yapping at me. I whacked it on the back with my stick like it was Skobel himself. Get lost, you little sod! It yelped and slunk back. Skobel came out of the barn.