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Not me. For some reason I was too shy. Besides, I’d only
recently come to work on the site. When she put my soup
or main course in front of me I didn’t even look at her, I
only ever saw her from a distance. The other guys had
known her for a long time. She’d gotten used to having her
braid pulled. I won’t lie, I liked the look of her from the
start. And she knew it right away. One time she leaned over
to my ear and whispered, You should tug on my braid too,
see what it feels like. I didn’t. But I decided that even
without that, she’d still be mine. When the right moment
came I’d tell her. For the while I didn’t let anything show. I
never even said to her, You look nice today Miss Basia, or
Basieńka – Barbara was her name. Though everyone said
that to her every day. When she brought me my plate I’d
say, Thank you. That was it. Other guys, they wouldn’t have
been able to eat if they hadn’t pulled at her braid or at least
said, You look nice today Miss Basia, or Basieńka.
Sometimes she’d spill the soup because someone tugged at
her braid before she’d had time to put the bowl down. Plus,
some of them had hands twice the size of yours or mine,
rugged and strong. She’d even break a plate at times trying
to free herself from a hand like that. A good few plates or
bowls got broken because of that braid of hers. Same when
she was clearing the empty plates away.
One day she was carrying plates with the main course on a
tray, six plates if I remember correctly, when someone
grabbed her braid, even though she wasn’t going to his