Trafika Europe 2 - Polish Nocturne

table, she was just passing by. The tray wobbled in her hands and all the plates crashed to the floor. They were going to fire her on the spot. Luckily the guy did the right thing and paid for all the plates and all the food. After that the men were more careful, they only tugged at her braid once she’d put the plates on the table, otherwise every last plate would have gotten broken, and not through any fault of hers. Unless you could blame the braid. If you ask me, girls or women who work in cafeterias, especially on building sites like that, they shouldn’t be too good-looking. Nice, polite, of course, but not too good looking. Sometimes she’d wear her braid up on her head in a bun. Maybe it was for self-protection, because how else can you protect yourself when you’ve got the kind of braid that just begs to be grabbed and held for at least a moment. Or perhaps she wanted to look nicer, who can tell. Though in my book she had no need to look nicer. Without the braid, though, she looked quite different, she became kind of unapproachable, haughty. When she put the bowl or the plate in front of you, she seemed to be doing you a favor. I didn’t like the bun. I thought to myself, when she’s my wife I’ll tell her I prefer the braid. With the braid, when it swung back and forth behind her back she looked, I don’t know how to put it, like she’d only just risen into the world. You’re smiling . . . my imagination’s a bit old-fashioned, right? But that was how I felt back then. Though if you think about it, don’t you reckon we continue to imagine

12