Trafika Europe 3 - Latvian Sojourn

Friends

Francis and John Janovski’s father had given them the gift of a wooden tram, which at times was also a cigarette box, into which father’s hand sometimes snaked, in order to smoke some white cylinder. The other white cylinders stood in the tram and rode from the sideboard to the table, which counted as a trip from Tower Hill to Forest Park. The spilt tobacco could be tickets, which covered the scene, until Francis gathered them up and fed them to the fish in the aquarium. But soon enough the Jankovski boys forgot the tram, and it got covered with dust, yet hidden in circling blood was friendship between the boys, which the father valued most highly. Pan Janovski was a cabinet maker for a furniture workshop; between the vaporizing faces of workmen and cardboard signs, a world full of wonders was created. At home the boys listened to their father. “Every great master has a friend or even several friends, who are wrapped in mist and forgetfulness, but they are the real ones – dissolved in the heart!” pan Janovski said, and at that moment his ears quivered, becoming red as rosebuds.

“Can a person be a friend?” asked John.

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