Trafika Europe 2 - Polish Nocturne

those days. Building sites were like hiding places. So if they’d wanted to get rid of all those of one kind or another, there wouldn’t have been anyone left to do the job. Not to mention the fact that there’d have been no tradesmen whatsoever. And he was one of the best welders. Maybe even the best of all. All the other welders would go to him for advice. Plus, he was hard-working. If there was some urgent job that needed doing he wouldn’t leave the site till it was done, even if he had to work through the night. He didn’t drink, didn’t smoke, didn’t go to dances. He kept away from girls. In his spare time he read. In that respect he was an exception, because everyone else drank in their spare time. Even before he went to sleep, however exhausted he was, he’d always say he had to take up his book and read at least a couple of pages. One time when I’d climbed the scaffolding to where he was, he said to me that books are the only way for a human not to forget that he’s a human. Him, in any case, he couldn’t live without books. Books are a world too, a world that you choose for yourself, not the one you’ve come into. He kept trying to persuade me, till in the end I started reading too. I thought to myself, it’s no skin off my nose, I’ll give it a try, especially because I liked him. He’d asked me one time if I wouldn’t like to read a book. I was reluctant, said I had to do this and that, I didn’t have time. In the end, just to please him I told him to bring me something. He had a few books, he kept them in another suitcase, that one he didn’t keep locked so no one looked in it. And that was

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