05 Like an Older Brother

Piotr laughed warmly instantly illuminating the entire darkened corridor.

“I need to know what the kids are interested in these days” he said. “I can't lose touch with them. And Madzia runs K-pop dance groups in elementary and middle school. She does the routines for them herself. Ok, this is your room” Piotr opened the door.

“Why did she call you that strange way? Opa?”

“Oppa. Literally it's the older brother of the younger sister, but in Korea girls address men older than themselves, but not very old, that way. It doesn't fit that my kids address me by my first name, and the older ones have a problem addressing me too formally, so I'm oppa, hyong or sensei, padre, depends who you ask.”

“You are close with them. They must love you, right?”

“Of course they do! Do you think Magda would give her favorite ramiun to just anyone?”

“And ramiun is?”

“The Korean version of ramen. You know, those noodle soups. But not the Chinese ones from Radom. These actually come from Korea.”

“Aha.”

That was all Piotr. For him there was no division into better and worse people, into more or less valuable interests. He tried to understand everyone. He didn't fix anyone, or at least didn't force them to fix anything, but he was there for anyone who needed it, even if he had to drive a few hundred kilometers in a broken down car just to check if his friend was all right.

“So you're a big brother to them? So what, I should call you oppa too?”

“In your case, it's hyong.”

“You, but it's a normal word, not any nickname or ‘your highness’?”

“If you don't believe me, google it. Donseng.”

“Heeey! Maybe you wouldn't swear at me like that!”

Pioetr laughed like a good joke and Adam was grateful as he had been so many times before for Piotr just being there for him.

They sat talking all night. Once they were happy, once sad, but they did not touch the subject that was weighing on Lechoń the most. Piotr did not ask and Adam was not ready to confide in him. Of course his friend guessed everything, after all he had traveled half of Poland just to be with him in those difficult moments. And although the feeling of guilt was still strong in him, thanks to Piotr's presence, Adam could finally fall asleep in the morning.

***

By six o'clock the sun was already in the sky. Hubert Raymund was sitting on the lake shore looking at the newly built hotel standing on the other side, which looked really good in the green surroundings and golden rays of the young sun. Hubert was just finishing his breakfast, sipping it still hot, fresh coffee, which he brewed with the passion of a true coffee drinker. He believed that every day should start with an aromatic portion of black gold. It was his ritual. Thanks to it he knew that the rest of the day would pass under a lucky star.

The weather was going to be great, perfect to work on the construction site. They still had an indoor pool to finish and a small stable for the ponies. Thanks to the favorable weather conditions they were ahead of schedule, so Hubert and the rest of the team could approach work with confidence especially since the forecast for the coming days also boded well.

The hotel, although seen from behind from this point, looked really good. The main building element was wood, although the construction was reinforced with elements of stone and concrete, so that it visually combined the elements of wood, earth and mountain. It blended in beautifully with the wooded surroundings and the rushes on the lake where the wild ducks were swimming.

As someone who had contributed to the creation of this building from the moment the foundations were poured (actually, it was still from a white paper on the project) Hubert Raymund was sincerely satisfied with the result. He took another sip of coffee with satisfaction and furrowed his brow. He saw a strangely familiar green Matiz pull out of the parking lot in front of the hotel, invisible from his point. There weren't many of those around. Just what could its owner be doing here at such an early hour? Surely none of the household members were so seriously ill that they needed an immediate house call?

No, certainly not, he chased these thoughts away from himself and scratched his chin. He was already used to his stubble, which he had kept to two millimeters since he arrived here. At first he'd been too busy to shave, and then more and more girls had shown interest in him. With his black rock T-shirt and checkered flannel shirt, the three-day stubble and his already somewhat long black hair reminded him of Logan from some part of "X-Man" when he was working on a logging job in Canada. Even their build was similar, although Hubert was a few centimeters taller. He was amused by his new image and intended to maintain it until he returned to Stockholm.

He stood up and shrugged his pants off the blades of grass. He climbed up onto the terrace of the summerhouse he occupied and threw the cup into the sink, adding to the collection he had accumulated there. He'll have to take care of that one day, he said, because he'll soon run out of clean dishes. Well, someday, that's not now, he decided and, brushing the remains of food from between his teeth, he picked up his favorite axe and left the house.

He had barely walked down towards the main road when he met two other guys from the construction crew. They were both locals, the type of specialists, who could not set anything straight without a beer on a good day, but otherwise quite cool. Because of their alcohol habit, they did not do any difficult or responsible work in the morning.

“Good morning, Mr. foreman” Waldek, the older one, said hello. The younger, Stefan, muttered a quiet "good morning" under his breath.

“Morning," Hubert Ramynd answered and took a step back. “How is it after yesterday? Does your back hurt?”

“I can survive” said Waldek. Yesterday they had quite a long working day because of the materials, which were delivered a few hours later than planned. “We get paid well for overtime” he grinned at his yellowed and heavily browned stumps. “For that, I saw something interesting.”

The look on his face and the twinkle in his eye indicated that the story would be rather indecent. Probably when he was coming back in the evening after the night, he saw the first female tourists bathing. Judging by the width of his smile they might have been in an Eva outfit.

“Yes? What's that?” Hubert showed appropriate interest, although he really didn't care at all about the story of the bathing tourists.

“Well...” he began.

“Dad, come on!” He was interrupted by a strangely blushing Stefan. “Don't spread rumors.”

“It's not rumor," he insisted. “You saw it yourself.”

“I did not see anything.”

“You saw the same thing as I did. So, Mr. foreman, we were at the construction site late about this material...”

“You were supposed to come right after me.”

“Yeah, but Rysiek and I got into an argument. So, we were getting ready to go home when we saw a green Matiz pull up in front of the hotel. You know whose it is. And inside there was also a young man. Some kind of city guy, by the looks of it. And you know what, foreman? They took the room.”

That interested Hubert.

“The hotel is still closed.”

“That's right” Walde nodded confidentially. “And the owners weren't there.”

In fact, he knew that they had both left on their own business, although he had expected them to come back for the night. In the hotel was only their teenage daughter, Magda. But after all, the girl couldn't just rent a room on her own behind her parents' back. No, something didn't add up here.

“Maybe it was a friend or family member. Or a stray tourist.”

“Yeah? Then why was the car there all night?”

“Dad!”

Hubert had no idea what kind of rumors were just being born, but they certainly weren't positive. It was a pity, because he liked Piotr, about whom he knew he did a lot of things, maybe too progressive for the neighborhood, but for sure he helped the youth, who like everywhere, had their troubles, especially when it came to contacts with parents, teachers and the older generation in general.

Stefan was from this generation. He was on his way out of the vocational school, when Piotr appeared in the neighborhood, but he still managed to catch one of his actions. What was it then? A trip to Vilnius or something like that. Hubert knew about it only from stories, because some of the local youths still remembered this event as one of the best in their lives…