Love Knows No Sides

Chapter 36

For several days I wandered back and forth around the house looking for something to do but I still missed it. Everything was washed, the windows and floors sparkled like never before, the dust was perfectly wiped off, all fabrics sewn and mended, and there was still plenty of time before dinner. Mateusz found a part-time job and was disappearing for a few hours every day, and grandma... She was like her usual self. She constantly visited her friends, both those in the hospital and those who were hiding in their apartments. Sometimes they would visit her, and then I had something to do. I baked cakes, made a big gourmet dinner, set the table, served them snacks or whatsoever.
One day, Grandma came up with the idea that I should go to work as a waitress or a cook as I'm a great cook and I shouldn't waste my potential in their apartment. It wasn't said with  annoyance. It's just that Grandma wanted me to have a permanent job, rather than constantly going from corner to corner waiting for the house to get dirtier. And so I did. I managed to find a job in one of the pubs near our tenement house, which was owned by an old friend of Mateusz's parents. When he found out about my fate, he offered me the position of cook without any hesitation, despite my young age. Both Poles and Germans came to his pub but I did not know for whom I was preparing a meal. But sometimes, however, the boss would come to me and ask me, for example, to spit in the soup or add more pepper. And then I knew that I was cooking for German soldiers or eventually for someone my boss just didn't like. Apart from me, there were three waitresses, another cook, and an accountant in the diner. The boss supervised who entered his pub and kicking out the arguing guests. 

I was so glad that I finally had a job, and I was sincerely grateful to Grandma. I could also pay for my stay at their place but neither Grandma nor Mateusz wanted my money. They said they couldn't take it from me because I brought so much good into their lives. Besides, as they put it, they didn't want to "rob" me of my hard earned money...

The sun was already going down, and I had just finished work and was going back to the tenement house, when suddenly I noticed several cars in front of the building that belonged to the German army. I got goosebumps just looking at them. Why so many of them here? I wondered. Suddenly I thought of Alex. I've quicken my pace and hurried on the stairs. There were only dark thoughts in my mind...