Chapter Twenty

The next day, Johnny popped in to deliver some news. Kate met him in the foyer. “My dad wasn’t able to get our paperwork to go to Poland. I’m sorry, Kate. I thought it would be easy, but with all the changes after the war, I don’t know. We’ll have to try something else. He’s going to see a lawyer and find out what else we can do.”

Kate’s heart sank. If they couldn’t get the papers, how was she to find the shoes? “Maybe if we try filing from Italy instead of America?”

“Maybe. I don’t know. We’ll try again. My dad hasn’t given up. He’s curious himself to see what the war did to Poland. Don’t be discouraged, okay?”

She smiled, but not fully. It was hard not to get discouraged when they were so close.

“There’s nothing to be done today, so let’s enjoy Italy while we can. I have plans for you tonight.” He winked and was out the front door.

As Kate turned around, Nessa came into the foyer wearing an apron and a scowl. The girls had not been alone since finding the diamond in the castle and had planned to get away to town first thing after breakfast.

“I’m sorry, Kate. I wanted to take you to town today, but Dziadek has decided today is the day for making giardiniera. It means ‘from the garden.’ We pick all the ripe vegetables and can them with vinegar.”

“It’s my own special recipe,” Mr. De Luca said.

Nessa rolled her eyes. “We make it every year.” But then she smiled, revealing she didn’t mind cooking with her grandfather. “He wants me to have a case of it when I go away to college.” Her eyes opened wide. “A case!” She shook her head. “I won’t know what to do with that much giardiniera. Hold parties, I guess.”

“I can take her.” Lidka breezed into the room. “I going anyway.” She reached up to catch the keys Mr. De Luca tossed at her.

Kate swiveled back to Nessa. It didn’t matter to her who she went to town with, although it would have been nice to get to talk alone with Nessa. To take her mind off the recent setback, she welcomed the chance to go out and see more of Sora.

Nessa looked like she was about to protest when Mr. De Luca stepped up beside her and put a hand on her shoulder. “Great idea. You two have fun.”

And with that, Kate found herself sitting beside Lidka in the front seat of Mr. De Luca’s black convertible car. Lidka pointed to the glove compartment where Princess Kolodenko kept a scarf. “You need to tie your hair,” Lidka said with a grin.

The wind whipped around the open car, trying to pull Kate’s hair free as Lidka expertly maneuvered the curves into town. The countryside was beautiful, fields of green dotted with bushes and wildflowers by the road, though marred here and there by signs of war. A house that had been burned down. A crater where a bomb had landed.

Their first stop was for gelato. “Nessa would take you shopping for all day,” Lidka said. “You not seem the shopping type to me.” She parked in a shady spot. “Here is some advices. Do not allow Nessa push you around. It is not like she is the queen.”

“Oh, I don’t mind shopping,” Kate said, ignoring the comment. “I’m looking for something to bring back for my mom and my best friend anyway.” She got out of the car and slung Mr. G’s camera bag over her shoulder.

“Is that all? You seem to be looking for something else. Something not small like a tourist souvenir. What else are you looking for?” she asked. “What do you want to find in Italy?”

“Oh, I-I . . .” She groped for words to say. Lidka was uncomfortably direct, and Kate didn’t have Princess Kolodenko’s skills of deflection. To say she wanted to find her dad seemed foolish in front of this practical girl. One needed a sense of imagination to believe she could uncover the impossible.

She thought about how Josie would answer. “How about love, like every other teenage girl.”

“What about this Johnny? With him is it love?”

Johnny’s easy grin popped into her mind. He was both serious and playful. Fun-loving and businesslike. He was going to help her find her dad, no matter how much of a long shot it was. How could it not be love?

Lidka pointed at her. “I see already the dreamy eyes. If not in love yet, you are going that way soon. I suppose now is a safe time to be in love.”

“What do you mean?”

She shook her head. “Nothing.”

They continued down a cobblestoned road until they reached the shop Lidka was looking for. “Still here,” she said. “Best chocolate in the town.” They placed their order and sat at a small table outside.

Lidka ate her dessert in silence, switching from watching Kate to watching the pigeons waiting for scraps.

“Are you okay?” Kate asked. “I mean, after all that happened to you?”

“What, the torture? The starvation? The betrayal? Which of these things do you ask about?” Lidka’s expression turned as cold as her gelato.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t pry.” Lidka could be direct, but she didn’t like others to corner her, apparently.

“I know you Americans are curious about us animals over here. I am, what is the word you use? Okay. I learned great skills, which helped me survive after the war. But now it is hard for me to do regular job. I am used to working in black market. It was fun. A challenge to find things that no one else could find. I was good at it. What I am good at now I do not know. Running away, maybe.”

Kate was surprised at her honesty. She waited for Lidka to explain further. When Lidka didn’t say anything else, Kate pulled her own necklace out from under her blouse. “I have one, too. Are they common in Poland?”

Lidka raised her eyebrows but made no comment. She reached over and compared the two necklaces. “Amber is common. Poland is famous for the amber. I never really liked it, but there is something nice about this necklace.” She leaned back in her chair. “To answer your question, I do not know how popular this design is. Where did you get yours?”

“It’s a family heirloom.”

Lidka looked puzzled at the term “heirloom.”

“A family treasure, or souvenir,” Kate suggested.

Lidka nodded. “I know your babcia and dziadek came from Poland. It is good you have a treasure from where you come.”

“Yes. It helps to feel connected.”

“I am sorry your papa went missing. Tell me about him.”

Without intending to, Kate let out all that she had been holding back with Nessa. “And since they never found a body, I have to believe that he was injured and hasn’t been able to get in touch with us for some reason. Do you think I’m hopeless?”

Lidka’s hard eyes softened. “Hopeful. Nothing is worse than losing hope. Why not should a daughter know what happened to her papa? You should do everything you can to find him.”

Kate bit her lip. If Lidka was from the stepsister side of the family, she might help where the Kolodenkos refused. “Do you know who Malwinka is?”

Lidka’s expression didn’t change. “I know a family member with this name, but I do not know if she is the Malwinka you ask. What is the last name?”

Kate’s heart skipped a beat. “I don’t know. I was only given Malwinka, but I’m sure she is the same one.”

“And what can Malwinka do for you?”

Oh boy. This she couldn’t tell. “She has something that I think will help me find my father.”

“Sounds a mystery. I see what I can learn for you,” Lidka said. “But it seems to me your papa would be in Italy, and the Malwinka I know is in Poland. Poland is not an easy country to get into or out of. Malwinka would need to come to you, which she does not do, or you would need to get an entry permit. Are you not scared to think of going into such a place where not even the Kolodenkos dare go?”

Deep down, a fear was taking root, but Kate didn’t know if that was coming from her intuition or from Lidka trying to scare her. The war was over; how bad could travel in Poland be?

“I reading your face,” Lidka said. “You already ask the Kolodenkos about a trip to Poland and they have said no, nie? It is a different country now, than before the war. Poland is not a bad country for you to visit if you have someone to help you.” She held her arms out wide. “Don’t I look fine to you? I coming from there and I am in one piece.” She stood, adding a final punctuation to their discussion. “You bring your camera. Let us find pretty things to take pictures.”

The girls made their way uphill through the small town, until they came to a stone cathedral at the base of the mountain.

“The original cathedral is destroyed in an earthquake centuries ago,” Lidka said. “Are you Catholic?” she asked as she entered the cathedral and paused at a shrine to make the sign of the cross.

“Protestant,” Kate said. The cathedral was dimly lit with several candles, giving the room a cozy atmosphere.

“During the war in Poland, even the Jews hiding in the open were Catholic. They were taught to cross themselves at each shrine—and there are many in Poland—so they would blend in and not look Jewish.”

“The Jews could live out in the open? I thought they all went into hiding if they could.”

“Not all Jews look Jewish. These, they needed lessons in acting Catholic and would meet at Catholic cafés. They could go to beauty parlors to learn how to do their hair a different way, and get lessons on how to behave. The people helped.”

“I hadn’t heard this,” Kate said.

“The stories will come out,” Lidka said. “A professor of art your papa is, nie? Sent here to protect history and religious culture. Come and see what is saved thanks to men like him.” She led Kate to the front of the cathedral where candles surrounded an ornate altar. The gold trimmings shone prettily in the glow. A crucifix depicting the suffering Savior was centered on the wall. Kate was used to seeing the empty cross at her church in New York. A pretty statue of Mary was to the left. As they walked closer, Kate could smell the melting wax.

“Many paintings and altarpieces like these were stolen for Hitler’s art museum, the Führermuseum. Strange how a man who hated God could love the artwork depicting the things of God,” Lidka whispered.

“It doesn’t make sense, does it? So much of the war didn’t make sense.”

“Contradictions are life. I have seen people, hurting by their loved one’s death, take revenge on strangers, often innocents themselves, with little care to those peoples or their families.”

“I don’t understand it,” Kate said. It made sense to her that if the war was over, everyone should stop fighting. Her views felt childish and simplistic compared to Lidka’s. But Lidka was hard-hearted. Kate wouldn’t want to be that way, either.

“Maybe if you had been here, you would understand. The people get angry and they do not think about any things other than their anger. It is a terrible thing. But what else can we do? It is the human nature.”

Kate didn’t know if she shared Lidka’s assessment of the futility of human nature. As they were leaving, she glanced back at the crucifix. A symbol of what some would say was their only hope of true peace.