Marek fell asleep when the taxi was driving up to Kartuzy and woke up in twilight, because the car was shaking on a bad road. Behind the dusty window were floating dark trunks of pine trees. The headlights illuminated a green-painted fence. And behind the fence, Marek did not so much see as guess the familiar silhouette of a large country house.
"Is there the right place, pan?" the driver asked Marek, looking back to him, "the very house?"
"Yes, that's the house of Pani Felicia," answered Marek, "we're at the place."
Cicadas crackled in the garden. Marek and Pani Felicia were sitting in the living room at the table covered with a white cloth drinking tea from a samovar. A kerosene lamp burned on the table. The light from the lamp in the living room was low, and there were deep shadows in the corners of the room. There was a sideboard with faience, a wide sofa covered with a blanket, and closer to the window there was a high desk with a narrow sloping table top against the wall. The aunt was sitting next to Marek, drinking tea from a saucer. Pani Felicia was in her early thirties. She was a tall, shapely woman, full-breasted and with seductive hips. His aunt had the pretty round face. Her long dark brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail. From under her bangs, which his aunt kept brushing away with her hand, her merry brown eyes looked at Marek, reflecting the fire in them.
"How much you've grown, how handsome you've become." Pani Felicia repeated, smiling at the young man and ruffling his hair with her hand.
Marek was drinking tea, burning himself. Gracia, the maid, in a modest dark ankle-length dress and a white apron with lace trim, set them a bowl of jam and a platter of pies on the table. Gracia was tall and thin girl with thoughtful green eyes and a long brown plait.
Having finished tea, Aunt Felicia began reading a letter from Marek's older sister Xenia. For the past year the young man had lived with Pani Xenia in Torun. Marek's parents went to work on a contract to Australia for a few years. It was a high-paying, prestigious job. They didn't want to lose the chance but they couldn't take Marek with them,
Frowning, she finished the letter and looked at Marek without a shadow of smile.
"Xenia writes that you are not a good student," said Pani Felicia. "And you didn't get a certificate this year. You couldn't pass physics, literature, and history. This is bad!… Xenia also writes that you need to be flogged every day…"
Marek blushed and stared into his cup of tea. Gracia laughed softly. Pani Felicia shook her head and put the letter aside.
"Oh, Marek, Marek! You are the smart boy but you're so lazy," his aunt said, "I'll have to find teachers for the summer to pull you up for the exams, and here's something else. If you want, you don't have to go back to Torun to my sister when the fall comes, you could live with us. It's a big house, and I'll put you up in the outhouse."
"Thank you, Aunt Felicia," Marek said.
The young man had already visited his aunt two or three years ago. Marek remembered this large dacha and the pine tree forest and the lake nearby. Here, in a dacha village, there lived a girl with whom Marek were friends and with whom he was secretly in love. Katarzhina by name.
"You're at a difficult age," his aunt sighed and looked sadly at Marek through the bangs that had fallen over her eyes. "Pani Xenia writes that you absolutely do not know how to behave… Marek, do not expect me to close my eyes to your bad deeds! For your own good, I will be strict with you. Do you understand me, Marek?"
"Yes, Aunt Felicia," said the young man without raising his eyes.
