Kane and Abel (Kane & Abel 1)

VVIadek quickly made his way to the male quarters and found the Polish group occupying a large block of iron berths, each containing four two - tiered bunk beds. Each bunk had a thin straw mattress, a light blanket and no pillow. Having no pillow did not worry Wladek who had never been able to sleep on one since leaving Russia.

Wladek selected a bunk below a boy of roughly his own age and introduced himself.

'I'm Wladek Koskiewicz.'

'I'm Jerzy Nowak from Warsaw,' volunteered the boy in his native Polish, 'and I'm going to make my fortune in America!

The boy thrust forward his hand.

Wladek and Jerzy spent the time before the ship sailed telling each other of their experiences, both pleased to have someone to share their loneliness with, neither willing to admit their total ignorance of America. Jerzy, it turned out, had lost his parents in the war but had few other claims to attention. He was entranced by V*9,adeks stories: the son of a baron, brought up in a trapper's cottage, imprisoned by the Germans and the Russians, escaped from Siberia and then from a Turkish executioner thanks to the heavy silver band which Jerzy couldn't take his eyes off. Wladek had packed more in to his fifteen years than Jerzy thought he would manage in a lifetime. Wladek talked all night of the past while Jerzy listened intently, neither wanting to sleep and neither wanting to admit their apprehension of the future.

The following morning the Black Arrow sailed. Wladek and Jerzy stood at the rail and watched Constantinople slip away in the blue distance of the Bosphorus. After the calm of the Sea of Marmara the choppiness of the Aegean afflicted them and most of the other passengers with a horrible abruptness. The two washrooms for steerage passengers, with ten basins apiece, six toilets and cold salt water taps were mpidly inundated. After a couple of days the stench of their quarters was nauseating.

Food was served in a large filthy dining hall on long tables; warm soup, potatoes, fish, boiled beef and cabbage, brown or black bread. Wladek had tasted worse food but not ISO since Russia and was glad of the provisions he had brought along with him : sausages, nuts and a little brandy. He and Jerzy shared them huddled in the comer of their berth. It was an unspoken understanding. They ate together, explored the ship together and at night, slept one above the other.

On the third day at sea Jerzy brought a Polish girl to their table for supper. Her name, he informed Wladek casually, was Zaphia. It was the first time in his life that Wladek had ever looked at a woman twice, but he couldn't stop looking at Zaphia. She rekindled memories of Florentyna. The warm grey eyes, the long fair hair that fell on to her shoulders and the soft voice. Wladek found he wanted to touch her. The girl occasionally smiled across at Wladek, who was miserably aware how much better looking Jerzy was than he. He tagged along as Jerzy escorted Zaphia back to the women's quarters.

Jerzy turned to him afterwards, mildly irritated. 'Can't you find a girl of your own? This one's mine.'

Wadek was not prepared to adn - dt that he had no idea how to set about finding a girl of his own.

'There will be enough time for girls when we reach America,' he said scornfully.

'Why wait for America? I intend to have as many on this ship as possible!

'How will you go about that?' asked Wladek, intent on the acquisition of knowledge without admitting to his own ignorance.

We have twelve more days in this awful tub, and I am going to have twelve women,' boasted jenzy.

13

'What can you do with twelve women?' asked Vilade1r.

Tuck them, what else?'

Wladek looked perplexed.

~Good God,' said Jerzy. 'Don't tell me the man who survived the Germans and escaped from the Russians, killed a man at the age of twelve and narrowly missed having his hand chopped off by a bunch of savage Turks has never had a woman?'

He laughed, and a multilingual chorus from the surrounding bunks told him to 'shut up'.

'Well,' Jer - Ly continued in a whisper, 'the time has come to broaden your education, because at last I have found something I can teach you.' He peered over the side of his bunk even though he could not see Wladek's face in the dark. 'Zaphia's an understanding girl. I dare say she could be persuaded to expand your education a little. I shall arrange it.'

Wladek didn't reply.

No more was said on the subject, but the next day Zaphia started to pay attention to Wladek. She sat next to him at meals, and they talked for hours of their experiences and hopes. She was 'an orphan from Poznan, on her way to join her cousins in Chicago. Wladek told Zaphia that he was going to New York and would probably live with Jerzy.