Love Knows No Sides

Chapter 40 - Epilogue

When the war was coming to an end, and it was May 1945, all the Germans withdrew from Kołobrzeg and other Polish coastal states. All but one. Alex still stayed in the tenement house in Kołobrzeg and had no intention of going anywhere, at least not without me.

Ever since the time we confessed our love for each other, Alex has been walking, or rather limping. At first, we ordered special crutches for him, and when I earned a little more money, we finally could afford a solid prosthesis. He's doing well, even though it was hard for us at first. Now Alex is waiting for me to reach 18 years old as he plans to marry me. His plan met the approval of Grandma and Mateusz who wish us a good and happy life together.

Meanwhile, Arek and Monika paid a visit to us. Hopefully, they managed to survive the war and now they could safely return to Kołobrzeg. Of course, Monika threw herself at Mateusz and kissed him, while Arek was disappointed that I didn't want to wait for him but soon he forgave me as he found himself a bride in the meantime.

All's well that ends well, right? However, shortly after the end of the war, Grandma Pola died. Mateusz claimed to have found her dead in bed and when the doctor came he found that she passed away in her sleep, completely painless. We all mourned her, even Monika and her brother, in the end she helped them too. As Mateusz was too old to own a property as big as an apartment, he asked Arek whether he would like to inherit it and move into with his sister. Admittedly, at first they didn't really want to live in the mourning house but after a while they finally moved in and stayed with him.

One day, when I was walking with Alex through the park in Kołobrzeg, I noticed one of the war veterans under the tree. The Polish uniform was torn and dirty, as was its owner, whose beard appeared to have not been trimmed for several years. He looked at me with tired gray eyes, and I froze. He didn't recognize me, and maybe that's for the better. I tossed him a few coins in a corn can and he didn't even thank me. He hasn't changed a bit since the war, I thought, and we moved on.

"Did you know him?" Alex asked hugging me.

"Why are you asking?"

"Because you were watching him closely." He explained.

"That was my father." I replied smiling mysteriously. Yet he survived...