He fell in love with books when seven. He knew he would be a writer when twelve. There were two books in his wardrobe and a notebook in his bag. He had not touched the books for two weeks and the notebook for a month. He was building a road near Gdansk. Rain was falling and wind was blowing. A truck with sand came and unloaded the sand. An excavator spread the sand over a stretch of the road. They were making it even, first with spades, then with rakes. The sand was wet and with boulders. Boulders he did not like. He could either pick them and throw away into the grass by the road or leave them. The foreman did not like it when he threw boulders into the grass. He did not like to leave them because they were too big for the tamping machine to tamp them. He threw them into the grass when the foreman did not see and he left them when the foreman was looking. They finished the stretch and the truck came again. This time, the sand was without boulders or any stones and it was easy to rake and tamp it. Before working on the next stretch, they had to carry some kerb-stones which were scattered over it to the pallets. He and Dog went there and Sergey went to tamp the whole long stretch they had done that day. The huge kerb-stone which separated a sidewalk and a road was called kraweznik. He and Dog took one and carried it to the pallet by the road. They took the other one and carried it there. Then they took the last one. After a couple of metres, he dropped it on his fingers. They took it again. He dropped it. “Fuck,” Dog said. Sergey came and carried the last kraweznik for him. Sergey and Dog put it on the pallet. Rain was falling and wind was blowing.

That day, they paid everyone. The Ukrainians were happy and bought two bottles of vodka. They all drank vodka in the evening. He said he would go to the city on the weekend.

The next day, he went to the city. He went to the café. “It’s a long time,” Mateusz said. “I am sorry,” he said. Mateusz brought the coffee. He opened his notebook. He started to write. “Nice weather today, huh?” Mateusz said, looking out of the window and smiling. He did not say anything.