Marie (Part VIII)

But Marika unfortunately grew more and more distant from me. Not literally, because the whole time she adored me and did everything for me, but I felt that with the change in her visage, meaning from the moment she acquired the great amount of such wonderful clothing, more than of me she thought with joy of the approaching 15 July, when she would leave for Sopot. 

I felt the way her imagination worked, how she thought of what dress she would appear in on the Sopotian promenade, what she would wear for dancing at the Grand Hotel, and what she would appear in at some promoter parties. 

The whole time she thought this through, knowing full well that in each of these places she would be a queen. She constantly telephoned her father and again got more money. 

Now she left the house often and happily, always in something else. We bought two of the best and most expensive suitcases, I helped her pack everything and on 14 July in the evening I put her on the Gdansk train. 

She told me before I departed that she adored me and that for everything that I did for her in this time of trouble, she did not know how to thank me. 

When I returned home, I felt some kind of way, and in the bathroom I discovered on the mirror drawn in lipstick a heart, and written in English I LOVE YOU – M. 

Two days later I met Milena.