
"The graveyard of rats"

by Tomasz Hejnowicz

© Copyright by Tomasz Hejnowicz

All right reserved Any unauthorized duplication of this book is strictly prohibited.

_Title: The graveyard of rats_

written by: Tomasz Hejnowicz

translated by: Alicja Tarnowska

cover art and design: Tomasz Hejnowicz

edited by: Alicja Tarnowska

1st English version, 2015

Rats are more often than not, the first to escape a drowning ship.

They have extreme survival instinct.

There are, however, places that a rat cannot escape.

That's where it chooses to pass away.

Index

PREFACE

First school experience

Discovering "self and oneself"

Schoolyard education

A priest and Mr. Banan

School pets

A conflict with Banan

Secret co-workers

Living situation dramatically resolved

Schoolmates

The true awareness of one's interests

Our last Summer – Summertime education

Learning about one's interests and hobbies

A short abroad excursion and a locker room incident

A casus of Edward and others like him

School trips – almost like freedom

Mr Kuberski's guinea pigs – The Dirty Fifty

Sports

The thrills and chills of the technical school

The emergence of big politics

The peaceful studies

A military education episode

Return to destiny

Quick change of the principals

Exploring other forms of education

People in power – a short philosophical and sociological discussion

The age of Pigeon's Heart

The war and battles on numerous fronts

Provocation, first events and the war

The spiteful trade union genesis

The mechanics of politics and institutions – the childlike naivety of the union circle

It all comes down to this

Banishment

The law, the court fraud and the outlaw's return

Two schools

The leaving

The Pigeon's Heart's co-workers

The wings of the union circle – intelligence and counterintelligence

The school's ghost, curses and other amazing phenomena

EPILOGUE

The horrifying title of the book

# PREFACE

It's 7.40 a.m within the cold walls of the silent school building. There is a boy standing in one of its endlessly long halls, gazing out of the window, looking at the empty, squared schoolyard and the school gym. He can hear the creaking of the swaying bathroom door and the wind blowing through the halls. Where is everybody? And why is he so afraid? Everything seems to be alright and yet he feels a knot in his stomach. Suddenly, some silent voices start emerging out of nowhere and now fear spreads all over his body. Are those coming from his head? They sound demanding, dissatisfied, disappointed. They want to humiliate him. He starts to run, but there is nowhere to escape - the hall leads to the closed door of the gym. He runs anyway, runs for his life, even though there is no one actually chasing him. Filled with panic, he stops, wanting to jump out of the rusty window, but it's too big and too heavy and impossible to open. His body starts to shake.

He wakes up and regains consciousness. Thank God, it's still August. His last days of peace and quiet before he goes back to school to teach children, like he did for so many years now. It's the third time he had that same dream. First time he dreamed it when he was in primary school, second time before one of the winter exam sessions and third time just now, by the end of the Summer holiday.

Rats, school rats everywhere. They run in the basement, they swim in sewage, avoiding enemies all life long. They form mysterious groups, that can kill their victim in a blink of an eye. They can mercilessly compete with each other. They are able to survive in most extreme conditions. They are practically invincible...and yet eventually death always gets them. Where do they die? Actually, very often they choose to pass away in the dark and forgotten underground areas of schools! Because once a rat gets into a school, it often can't find its way out and stays there for ever. It doesn't know the world outside of school nor does it want to know any other world. It is safe to eat scraps and then die among them. A graveyard of rats.

Krzysztof, our main character, was "born" at school, in a sense, he spent his whole life there. This is no fairy tale... but it is an educational tale, which I will share with you gladly.

# First school experience

Krzysztof's "great school adventure" began in the sixties. Of course at first, he felt like a mere little boy, led by amazingly wise grown-ups into a new world.

School, however, was actually not that new to the kid. After years of imprisonment, his father got a job as a stoker in a local school and was offered an apartment. It consisted of one, dark room with high ceiling, a kitchen and a bathroom. Initially, it was enough for the 4-person family. Children were slowly growing up. Those were tough times and little Krzysio didn't know or understand much of what was going on. His parents never talked about his father's past. The label of an enemy of the people's government, who was "particularly dangerous to the restoration of the Polish People's Republic" wasn't something to brag about in front of friends.

From his first school years, Krzyś remembered only those matters that concerned him. He remembered ink in the ink stab and some nursery rhymes he remembered walking through the hallways and playing traffic with classmates. He was proud when it was his turn to dress as a policeman and guide the traffic. It was the only day when he got to tell his classmates what to do. He didn't do a particularly good job though, because there were a few "crashes".

Krzyś remembered sweaty, black and blue, school uniforms made from shiny cotton and proudly worn, blue, school badges. He remembered the tiring exercise of writing letters in a three-lined notebooks and drawing colorful patterns at the end of every lesson. He remembered wooden pens with their shiny nibs and the ink stabs stuck inside the desks.

Krzyś had particularly remembered the 1st-May celebration at school and the performance, in which he played a laborer with tongs sticking out of his pocket. He remembered an enormous stage fright and stammering into the microphone.

He was a good boy, who rarely caused trouble. When in conflict, he was more likely to cry than to act aggressively. Once, just before a class, he got painfully kicked and complained about it tearfully to his teacher: "He kicked me in my balls!" The teacher's and children's laughter remained in his memory for a long time and soon he learned how to deliberately make others laugh. Teachers were not happy about it and were very hard on him, but it didn't stop him for bringing goof fun to the class. He couldn't understand how his behavior could be so irritable to the teachers and why he was punished for his innocent jokes.

The following years flew by like a dream and didn't leave many memories. Either nothing exciting happened or his everyday life was just plain boring. He held the most pleasing memories however, such as warm, Summer evenings or picking berries from the bushes in the schoolyard. Once he played doctor with a female classmate and was amazed to find out that she had different body parts from him.

At the age of ten, Krzyś started to develop his first fears. There was a little rascal on the playground, that terrorized other children, but because his father was an officer the kid was untouchable. The local municipal policeman always refused to intervene in cases that involved that rascal. Once, having had a drink with Krzysio's father, the Sergeant said: "I'm helpless when it comes to this kid. His father is a big officer. I could lose my job."

The school difficulties seemed more common and down-to-earth. Kids dreaded, for instance, being tested on times table and rhymes. Our little boy spent his evenings practicing them aloud in the toilet and in the class, he did whatever he could to hide his frightened face and avoid being called on. To the poor kids from poor families, every class was hell that must have been got through. They learned to sidestep.

During breaks, one could come across some "bad guys" in school hallways. Those were mostly children from problem families, repeating classes over and over again. Other children knew that one, unfortunate look at a "bad guy" could result in being hit or spat on. They were however, way more predictable than the "little rascal". They did not attack unless provoked. Everyone secretly knew that those guys were responsible for stealing pocket money and lunch boxes. One of them had a funny last name and even though no one dared to make fun of it, he would punch whoever got in his way, just in case.

Our boy did mostly well at school. He was an average student and his biggest nightmare was maths. He was terrible at equations – he would always miscalculate something. He understood mathematical problems, but his calculating problems always made them impossible to solve. Maybe he was a case of what today would be called "discalculia", or perhaps he simply had a bad teacher. Three years before Krzyś graduated, his class was introduced to a new maths teacher, a man named Tytus, who had married the former teacher later on. And ever since he became a teacher, all the fear that tormented Krzyś before those lessons, just faded away. The man knew how to make maths look simpler. He always explained everything thoroughly. He was patient and had a good sense of humor. Thanks to the new teacher, Krzyś started to like maths and started to make real progress in it. Those lessons were no longer a problem.

Sometimes, when bored in class, our boy would gaze through the window, at the green alley and observed the trees that changed their looks seasonally. Sometimes he spotted some cars or tractors. That was much more interesting than looking towards the blackboard or at the rare The world outside the window seemed safer and more welcoming. In those moments he missed home, holidays and wished he could scape this closed building filled with bored kids. He felt that many of the school subject will be useless in the future, although he didn't know who he wanted to be as a grown-up. He just lifelessly did what he was told to do.

When the weather was cruel, Krzyś would walk to school through the boiler room. He would open the old, heavy, creaky door and then make his way through dark halls until he reached the locker room. He preferred that to walking through the schoolyard, because in colder days he wore his father's work coat which other kids made fun of.

#

### Discovering "self and oneself"

Towards the end of the 60's, schools were operating within the system of eight classes. It seemed that from the 6th class and higher, kids wanted to be treated differently and to be called "teenagers". It was the age of puberty, at different stages. Some boys were developing facial hair, some girls were getting curvy in an obvious way. It was the time of one boy having a little mustache and growling voice and another one is short and sounds like a girl. Younger kids' baby teeth were falling out and the sight of the gap-toothed was pretty common at school. Girls were becoming meaner and boys didn't understand why, so they would react aggressively, because they didn't know what else to do. Boys provoked by girls, often ended up having big trouble and they still didn't understand why.

It was the time of first self-definition and getting to know the environment. At parent-teacher meetings, teachers would let the parents know about the children's talents and strong suits. Worst-case scenario, if a child was considered an anti-talent. Some children believed in such labels so much, they would completely give up on something they were only seemingly "bad" at. Back in the days, teachers were seen as "oracles" and parents were rarely skeptical about their opinions. If a teacher criticized child's behavior at a parent-teacher meeting, that child would later receive proper butt-slapping from the parent. Those over-worked and under-educated parents automatically believed every word that came out of the teacher's mouth. No one would believe the child's version of the story. Teachers were greatly respected and if they had bad opinions about children, it would bring shame to the parents. Therefore, the teacher was always "right" and the child was always the "bad and lazy liars" and need to be punished. Teachers knew well that their words produce such reactions in parents and the next day after a parent-teacher meeting, they would ask the children if "their butts hurt bad enough".

Those rules were obeyed also in Krzysztof's household. He was punished for bad grades, bad words and for occasional slapping someone. He would always dread facing her mother after a parent-teacher meeting. If she came home crying, he knew that soon he will cry too. But after that everything would be fine again...until another meeting.

Christmas break wouldn't bring much joy to the kids. They knew that they might face a big bad monster right afterwards. That big bad monster was the final, semester grading, which often meant additional oral tests and consequently, embarrassment in front of the entire class. It felt as bad as if they had their pants publicly taken off. In fact, Krzyś often suffered from nightmares about pants-lessly standing in front of class. Summer finals were less painful, because the teachers would always try to give better grades, for fear they would ruin their own statistics. One must have been a particularly lazy kid to fail a year. It was so much easier to get to the next grade, than it was to get to the next semester.

# Schoolyard education

Another very important aspect of a young person's development back then, was a different, sadly unappreciated form of education - the so-called "schoolyard education". In contrary to the traditional, "official" education, this type blossomed during the months of vacation. Its main concern was socialization, that is defining one's position in group, defining roles and assignments, choosing leaders...It also included gaining knowledge about the adult world, about how to cope, about sex, friends and enemies.

In his childhood and early puberty years, Krzyś belonged to the Fredek's group. It played a significant role in his social education. Thin and stammering Fredek, his brother – chubby Marek, tiny Kaziu with his tall and thin sister Malwina, Twin Bros and Krzysztof's brother Janek – all of them formed a tight group having fun and exploring the world.

The leader was the tallest, the strongest and the oldest and no one ever dared to disagree with him. Krzyś and Janek may have been smarter, but neither of them ever felt drawn to being a leader. No one questioned Fredek's power and he himself never abused it. He had a lot of interesting ideas and a little more money than other kids. Whenever he bought a new motorbike, he would gladly take others for rides. He was admired and never condescending. He was simply a happy kid who wanted to share his happiness. Later they found out that his handicapped father traded labor clothes on a market and that produced much bigger income than a full time job. That way Fredek's dad provided his children with expensive toys.

The team would play at an empty schoolyard during school holidays. There were berry bushes that bloomed in the Summertime and the kids would hide among them and eat fresh fruit. On cooler days they would just run around the playground chasing each other with different toy guns. Sadly, one day, Krzyś lost his brand new, shiny, blue, Chinese machine gun in the sandbox. Others believed that eventually it was found and sold by the tiny Kazio...

They didn't play football, because there wasn't enough of them to form teams. They rather kicked a ball or played badminton or cycled around a huge glade nearby.

It was clear that Fredek was the first to hit puberty and one day he decided to teach his group about sex. The kids were startled when he handed them seemingly regular deck of cards. They thought they would play poker again, but it turned out that the cards contained a weird pornographic story, in which two maids fooled around with some black guy, in the kitchen. The black guy had an unusually large and throbbing willy. The kids took this "sexual education" with silent amazement.

Surprisingly enough, Fredek did not have any conflicts with the "little rascal" mentioned earlier. They didn't run into each other much. It was a pity, because Fredek could "show him where his place is". Till this day Krzysztof regrets not asking Fredek to "talk" to that little terrorist. If that were the case, maybe he wouldn't have spent his entire childhood in fear.

In the last years of primary school, their group welcomed a bunch of new members, Krzysztof's classmates. They were all bigger and more independent by now and could also hang out together during schooldays. In that time, the "schoolyard education" involved mostly exhausting football matches and in the winter, crazy sleigh rides down the citadel hills.

When the winter was particularly tough, local firemen would create an ice ring in the schoolyard. It was rough but free and kids could skate there even after dark. The rink was so poorly lit, that one could see only shapes of other skaters. The cold spread across, the body, skates creaked on the surface, but nothing could beat the excitement of skating in the mist like that. Krzyś would wobbly make his way through the ice, waving his arms back and forth. He didn't have skates, because they were far too expensive for his parents. Plus, his feet grew very fast.

He was neither a skilled footballer, nor a good ice skater. He was most often a goalie. As for the ice skating, he could only skate straight ahead.

# A priest and Mr. Banan

The Polish society of the 60's lived in hypocrisy and constant fear, or rather in a full blown schizophrenia. On the surfaced d the majority officially supported only the valid, atheistic party of socialism, while quietly sending their children to church to catechism. On one hand, everyone considered themselves "good people", while on the other hand, many of them would steal whatever they could from their workplaces. Till this day, they don't see any conflict in that. Today's political choices are the further consequence of such beliefs.

Little Krzyś, still believing in ideal world tried to comprehend, what's right and what's wrong, who lied and who was fair. He took his religious education deep into his heart and each time he went home from church, he felt like a strong saint, who would do good for himself and others, in the future. His First Holly Communion was such a compelling ritual for him, that never again had he experienced anything that spiritual and mystical. It was a feeling of overflowing joy and happiness...as if Jesus actually existed within him.

Meanwhile in history and Polish class, he believed in teachers praising the "only valid and fair political system".Then he had to think about church teachings as fictional stories and agree with the teachers, that the contemporary science was the only truth. He also knew that he was lucky to have lived in Poland, because there were places where children suffered from hunger and black people were slaves. He had to balance those two worldviews and it brought him great confusion. He once tried to talk about it with a classmate, but he wasn't understood. Perhaps he chose a wrong classmate – that boy named Konewka wasn't smart enough to understand Krzysztof's worldview. He was only interested in motorbikes.

What about adults? Could they have been role models?

The local polish priest with an irritable, rural accent, as well as Mr. Banan appeared to be kind and peaceful people. Krzyś looked up to them, while searching for his life path and truth, but it didn't last long in neither case.

Mr. Banan was on the opposite side of religion and mysticism. He was a materialistic simpleton, an elderly communist and also happened to be the principal of the school where our boy studied and also where Krzysztof's father worked. Before his career in education, he worked in a distillery and also had a short episode in politics. He was a working class idol, also recognized and acknowledged by the intelligence and rural workers. Why was he called Banan? Some said, because he was wealthy, others thought that it was his fake 'banana" smile. That short, chubby and baldy man appeared to have had an undeniably attractive personality. Someone so nice had to be a good man, right? Well, we will come back to him in a different chapter.

Parish priest, on the other hand, lost our boy trust because of suspicious behavior. Krzyś never shared his thoughts on that with anybody, but he observed that the priest expressed too much affection towards some children. Krzyś wasn't a fan of that head-stroking and leg-cupping. He couldn't really define the off-ness that he felt about it and he was afraid to ponder it. At first, he felt unworthy, because he didn't get such affection signs from the priest, but on the other hand he definitely didn't want to get any. Maybe it was just his imagination...or maybe rather the sixth sense?

Soon, Krzyś distanced himself from church and its teachings that began to feel boring and naïve to him. At some point he stopped attending the religion class. However next year, encouraged by his classmates and one priest who said there was "goodness in Krzysztof's eyes" (though one of them was black at that time), he decided to give that class another chance. At that time, there was a different teacher and a different group. He also had a secret reason to be there – the reason's name was Beata, a beautiful, slim and sporty girl, whom he loved to observe and appreciate. Whenever she looked at him, he blushed and felt weak in the knees. He enjoyed that weird sensation. He then decided that he had to get her attention somehow and he started to misbehave and joke around in class. Once he drew a cartoon priest with a halo over his head, that actually looked like a skeleton. The priest felt offended, but it didn't stop Krzyś. He wanted to entertain this beautiful girl Beata, who had such a cute small, speech impediment.

Bedazzled by Beata's beauty, Krzyś used to follow her home every now and then. Luckily enough, his new friend Marek lived close by. Marek faced great challenges while attending religion class, because his father was a well-known professor and his uncle was a parish. Therefore that boy had to attend the class using a different name. Krzyś was happy to walk home with his new friend, because, unlike with Konewka, they could actually discuss deeper matters like religion and philosophy. While talking to Marek, Krzyś would observe his favorite girl, who walked home the same way. One day he dared to bring her home something she lost earlier in school. Beata wasn't home, but as it turned out, her mother dressed only in a slip, was much more beautiful. Ever since Krzyś saw that woman at the door, his erotic fantasies began to confuse him.

# School pets

There are certain animals that live silently at every school. And I don't necessarily mean those poor hamsters, frogs or fish in biology lab. School is also home for wild creatures, that chose that space as their place of birth, life and death. They are excellent hiders and are able to live unnoticed through the entire school year. By "they" I mean various insects, reptiles, amphibians, mammals, birds and even fish. Once in a blue moon someone would catch a glimpse of such a secret school inhabitant and it would be the headline news at school.

Krzyś actually noticed those little creatures on a daily basis. Their presence was obvious to him. He saw bunches of cats, rats big and small, an occasional frog or a lizard. As for birds, he would frequently encounter sparrows, martins, crows, tits and larks. The most common insect was a cockroach, but in the summertime there were also bees, wasps and huge flies. Fortunately, there were no hornets. Krzysztof found a hornet nest on the school's roof many, many years later.

Why were there so many creatures roaming around the school? It's easy – schools produce enormous amounts of leftovers from the school cafeteria. Even though, children and teachers tend to have great appetites, schools produce enough food waste to attract wildlife.

Rats were particularly mysterious and unpleasant. Sadly, those old ones could grow to a size of a cat. They were brown or gray and basically fearless. They could swim in sewage. Once, such a rat jumped out of the toilet at Krzysztof's home, having made a lot of noise. The boy's father did whatever he could to fight them, but he also feared them. Sometimes he would corner them and close in a box so that they starved to death. Other times he would lay out food stuffed with plaster, which would cause rats to die a rather painful death. In the boiler house, he would simply use some big and sharp tools. If he stuck a rat on something like that, he would keep it there still for several days, to scare other rats away.

In the Springtime, Krzyś enjoyed observing martins, that happened to build their nest above his window, every year. And the squeals of the newborn hatchlings were a sign of warm and joyful Summer days approaching.

Over time, our boy developed particular fondness of one, domesticated school cat, whom the night watchman gave a name Leszczyński (it was the famous Banan's actual last name). No wonder anytime someone called out "Leszczyński, here, kitty kitty kitty!", it made everyone roll on the floor laughing. The cat was frequently treated with a saucer of milk or even cream. Krzyś had never met such an intelligent animal before. This kitty could play "volleyball" with chunks of chalk and ate with he's paws while sitting upright like a hare. He would walk with Krzysztof's family as if he was their pet. He particularly liked walking along the plane tree alley toward the citadel. He would always walk faithfully next to his human and when it saw a dog approaching, he would calmly climb the nearest tree and patiently wait for the dog to walk away. He's only vice was that he was awfully lazy and didn't feel like catching any mice or rats. Unlike Minia, his mother, who had always been a great hunter. Once, Minia caught a few little rats and decided to lay them all in an underground corridor, arranged by size...

There were usually around eleven cats at that school. Some of them tended to become particularly aggressive when the little ones arrived. Those cats could even attack dobermans and chase them down the alley. It was however the dog owners' fault, every single time, because silly people tried to bait their dogs. They were usually stunned when it was their dog that got chased.

Those cats tend to suffer from a mysterious disease that caused eye infections and fur damage. They tried to heal themselves, eating camomile flowers in the schoolyard, but it wasn't of much help. If a cat died, it would always be cremated by Krzysztof's father.

# A conflict with Banan

At some point, the tradition of punishing had been broken in Krzysztof's family. His parents no longer believed the teachers so completely and became more indulgent in regard to his little guilts. Something was different, something must had happened. Krzyś began to observe a peculiar conflict between his parents and his teachers.

Indeed there was a kind of a drama happening near him. A conflict arose between the school director and Krzysztof's father. As it turned out, a few years earlier, the director promised better living conditions for their family, by building another room for their apartment. Not only had that not happen, the director had also been refusing to pay Krzysztof's father for extra hours and for working during holidays. He didn't care about saving the fuel. When Marian, Krzysztof's father tried to fight for his rights, the director laughed at him, reminded him about his past in jail and told to sit quietly.

Banan said with outright meanness:

"Marian, let's get something straight here. That bigger place and more money that you want – never gonna happen!"

This formerly kind and admirable man became a soulless monster, that took away the last hope of Krzysztof's family, while they couldn't even afford a warm dinner. His family's diet were on a 100% potato-based – potatoes with oil, potatoes with cottage cheese or potato pancakes. A tomato soup or a chicken broth was a rare treat that was sometimes made on Sunday. Obviously, it was extremely hard for the 4-person family to live altogether in one room. No wonder, Banan's revolting behavior extremely angered Krzysztof's father. He sued Banan and won the case.

Winning the case brought both good and bad consequences. From that point forward, the family's financial situation began to improve. In the cold season, the amount of extra working hours was so big, Marian's paychecks were sometimes bigger than those of teachers. The family could even save up for Summer vacation. Life wasn't so hard anymore, there was broth for dinner every Sunday... Marian finally fulfilled his dream – he bought a motorbike and a twenty-year-old car.

Banan's case reverberated for a long while. Its impact resulted in better salaries and better treating of the workers and stokers in other schools. Everyone was now rewarded for working extra hours and during holidays.

On the other hand, not everybody was happy about Banan's failure. Some teachers had entirely changed the way they treated Marian's children. It was never clear, however, what their reasoning was, but from that point forward, the whole family was publicly disregarded and excluded from certain circles and their children were intensively tested in some classes. There was a policeman in the schoolyard, watching Marian's every move, no matter the weather. It was said that the man was looking for any evidence of Marian stealing coal. It was pretty obvious who was responsible for such invigilation.

# Secret co-workers

Winning the case against a party officer was a phenomenon. It evoked anger and a desire for revenge. Each time Marian got his paycheck, he heard others murmuring with dissatisfaction. Conversations in the director's office weren't pleasant either. Marian was still fighting for a better place to live. He wasn't afraid of Banan, who could not stand that this puny stoker doesn't bow in front of him like everyone else. Marian became the "black sheep" who made the" beloved" director unhappy. The situation grew unbearable. It was a war of nerves. Banan still made disrespectful remarks towards Marian, while the teachers continued their regime with Marian's children.

Some might say it was fortune, others would say that it was Hod, that finally brought Marian a bunch of secret helpers. There was a hostel for teenagers within the school's area, where happened to live a certain nosy, young man named Arbuz. A night watchman by night and a secret student by day. He was terribly bored most of the time and, because he was interested in archiving, he would go through the school's documentations at night. He was startled when he discovered, that the school's director worked 13 different shifts and regularly stole from the school and the hostel. Apparently, Banan would buy new equipment for school, such as carpets, TV sets or curtains, that were delivered to Banan's apartment instead of the classrooms. Then Banan would cross those purchases from the school's evidence, buy more equipment and sell it during his abroad excursions. Not once had Marian seen Banan's car at night bending under the weight of various tents, mattresses, carpets...

Also, the school was annually renovated and repainted by the same by the same, private crew. That needs no further explanation either.

Banan had to cover all of those crimes somehow. He had to be a real expert in that area, or perhaps, had some friends who helped him along the way. Anyway, soon he found a scapegoat who would take responsibility for all his frauds.

One Summer day, Banan hired a new, female accountant. Despite Marian's and Arbuz's warnings, she agreed to take the school's state with all its baggage. After a few months Banan accused her of embezzlemen. Soon, she needed to be mentally hospitalized...

Many other thefts and frauds were discovered by another close friend of Krzysztof's family, a teacher named Edward. In fact, both Arbuz and Edward delivered a lot of proof of Banan's monkey business. Marian had mixed feelings about what to do with all of it. He wasn't fully trusting that weirdly brave teacher that befriended him against the whole school environment. But because Banan was still in revenge and war against him, Marian eventually threw caution to the wind and began fighting for the better future of his family. He started from informing the board of education about Banan's behavior. He got no response. Regional education authorities also disregarded him. In the National Labor Inspection he met a very understanding authority, who fined Banan heavily, but that was all he could do.

Eventually, backed up by Edward, Marian reached out to the department of economic crime. He felt uncomfortable about cooperating with the police, considering the events of the 50's, but he had no other choice. He couldn't hold grudges towards the service that could very well help him this time. The machine went on and a series of thorough investigations. Secret services would visit the school by night. The case was very challenging, due to Banan's social status and party membership. The chief officer informed Marian, that Banan's frauds were unquestionable, but due to his connections, he might get away with them. That didn't discourage Marian – he turned to even higher authorities. That finally left to firing Banan from his position of the school director, however, he wasn't sued or arrested. The whole case was muted and swept under the rug. Perhaps, it was just a coincidence that soon, Marian received a written declaration of improving his family's living conditions. The school fell silent. Teachers still did not talk to Marian, only in that time, it was believed that they feared him.

# Living situation dramatically resolved

At this point it is important to mention that there were two schools situated in one building, separated from each other with a gate. The director of that other school was a kind-hearted, elderly man, who lived with his family in a 2-room apartment, also within the building. The two families lived in peace over many years. At some point even, the neighbor's daughter was tutoring Marian's children. Eventually, there came a time of closing the other school and time for the other director to retire, and what followed, the bigger apartment would've been vacant. Marian saw the chance of taking that apartment from the retiring man's hands and began putting serious effort into it. He soon received a document confirming his receiving of the apartment, due to the neighbors' move. It looked like the Marian 's family's dream was finally becoming a reality...

Along came the moving day. Everyone was happy, especially the growing children, who could finally have their own room. The renovations began and life became harder for that period of time, but the family was happily waiting for their dream apartment.

And suddenly an unfortunate plot twist occurred. Somehow, the apartment was eventually given to the director that replaced Banan...and that happened to be Tytus. Marian's family was heartbroken. Their home became a rather depressing place filled with tears, sadness and, as the boys grew up, frequent acts of anger and aggression.

However, thanks to Marian's immediate and rather strong reaction, the authorities decided on a different rebuilding of the school. Tytus got 3 rooms and Marian – one, tiny room. The new director also wanted one of his rooms bigger, which would result in even less space for Marian. That was the breaking point. When the renovation crew came over, Marian's exhausted and enraged wife grabbed a shovel and literally stopped everyone at the doorstep, claiming that only over her dead body would they take away her already ridiculously small space. Fortunately that threat resulted in Tytus withdrawing from his whim. However, Marian's family never forgave him taking away their dream home.

The stress slowly began to dissipate, the renovation crew finished the works and when the boys came back from their summer camp, they moved in to their fresh and new, yet tiny room. Marian could finally move out of the kitchen.

# Schoolmates

A class is a randomly and formally created social group, validated by the school principal with one sign. But was it really that random? The hidden truth was that the classes with the first letters of the alphabet were more elite. And therefore, the "A" type classes would consist of children from more prominent or affluent families. Apart from this factor, the classes were just bunches of random kids.

Krzysztof was assigned to a "C" class from the very beginning. And since there were only 3 classes when he started, obviously, it was not an intelligent or a prominent group. It was rather a completely random bunch of "leftovers". At some point, the class "A" became a "sports class" while the class "B" was a place for the "genius" and the "well-behaved". The classes were in constant competition, fired up by teachers also, but it was pretty obvious that the "C" class would never win in any sport or achieve best learning scores.

While their father fought bravely with Banan, his sons hadd their own, school life, after all that's where they'd spent most of their days. The Fall/Winter time was the saddest because te days were short and they had to spend their evenings at home. Obviously, they couldn't invite their friends over to their tiny apartment, though they would get occasional invitations to their friends' homes.

And so, first school friendships were formed during long hours behind the classroom door. Despite his assignemt to the "bad" class, Krzyś was fortunate to have met a few very interesting personalities in his class, whom he remembered for ever. And luckily, he didn't have any enemies and there was no bullying in the class, ever. There were a few children with special needs, but no one made fun of them. Everyone got along well. There was no rich-poor division, because no one in that class was rich. There was no fashion competition between girls and boys were happy about such simple things as having a treat to eat on lunch break. They would rather envy each other's good grades, good looks or sport achievements. Also, after classes, boys liked to show off and play vinyls on a record deck. They liked competing in collecting rare vinyls of The Beatles and Rolling Stones.

In those years, Krzyś developed friendships with 3 classmates , Marcin, Romek and Jacek. Each of them was a unique personality. Marcin, a big guy with tiny glasses always impressed Krzysztof with his broad knowledge on every conceivable subject. He was also very strong and practiced judo. Even though he didn't look scary, he could be surprisingly dangerous to a potential enemy. Romek was a short, sporty and very funny dude, who had a pocketful of brilliant and fun ideas. He loved to laugh. Jacek was kind and good looking and attracted a lot of female attention. He didn't pay much attention to them, but he was very passionate about motorbikes and his dad's little Zastava car. He would drive it around an abandoned yard. His father was believed to have been a member of the party, therefore "taboo" topics were not discussed with Jacek.

The "taboo" topics included history and politics and frankly, they weren't very important in their conversations. Yet as they got to know each other's world views, they discovered that in fact, they had a lot in common. All of them were concerned about the schizophrenia spreading across the environment around them. They were pondering the sense of religion and observing how reality differed from the propaganda. They were always up to date with the news of the western world. Even though each one of them came from a different family background, they all came to similar conclusions. As you know, Krzyś was a son of a political prisoner and a "public enemy", but he also had a very prosperous aunt – world traveler. Marcin's parents were scientists who were persistently trying to realize their unfulfilled dreams. He also had a wealthy family in England. Once, they came to Poland in a beautiful Jaguar...it was the best day! Romek was a son of a constantly frustrated military man, who'd been frequently relocated from one end of the country to another. That man was a military M.D, who was rather strict in his ways, but was wealthy and not a party member. At the beginning when Krzyś found out that Romek's father was a military man he was a bit concerned, but at some point, he understood that a parent's profession did not have to shape his friend's world view. Not all army men were blood-sucking monsters. There were many a decent man among them.

Krzyś did not expect such an evolution of his friendships. Marcin did not want to hang out with Jacek, Romek made fun of Jacek, Jacek didn't like Marcin and Krzyś was liked by all of them. It was weird to him that they could never hang out as a team. Over time, however, Jacek had left the group and Krzyś, Romek and Marcin remained a harmonious team. They would spend vacation together, visit each other's homes and discuss their interests, such as music, motorization and school's events. Sometimes they would get into endless discussions about the nonsense of socialism. But the most interesting topic was, naturally, girls and which girl is the prettiest. Marcin liked Krysia, Romek liked the beautiful blonde Ewa and Krzyś would silently mention the long-legged Beata and the dusky Marzena. None of them tried to convince each other about their own rightness – they were happy not to compete!

Krzyś tended to discuss the serious life matters most often with the contemplative Marcin, while Romek was a living entertainment center. Romek was always active, always in a rush somewhere and had a head filled with fun and quite dangerous ideas. At some point they fell in love with model-making. They got quickly bored with aeromodeling, however one day, they'd found a rocket model in a scout's shop – that was when they got really hooked. First they would build models of rockets and then they would attatch little engines to them. They would set up a rocket launcher in the schoolyard and, with the help of electrically heated wires, shoot them up. Sometimes, in the winter, they would drive to the countryside in an old Syrenka and shoot whole series of rockets up in the air with little paratroopers falling out of them. That was terribly scary to the local children.

Later on, the boys decided that building rockets is too much of an effort, so they would tie the rocket engines simply to sticks. That was plain danger. Once, they sneaked into the barrack area and there, in an old crater, they had their own rocket firing range. Sitting in the hole they didn't notice a group of soldiers entering the area for their drill...when suddenly they saw a bunch of little rockets sliding on the ground towards them. When the boys realized what was happening, it was already too late. Paralyzed with fear, they could only watch soldiers falling to the ground and crawl in yall directions. The little rockets made a lot of noise and smoke. The boys knew that the engines explode by the end of their flight, so they used that moment to crawl out of the crater, escape the barracks through a crack in the wall and ran for their life. They could hear the alarming sounds, but little did they know that no one actually noticed them. For the following few days both Krzyś and Romek were on their best behavior at school and in the schoolyard. They were dreading the possible military visitation at school.

Soon they had new pyrotechnical ideas. The renovation crew left some bags of carbide, a substance used to produce acetylene for welding, in the schoolyard. Other kids knew right away what that was and what they could use it for. They would bring cans, put carbide in, add water and set on fire – producing their own fireworks in that way. Obviously, that wasn't enough for Krzyś and Romek. They wanted a big "boom, so they took a bag of carbide (opened by other kids before), threw it to a puddle and set that on fire. The "boom" still wasn't as big as they expected, however they would never forget their burned hair and eyebrows and swollen eyes. That was much more exciting than listening to the little "booms" coming from under the wheels of trams passing by – other kids liked putting "caps" on tram tracks. Today, Krzyś and Romek sure have plenty of fun memories – for instance, their education in pyrotechnics.

At some point, Krzyś befriended a buy with a nickname Corpsy. It was a kind and intelligent long-haired guy, whose looks suggested connections with the hippies and brought him a lot of problems. Teachers tried to make him change his image, they would lower his grades and talk to his parents. But many times, instead of parents, his also hippie-looking brothers would come to the parent-teacher meetings and would calmly discuss the issue of the freedom of style, which always drove the teachers nuts. Actually, Corpsy's whole family was very laid-back and one of his brothers was an extremely intelligent scholar, with whom the teachers just could not win.

One Fall day, Corpsy talked his friends into joining a folklore dance group. Apparently, the atmosphere of the group meetings was very friendly, free food was served and they could watch tv on a big screen during breaks. Corpsy gathered a weird group of dancers. He himself looked feebly, his friend Waldek was obese and the third volunteer, Krzyś, at that time suffered from fainting. And those guys were supposed to become dancers? Well, they did begin training. Bu they had no sense of rhythm, they would trip and fall and make their female partners laugh out loud. As if hat wasn't bad enough, their choreographer, a very gently-speaking man started to literally hit on Corpsy. That brought their dancing adventure to an abrupt end, though the boys would still practice by themselves in the schoolyard for a while...only that time they were practicing smoking the Sport cigarettes. The only thing they were missing about their dance training was the big screen tv, on which, during the breaks, they would watch a Polish TV series for kids.

# The true awareness of one's interests

Who to be in the future? What am I good at? What are my interests? Matters that all youngsters are concerned with. And it may have been even harder back in the day, than it is now. There weren't any helpful, psychological tests. The primary-school graduates had no professional help or guidance. So, what about those kids, who didn't know their talents? If they had good grades, they would be accepted into good high schools, that would later enable them to choose a suitable career path. If they had technical interests and good grades, they would go to technical schools. If their grades weren't so good, they would end up in vocational schools. That was a general sequence, but sometimes it would vary according to individuals. Life always verifies our choices at the right time.

Growing up, Krzyś realized that he was pretty good in the field of human sciences. He wrote neat papers and had good knowledge in geography and history. He lover reading books that were required for older students – he could "eat them up" within just a few days. The literary world of of wonder and adventure had broadly expanded his imagination. He already knew that he would not become an expert in maths, physics or chemistry, but some aspect of those areas also appealed to him. Although he was a son of a working class man, he decided not to follow his steps and to become a distinguished scholar...ok, that's a joke. His ideas for the future were very murky, but his achievements gave him enough faith in himself, that he applied to a humanistic class in high school. Sadly, his final grade in Polish wasn't very high, even though it should have been. His father's intervention didn't help and the polish teacher's explanation of her decision was very convoluted. Could it have been because of his father's conflict with Banan? Or maybe he really deserved that bad grade...

Krzyś wasn't completely sure about the rightness of his high-school class choice. He was also attracted to the subject of motorization. That's why he was choosing between high school and an automotive vocational school. His doubts dissolved when the medical checks he did for the latter school showed that he cannot perceive the majority of colors. It was a deal-breaker in consideration of many future occupations. And so, Krzyś ended up in a newly funded high school.

And what about his schoolmates? Marcin got in to a maths school, Romek ended up in one high school with Krzyś and Jacek went to an automotive vocational school. May years later, thanks to the so-called social media, Krzyś found his childhood friends and it turned out that Marcin did not develop a technical career – he graduated from technical studies and then worked as a serviceman for a computer company. Romek, about whom Krzysztof was very concerned, because of Romek's drug problems in the past, worked later as a bus driver in Warsaw. Krzyś was happy to have found out that his friends were alive and well. He hoped to meet them again someday.

# Our last Summer – Summertime education

At some point, a new, bureaucratic board emerged in their school. It was called a Municipal School Finance and Administration Board (MSFAB, if you will) It was a borough board, actually so there would be one more letter in the front...but anyway, this was a brand new institution taking care of the educational matters.

This was the last Summer before high school. Krzysztof's mother took a job as a cleaner in those newly established offices, while the boy's father maintained the schoolyard. Krzyś was bored at that time, so he decided to help his parents with all the work. When cleaning the offices, sometimes he would play with devices such as a typewriter or a punch, or a calculator. Being there, he realized that he would never enjoy an office job. Stuffy air and boredom of such a place would not give him a sense of accomplishment. To some people this kind of a job may be an oasis of peace where they can drink coffee, smoke cigarettes and eat cookies, but not to Krzyś. He actually felt sorry for those people stuck in cubicles and dealing with paperwork all day.

That also was the time when many school and youth hostel workers took their vacation. And so, one day Krzyś was asked to fill in for the night watchman. Being an "under 18",he couldn't have a legal work contact, so the hostel manager Schlicht only made a silent agreement with him. Schlicht was a weird individual, a short and thin four-eyes with a face looking like a skin-covered skull. Some said he was a Stasi's secret service agent, others thought he was a pimp. There may have been a grain of truth in those gossips, as Schlicht spoke fluent German, had many German visitors and spent many a night in a hotel nearby...

Krzyś liked his night job pretty well. He especially enjoyed the mysterious and peaceful atmosphere, observing the nightlife, drunken guests making their way to hotels and the night police patrol. He liked meddling with the private branch exchange and listening to the radio, that sadly always played only until 1.00 a.m. He would then switch to the Luxemburg stations or BBC.

He didn't work there for long though. One night, there came a big group of English tourists, while the hostel rooms were already reserved for a different group. The English youngsters did not know Polish and had no translator with them, so they were miming to Krzysztof, asking for a possibility to stay. Fortunately, he knew a few English words and was able to help the group. Initially, e organized a space for them in the school hallway, but eventually he decided to take the risk and let them sleep in beds previously reserved for a different group. He was intrigued by the fact that some English girls are pretty, chatty and kind. In the morning, the English bumped into Krzysztof's father and thanked a lot for the help. They also asked if Krzysztof was happy with the money they've deposit to him through the hostel manager, but as it turned out later, he'd never got to see that money, moreover, he quickly got fired. It was the first time ever that he'd been treated so heartlessly. Like a persona non grata, if you will.

So there he was again in square one, jobless, sitting on a bench in the heat, gazing indifferently at the world around him. But one day, he spotted Jola, a girl he knew from school, walking her dog. Before he knew it, they were happily chatting and he would keenly observe her. He noticed that her body became rapidly changing. He couldn't help but notice her becoming a beautiful woman. Due to his lack of experience in that area, he couldn't foresee that she would be so erotically charged. He didn't expect their innocent flirt to turn into a Summer romance.

As it began, Jola would take Krzyś to a lot of different activities everyday, to parks and to the city. She liked shopping in Pewex, a store that accepted payment in foreign currencies. Supposedly, she was getting money from her father, who worked abroad. She would ask Krzyś to the fitting room with her so that he could check if the jeans looked good on her. Such behavior was largely frowned upon, by the elderly. They would also take trips to lakes and forests and Jola's dog would always accompany them. It was a weird dog – it would jump on other dogs and try to hump them, which Krzyś found inappropriate and Jola, amusing. Of course, before Krzyś knew it, his girlfriend started to educate him sexually, by long sessions of kissing, caressing and rolling around on the grass. She would guide, but never rush him, as he was entering a whole new realm of sensations. There was even a night in the park near the American Consulate, where they almost had a threesome with another female friend. It didn't work out because if the sudden rain. Krzyś would remember those experiences for ever. It was fascinating and overwhelming at the same time and he craved those experiences more and more. Warned by his mother about teenage pregnancy, he would always dread knocking his girlfriend up. Hence, his relationship with Jola lasted just for a year and eventually began to fade.

His adventure with the girl didn't do any good for his friendships with guys. He would hang out with them a few times over the Summer, but the presence of Jola really narrowed those those meetings down. His friends would feel uncomfortable around the couple's public displays of affection. Perhaps they were even envious about that. Anyway, Krzysztof's girlfriend seemed to have taken him away from his friends. It's a pity, because there was a lot going on around him. Krzyś had completely no idea, that Romek was having a very bad time then and that he ran away from home and began traveling around the country. And then, the school year started and all the boys parted their ways, due to different school choices.

# Learning about one's interests and hobbies

At some point in their life, young people begin to identify with their own generation. One of the bonding factors among the youngsters has always been music. Usually, music and art preferences vary according to generations. Youth tends to think that what's "theirs" is new, better and more valuable. Then, in their adulthood they get sentimental over the art of their youth. Especially music really strikes chords of remembrance and nostalgia. And of course they grow old believing that the music an art they admired in their youth was better than what the current youth likes. That's just how things are.

Krzyś and his peers gained their first social experiences in particularly hard times. Music and other hobbies was their way to get through that and today they surely can reminisce about it with nostalgia. They were doing their best to follow contemporary trends and take everything they can fro what the culture offered. The preferences varied according to personalities. Uncomplicated and cheerful individuals usually chose the simplest form of entertainment, later called the "pop culture".The more sensitive ones, the "way-seekers" and the introverts loved immersing themselves in rock, blues and jazz music.

Our young man belonged naturally to the latter group. Although initially he didn't mind catchy tunes. He kept a vague and blurry memory of the time when he was around six years old and he was visiting someone in their house. There was a kind, older boy who showed Krzyś how the record player worked and played some Beatles. The sound was of a poor quality and the device was creaking, but Krzyś remembered the catchy songs and liked humming them along or playing them on a comb even many years later.

He encountered with the music of the Beatles again in his teenage years. That time, those were original vinyls owned by Marcin. They were real rarities that Marcin's family brought from England. He had one of the first stereophonic record players and the boys were fascinated by this new technology that expanded the depth of sound. Krzyś still wasn't satisfied with this sound though. He felt it was missing the low, bass tones. The little speakers built into the record player could not produce such a sound. Romek, who owned a neat collection of Hungarian rock vinyls that included Locomitiv, GT and Omega, also did what he could to produce the fullest, deepest sound and power. The boys didn't own any stereophonic devices at the time, but they turned the old, lamp radio receivers into amplifiers. Their particularly precious purchase was the low-tone speakers that they fitted into wooden boxes and soundproofed with foam. The power still wasn't enough, but the bass was beautiful.

Krzyś found himself in love with the music of the band called Breakout, from their late period of fantastic, yet somewhat gloomy blues. He would play his favorite Breakout songs through the wide open window of his room and observed how passers-by reacted to it. The tone was beautiful, only no power... so Krzyś joined a bunch of old radio receivers together, some of which would play high tones while others were used for bass. The boys' need of listening to loud and good quality music, led them to learning about acoustic and electronic technology. They knew how to construct a speaker, what were the frequencies of the instruments and how to connect different devices to each other.

Those were the years when the new frequency was introduced, the VHF waves. It helped to produce a clearer sound without any glitches. It also allowed some lucky ones to record their own tapes on tape recorders. Owning a tape recorder was a rare privilege at that time. It was a breakthrough in technology. Vinyl has much better quality, but it was impossible to record your own mixed vinyl! Everyone dreamed of owning a tape recorder. The market quickly introduced also the small cassette players, also known as "buzzers".

Some boys were extremely proud of their cassette players, but true audiophiles would laugh at them and buy those huge and heavy reel-to-reel recorders. Those were magnificent machines. And the most expensive, multi-track ones allowed recording many hours of high-quality, stereophonic sound on long tape rolls. They had built-in amplifiers and little equalizers, and their little displays were hypnotizing when observed while listening. Those were actually first home entertainment centers. With the help of some big speakers they could very well bring life to a party.

To be able to afford such a dreamy machine, Krzyś had to sell his motorbike and use all the money earned in the Summertime. And his summer work was hard, as he got a seasonal job in park maintenance. In the time when everybody else relaxed, he would cut the grass, dig holes and basically do hard, physical work, in the biggest heat.

Motorbikes were another "toy" for young, Polish boys at that time. It allowed riding longer distances than a bike and also, taught the boys something about mechanics. The machines they would buy were mostly used and often damaged, which called for much maintenance. The market was dominated by Komars, Simsons and Jawas. Krzyś could olnly afford an old Ryś Ryś would always lose its chain, change gears unexpectedly on ts own and be terribly slow. And once, when Krzyś took it on a ride outside the city, the spark plug exploded and burned a hole in Ryś's cylinder head. If the explosion went towards a different direction, it may had ended Krzysztof's life. Imagine a hot spark plug hitting a fuel tank for example – it would've been quite a pyrotechnical festival! Krzyś didn't realize what happened anyway, until he got home. Eventually, he sold Ryś and finally had gathered enough money to boy his dream reel-to-reel recorder ZK140T.

# A short abroad excursion and a locker room incident

And there he was at a new school. Just like he wanted, thanks to his good grades, he got accepted into the elite class of humanists. Despite his talent, it quickly turned out that, compared to other classmates, he was very average and his grades were no longer good. Before he realized where this radical difference comes from, it was already too late. During the first two semesters he felt mostly like a failure. He barely made it through some classes. And at that time, the laws in education were veery strict. Bad students could have been banned and only one class could have been repeated, except for the 1st class of high school which could not have ever been repeated.

Where did this change achievements come from? What happened? Krzysztof could not understand it, he felt hurt and took it all very personally. Of course he went to thinking that everyone else was smarter then him and that there must have been something wrong with him. His self-esteem dropped dramatically.

That school he went to was a brand new high school with the highest number in the city. Because it was new, it had no recognition, so the teachers were doing their best to achieve high standards of teaching...which also meant high standards of learning, for the students and frankly, they accepted in only the best students. It was also a matter of a region – students living in a given district would apply to their local schools and one had to try really hard to get into to a school outside one's region. Schools with lower numbers didn't have to fight for their recognition, as they wee already recognized and their students were obviously treated better, humanly.

So, the new school, a fresh and new building didn't make a bad impression with it's "squared" beauty, typical for socialist buildings. It even represented the charm of the modernity back then. It was the modernity of Polish People's Republic - along with blocks of tiny apartments and cars such as Syrenas, Warszawas and occasional Fiats on the streets. That was the time of hope for better future under new reigns of Gierek and Jaruszewicz. People knew that grass was being painted green and reality was broken, but they tried their best to keep a positive attitude and believe that better days were to come.

Meanwhile, our boy really grew to dislike his new school. It was the time of baby boom, so there were many more students in many more classes and he had an afternoon schedule, from 11.00 a.m. until 20.00 p.m. That meant having very little time for homework. Who would do homework after the entire day at school, or get up earlier to do it? Especially that his whole family lived in one room...From that period, Krzysztof remembered mainly waiting on a tram stop while observing vehicles passing by and coming home late in the evening.

The principal of that school was a short and baldy man, looking very much like Napoleon. His name was Piotr Józefowski and as it turned out later, he attempted to imply a military regime to the school. Apparently, he thought that such actions would evoke the high standard of education that the school strove for, or perhaps he just had a very despotic (Napoleonic?) nature. Students in his school were drilled and disciplined like soldiers, every single moment of every single day that they spent at school. There were musters in school hallways, where kids were condemned for any kind of misbehavior and punished in a variety of ways including suspension and additional classroom cleaning. The muster included performing the drill and singing various songs, along with the school anthem. School required wearing particular kind of shoes as well as weekly cleaning of classrooms. Ans the cleaning wasn't just about picking up trash – students would sweep and wash the floors and even clean hallways sometimes. And everyone who tried to get away from performing those duties, was denounced and punished with additional work and low grading of their behavior.

It was all just terrible. It was supposed to be "upbringing through work", but frankly, all it did was making young people feel completely discouraged about the work that was, actually, meant do be done by adults. Working for the sake of work – who came up with that? Good work should be rewarded, while lack of work should not be rewarded, but the school authorities seemed to have had different logic. Of course young people would rebel against such injustice, consciously or subconsciously, but they didn't know how to protest and they were terrified of the possible consequences of the rebellion.

The regime was practiced during lessons as well and if a teacher only tried to be a little permissive they were most likely to get in big trouble. The kids needed some coping mechanism, some escape from sitting in silence the whole time. Such "treats" were music, art and English classes. One must have had very strong nerves to teach those subjects to those groups...

The discipline applied also to the gym class. Gym class was led by a very tall and muscled man with frighteningly big eyes. His warm-ups were so intense that nobody had any strength to do anything else afterwards. As if that wasn't enough, that men also taught military muster. All classes would march for hours, form fours, stood to attention and made dispatches. Krzysztof remembered that in case of any misbehavior during the practice, the entire group would be sent to an additional practice. Those poor youngsters were so afraid of their trainer's personality, that they would willingly take extra gym classes, in order to improve their condition and actually get through the hell the big-eyed trainer created for them. Instead of getting a proper rest after an exhausting school day, they would get together for a volleyball match, often after 8.00 p.m... they hated that sport.

The most condemned behavior at that "military school" was probably smoking cigarettes. The principal would storm into the toilets a few times a day and bust the unfortunate smokers who would later be reprehended during the assembly. Eventually one day, he stopped that busting practice, after he got accidentally peed on. On that ill-fated day, he stormed into the men's room as usual and spotted a boy turning away from him. He though that the reason why the boy turned back, was because he was hiding a pack of cigarettes. He jumped to the poor student, grabbed his shoulders and pulled him, just when the boy began to "do his business". Of course, the business couldn't stop being done so rapidly, so the principal got sprinkled with the stream, exactly on the least fortunate spot. The whole school knew about it right away...and the principle would not step out of his office for a few days afterwards.

This elaboration about the learning circumstances seems like a valid answer to the question why our Krzyś lost all faith in himself and fell into depression. He really tried to accommodate to the new, high standards, but he just could not rise to them. He didn't know what else to do and eventually, he found himself completely lost. Later on, he understood why that happened. His background, upbringing and extremely poor living conditions made it impossible for him to excel in an elite school.

It was a new, unknown and also completely unsuitable environment for him. Or rather, he was unsuitable for the environment. His new classmates came from an entirely different background and gre up in peaceful, almost luxurious conditions. Those were the children from educated or prosperous families, while Krzyś was a poor son of a poor central heating operator, who lived in one room with his parents and brother and moreover, he was carrying the burden of his father's "political incorrectness". Krzyś had no good circumstances for studying, whatsoever. Coming home late in the evening, he could only study in the toilet, or in the morning at the dining table. In fact, if that were a race, he would have lost right at the beginning, as he had no modern, technical background and the engine in his vehicle wasn't powerful enough. From the viewer's objective perspective, his car had no chance in competing with the new, modern, shiny and well-prepared machines. It was as if someone with an old, vintage Syrena wanted to race in competition with brand new Mercedes and Porsche models. Only a miracle could help that little old car...and that miracle never came.

Moreover, Krzyś was n his puberty years and the hormone storm that completely destabilized his emotions, certainly did not help the situation. His girlfriend Jola would wait by his school everyday, waiting for him to finish classes and take her to the park for some romance. It was clear that he didn't have enough time for both studying and romancing. Something had to go.

The young boy could not take the fact that after being one of the brightest students in his elementary school, he turned out to be one of the worst in high school. A whiff of hope came over him, when he was offered to move in to his dearly departed uncle's empty apartment. He thought that this would be the solution to all his problems, his own, peaceful space, that would allow him to focus entirely on studying. Unfortunately, it was already to late for improvement.

The teachers had already labeled him one of the weakest and no amount of hard work could change that opinion. For example his attempts to improve his skills at history were simply laughed at by the teacher, who didn't care that he knew everything about ancient Egypt by heart. It seemed that once he was labeled, it was meant to last forever. Krzyś could not understand that his gaps in knowledge were too wide and impossible to close.

That could not have had a happy ending. And it haven't. Krzysztof started to drink alcohol from the amazingly well equipped mini bar left by his uncle. And once, when he brought the White Horse whiskey to school, he was busted by a teacher. After that his situation was completely hopeless and after a month of suspension he was banned from the school. What was he supposed to do next? Right in the middle of cruel Winter, a son of a poor central heating operator lost his only chance to breakaway from poverty – education. He was heartbroken.

And then, as if some higher power was watching over him, thanks to help from his old friend, he unexpectedly ended up in a different school in a class composed entirely of the flunked. Initially he was not supposed to be accepted in there, but Edward, the family's long-time friend who also happened to be a teacher there, convinced the principal to take Krzysztof in as their 50th student. It was unclear to Krzyś, what magic Edward use to convince the principal Years later he suspected that Edward could have had some embarrassing information about the principal and used them as an undeniable argument...

# A casus of Edward and others like him

In every society, there are some specific sexual behaviors that existed since forever. As we all know, in some cultures those behaviors are harshly condemned, while others seemed to accept them completely. Those behaviors are also encountered in the animal kingdom between, namely, dogs or rats. Those are, of course, homosexual behaviors. Naturally, humans aren't as sexually liberated as animals. Humans are self-conscious and also aware of the social circumstances they live in. In some societies, homosexual people choose to withdraw from their nature, because they are so pressured by the hostility of their environment. Some remain "in the closet" for ever...

Many people go through a period of confusion about their sexuality, some in their youth some even later on in life. I bet few of us are strangers to those specific, very offensive names that teenagers call each other while quarreling - "bitch", "pussy", "fag", "whore", "lesbo"... we know it all too well. It takes one strong, almost invincible personality to not take that personally, at some point.

Those insults more sensitive ones into overall self-doubt and depression. They start to think that they deserved such labels. How are they supposed to react? Fight or run away and hide? There is no ultimate way to cope. If you fight, you may very well lose. If you choose to stay silent, you might end up forever haunted. It's like realizing that you are a camel...

The word casus has two meanings. In Azerbaijani it means "a spy" and in Latin - "accident, chance". In Edwards case, those two meanings could be combined. Krzyś noticed in his youngest years already that Edward may have some inclination towards homosexuality and pedophilia. Perhaps, that was the reason why he would change the schools he taught in, so often. On the other hand, Edward was likely to have some connections with secret services. And in those secret services he probably had friends with similar inclinations. It was then interesting that he was so willing to help Krzysztof's father before. What was his intention, no one knows. Was he observing Marian? Did he want to seduce Marian's sons? No one ever found out, because Edward took the secret to the grave with him. Despite this problem of his, he was a very intelligent and kind man. It seemed that his inclinations made him severely unhappy.

Edward was a German-born teacher of various subjects and a friend of a well-known pedagogy professor. He was a fantastic field trip supervisor and all in all, a very talented person. He could play almost every instrument and fix every technical equipment (a watch, as well as a car). He knew physics, chemistry and martial arts. He had an unusual talent in money-making which was evident in the little business he led. But most of all, he loved playing the accordion and the saw. He socialized within the German minority. By the end of his life he found out that he inherited quite a big fortune, which he then passed on to one of his friends. He predicted the date of his death with accuracy to one month. Even though it's rather hard to believe, he was almost the Leonardo da Vinci of the twentieth century. If he were born in different times in a different country, he probably would have been rich and famous.

Despite his possible motives and intentions, it is an undeniable fact, that Edward helped Marian's family greatly and remained their lifetime friend. Although, Krzyś and his brother intuitively felt Edward's weirdness and kept their distance from him. They would always avoid one-on-one interactions with him. Once they went to his house to buy some photographic equipment from him and they walked in on him and some 16-year-old boy, both dressed in their underpants only. The brothers ran away from there quickly and told their parents about it.

As for his secret service connections, that was a fact. In the mid-80's Krzysztof was trying to get in to a university and sadly, he failed one exam. He wanted to try again the following year in a vocational school. Those were the times when a young man could easily be taken into the army, in such a situation. And so Marian decided to look for some way to protect his son and to make sure he gets in to the university on his second try. It worked and Krzysztof passed all the exams supposedly "smoothly" and got in easily. After a while, there appeared some people, who decided that they took part in Krzysztof's success. Marian kindly sent them away, although there was a slight conflict when ones found out about the others. The situation got awkward at that point. And among those people was some examiner, ex dean's office worker and also Edward.

Soon Edward met with Krzysztof face to face and offered him "protection for the education period". He assured the young man, that he will swiftly go through his studies, will not fail any exam and after graduation, there will be a secure job waiting for him in the Civic Militia headquarters. He didn't go into much detail, only mentioned a mane of the protector, who would take care of Krzysztof's future career. Today both men are dead and our boy never got to know that protector of his. He only knew that the man was a major and a lieutenant colonel.

Krzysztof was surprised by such an offer, but he didn't want to agree on anything or sign any contracts. He knew that this secret service had done great harm to his father and his family, but he couldn't deny that the offer was very tempting. He even thought that he could use that opportunity for revenge on the secret service for all the hurt. It was foolish of him to think so. Soon, the strikes arose, martial law was declared and everything changed. On the 13th of December 1981, the lieutenant colonel moved to Silesia and Edward never mentioned that agreement again.

The casus of "them" wasn't about adults only. Krzysztof clearly remembered back at school, a number of boys of a specific, delicate nature and he wondered if maybe they were gay or transgender. Krzyś didn't hang out with them much, because they didn't share their interest in doll collections, for example. In high school he witnessed two quite extravagant buddies publicly french-kissing. Was it an act of provocation? That was unclear back then, because the topic of homosexuality was still largely controversial.

But the most tragic story must be the one of the already mentioned Banan. One day, a tragedy occurred in the city – a homosexual boy was murdered in his own apartment. That boy was Banan's son. The drama was quickly toned down, however - only the day following the murder, it was no longer in the newspapers. Krzysztof's father was so saddened by the tragedy, he went to the funeral and gave Banan heartfelt condolences, in person.

One could not overlook homosexual women. Somehow, they were always more liberated and visible. Krzysztof remembered what he thought was clearly sexual behavior of his teacher at one of the school trips. He also knew about adult women seducing young boys, even in his family. He wondered if those women were pedophiles as well.

As we can see, the times of Polish People's Republic weren't free from sexual controversy. Pedophilia was always a scandalous, revolting and common occurrence, though people did not know how to talk about it or fight with it, while homosexuality was still mostly hidden from daylight and from the judgmental and conservative society. Kids were not safe even in church or at school, because they could encounter someone like Edward or that parish priest Krzysztof remembered from his elementary school. But that was taboo at that time. Krzysztof never mentioned it, but he never condemned such behavior. He was rather full of compassion for that kind of people, because he knew that their life must have been extremely difficult. And when he heard someone condemning or making fun of gay people, he would say "it's not our business what people do with their pussies or dickies, as long as they're not hurting anyone". He tried to politely shut them down, while also expressing his opinion on the subject.

# School trips – almost like freedom

As we all know, kids have always loved school trips. The youngest were usually taken on one-day excursions or picnics, wile the older went to few-day, educational field trips, after whom they were asked to write a report paper. The eldest also took longer trips, but although, those were officially "educational" excursions, their purpose was rather for the teenagers to unwind after all the studying stress. Some school also organized social outings at the beginning of the school year, or towards the end of it, after the final assessment. That allowed those teachers who stayed at school to relax a little, before the hot period of final school board meetings and before signing all the diplomas. On the other hand, those who were trip supervisors were often stressed, even terrified, because going away with those groups was no vacation.

Krzyś remembered a few of those trips. He had them captured in pictures that would always bring up a sequence of images and memories in his mind. For example, the small cruise around the river. He was no more than 10 and yet he remembered boarding the ship, the beautiful weather and such a different look of the town and the village, on the horizon. And how they rested and ate all kinds of candy in a tiny diner in the middle of a dark forest. And then running around that forest and eating sandwiches. Food tasted better out there in nature.

Another trip he remembered was a more serious one, an excursion to a historical place. The class rode an old bus to Gołuchów to see a castle. Krzyś appreciated the unknown architecture of the building and the beautiful garden that surrounded it. He remembered climbing on a rubble-mound rock and learning that that "rock" was actually brought from Sweden. They also went to Kalisz, during that trip, to visit a piano and carpet factory. Our boy remembered it distinctively, because he got tricked by his classmates to ask the teacher "Miss, what are condoms? My friends don't want to explain it to me.". The children's laugh, the teacher's consternation and his own disorientation stayed in his memory almost for ever. It was an important trip for him, because on the way back, on the bus, he noticed that one girl keenly observed him and talked to him all the time. That was the first time he knew the girl was flirting with him and it made him blush all over his face. Thank goodness it was dark already!

From another historical excursion, Krzyś remembered an even older, actually frighteningly old bus with three windows in the front and three in the back, each one with a windshield wiper. They were supposed to visit a tower, up on a hill, but the hopelessly weak engine of that antic vehicle seemed as if it was going to explode. And in the very moment they made it to the top of the hill, the boiling engine stopped completely. The driver dreaded the possible trouble, but fortunately the engine cooled down and they got home safely.

High-school trips were a whole different story. The first, few-day trip took place by the end of the first year. The theme was history-martyrdom-patriotism-culture, therefore they went from Auschwitz through Wieliczka's salt mines to Cracow. The teenagers were shocked by the concentration camp and the feelings of "the great suffering of the Polish nation" that society implied to their heads since they could remember, had been then greatly amplified. They were shattered and many were crying. Some of them couldn't bare the horror of the scenes of the documentary and they had to leave the theater. Those images remained in their minds for life. The visit in the salt mine the following day didn't really took their minds off of what they saw in Auschwitz. On the other hand, sightseeing Cracow and seeing a play in which a famous actor ran around the stage in pajamas, did cheer them up a little. Secretly drinking alcohol at night made the trip even more interesting and even a bit grotesque, thanks to one of the boys and his overly revealing pants.

A similar trip with the class in his other high school gave Krzyś different impressions. The class visited Auschwitz and Birkenau, then a nearby national park and ended the trip in Kraków. The alcohol-drinking started already on the bus. They would relief themselves through the crack in the rear door, unnoticed by the driver and other passengers. They weren't very drunk, just a tad, perhaps their snacks were greasy enough. That helped them not to engage emotionally in the visiting of the concentration camp area. Some of them were even bored by the exhibition and the documentary. They even behaved like hooligans at some point, having pushed a wagon that stood ion the tracks n the center of the Birkenau camp. Some laughed, others ran away, scared of the consequences. Krzyś observed his classmates messing around, without hesitation. He wasn't sure if he wanted to be a part of that, but he laughed at the empty wagon making it's way down the tracks.

The kids enjoyed the rest of the trip much more. To the poor ones, seeing the beautiful and famous sites was like a trip to America. An average family couldn't afford a trip even within Poland.

The class found a very decent accommodation in a big guesthouse nearby Ojców ,although the water had to be drawn from a well and the toilet was outside. And in this very place, Krzysztof, good-looking and muscular young man became an object of desire for two women. One, a big, obese and quite dangerous classmate and the other, the class teacher herself, who often stroked his back, sending obvious signals. That was no longer funny. Other boys noticed those behaviors, made fun of them and keenly observed the situation. Was the teacher simply drunk? Krzyś wisely avoided any further incidents with both the ladies and saved himself from them potential scandal. In case of the classmate, that might have been a trap, as her mother was also on the trip as one of the supervisors and kept her eye on the young man.

Fortunately, Krzyś also kept some pleasant memories from that trip. Like breathtaking sunsets among the mountains or the great and picturesque Gothic castle.

As for the college excursions, Krzyś remembered Zakopane. It was early Spring, but during one of the hikes, they encountered a cruel snowstorm. Krzyś would never forget the help from one of his classmates, who went back for him, when he noticed that someone was missing. If it wasn't for that friend's help, Krzyś might have been snowbound. This trip was mostly pleasant, peaceful and brilliantly organized. Of course there was a pinch of craziness in the late-night drinking. At some point they even killed a little mouse by giving it alcohol.

But that was the only fun trip that Krzysztof remembered from his college years. Others were really discouraging. His friends would drink themselves to death and there was even a couple that had loud sex with other people in the room. Krzyś liked and respected the girl involved in the loud lovemaking session, but did not appreciate such behavior. Frankly, he had a bit of a moral shock, because he had always thought of sex as a pleasant, gentle and a very intimate act. Soon he stopped taking trips with those people.

After Krzysztof became a teacher, he would take part in excursions as a supervisor. He then had a different perspective and observed many things that he wasn't aware of as a kid. He saw the enormous responsibility that the teachers had to deal with. He knew that teenagers would want to drink alcohol in the night and having had experience in a variety of tricks to smuggle the bottles, he knew how to prevent it. Of course, he would be called many ugly names for preventing alcohol parties from taking place. And when he went to Zakopane as a supervisor, he had no time to admire the picturesque landscapes. He was constantly stressed about his students' well-being.

# Mr Kuberski's guinea pigs – The Dirty Fifty

The 70's were the time of major change. It was a time of transition from Gomułka's tough reins into the promising age of Gierek. The society was moving towards modernity – houses were built, personal cars wee bought, some prosperous people even traveled. Stability in life was no longer just an impossible dream and socialism slowly became more "humanly".

People stopped treating communism so seriously, by that time. They cared about owning apartments, they would buy used Syrenas and take holiday trips. Big hotels and neat restaurants emerged. Also, Poland started to attract foreign tourists.

During that decade, the Ministry of Education also started to implement a new education system. It was the time of the grand experiment. With each new minister came a new reform. The effects of those reforms were never really cared about. What really counted was the mechanism that rewarded scholars, made publishing houses prosper and provided more jobs to more bureaucrats. The educated youth was always least important in that system.

In the early 70's the position of the Minister of Education was offered to Mr. Kuberski. He changed the administration of the upper-secondary schools – that education period was divided into semesters, which meant that students were then supposed to be promoted from one semester to another (not from class to class). For those who had trouble, special, repeaters' classes were created. And so, some schools had created ghetto areas for the weakest, the unfortunate and the hooligans. It was such a strange system. Moreover, the more fortunate ones had their final exams in January and then had to wait around for some possible entry exams to universities. But as mentioned before, education system was not about the students.

And that was the kind of as school that Krzysztof landed in, though it was quite a reputable high school. He was the 50th on the attendance list – that's how crowded the classes were. No classroom had enough space enough to contain such a group, as there was a maximum of 30 seats. In class, those who didn't get a seat were forced t sit on the floor or stand with their back against the closets. In the Summer, the classrooms would be very stuffy and difficult to breathe in. The teachers would do anything in their power to lessen the number of students in the class, so the F's were flying in all directions. It was the coping mechanism for those poor teachers, misled by that Mr. Kuberski.

What a crazy bunch that was! That particular class was a container for the "trash" from all local high schools. Worst possible class. All those poor kids ended up there, because at some point of their lives they had experienced some sort of misfortune. Each kid had a personal story, just like prisoners do. Some failed a semester due to illness, some simply failed an exam. Some just didn't care to study, some would break the school law. The only thing they all had in common was that they were repeaters. So, there was no student in this class who would succeed because of a talent, brilliance, hard work or buttering teachers up. Everyone had failed in some way. And what's worst, no one thought that the classic, upbringing methods would not apply to such specific groups. That was not even a Dirty Dozen, that was a Dirty Fifty.

Krzysztof encountered a variety of characters in his new class. There were rich kids that could afford anything, as well as poor kids who would not afford a one-day trip. Some kids were good at maths, others wrote neat papers. To enumerate a few personalities – a Major-League basketball player, a rich son of a famous doctor, a feminine weirdo who brought his tiny dog to class, a lesbian couple, a girl with a very high-pitched voice who sang in a choir, and a short hippie guy, who became a graphic artist later on. One of the rich boys never bought a backpack for his school books, because he preferred to carry then in his brand new Fiat car. He also paid others well for doing his homework. Krzyś earned a lot of money "working" for that guy – writing papers and doing technical assignments. Thanks to that, he was able to buy yoghurt and buns for his friends, in the school shop. He was convinced that his diet provides him with strength and all the necessary testosterone.

Surprisingly, this huge group of "the worst" quickly bonded and harmonized within. After the first school year, they all skipped classes together and hang out in a very obedient way. First they went to a garden and then to a bar to drink a lot of beer. No one was left behind. They all knew what they were doing and all were aware of the consequences. There was power in that group. It was hard for the teachers to punish one kid as a warning, as well as to punish the entire group.

The exhausted teachers decided to get rid of that ghetto as soon as possible. It wasn't clear if it was a principal's call or their own initiative, but apparently, that group brought a very bad reputation to that, up until then, respected school. The Dirty Fifty was extremely hard to manipulate. They were inseparable – a smart geek would never stand against a weak rebel. That was a harmonious bunch of very critical and judgmental kids.

Some teachers even confirmed an open war with the class, bashing them publicly. They would never appreciate, never support, only condemn and give plenty of F's. That strategy worked to such a degree that within two years the group decreased by 50%. Those who survived the war were extremely immune to any kind of denouncement or manipulation and some teachers paid a big price for fighting. The biology teacher, who would call the group "idiots", "bandits" and "trash" was rushed from school to the hospital one day – she had a heart attack.

Of course, there were also more merciful teachers, who would attempt to deal with the group peacefully. Some had no trouble at all and even liked teaching classes to those feisty kids. Those teachers understood that they were dealing with a group that was an unhappy product of the ridiculous and unnecessary educational law. Those teachers included: a history teacher who enjoyed an occasional drink and was very passionate about his subject, a shop-class teacher who was frustrated with his low wage and also worked as a part-time taxi driver, a young and shy English teacher..and many more. That school continuously attracted kind and talented teachers, because of it's prestige. Krzysztof appreciated that change after his experience with the ignorant and bossy teachers of the "military" school.

Krzysztof really had a fun time with that class. He remembered dropping a net on one of the teachers who squirmed in it like a huge fish. He remembered when a Russian professor, who was a native Russian speaker told one of the boys to go see a "craziness doctor". He remembered vividly the rather loose behavior of attractive, female classmates who would sit on his lap during breaks and caress him. He remembered the horror on the face of the civil defense teacher, when one of the machine guns fired, because some boys had primed it.

He would always laugh at the memory of the English teacher attempting to teach one boy the correct pronunciation of the words "hour" and "horse" while he preferred to say "whore" and "whores". It was always funny to witness. Another warm memory was of the very kind, obese and often not sober sports teacher, who would always present exercises in a rather grotesque way. There was also an unforgettable, nympho, chemistry teacher, who liked asking the boys to the blackboard and checking out their buttocks. She would give good grades to some of them, even if they knew nothing about the topic at hand. What did those women see in male butts anyway? Krzysztof never understood that and never thought that he could be considered an object of desire. He noticed that his friend Marek appeared as much more desirable to women, but it didn't really bother him. He just wanted to have good grades.

The students also craved sex. The luckier ones had a chance to experience that. There was a number of romantic relationships that developed in the class and one of those couples got married right after graduation.

This was the age of rock, disco, blues and some more eccentric music genres. Young people liked the western fashion. Jeans, "missing buttons" and short skirts. Once, during some boring class, Krzysztof turned to a girl who sat behind him, to tell her something. And when she leaned in to hear him better, the buttons of her tight blouse all popped out, revealing the girl's big breasts, in all their glory. Other boys, naturally, stopped whatever they were doing to look at what happened. Krzysztof, real gentleman that he was, kindly apologized to the girl, while she calmly buttoned her blouse back up. He was, however, distracted and blushed for the rest of the day and since that day other gys called him "titty"

Another time, during a history lesson, Krzysztof enjoyed long and flirty eye contact with a very beautiful and subtle classmate. At some point, the teacher asked the girl a question and then, seeing her disorientation, asked what got her so excited. Before the girl had a chance to reply, Krzyś stood up and, in attempt to protect his girl friend, announced: My apologies, Madame, it is me who is the reason of my friend's excitement!". His words were followed first by dead silence and then, by a burst of laughter that echoed through the entire school (it was a hot, Summer day and the classroom doors were open).

Apart from sex, another interest of the teens was recreational alcohol drinking, naturally, outside school, in local bars and taverns. The rich kids drank enormous quantities of beer which later resulted in bladder problems. It was customary to drink from four to eleven bottles of beer, although, there was that one epileptic guy for whom, one beer was enough to get completely wasted. On special occasions, they would treat themselves with more sophisticated drinks like gin or whiskey. The ladies would join in on those hangouts.

One day, the group went out to do some social work in a rolling bearing factory. Krzysztof, having already had some experience with shovels, did his job quite efficiently. He threw sand on the truck so passionately that he accidentally got his new, young teacher, Ms. Róża. Out boy didn't realize what happened until he heard a scream and a series of crosswords. Fortunately, the teacher didn't see who sand on her and of course no one gave Krzyś away.

That class had actually made our boy come alive again. He wrote such brilliant papers, that the Polish teacher accused him of stealing that work from someone else. On one hand, that was a flattering accusation, but on the other it made it difficult for him to excel in class. The teacher wasn't going to give him any good grades and she was so persistent, she even talked to his parents about that. It seemed impossible for her to believe that anyone from "that" class could have any literary talent.

Krzysztof was a born joker and he enjoyed making fun of everything and everyone, himself included. He particularly liked laughing at the supposedly serious and formal, school celebrations. During a celebration in honor of the October Revolution, bored Krzysztof spoke his opinion a tad too loud: "Yeah, yeah, yeah...Cats in April, Dogs in May and in October, Vladymir Ilyich Lenin!". He chose the worst timing for his remark – his words echoed through the walls and the whole auditorium went silent. The form teacher Róża publicly condemned his behavior saying: "Krzysztof, your behavior was scandalous! You ought to know that for the bigger cause, one must keep his mouth shut no matter what he hears!"

Amazingly, that incident made Krzysztof popular and respected. He was the one who didn't keep his mouth shut.

There wasn't much of a rat race within the Dirty Fifty and Krzysztof remembered that period of his life as one of fun and laughter and friendly support among the classmates. He liked observing the frequent, amusing incidents and evolving relationships. He liked being free to excel in his areas of interest. The group consisted of kids good at maths and humanities, there were future doctors, artists and athletes. Everyone had their strong suits and their flaws and they would always help each other, sometimes for money, sometimes selflessly. There was no rivalry and no fighting for better grades. If anything, they would fight for better future and to prove the awful teachers wrong. After many years Krzysztof realized with amazement that that actually was the happiest time of his life. And those who "saved" themselves from the "worst" class, really missed out on a great adventure.

# Sports

Engaging in any kind of sport early in life usually has positive influence on one's character, although overdoing it may result in very unpleasant bodily conditions, later in life. Training competitive sports often requires disregarding body's boundaries and pushing against the body's signals. That may lead to severe body decline and irreversible changes within organs bones and spine. A good athlete ought to be mentally strong, immune to pain and extremely motivated. In order to achieve a goal, an athlete is willing to put his body through an awful lot and go to extremes. There are people who are known to even poison their bodies with different chemicals or transfuse their blood from the times of heavy training.

As mentioned earlier, little Krzyś was not a good athlete material. Sickly and poorly fed early on in life, he didn't have what it takes to excel in sports and wasn't really interested in that either. He was particularly bad at football, because his friends ran much faster. During team-picking he was always the last one to be picked and he would always be a defender or a goalie. His sudden hitting puberty in primary school added to his weakness – rapid growth and bodily changes cause him to even faint in crowded spaces. He became a man so quickly that in his early teens, strangers already called him "Sir".

He looked a bit strange at that time of puberty. He had long limbs, strong legs, big buttocks and disproportionately small chest and narrow shoulders. Hating that disproportion, Krzysztof started to work out. With the help of an exercise book he began his body-building endeavors by regularly lifting weights. Soon his proportions normalized and his arms became much stronger.

His determination in body-building paid off when he signed on to a rowing club. He was already well-built by then, had strong arms and legs and a hard chest. He had what was necessary to be a good rower. Unfortunately, his medical check up results showed that his lung capacity is not big enough. Moreover, the frequent colics that he struggled with during the long-distance runs, were irritating and discouraging. He didn't know back then, that those problems came from the bad metabolism, which manifested into a bunch of gallbladder stones. None of his doctors thought of that – they rather accused him of being lazy and unwilling to train. They couldn't understand why rowing a boat for many kilometers wasn't a problem to him and running was.

Krzysztof's taking on sports collided with him switching schools, but before that happened, he already passed a series of exhaustive daily training sessions. He was tough, mentally strong and more disciplined. He was so well-organized, he had his time perfectly divided between school, sports, studying and rest. Oxygenation, good diet and daily exercise improved his brain-functioning. It was then easier for him to study more challenging subjects.

One day, the very well-built, the fastest and the biggest, class rascal called Freak started to bully Krzysztof. Freak also was an athlete and trained archery. Our wise, young boy had no problem with managing his own emotions and suggested arm-wrestling as a way to fight appropriately. The entire class was startled at Freak's complete failure. In fact, he was amazed at Krzysztof's strength and shook his hand after the fight. Soon, they became friends and Freak joined the rowing club. He quickly gained strength, but was unpredictable and abrupt. He rowed so fast, he would break the oars! Or perhaps they were just old...Krzysztof never broke an oar. His rowing could have been compared to a grand locomotive, while Freak was more like a race car with a burning engine.

When talking about sports influencing one's personality, we must mention the ugly truth that Krzysztof learned about, in time. After a while, he noticed that most coaches and sports activists don't really care about their clients' success or progress. They simply use them in their own interest. Some coaches would regularly get drunk and steal from the club. Also, the rowers were mistreated on a regular basis. Forced to train in the freeze, dressed poorly, they would get sick and over trained. In the worst weather conditions, they would row without proper supervision, not really knowing what they were supposed to do and forced to figure everything out by themselves. Their achievements in competition were obviously poor, but all the coaches would do was yell that they weren't fast enough. Of course, sports coaches aren't usually expected to be sophisticated in the way they address their tams, but those guys were particularly crude. Few less low-minded coaches (usually students of the Academy of Physical Education) had no rights in the club whatsoever. Although the rowers knew well that if those educated guys coached them, they would've achieved much more. But the Polish People's Republic always gave power to the simplest of minds, for some reason. That system was not threatened by smugglers, drunks or crude simpletons. That system was threatened by the thinking, the wise and the educated.

However, despite all the disappointment, Krzysztof always reminisced about his rowing episode with sentiment. He loved that one, delightful white-water canoeing up the river in the old, prewar canoes and the huge blisters on his hands. The blisters didn't bother him and he was happy to continue rowing after having pierced them. He remembered the glow of the campfire at the river bank and the chill of the cool, early-spring night, on his back, as he laid in the military tent and listened to the crickets. The supervisors were very nervous that night, because they had to put boy and girls together in one tent and they didn't want any obvious "trouble" because of that. They weren't overreacting there, afer all, strong physical activity boosts hormone release and the boys were pumped with testosterone.

He also remembered the sports camp he went to, before vacation. The school was proud of its athletes and he got promoted to the next year sooner than the rest of the class, actually, it was just a formality. The athletes had a tight schedule at the camp. In the morning they would run around the lake, then shower and have breakfast and then they trained. They were allowed a little rest before dinner and had another training afterwards. In the evening they could swim and relax, but by that time they were completely exhausted. During the hottest days, they were also allowed more rest. They would always give their 200%, because after the camp they would participate in regatta.

That camp was quite adventurous. At some point a conflict arose between the rowers and the scouts. It began when the scouts took the club's flag from the flagstaff. No one in the club thought that the flag needed to be guarded. Night-watching was the last thing on the tired rowers' minds. Scouts, on the other hand, were always sleepless, always hyperactive and seeking trouble. The rowers would much rather sleep, but their honor must have been saved. One night, they sneaked into the scouts campsite and forcefully took their flag back. The scouts were helpless. Many of them received a serious beating. Krzysztof's function was to guard his team, so he hid in the bushes at the edge of the scouts' area. He heard the sounds of the fight, but was so sleepy, he got lost at some point. And then, the coach's young and beautiful wife appeared out of nowhere. She told him to lay down and wait as the situation unfolds. She also admitted to be freezing and a little bit scared. Wanting to help, Krzysztof embraced her. Soon they heard a crack of a branch and there came the team with their "victory trophies" - the flags both of the club and the scouts. Krzysztof and the coach's wife jumped away from each other, got up and followed them, in silence. Among the team walked her husband. In the following days, Krzysztof could not understand why he was so afraid to look towards the coaches table during the meals. After all, he did nothing bad.

The rowers and the scouts eventually made up and, to celebrate it, organized a grand disco together. The hit of the party was the first album of the now legendary band Budka Suflera. The Voice of Krzysztof Cugowski echoed through the woods and across the surface of the lake. The alcohol was flowing abundantly. Everybody got drunk and fell asleep.

Once, on the other end of the lake, in peaceful depths, there was a fatal accident – a boat flipped. Apparently, the fish that the poor fisherman caught was so big and strong that it pulled him into the water. It was a particularly hot day and the man was thrown into the water so rapidly, it cause a heart attack and immediate drowning. The locals asked the rowing team to help find the body. And so, the boys divided into 2 groups. rowed around the river and with the help of boat hooks looked for the body. Krzysztof went with the first group and they accomplished nothing. Fortunately the second group managed to find and bring the body to the riverbank. Krzysztof watched them from the land, honestly relieved that he wasn't the one to deal with the dead guy. There was also the man's family at the riverbank. A little girl sobbed loudly and Krzysztof suspected that the man was either her father or grandfather.

Thirty years later, Krzysztof visited that town, that river and that forest again and all those memories awakened in his mind, as if it all happened the day before. The area had changed – a modern aquapark was built along with a wide parking lot and the field paths were replaced with pavements. Everything changed except the woods and the river. They remained untouched.

# The thrills and chills of the technical school

In the 70's of the Polish Peoples Republic, every young and healthy man was required to serve in the army for two years, if he graduated from high school and didn't get in to any college, that is. Therefore, almost every man did whatever he could to get a deferment from that unpleasant duty. Most of them gathered piles of doctor's excuses that could save them from the army or at least, make their service just a little bit easier. Others documented that they were the only providers for their families or the only family members able to work. A large amount of the teenagers signed on to vocational schools. That was another way of getting away from the army and many youngsters chose those schools randomly, not really caring if the school was in agreement with their interests.

Like our Krzysztof, for example. He failed at his first attempt to get in to college. On his entry exam, he was asked about the certain Poznań protests from 1956 and that wasn't something he had ever read or heard about. Nevertheless he presented his vague knowledge of the topic: 'It was a working class strike against food price increase. It resulted in a massacre at the Security Office and the only change that came from it was in renaming the office to Security Service.'

That answer, although honest, was probably considered politically incorrect and Krzysztof had to spend the winter in a vocational school. He was lucky to have chosen a school in agreement with his own interests, electromechanics. It was a widely recognized school with a large number of workplaces. The school had excellent equipment and offered a variety of workshops, allowing students to learn many crafts – wielding, soldering, working with machine tools. Students also worked in electrical and electronic laboratories.

Krzysztof mostly dreaded maths, as he did have problems with that in the past. Fortunately, his father came with help and bought from Edward one of the first calculators on the market. It was such a relief and a blessing for our young student – finally calculations were no longer an issue. He also had no trouble understanding equations and soon he even dealt with the so-called imaginary numbers. Thanks to his little, electronic helper, he became one of the best students. He was also very diligent – he would always sit in the first row, in order to see and understand everything correctly and he wouldn't allow anything or anyone to distract him. He was keenly interested in electrical matters and wanted to understand the mechanics of electrical devices. At home, he indulge in do-it-yourself crafts – he once again improved his sound system and built his own bass speakers. However, despite his genuine interests in electronics, he quickly realized that he won't develop a career in that area. His partial colorblindness soon became an obstacle, impossible to overcome. Proper vision turned out to be mandatory in that work, in order to be able to discern the wire colors. In order to do that, Krzysztof would have to measure the parameters of every juncture and that was impossible. Once, he connected all the wires to badly, that he caused a spectacular explosion of a brand new Tonsil speaker. The damage wasn't severe, but it made him realize that electronics could only be his hobby, definitely not a profession.

His school was very well organized and consisted of excellent teachers, who were professionals in their respective areas. Many of them were engineers or even doctors. They often worked in multiple jobs, while teaching vocational students was just an additional occupation. Those were very confident and demanding specialists. The students knew their expectations and the lazy ones had a very hard time in that school. There was one particularly merciless professor, who was called Moose, because of his, well, moosey face. He would always give students the hardest time during exams and was responsible for a large number of repeaters. He had absolutely no mercy and nothing could break him. Every student had to gain a thorough knowledge about the devices that Moose specialized in. That school could not really have been used just for escaping the military service. Everyone was tested and evaluated. Many students dreaded each exam session. Krzysztof, who already had some experience in dealing with tough teachers of his "cursed" high-school class, managed to get through and also gained some useful knowledge. When the time came, he entered the entry exam to the university, passed it successfully and jumped from the vocational school, to his dream studies.

There were only four girls in his class in that technical school, and thirty guys. Krzysztof must have been a very special man, because in that tiny cluster of ladies, there was one, thin and not necessarily pretty one, who helplessly fell in love with him. So much so, she even threw a party for the whole class, just to get closer to him. Sadly, Krzysztof wasn't interested in her, but in her big-breasted friend. He was embarrassed of it, but couldn't help himself. He had a thing for big breasts all his life. Apparently, even in a technical school one could not escape sexuality and erotica. It was constantly on young people's minds, no matter where they went.

# The emergence of big politics

In the late 70's, Poles believed that their reality is a sort of a continuum, that things are progressing and their lives would be constantly getting better and more abundant. The youth had high hopes for the future and eagerly made plans and prepared for adulthood. They knew what it do in order to step on the career path or into the world of politics. Everyone tried to find a way of surviving in that society built on lies. They had building society books and studied. Some worked with the youth organizations, hoping for a future, political career, others worked for Security Service, aiming for a career there or in militia. Some of them weren't particularly in love with the system, but they knew their way around it and were good in their jobs. Informing against their own friends was a great way for them to practice for their future careers. But in the early 80's everything collapsed. Strikes all over the country, liberal labor unions, economic destabilization and the threat of civil war – all those events canceled all those simple plans of the youth. Life wan not predictable anymore. It seemed that another generation got lost.

Krzysztof began his university education right in the middle of that chaos. He dreamed about studying sociology. He was fascinated by the variety of social groups, matters and choices. He was interested in the creation of specific, informal groups in the environment of those very formal and created forcefully. He was an idealist. Sadly, life brutally verified his dreams.

He eventually resigned from those aspirations and, knowing that getting in to a sociology course won't be easy, he took an entry exam for teaching studies. He did well, got one of the best results and in September was sent for a mandatory, poorly-paid internship. He did not expect such an overwhelming challenge. He was sent to work in a residential home, which was a rather traumatic experience. He never dealt with such sick and dying people before or ever. He was not prepared for such a heavy assignment. Suddenly he was placed among such crippled people of all ages, young and old, some actually dying in front of him. He saw the fragility of human life, he saw the crippled bodies he had to look after, a few hours a day. He worked as a cleaner, which meant also cleaning after the patients and wiping them. That was definitely unexpected.

On the brighter side, he met a few very nice nurses there, who were already immune to the daily horror of that place. He developed very friendly relations with them, actually, even more than friendly. As if heaven rewarded him for all the incredibly hard job he would do by day, with erotic pleasures by night. By day, he dealt with the crippled, broken bodies of the patients and by night he appreciated the beauty of a nurse's curvy body. He was amazed to have realized that the longer he looked at the suffering of others, the more he was able to appreciate his own life. Terrible feeling, but a true one. Just like a sight of a dying patient might in a sense "uplift" a patient in a better condition.

It quickly became obvious to Krzysztof that that internship was just too much for him. Too many opposing feelings and emotions in too short period of time. Over just two weeks he lost 10 kg. Once the internship was over and he finally got some proper rest and sleep, he kindly asked the dean at the university for a faculty change. He then got in to his dream sociology studies.

After two years of studying, Krzysztof concluded that the course was plain boring, dripping with communistic ideology and basically unbearable. He didn't even remember the names of the subject. All he remembered was the overall Marx propaganda. It seemed that he wasn't really sure about the direction he wanted to take, in studies as well as career.

The only interesting, valuable and even inspiring thing he took from those studies was the observation of numerous teaching methods. For example he compared two extremely opposing personalities of two professors. The sociology professor was a puffy snob who always wore a suit and a bow tie. The statistics class, on the other hand, was taught by a neat professor from Canada, who often came to class in jeans and checked shirt.

What a great difference between the two characters! The puffy snob, a Polish professor, who was a terrible liar, but would always tell some false. Rumor had it he came from a small town and got his degree thanks to the social work he was doing. Krzysztof loved asking him uncomfortable questions that would make him blush with consternation. The statistic professor, on the completely other hand, was an exchange teacher, who always gave interesting lectures supported by an American handbook and his own publications. He opened students' eyes to a while different educational system, free from F's and repeaters. The students were amazed at the lack of negative evaluation in that system. Apparently, there were points to be gathered and multiplied, that later showed student's progress and skills. It was similar to the mechanisms of the real world, that involved earning money and building assets. But the system also had a dark side – if someone didn't get enough points at a given level, further education made no sense. The students knew about that from the very beginning though. They knew that laziness would close all further doors on their educational path. The system also required integrity from both students and teachers. Any monkey business was frowned upon and practically impossible.

Krzysztof liked that system and the fact that the Canadian professor used it to evaluate the Polish students. Amazingly, after the exams, the professor threw a party for all students, at his home. Krzysztof got the highest result in statistics – he as already familiar with calculating, after his technical school, plus, he was fascinated by his professor's personality. He enjoyed learning statistics so much, that soon he was able to help out his classmates. Also, one of Krzysztof tutoring sessions would most likely have ended with a romance, but sadly, that particular classmate was engaged.

The most ridiculous experience one could have at that time was being tested on political sciences, especially, because at Krzysztof's faculty, this class was taught by two, communist cripples. A professor in a wheelchair gave incomprehensible for Krzysztof lectures, filled with materialistic and dialectic jibber-jabber. His assistant (suffering from muscular atrophy) had the hardest time in Fall when the wind was strong and "carried" him around the campus. Krzysztof did not really know how he passed the oral exam, as Mr. Assistant was extremely challenging in conversation.

The above-mentioned political events occurred when Krzysztof finished his second year of studies. Suddenly, life demanded from him the definition of his political and ideological orientation. He knew that the majority of his college friends had been raised in the spirit of atheism and communism. He was also aware of the minor group of catholic anti-communists. Up until then, Krzysztof was in neutral zone, but when the system broke, suddenly, he became the center of attention. He was no authority, but he was liked and respected by his friends from each side and there came a time, where both sides urged him to declare his statement. And that was the problem.

Krzysztof never admitted his true worldview. He got used to constantly hiding his hatred towards the idiotic system that caused his family so much trouble. He leaned a bit towards the catholic patriotism, but he could not accept their religious devotion. He could not identify with his communist friends either – he regarded them as harmless simpletons or slick materialists, but that group really tried to pull him in. Apparently, they misunderstood his friendliness with a declaration of belonging. The situation started to feel awkward and unsafe. There were three Security Service workers in that group and the tension continued to grow. He was then afraid of expressing any of his political opinions. He expected the worst, because he knew what crimes the communists are able to commit. On the other hand, he did not want to live in a lie and behave in a way that is contradictory to who he really is. He also knew that he had no way to ran – his father did not understand what was going on in Krzysztof's social life and would never forgive him, had he dropped out of college.

What to do? Krzysztof subconsciously attracted illness to his body. He completely lost his incline towards studying and his developed ulcers were a perfect excuse to escape college. Dean's leave and physical work helped him regain strength and rethink his following steps. When he returned to college, he decided to change his faculty for the last time and become a teacher. Despite all the warnings from the dean and professors, he took the challenge of numerous exams. Although nobody believed it was possible, Krzysztof passed twelve additional tests in the end of the academic year and succeeded. When the university reopened after all the martial law chaos, Krzysztof went back to the teaching faculty.

At that time, to provide for the family, Marian worked three jobs. His already grown-up sons also had job contracts there. The boys worked when they could, but when they had classes or exams, Marian had to take care of their duties too. They worked in central heating boiler rooms of three schools. The boys would start their day at 5 a.m, cleaning and preparing the boilers and set fire. During the day the day Marian would watch the temperature and add fuel. Depending on the outside temperature, the boys would have to bring 6-8 barrows of fuel. They would then return home, shower, have breakfast and go to their classes. In the evening they would have to throw away close to 200 kilograms of ash. Such "workouts" were extremely hard on their backs and many years later, that job reflected on their bodies in a form of major spinal issues, especially in neck and loin areas.

The martial law was declared when Krzysztof was still on his dean leave. Together with his brother and father, they worked during the night, so they received special passes. On the second night since the martial law declaration, they went to one of the schools, carrying two axes. As they entered the school, they bumped right into some officer, who immediately grabbed his gun. Both sides froze with fear for a moment, but eventually calmed down and went separate ways. On the next night, because of his sleepiness, Krzysztof hit his head in the boiler room and cut it open. Sloppily bandaged and dripping with blood, he walked through city streets towards the university hospital. He couldn't have picked a worse time for that unfortunate accident, with all the bulletproof vehicles and so many soldiers on the streets. Many authorities keenly observed him. The surgeon who did Krzysztof's stitches did not believe the true cause of the accident. As our boy was leaving, the doctor gave him a victory sign.

# The peaceful studies

Many of Krzysztof's friends and professors disappeared from college for good. Those who left were mostly the faithful and harmless ones. The schools must have had been closed for a while, because as Krzysztof went to his first classes in January, there was still a largely offensive and politically incorrect writing on one of the walls, that said "Junta fuckers" It was still investigated by the appropriate services. Students walked by that wall in silence, even though the situation was ridiculous. Krzysztof knew that his decision of faculty change, he avoided many consequences that his other college friends had to face. On one hand, he was happy that his predictions turned out to be right, but it saddened him that in some sense he denied his truths, in the name of the potentially peaceful future. He kept in mind, that his father and grandfather both paid an extremely high price for living boldly with their heads held high. His grandfather was killed by the Hitler soldiers and his father was tortured and sent to prison. Krzysztof chose a safer though less noble way.

He regained peace and self-confidence at his new studies, just like he did after switching high schools. He began to think about his future again and felt the sense of further work. The political madness around him wasn't his issue anymore. It turned out, that escaping the politically-binding faculty and choosing one that guaranteed a decent job in the future, was the best decision for him at that time.

Krzysztof soon indulged in his studies intensively, completely disregarding social life. Distanced and mistrustful towards his environment, he was singularly focused on passing the exams and basically minding his own business. But one day, he met a kind, young and beautiful girl. Their acquaintance quickly escalated into a relationship and before he knew it, he was happily married with children. Because of the avalanche of new duties, he had even less time for finding any friends in his college world. He was slightly regretful about it, especially because that environment seemed very kind and friendly. Those were, happy, intelligent, confident and talented people. They were a little younger, immersed in college life, they had fun and made love. They couldn't really know that Krzysztof was really one of them. And he also made it impossible for anyone to get to know him. He stayed silent about his worldviews and adventures. He felt more mature and serious.

On his second attempt at the faculty, the teaching studies turned out to be very interesting and enriching. There was a variety of subjects in many different life areas. The students were introduced to numerous teaching techniques of a whole spectrum of subjects they would later teach at schools. They learned to used different visual aids and technical devices. Krzysztof came to life. Epidiascopes, projectors and recording devices were no mystery to him. Having spent a good amount of time in technical school, he was able to disassemble and repair those machines. He was happily taking photos, developing them, shot movies and turned on the projectors. His skills impressed not only his classmates, but also some of the professors. At times, he presented better knowledge than the teachers, and he was the one to teach the class how to use magnifiers, projectors, VHS players and first computers. One of those who appreciated his knowledge was later the chief education officer. Moreover, Krzysztof would soon become moneybags – all the money he had amassed enabled him to purchase his first, second-hand car. His classmates envied Krzysztof, as he could then give girls a ride to classes, in his magnificent, bright, yellow Syrena 105. His life was then filled with colors as bright as that car.

Once, close to graduation, in the university library, Krzysztof encountered his former high-school principal Piotr Józefowski. From what he overheard from the man's conversation with the librarian, Krzysztof understood that the principal studied intensively to get his PhD. And there they were, two students sitting next to each other, working on their dissertations. A decade earlier, one banned the other from school for drinking alcohol. Life can be funny in that way... But then they were sitting in silence, as the two librarians (looking much like two lesbians) handed them books. One of those women spoke so incomprehensibly, she sounded like a boiling kettle. Her gurgling flew through the open windows and echoed through the street. She must have sounded crippled to the random passers-by. Many years later, Krzysztof bumped into her again, in a different library at a different school. She still sounded like a kettle and it was hard to communicate with her.

There soon came the time of a student internship. To do that, students visited many schools, preschools and community centers. Most often, students observed classes and then discussed methodology with teachers. They encountered different teachers and numerous teaching techniques and situations in class, some of them even scandalous. They had seen enraged teachers lashing at the frightened and unfairly judged children.

By the end of the course, students were asked to teach classes on their own and take surveys among pupils, as a part of their M.A dissertation research. That was like throwing nestling out the nest so that they can learn to fly. For Krzysztof, hat was one stressful flight. He prepared a class about his favorite genre of art, which was photography with elements of chemistry, physics and art. He thought that the way he taught was engaging and gripping. He hoped that the pupils would confirm that in his survey. But as it turned out, the majority found the lesson boring and some even used it to bully the young and inexperienced teacher. At some point, Krzysztof's throat went sore. He taught a few classes at a few, different schools and he couldn't understand why one group took the class well and the other one didn't. He wasn't experienced enough to understand that, at that point and he took the pupils' reactions very personally.

# A military education episode

Eventually, Krzysztof could not escape the mandatory military service. He couldn't get away – a pile of doctor's notes did not help, nor did the fact that he was about to become a father at that time. Had he prolonged his studies for another 2 years, he would have had avoided the service, because of his age...but he hadn't. And so, that "oldie", by military standards, was therefore sent to barracks by the Polish-Russian border in Mazury, the area where the dogs bark...with their backside.

On his first day, the sergeant who handed out uniforms greeted him with words: 'What are you doing here, grandpa? Didn't manage to avoid the service, huh?' It took a month to find uniform pants in Krzysztof's size, as he was already a little obese. On the same day, during the admission, Krzysztof told the officers, who were looking at his documents: 'As you can see, Gentlemen, I clearly am not a soldier material and sending me here was a ridiculous mistake' The officers laughed, but admitted him in for service.

And so, the military education started and it is definitely worth a description. That was an exhausting process of preparing a man to become a national defender. Many things in our beloved Poland were done the wrong way and that was one of them. Occurrences such as messiness, laziness, theft, fraud and nepotism were those soldiers' daily bread. The creation process of national defenders was more ridiculous than serious. On one hand, the young cadets were toughly drilled by the overzealous corporals, but on the other, they knew that whole "military service" to be a load of crap – a miniature version of Poland. Alcoholic officers, uniform and underwear thefts, private boar hunts, sloppily conducted activities and archaic, WW II equipment – all of that made the barracks a quagmire of miserable people. Fancy on the outside, poor and disappointing on the inside.

What was missing in that military? Basically, everything. There was not enough uniforms, because the storekeepers would steal them and sell to the locals. There was not enough weapons, because only cadets could use the fairly modern Kalashnikov gun, while the basic service soldiers were given the old and heavy WW II weapons. There was not enough ammo, so during his entire 2-year service Krzysztof shot only 5 times. There was not enough gas masks, the problem that pained the soldiers the most during the tear gas activities. There was not enough properly-working vehicles – most of them could lose the gearbox even before leaving the barracks. Artillery consisted of cannons from the year 1942 and nobody used them anymore. Moreover the food was bad, there was no heat in the barracks and no mercy for the soldiers. Sometimes, the only thing the ,military doctors do for a sick and feverish soldier was give him more comfortable shoes. What was the biggest issue to Krzysztof? Probably, the lack of pants that would always get stolen and sold away. Soldiers' clothes more often then not, would never come back from the laundry. Or, they would come back, unwashed. Military hardly was the school of life – it was a festival of mess, disgust and crassness and that's how Krzysztof remembered it. A complete waste of society's money.

If life in military units was the same, then "please God, save us from even the slightest military conflict!". But also, if our current military units are organized that poorly, then we have no chance to defeat the enemy in any potential conflict. Society should be aware of that. Heroism and sacrifice of one's health and life would be useless, when there isn't enough uniforms and weapons, when the soldiers drink, when even the smallest army is decimated by bad, political decisions. The history comes back around. Again, we have a fancy-on-the-outside army. And the alliances? Supposedly we had them in 1939 also. Today, Latvia and Belarus have much bigger and stronger armies than we do. And not the world and not even Europe would ever be dying in the name of alliance with Poland. And yet nobody speaks the truth – it's too ugly. And who was the man who said "if you want peace, prepare for war"?

At the beginning of Krzysztof's service, the officers scared him a little, when they told him, that they would watch him closely, as he was supposed to be an apolitical and anti-social entity. Apparently, they had some information about him from a trusted source. Well, there were Krzysztof's former college mates in company and one of them got promoted amazingly quickly...

In the early days of service, everyone was scared so efficiently, that when there came the time of night-watching, the wise and experienced ones hid away, knowing that the frightened newbies were overzealous and often dangerous. Once, at night, a cadet fired towards a drunk boiler attendant that tried to get into the boiler room through the fuel chute. Bullets flew close by the officer's windows, but they didn't really care. Another cadet when guarding the front gate, got so frightened by a generals' bus, that he let them in without validation, saluted them and put the bar down right on their vehicle. The first cadet got grounded for being "over-vigilant", and the latter spent the night in jail for not authorizing the guests' documents (actually, for letting the generals in to the unit that was entirely asleep). The unnoticed generals quietly did some "sightseeing" around the barracks.

Today, Krzysztof laughs about the constant lack of clean pants and the fact that being colorblind he was notable to read the colorful flares in the sky that signified danger and the upcoming tear gas. He would always observe the flares with fascination, oblivious to what they meant, and luckily, the wind always blew the gas away from him. Once, he was told to put on a rubber coat and a gas mask and take a 10-kg hammer, supposedly for decluttering. He was sent into the woods for night-watching and forgotten about. The weather was cruel and his mask goggles got completely snowed. And that weird-looking ,snow-covered soldier would have probably frozen to death, had he not been noticed by a night patrol that walked by.

From his guard duties, Krzysztof remembered mostly hordes of cockroaches, running around the guardhouse and occasional, individual ones, sneaking out of his sleeves. He got so cold during night-watching that at some point, he noticed big and painful balls in the groin area. Terrified of what that might mean, he ran to the doctor's office. It was a gland reaction. He was prescribed an antibiotic, that almost killed him – he was allergic to it.

The exercise excursions were quite interesting. Krzysztof did his best not to overdo the exercises, especially after he had witnessed one of his comrades faint. The man had a heart attack while crawling. So, whenever the corporals rushed Krzysztof, he would splay out his hands and explain that, of course, he would not oppose and he did his best to comply with the orders, but he could not do it all, because he simply was too weak. And on the command of atomic bomb danger, Krzysztof, instead of throwing himself to the ground, boldly shelled the virtual bomb. Soon, the corporals gave up on that weird fatty in sunglasses.

The adventure that Krzysztof enjoyed the most, was during a night alarm, when the entire regiment went to a frozen pitch and our fatty soldier's team was supposed to stay in barracks and guard the cafeteria. Of course, Krzysztof was more than happy to guard the buns and coffee against the potential danger of imperial armed forces. He eventually decided to make the night more interesting. He made an antenna out of two wires and attached it onto a radio which then transmitted Radio Free Europe, all the way from London. Well, actually, the hum of the radio was merely a background for the loud snores of the team sleeping in the cafeteria. Luckily, there were no finks among them.

Krzysztof, the teacher-to-be, was once told to teach the regiment a marching song. 'Let's see what our Mr. Professor can do!", the officers laughed. And so, "Mr. Professor" grabbed a chalked and drew a song on a blackboard, in a form of a word puzzle. The words "Look how the rushing hands of time can change a life" looked like a set of icons: eye, hands, clock, gearbox. Amazingly, after a quarter, the entire group sang! As a reward, they were the first group to get dinner that day. They thanked Krzysztof warmly for that.

Sometimes, one better stayed silent and keep his head down, otherwise, one could get in big trouble. In the first days of the service, the officers would search for the most active ones, who could have been volunteers. And when they asked who could operate a radio station, no surprise, our brave solider raised his hand. He would regret his enthusiasm later, as he had to carry a twenty kilograms worth of radio station, on his back. He may have been laughed at by other soldiers, but that willingness of his, eventually led him to a decent job. Together with another comrade, he started to work in the photo room. They could then access the darkroom which they would later use as a hideout from the morning exercises and other duties. Also, they found something rather interesting in that darkroom – negatives of spy pictures, that the counterintelligence service used for scaring the young soldiers, warning them of the adverse forces who, supposedly, photographed Polish artillery. The propaganda bubble was burst.

After the cadet training, Krzysztof, together with a few buddies, came back to his hometown and ended up in a military civil defense division in a union shop. From that point forward, the young soldiers became platoon leaders, were given offices and worked shifts. They loved in their own homes and their service actually looked like a normal job. They supervised the young incomers, who were included into the division and transferred to the union shop. Those people could not perform the mandatory military service for one of these three reasons: they were the only providers for their families, they had a health condition disabling them from the service, or, they were prisoners with suspended sentence. All in all, following Russia's footsteps, Poland got cheap, almost free workforce. Almost free, because those people worked for an absolutely minimal wage, but if they wanted to work more, they would be paid for extra hours. Who's idea was it, to create such divisions? Those were the "wonderful" military reigns of the general Jaruzelski, who would do anything and everything to hunt every lazy couch potato down and get him to work.

Interestingly, the position of the division commander went to a captain, a major would be his deputy and the colonel would be subordinate. Krzysztof didn't understand why the charge didn't keep their normal functions. The captain was an obese man who looked a lot like Edward Gierek. The major was a crippled and exhausted man without one index finger and the colonel was in the first stage of dementia.

So what were the cadets' duties? They were supposed to train those pseudo-soldiers in the area of civil defense and military drill. That was usually done on Saturday, because during the weeks, they would keep an eye on the attendance list. During the weapon training, they would run and hide, because the sick and the prisoners could have been dangerous. At some point, a conflict arose between two of those pseudo-soldiers. One, a prisoner threw bearings on the other, who was clearly suffering from polio disease. Actually the latter guy should have been on a pension, instead of a slave job in the dusty, military union. Krzysztof drove the offender to prison, in his own car.

The everyday routine of the civil defense service was boring and exhausting. The soldiers worked in the production of wheels and tires for military vehicles. It was a terribly dirty job and it was impossible for them to wash the scrub the rubber dust away. And even if they managed to do that, they would look weird anyway, with dark circles around their eyes. It looked as if they wore make up, but they were way to exhausted to even care. Meanwhile, the fresh and shiny clean cadets, dressed in their black uniforms, would work around those dirty plants, that looked like the scenery from the movie "Promised Land". After they had checked the attendance, they would usually stay bored in their offices, listening to the radio and sleeping on desks.

Krzysztof cold not stand that boredom. Soon, his restless nature acted up again and he decided to build something. Having some knowledge of electronics, he knew how to bridge connections to the phone central and make calls from the seemingly blocked number. When he showed that to his buddies, everyone immediately felt more alive. Soon, they decided to have a little fun and Krzysztof always provided best ideas. He played a joke on the head commander who annoyed him with constant, pointless orders. So, Krzysztof plugged in the speaker and, to his buddies' amazement, called the head commander and the nursery rhyme central at the same time. Everyone froze, as they heard the commander pick up the phone.

"Hello? Hello: The captain said.

"The itsy bitsy spider, climbed up the waterspout." Sang a squeaky voice, at the end of the nursery rhyme line.

"What the hell!" Yelled the captain.

"Down came the rain and washed the spider out." The squeaky automatic voice continued.

"F..k! Dammit!" The confused captain yelled back. He tried to disconnect by banging the receiver down, but there was nothing he could do. He was connected to the nursery rhymes. Moreover, "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" song was particularly annoying to him, since he had long, kind of spider-ish legs. The cadets later heard that the captain was particularly furious for the rest of the day, and then the following morning, he announced that he wouldn't be working that day, because there has been a permanent breakdown of the phone line. Another, even cheekier joke was connecting the captain with a random Swiss number. A funny, but a rather dangerous game...

One of the Polish People's Republic soldiers' duties was "the press", which meant mandatory reading of numerous military and standard papers, as well as watching the daily news. And so, there were piles upon piles of those papers in the cadets' cubbyhole. Soon, they started to use them as toilet paper. They were soft and well, one could have always read a little, before using it...

One day, Krzysztof's direct subordinate got a diabolical idea. He decided to make a call from this apparently non-existing phone, to the Internal Military Service in Gdańsk and introduce himself as a press editor. He complained about a bunch of drunk mariners, who stood outside the newspaper office, peeing on the walls and making vulgar remarks about the newspaper. He wanted immediate reaction. The nervous duty officer at the IMS declared immediate intervention. Better not to wonder what happened in Gdańsk later...This was a dangerous prank, because the name of the editor was accurate – the pranksters got it from the paper. Krzysztof was worried about the consequences of his friends' actions. He had a completely different sense of humor.

Another time, bored with his lonely night-watching duty, Krzysztof completely unintentionally ridiculed the headquarters. He turned on the radio and, instead of music, he heard a sleepy voice giving some numbers, in German. Because he spoke very slowly, Krzysztof started to write those numbers down and continued that for half an hour: eins, zwei, drei, vier, fünf, neun...and so on. And then, when writing his daily protocol, he included those numbers and commented that it may have been a secret, spy message, transmitted from the factory area to the political and ideological enemy. He also expressed his hope that the message he gave would help increase the national safety. He never knew, what the headquarters did with that protocol.

What did Krzysztof learn in the army? What did his comrades learn and what did he teach to his subordinates? Better not to say, better not to comment on it. May the readers draw their own conclusions.

# Return to destiny

What does one do after military service? Who to be? How to find one's place in the world again? Krzysztof had a dilemma, because the army paid him good money which allowed him to easily provide for his young family. Fortunately, one of his friends, who managed to leave the military earlier, helped Krzysztof find a job in a big and well-known company of the "age of socialism". And so, his boring, tiring and, at times, pretended, office job began. Journeys to and from the office were long and frustrating and so was the daily paperwork, coffee-drinking and cigarette-smoke-breathing. The money wasn't good and the long hours of unbearable boredom behind the desk were slowly killing Krzysztof. He had learned one thing – pretending like he was working. He had good teachers – a sea of similar workers in that huge building, where everybody acted as if they were extremely important and needed. There were as many workers as in that wheel factory – a real, economic nightmare. Such a company should not have existed! After the transformations of the 90's, it went into big trouble and after firing a few "big guys", the building was rented to different companies.

But before that happened, Krzysztof listened to his political and social instincts, foresaw the possible future events and decided to change his workplace to a much safer one, to school. That friend, who got him that office job didn't really understand Krzysztof's decision and did not believe his predictions about the political system change and the company collapse. Despite much smaller salary, Krzysztof decided to take on a teaching position in a local elementary school.

And that's how the story circled around. Some amazing coincidence brought him to a school of the same number as the school he once attended as a kid. There he was again in the institution he knew so well, having spent most of his life there. There he was again in those halls, classrooms, hearing the sharp and frightening sound of the bell. He was overwhelmed by the amount noise that kids produced during the breaks. Sometimes he would be paralyzed by the fear of not being able to control them in class. Sometimes, when he left school, dinned by all the noise, he was afraid to cross the street, because of the disorienting ringing and humming in his head. Krzysztof after work probably looked either intoxicated or sick. Someone who had never worked in school at least for a week, would never understand that. After years of work, teachers' senses toughen up and accustomed, but returning each year from the Summer break is extremely difficult. Damaged hearing and voice and permanent stress – those are the side effects of being a teacher.

In his new job, Krzysztof for the first time ever encountered people, who consciously allow themselves to be walked upon. The principal was a weird, big, thick-boned woman with amazingly strong and authoritarian personality. Our fresh and new teacher wasn't bother by he at first, as he didn't have much contact with her. But it did puzzle him, that his initial job contract for teaching technical subject was quickly changed into one for teaching history and civics. Unfortunately, he burned bridges with his previous, office job and was forced to take that challenge. He then had to revise what he had learned in high school and during his short adventure with sociology studies. Armed in appropriate workbooks, Krzysztof retrained himself from a technician into a historian within 3 weeks. He would only teach this subject for a few months, but over that short period of time, he managed to plant a real historical awareness seed, in his pupils' minds. He did a dirty job of teaching contemporary history. As a grandson of a former Polish People's Party activist, he presented Roman Dmowski's actions towards liberation, in a whole different way. And when discussing the October Revolution, he terrified kids with the true image of it – the movie "Battleship Potemkin". Kids were shaken, but many years later, they thanked that young, history teacher for opening their eyes to many matters.

Over the following year, Krzysztof was supposed to teach shop class. There was a lot of kids at school, so he was hired full-time and, together with a partner teacher, they started to teach metal, wood and fabric treatment, cooking, sewing, putting electronic equipment together and also, technical drawing. He appeared to be an expert in every, practical area of life! He did not enjoy teaching every single one of those skills, but nobody really cared about that. The teacher's motto must have been: "Got qualifications? Teach!" Therefore, some classes went smoothly and pleasantly, some were just plain disaster. Some groups liked and respected him, some didn't give a damn about a word that he said. Those were extreme experiences. Did he have any support? He could not count on the principal or other school workers. Actually, admitting that he had problems with kids, was more self-destructive than helpful. They would always reply "If you can't deal with kids at such an early stage, you will probably get along with them later on". Moreover, the most important people in that school were cleaners, that, apart from cleaning had another very important function, involving constant contact with the principal – denouncing. It came to such ridiculousness that the cleaners complained to the principal about the chalk ash floating in classrooms and the principal would reprove teachers for it.

There was always complete silence during the staff meetings. The principal would mercilessly and vulgarly denounce the teachers while they kept their heads down, agreeing on her every word. Nobody dared to rise against being walked upon. That was a period preceding the major, political changes in the country. The principal had tight connections with the people in power and behaved exactly as an old, Stalinist activist would. For instance, when a nun came to school, to talk about the terms on which the religion classes would be conducted, the principal literally threw her out of the office. That wonderfully kind nun told Krzysztof about that incident, many years later. She still remembered the tears she had cried at that time. Interestingly, the sports teachers were the only people who were completely off the hook and could speak whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted and they could also influence the principal's decisions.

And eventually, one day, Krzysztof crossed the principal's line. Having been denounced again, he replied: 'Ma'am let's set the record straight. My ass is meant for teaching. And the asses of those ladies are for cleaning". The principal gasped, flushed and said through cringed teeth: 'Find yourself a different school. From the next year on, you're fired".

And that's the way Krzysztof ended his career in the school ruled by the blonde Stalinist and her click of cleaners. Could it have been because a few days earlier he witnessed an inappropriate, sexual behavior of that lady? He spotted her make out with some man behind a tree, nearby a low-standard hotel. Perhaps, if he hadn't witnessed that incident, he wouldn't get fired so abruptly.

# Quick change of the principals

The position of a school principal can be taken by a variety of people. By the power of, earlier the party, later the staff's acclamation and now contest, anyone could be a principal. And it was a rare case, when it was a creative and supportive person, who would inspire their subordinates. Sadly, very often that position was occupied by a complete anti-talent and an utter simpleton with too big of an ego, who would put others down and attempt to destroy every creative and promising teacher, that might be a competition for their chair.

Our young teacher finally arrived in the "right school". Fortunately, the transition was smooth for him -after his initial talk with the principal, Krzysztof felt safe and warm in his new workplace. He felt an opportunity to growth, because the principal planed on using Krzysztof's best skills and there was quite a lot of them. The principal himself was a talented musician interested in numerous life areas and he quickly got along with the new, aspiring teacher. Krzysztof was supposed to teach shop class, lead the photography and the IT club, as well as be responsible for the school's entire electronic equipment. The principle quickly realized that the new teacher was a real gem, who should not be let go of.

Krzysztof was eager to start his new teaching adventure, after the Summer break. But right on the first day he was hit by an unpleasant surprise – the principal whom he liked so much, had changed schools and the staff board chose through acclamation, a new and unknown individual. Yes, he definitely was an individual. The former vice principal, clearly insecure, unusually feminine, mean and mentally fragile. He did not make a good first impression on Krzysztof, whose first thought was that not only was the man a homosexual but really, a very mean homosexual. He felt that he had better stayed away from that man. Later he found out that the principal has his own family and two sons. How did that relate to the fact that he behaved like an old, flirty lady, remained unclear. Maybe that was the way he was influenced by the environment dominated by females?

Not surprisingly, soon Krzysztof found himself in conflict with the new principal. He could not remember who threw the first stone, but he clearly remembered the restrictions that were put on him. The principal cut his teaching hours and sent him to work in the after-school club, suggesting the lack of qualifications. He also wrote a denouncing evaluation where he accused Krzysztof of breaking and taking the electronic equipment away. That happened two days after someone broke into the school and actually destroyed the devices and used some of them to open the school safe. Krzysztof, deeply insulted with such behavior and taught well by experience, wrote an official paper to the headquarters and he got an interesting reaction. The principal and his associate were strangely nice and cooperative. They admitted having acted too impulsively, they extended their hands in the act of agreement and the associate had tears in her eyes. They also told Krzysztof that in the early days of they careers, they also weren't qualified enough, but their improved their kills through different post-graduate courses. What happened? What were they afraid of? Maybe inventory?

The new principal also had an argument with the sports teachers. Once, he stormed into their cubbyhole and began to interrogate them.

"What is actually happening here?" The principal wanted to know.

"A lot of things... The first teacher spoke.

"I'm asking about those bottles in your cupboard! You drink alcohol here!" The principal yelled with his weird, squeaky, feminine voice.

"Sir! How can you accuse us! You should thank us for collecting the bottles that the local drunks leave in the schoolyard. We take them to the store, exchange them for money and buy ping-pong balls for our pupils." Another teacher explained.

The disoriented principal left the cubbyhole without any apology towards the innocent ad considerate teachers. He simply went back to his office, with his head still high.

As mentioned earlier, the new principal was a mean person, but also, too mentally fragile for his job. It was a common opinion that he poorly managed the school administration and also, that he had issues with his own class. In early Spring, one incidence had seriously weakened his position. He got mad at his class and, as a punishment, decided that he wouldn't be teaching them until the end of the year. The class lost two subjects. Nobody witnessed anything like that ever before. Some suspected that the pupils were asking him uncomfortable, personal questions and that was what aggravated him so much. Others did not know how to respond to this at all. At the end of the schoolyear, the exhausted and discouraged principle decided to go for early retirement. And again, through acclamation, the school board chose the associate for a new principal. Most teachers were happy to have chosen such a kind, peaceful, warm and considerate woman, who would later be known as Pigeon's Heart.

# Exploring other forms of education

On the break of the new century, Krzysztof decided to earn some extra money, as his school salary was ridiculously low. During the Summer, he looked into the job ads in the press. At first, he was hired as an IT guy in a large, private enterprise. He worked as a data processor and at the same time he was trained to be a trainer.

He was getting to know the new, trade programming that was being introduced to the market. Those were check-out programs and networking systems. Supermarkets were using their first bar code scanners, which was a major innovation, however, they were programmed by a very old operating system. The scanners often made huge and hurtful errors. They had made many cashiers cry, when they sold cheese instead of chocolate, or charge a few thousand zloty for chewing gum. The IT people did whatever they could to solve such situations and improve the system. They knew how to hack the invoice system and make changes in the files, as if they had magic wands. "Miracle workers", if you will. The changes were indiscernible to the tax office workers, so the markets could actually get away with anything.

Krzysztof didn't stay long at that job though. He was one of the two store management trainers. The other trainer was supposed to train him and then they would divide the working hours in half. But that other guy understood the situation differently – he though that Krzysztof was competition for him and consequently, taught him really badly. When it was Krzysztof's time to train others, it turned out that he lacked the basic knowledge about program errors and commercial documents. When he realized that, his body reacted strongly. He was so stressed, that he would have to visit the toilet on every break. He would stand in front of groups of grown-ups, with the painful awareness of being an incompetent trainer. It was literally making him sick. It was the time when he understood what "rat race" really means. The boss was indifferent to his complaints and eventually, Krzysztof gave up and quit.

He made effort to earn extra money again after a few years. He was then led to two private schools – the first was a college, the latter, a vocational school. He did not risk being incompetent, because he was hired to teach IT classes and that definitely was his strong suit. He worked there not just over the Summer, but also during the school year, in the weekdays and the weekends. He continued that for a few years, a period during which he heard constant complaints and sarcastic comments from his wife and his brother-in-law, regarding his work and income. His apparent work addiction would then always be discussed at family gatherings, but he was ambitious and determined to continue with his three jobs. Unfortunately, all that work and struggle did not make him rich. Moreover, his car, his one an only facility, got stolen and that was when he got completely discouraged. He did not have any car insurance, so all the extra money he had accumulated, had to be invested into a new vehicle. And when the new vehicle broke down right after purchase, Krzysztof, stressed to his very boundaries, got a heart attack. Fortunately, in his case, that was just a message from the body, that he could not live and work like that any longer.

The job in the private college was very pleasurable though. When he first came there, at the beginning of the academic year, at the staff meeting, the dean asked the teachers to introduce themselves and say what school they were representing. People would mention the university, the polytechnics, the military school...'I represent elementary school', Krzysztof murmured with slight embarrassment.

He was happy to interact with young adults, with whom he could have normal conversations. He was liked, respected, referred to as "professor" and paid well – a dream job! He also made a few interesting acquaintances. One colleague of his, a doctor and an engineer, introduced him to a new and free operating system called Linux. Krzysztof worked in that college for three years, until a sudden tragedy and bad press led to major cuts of the staff. The tragedy was the Concorde plane crash which involved the students of that school. "Bad press" was a series of articles about the students supposedly having been used as free work force in local hotels.

At the same time, Krzysztof worked in a vocational school and he taught the same class to the future accountants and HR workers. Sometimes he would get a separate contract from the job office, for individual or additional classes. Soon, the school fell into a crisis, to a point when it was unable to pay rent for the building. Therefore, Krzysztof convinced the school's owner to move to the building of the Pigeon's Heart's school. An amazing coincidence was that the owner's mother was the Pigeon's Heart's accountant. And so, both mother and son began to work in the same building. Another amazing coincidence was that the mother used to work for the Security Service. When her son, the owner, moved his school to the elementary school's building, he told Krzysztof with surprise that he recognized one of the teachers as his parents' old friend and a former militia officer. Krzysztof told him that the former militia officer was a mathematician by profession and had monopoly for teaching English in that school. The vocational school owner knew, that the former officer did not know the language that he was teaching to those poor and stressed out kids. That was the system...

The vocational school collapsed slowly. At some point, the owner sold all the school's equipment to the elementary school and six months later, jumped onto a plane and emigrated to England, where he then worked in a cigarette factory.

So much for Krzysztof's career in private education. He went back to the reality of minimal wage and everyday struggle with crazy children. Later on, he started to teach Information Technology to children and adults, in their homes. He would also give advice about purchasing computer equipment. While performing those services he met many interesting people, some of which became his long-time friends.

# People in power – a short philosophical and sociological discussion

Every society consists of people with a variety of inclinations. One of those inclinations must be reigning and control over others. There have always been two, basic types of power: authoritarian and democratic. In the first type, the unlimited power is held by one individual or a small group of people, while the inferiors have no possibility in partaking the governing. They usually posses little skills, but take on an enormous responsibility. In the democratic type, the government, theoretically chosen by society, consists of a small group of people who collaborate with a group of consultants. They usually have more competence and a big range of power but their scope of responsibility might be smaller than in the authoritarian type. In extreme cases, in the democratic model, the line between power and responsibility may be blurred. It is then difficult to find the authors of all the bad decisions and negligence. In reality, those two models usually overlap. There might not be a system that is completely one or the other.

But what are the expectations of modern society? Which of those types does it prefer? Theoretically, one might think that the answer must be "democratic type", because that is the most common opinion. However, it is just the hypocrisy and illusion of our time. The majority of humanity probably knows by now, that in reality, they have no say and no real impact and, that democracy is one big comedy. Behind the curtain there are authoritarian groups, influencing our governments. Those groups rule the finance and the media and are able to sell absolutely every lie to the society. People prefer to disregard their intuition, close their minds and just believe those lies, for the so called "inner peace" and comfortable life. Everyone wants to simply live in peace and that's why it's easier for them to put the blame for every possible inconvenience on the chosen bad guys". For some, those bad guys are Jews, for some they are Arabs, Americans, left-wing parties...Every clear social group that is easy to assimilate, is likely to be blamed for all the human suffering. The word societies have lived in illusion for ages, due to their own stupidity and ignorance. Those major issues transfer into the small, local environments and vice versa – the problems of the small environments grow into large-scale issues.

It is a common occurrence, that people who feel inclined to rule societies are those who are aware of those mechanisms and want to use that knowledge for their individual advantage. Those are people who should never ever get to power, the most dangerous ones. More often than not, those people are known to be highly anti-social. More often than not, those are the people who do not possess any other talents and did not succeed in any career area. Among them, there are sociopaths and mentally ill individuals. The y may. however, be skilled in public speaking They may be trained how to be charismatic and entertain large crowds with their shows of lies. More often than not, such people can indifferently use the honesty and trust of their voters and then stab them in the back. A mouthful of cliches, apparent perfection, perfect morality...those are the features of a probable, future betrayer and autocrat. All they care about is gaining power and keeping it. In their sick minds they are convinced that nobody else could ever rule, but them. They see society as a chaotic mass of fools that needs getting in order. They are extremely slick in their actions, especially when it comes to hurting others. People who notice the harm choose to stay silent about it and just watch it. Just like the sheep stay and watch other sheep being killed.

How to recognize a sociopath? Disclosing them may take years. It is worth to notice people who express unusual particularity in their behavior and in the way they dress. People, who suck up to authorities and disregard other, less important in their opinion, people. It is good to notice those who, without any particular reason, manage to gain approval from others and those who never speak their true opinions. It is worth remembering that the biggest danger for an anti-talent lies in the talented and creative, independent and confident individuals. If such individuals are being destroyed, banished or scared away, that is an unequivocal prove that the person in question is toxic and dangerous and merciless in their pursuit of power. They would kill to get it and they would kill to maintain it.

# The age of Pigeon's Heart

Just like in Ancient Egypt ruled by the Roman Empire, the new school blossomed thanks to the new principal. After all the weirdness of the predecessor and all the terror of the principal, who was there before Krzysztof came, the teachers and other school workers could breathe a sigh of relief. Their new boss was a kind and fair person, who had everybody's best interest at heart. First years of her leadership passed in peace and harmony. No one thought that things were about to drastically change.

Pigeon's Heart became the principal because of just the right circumstances. Her predecessors disappeared quickly and she had been chosen, sort of in a rush. Before that, her job was to assist and to help. In fact, she was barely noticeable. She taught her class, recorded the staff meetings and then became an associate. When chosen for the principal, she humbly accepted her new function and during the first years, she would sit quietly in her office. She would delegate all the diffidence administration matters to her assistants. The first assistant left the school after the reform that introduced junior high schools. The second one was the associate until retirement and the third one kept her position until the last days of the Pigeon's Heart's leadership.

People were working hard at that school, for its best interest. Many of them performed additional activities completely selflessly, without expecting any gratification. They truly wanted to make that school the friendliest place for the children and for themselves. They organized interesting events and were genuinely happy to come to work everyday. They knew that the school wasn't particularly prosperous and that only with their own effort and creativity could they make positive changes there. And because of all their creative endeavors the school began to be noticed and acknowledged. Most importantly, the school gained trust of the local families, who were happy to send their children there, knowing that they would not regret it.

The school appeared to be a well-oiled, smooth-running machine that could only accelerate and develop. It seemed that all cogs of that machine worked perfectly and accordingly. It seemed that the machine operator is perfectly competent.

But where did the beloved principal's nickname come from? Why was she called Pigeon's Heart? It wasn't out of spite. That epithet slipped out of her associate's mouth during one of the final discussions with the Union representatives. Some haters would soon laugh that Pigeon's Heart had a tough head, tough ass and was dangerously slick. Some even called her a calf, which was far beyond the belt.

Once, by the end of her career, Pigeon's Heart compared the school to a railway station and herself to a station master. The haters loved that remark and would then comment that yes, the school was a railway station, ruled by the station master's family, where the trains where trains were damaged and never on time. According to the haters, the trains were operated by incompetent engineers, the wheels were provided by the secretary's husband and the passengers didn't know where they were going. And the platforms, of course, stank with urine.

There were those who thought that Pigeon's Heart was, at some point of his life, possessed by some demons. Some even claimed to have felt her diabolic aura that smelled with sulfur. But she also had some supporters, who saw her as a good person, just a little bit naive and incorrectly informed by her assistants. And those assistants were supposedly using her innocence and unawareness in their own interest. Of course there were also those, who thought that all her actions are dictated by her own desire for money and power.

Here is the secret to the Pigeon's Heart's success. She was a skilful and smooth actress. She could lie without blinking, she could suggest bad solutions with a kind smile on her face, she could cry at any time and stop crying just as easily. She was a brilliant puppet master who pulled the strings of the entire school staff. She knew how to antagonize others and she was able to use her closest friends in her own interest. She was flawless, always innocent and always perfect. Her decisions were always right and always consulted with the staff. It was a true and natural skill. The Nikifor of the elementary school's Machiavellian politics.

She didn't give anybody a chance to excel. She was always the one who claimed all the awards. She would be praised for the achievements of her, what she called "team", meaning people who were actually doing the job. She would reward them with a handshake or a paper puff piece, but all the financial profits she'd keep to herself.

Once, in the early days of his work at the new school, Krzysztof asked Pigeon's Heart for help. He could not get along with one class, for which he became on object of a very mean behavior. He found out, years later, that some of those kids ended up in prison. No wonder, he had so much trouble dealing with them.

The principal helped Krzysztof right away, in a rather radical way. She told him how to properly deal with such kids: throw an unbearable amount of work on their shoulders and account them systematically, consequently and mercilessly for every, smallest thing, with the help of a device called "work sheet". Krzysztof took the advice very seriously and put all his heart into gaining control over the class. Bad grades were flying around in all directions. The collective responsibility worked and soon, class divided into two groups: one, of those who cared about their results and the other, of those who did not care. Krzysztof noticed that his actions let the one, united and adverse group into a division and rivalry. Both sides were then in a rat race. Those rats, who up until then fought against Krzysztof, began to fight against each other, so in a sense, he succeeded, thanks to the Pigeon's Heart's advice. He remembered that experience for long. Many years later, he realized, that she applied the same mechanisms in order to deal with the entire school staff.

Pigeon's Heart was not afraid to walk the thin line between justice and crime. She did not hesitate to risk the life of the school staff and even the children. And when a situation grew risky for her, she would do anything and everything in her power to find and destroy her true or apparent enemies. She was a true master of manipulation and getting away with lies and frauds. She was incredibly talented in gaining people's trust. It was an amazing and amazingly dangerous person, who influenced and destroyed many lives.

# The war and battles on numerous fronts

An avalanche can be caused by a stone, a sound, or, sometimes, plows of snow suddenly begin to collapse, when the last snowflake that they can take, falls on the very top of them.

The storm came completely unexpectedly, in our little, innocent elementary school. Not only did Krzysztof witness the complete decay of the Pigeon's Heart governance, but he was also directly hurt by that process. At first, he involuntarily observed the events, then he took part in them and eventually became one of the degeneration's victims. For a long time, he couldn't understand, why the most talented and creative individuals began to disappear from the school so abruptly. He wondered why he just couldn't get along with the principal and why so many brilliant ideas were disregarded and thrown into the trash.

One of those creative individuals was a psychologist, who had opened a nationwide therapy center at school and her idea quickly spread all over the country. Pigeon's Heart offered her a position of the associate and canceled that offer a few days later, with no explanation. Rumor had it, such a decision was influenced by the language school director, Pigeon's Heart's friend's husband and a former security service officer, who had monopoly at school for teaching a foreign language. The creative teacher pointedly left the school, burned every bridge that connected her to it and transferred her practice to a different building. She formed an association, got her PhD and became ac consultant in the National Education Department.

Another, very energetic teacher (who was once offered a position of the principal) opened a chess center at school and became a coordinator of the provincial chess tournament. When her epileptic child got beaten up, she moved her center to another school, as a sign of protest.

The most tragic story was probably the one of the music teacher, a subtle yet assertive lady who also directed a cultural center in a different city. Every little thing she did, like coming to class a little late or telling off a problematic kid, somehow always ended up being exaggerated into a major failure, scandal, or even crime. Later, people suspected that the person responsible for such a state of affairs, was a folk music teacher, who also happened to be a Pigeon's Heart's friend. Once, the stressed out and disoriented music teacher told Krzysztof that there is nothing that could stop the headquarters from bullying the teachers, other than forming a union. She asked Krzysztof to take appropriate steps towards the organization of it. Soon she was taken ill by a deadly disease. People then talked, that the lazy music teacher simply didn't want to come to school and prepare the final academy before Summer.

After the Summer break, at the commencement academy, Pigeon's Heart announced: 'That music teacher, who yelled at our kids so much last year, will not be teaching here anymore". The audience applauded. Meanwhile, the music teacher laid in intensive care, drained by chemotherapy and plugged into a respirator. The Pigeon's Heart knew about that very well. That was just too perfidious for a faux pas, for those who were her ruthless enemies. But no one could know for sure, apart from principal. Once, an archbishop accused of sexual harassment said: 'those were misinterpreted gestures and misinterpreted words'...

One might think that Pigeon's Heart was actually right, in her words about the music teacher – after all no one should ever yell at children! There was no excuse for such behavior, be it the need to take care of one's hundred-year-old, dying mother, be it cancer growing in one's body, be it the constant harassment from the headquarters, be it, simply, a misbehaving child – children should never, ever be yelled at.

That old social and political system allowed the workers of certain economic branches to enjoy a number of privileges and discounts. Miners, steelworkers and electrical engineers would get emoluments of carbon or cheaper energy. The children of teachers would be accepted into universities first.

The Pigeon's Heart's school was a different story. During the first years of the twenty-first century, due to low birthrate and the weird, junior high school reform, as well as the young Poles' emigration, the amount of children at school decreased rapidly. Suddenly there was no money for the school maintenance. Pigeon's Heart decided then, that the school would become an integrative establishment. It welcomed children with a variety of disabilities, mostly neurological and mental. Among them, there were teachers' kids.

Puzzlingly, there were three epileptic children who caused the same behavioral problems. Those kids were hyperactive – they would leave their desks during classes, occasionally making other kids laugh. Thy were unable to control their activity. According to neurologists, the hyperactivity was a side effect of the anti-epileptic medicine, and trying to tone it down with calming medicine may actually cause an inverse effect – encourage hyperactivity. Moreover, in that school that called itself integrative, those kids experienced complete rejection and even bullying. They would be punished for behavior they could not control!

The principals did not know how to deal with such disabilities, so they would consequently tell the parents (who were also teachers) that it was their over-protectiveness that caused all those difficulties. Their favorite term was "demanding parents" and they would repeat it like a mantra. They even tried to organized a training course on "how to deal with demanding parents" The parents felt extremely hurt by all those accusations and, fighting their inner hesitation, they would write protests to the local education authority. But perhaps they were overreacting, after all, Pigeon's Heart always repeated that everything she did was for the highest good of the children...

Once, after a fierce protest of a parent, the principal and her friend, a head teacher, agreed to change the behavior grades of the disabled children. Those grades disqualified them from being accepted to the following schools. But the principal was not actually going to change those grades. It was a ruse – she only said that to get those annoying, frustrated parents off her back...especially the parents of the child who was hit at school, by the head teacher's husband. Soon, the class rebelled and refused to work. After the parents' intervention at the education authority, that head teacher was fired. Pigeon's Heart never forgave that parent/teacher such an affront, that damaged the school's name in the eyes of authorities. After all, the school's name was the principal's name, more than anything else.

Meanwhile, another friend of the principal would hit the children over the head with books. After another intervention from the parents, she also lost her job. Both scandals were smoothly muted and fortunately, that teacher who hit the children did not face any further consequences. It was so sad, that poor Pigeon's Heart had to suffer so much because of her friends.

She must have been so brave to have faced all those challenges.

# Provocation, first events and the war

There came a time for Krzysztof's personal battle with the principal. He didn't know back then, that Pigeon's Heart had a skill of fighting numerous wars at the same time and had a good handle on all of them already. He was sure that at the moment of the attack, he was the only one she fought with. He didn't know that she was simultaneously at war against the parents of a death child. And a few wars with some other teachers, who were inconvenient for her.

Was the war provoked? This question remains unanswered 'till this day. The avalanche began to fall more or less around the time, when the Education Department introduced new law of promotion. From that point forward, the teachers had to gather documentation about their work and prove how smoothly and dynamically they expand and evolve. The magic and initially mysterious word "evaluation" started to echo around the school. Krzysztof would playfully mistake it with the word "ovulation" which, among all the female teachers, was better understood. Male teachers would probably prefer the word "ejaculation", because of the pleasurable connotations, but that's too big of a stretch from the original word in question.

For those teachers who were the first to register in that idiotic, paperwork system would receive a bonus. They could be quickly promoted, in the first round. In order to get his chance, two days before the school yer commencement, Krzysztof filed an appropriate application. To his great amazement, a few days later he received a rejection. Pigeon's Heart pronounced each of his ideas "unimportant from the school's point of view" After two months of his usual work, our disappointed teacher still could not understand why he was treated that way.

At that time, Krzysztof operated all the technical equipment and was considered an IT guru. Many school areas functioned well thanks to his work. He would also maintain the IT equipment of the principal, the accountant and the HR, for free. He opened the school's first computer lab. He brought over ten, used computers to school, over the Summer and opened another lab. When he realized that he was being pushed around and put upon, he stood his ground and demanded an appropriate reward for all his work, but the principal only laughed at him.

In early December, he asked for a small amount of money for the equipment maintenance and, naturally, his request was rejected. According to the principal, school could not afford new investments, by the end of the year. A few days later, on the St. Nicholas day, the principal's husband (and also a HR worker) told Krzysztof to quickly make a list of the needs, because there is a large amount of money for it. Krzysztof, happy about such a nice present, had no time to wonder where did that money come from. Without much hesitation, he purchased sound and computer equipment, while the principal bought for her office a brand new, most expensive, top-shelf laptop. Krzysztof was surprised about that purchase, because he knew that an average, basic computer would definitely suit the principal's skills and needs. Little did he know that the money came from a very weird fraud that resulted in a huge scandal, by the end of the school year.

A few days before Christmas, Pigeon's Heart complained to Krzysztof: 'Please instal the computers in the office and the staff room, quickly. I see you're a lazy person.' Krzysztof wouldn't let himself show how offended he felt. In fact, he was furious. He followed her orders, but, knowing that Pigeon's Heart always instals free, illegal operating systems, he decided to instal Linux instead of Windows. After all, it was free too. This was a really mean trick, because many school workers did not know how to work on that system. That drove one of the principal's friends to tears. But Krzysztof only just got started.

Pigeon's Heart reacted immediately. A few days later, she convinced parents of one pupil to protest against a grade that he gave that boy. Krzysztof had to create an additional test for him. The principal would denounce our teacher's behavior for months to come, knowing that he began being really inconvenient. Krzysztof's blood pressure would rise during every staff meeting, yet, taught by experience, he would not let himself be provoked. He knew that the principal could win every possible argument That was not cowardice though. He was planning another revenge. Soon he wrote a few requests to the principal, asking for complete removal of the illegal operating system from the computers and demanded a thorough description of his duties at school. He began to passively resist and refuse to provide any extra help for the accountant and human resources. He would no longer help anybody. He would only perform his teaching duties. And, as we all know, working at school is merely about exchanging service for money. It's mostly about one's mission and calling.

The battle continued. In the springtime, the principal played a very clever trick on Krzysztof. Smiling cheekily, she gave him and ultimatum. He either agrees on the reduction of his working hours, or he's fired. She cleverly wrapped it up in a logical explanation that the school was in a financial crisis and major decrease of the amount of pupils, which, of course, was all her fault. At that point, Krzysztof somehow believed her, even though he was aware of her evil genius. Having signed that fatal document cut him off from many social benefits, for example, the right to a sick leave. That was also a bridgehead to making more hour cuts, which eventually made it possible to fire him. The situation was getting really ugly..."the trap was set and the rat was in the vicinity". Krzysztof's close relative, who was a principal in a different school, tried to warn him, but it was too late. The document has been signed.

Meanwhile, Pigeon's Heart fought other battles. It was a common, yet silent opinion, that she used a very slick scam, which turned her subordinates into tools for bullying the inconvenient ones. Supposedly, in the more challenging situations, she would complain to her girlfriends and they would suggest how to deal with the difficult teachers and "demanding parents". Well actually, not only did they make suggestions, but they also took actions. They must have been true and faithful friend, or so it seemed.

It was then, when Krzysztof noticed the tears and suffering of the mentioned music teacher, as well, as one other teacher. The principal's husband, the HR worker, slipped her a backdated document and she signed it. Having permanently lost the chance for promotion, she would be hanging Easter decorations in the school halls, sobbing. Krzysztof also observed another colleague, also a constantly stressed lady, who was at that time busy, organizing a magnificent chess tournament. Something was going on there, but Krzysztof, completely involved in his own matters, didn't know and didn't ask.

As it turned out, a scandal broke at that time. A group of parents created an internet message board for conspiring against the parents of the deaf girl. How did it start? What caused all the fighting? Only few people knew at that time, that the conflict was a consequence of the principal's decisions.

Back at the beginning of the school year, there an almost deaf girl got accepted into one of the classes. The teachers were right away informed that her parents are difficult and "demanding" and that they were in conflict with the principal of the former school. And so, the teachers looked at those parents mistrustfully – through the Pigeon's Heart's eyes. The girl's parents were doing their best to gain trust and approval from the teachers and other parents. Thanks to their knowledge and right connections, they received huge, financial resources for building and equipping special classrooms for hearing-impaired children. According to the contract, half the financing would have been done by the city hall. So, the first block of money was used for rebuilding the main classroom and the second one was supposed to fund the renovation of other classrooms. And then what happened? Pigeon's Heart used the second block of money for her own, in her mind, important needs. It was from that money that "Santa Claus" bought the IT equipment and the fancy laptop.

The renovation continued and in the middle of the school year, the deaf girl's parents sat in the principal's office, listening to a bunch of lies about the lack of further funding. They never thought that the money given by the city has already been used for something else. So, the parents did their best to minimize the costs and funded whatever they could on their own. Finally, when there was no money for the carpeting, Pigeon's Heart made a very crucial decision. She hired the cheapest renovation company that purchased the worst flooring and glued it on, using a poisonous, neoprene glue. According to one of the administration workers, before putting on the vinyl flooring in the classroom, a test was performed. The flooring inflamed right away. The workers looked at each other with consternation and Pigeon's Heart said that obviously that was a bad sign, but the flooring would have to be put, because there was no money for a better one. Over the Summer, Krzysztof involuntarily watched the crew put the flooring, also in his laboratory, as it was among the renovated classrooms. The crew warned him not to enter the lab for a few weeks, because the glue fume was very poisonous.

The deaf girl's parents grew more and more inconvenient for the Pigeon's Heart, nagging and nagging about the classrooms renovation. Eventually they were removed from the school's area,, along with their daughter. How did that happen? How did the mother – M.D. and the father – engineer, could have been neutralized by the principal? She actually managed to turn a group of parents against those two. She created an atmosphere of envy towards the real as well as imaginary "privilege" of the deaf girl. There were parent-teacher meetings that took place in the absence of the deaf girl's parents and an online discussion board was created to conspire against them.

According to the witnesses and the message board, the deaf girl's parents requested a specific arrangement of desks in the classroom, so that their daughter could sit close to the teacher. During classes, teachers were also equipped in a very expensive, radio device, which allowed them to communicate with the girl. And because that device hugely amplified every sound signal, the deaf girl's parents requested that all the windows and doors in the classroom were closed. The new head teacher, loyal and compliant to the principal's every order, would never open the windows in that new classroom.

And so, the horror began. Soon, because of the long hours spent in that stuffy classroom, the children would begin to faint. Of course, all the blame went towards the deaf girl's parents. The rest of the parents thought it was extremely unfair that their children had to suffer in the name of one, "privileged" child. Soon, everyone, including the teachers, would faint in that classroom. After an expertise, it turned out that the room was filled with toxic substances, the likes of formaldehyde and formalin, that were being released into the air. The classroom was immediately closed by the sanitary inspection.

The room was aired and ventilated for a year! Then, the slick principal arbitrarily decided that the object responsible for the emission of toxins was the soundproof board, bought by the deaf girl's parents. She claimed that the board was not attested, when in fact, it had all the required attests and certificates. During the Winter break, to remove all the arguments against her, the principal ordered to take the board off the wall. She then officially claimed that the board was "permanently damaged" and thrown away. Then she could easily inform everyone that she would not be looking for other causes of the toxic emissions, because the school could not afford another, expensive expertise. Well played, Pigeon's Heart...

Later, when the union circle investigated that matter, it turned out that, of course, it was the toxic glue under the flooring, that emitted formaldehyde and formalin. However, the union could not afford any further expertise, so they had to give up. Plus, Pigeon's Heart would never allow another expertise anyway. The scandal was swept under the rug.

# The spiteful trade union genesis

Since the beginning of the new school yea, the atmosphere grew heavier everyday. Everyday complaints, frequent inspections and unpleasant conversations were slowly becoming unbearable. Soon, things started to speed up. Pigeon's Heart added fuel to the fire with that remark about the music teacher, before the Summer break. Krzysztof was shaken by that event – he never thought anyone could be so heartless. That was when he realized, that the principal was completely indiscriminate and unpredictable. It frightened him, because he knew she could attack him at any moment, probably when he would least expect it. Shaken by that situation, he decided to fulfill the sick music teacher's wish. He went to the trade union's office and with a shaky voice, described everything that was going on at his school, hoping for any kind of help.

He talked to a vice president of the union, who probably used to be an attractive brunette in her youth, but later became a very sad person with a voice permanently damaged by work and cigarettes. She welcomed him very kindly, listened to his story and then asked if other teachers have been harassed as well. She said that she encountered quite a few similar situations, over the years of her work for the union. She suggested that all the harassed teachers together rose against the principal. She explained the rights of the union members and declared to help them with anything they would need, law-wise.

Krzysztof was already well aware, that his actions may cause him enormous trouble and most likely get him fired. He accepted such a possibility and wondered what he would do, had the worst scenario unfolded. He calculated all his savings and thought over the possible consequences of dropping out of the work market. He knew clearly, that he was rising against a very dangerous opponent – really playing with fire, but he also felt that his own knowledge was enough to handle that challenge. The die was cast – he decided to fight to the death.

He immediately started a campaign, in order to call teachers and other school workers into the union. He would talk to everyone who he knew has been hurt or harassed by the principal. Everyone, who he had once seen in tears or rage. They liked the overall idea, but at the same time, were very afraid. Some admitted having been hurt, but at the same time refused to join the union. They would say it was too dangerous to rise against that villain, who had terrorized them so much and could fire them at any moment. She appeared just too powerful for them, especially with her connections within the city hall.

Fortunately, soon, there gathered a small group of thee fierce, the brave and the determined, who had decided to rise against the principal's omnipotence. After the initial debates, the group went to the trade union office. All the participants of the first founding meeting signed the declaration of the trade union membership, except for one person. Others were surprised by that refusal, but the group was big enough to establish a union circle. Years later Krzysztof understood that one person's refusal, when there came the time to face the consequences.

The union circle chose its president right away. Krzyztof was a bit surprised that he was chosen. He certainly considered himself an initiator of the group, but he did not expect such a reward. He then learned that the president of the circle was much more protected by law, than the rest. He learned that such a function strengthened his position, so that he could allow himself much more bravery when facing the principal. From that point forward, he was entitled to ask his employer uncomfortable questions. He became a social institution representative, with all its consequences. Just what he needed! Krzysztof felt a nice whiff of relief and power. From a little, meaningless counter, he had become a knight on the school chessboard.

Meanwhile, Pigeon's Heart was still convinced of her omnipotence and completely oblivious to all those events. She would systematically realize her plan of removing every inconvenient person from the school and continued on hiring more and more of her relatives, friends and trustworthy, in her view, people. At the time of the union circle formation, she flew in delegation with her friends, to United Kingdom. That was not an unusual excursion. With the help of the educational program Comenius, she actually created her own, private travel agency. Despite having no technical knowledge and not knowing any foreign language, she frequently used that program to travel around Europe, together with her always loyal girlfriends. Wherever she went, she would make her "smart" face and fake smiles. And then, the school would receive enormous telephone bills, because the staff had to stay in touch with their boss, somehow. Sometimes, she would have unpleasant incidents, that would remain an open secret. Once, she had been strip-searched at an airport. That must have been awful, but what could she possibly have hidden? Another time, because of too much extra luggage, she had to open her suitcase. Tens of tiny, hotel jam jars fell to the floor. Some teachers would laugh about it for half a year, others were just embarrassed. A few days after the UK trip, the principal went to a sanatorium, to get some "well-deserved" rest.

In between her UK trip and vacation, Krzysztof informed her about the formation of the union circle and presented her with a written confirmation. She accepted it with a smile and congratulated Krzysztof, but he felt a pinch of condescension and disregard, in her behavior. She would return to work after a month.

Later on, one of the union circle members, a chess tournament manager, was denounced by her 'red colleague", together with whom she taught the integrative classes. That "red colleague" delated to the front office, that the chess teacher, apparently, took calls during classes and her nervousness was simply unbearable. The principal called the chess teacher up for a discipline talk, during which she was supposed to be punished. What the principal didn't know was that just a day before, the chess teacher's son was rushed to the hospital, having had his first epileptic attack. And the phone call she then took during a class was from the hospital. Other phone calls were about the four chess tournaments that were about to take place at school. There was also a phone call that informed her that she had won a car. So, obviously, the phone calls were important and it was hard for that energetic teacher to contain it all within. She had a right to be a little bit emotionally unstable. And it was probably too much to take for her "red colleague".

If we really think about it, the teacher theoretically could hesitate taking all those phone calls. She could have turned her phone off, altogether. After all, the doctors at the hospital knew very well how to help hr son. After all, the competition organization could not be more important than a second-grade class. And the car winner announcement could have been sent via mail. The truth always ought to be viewed objectively. Poor Pigeon's Heart, she had to deal with all those moral conflicts!

Along came Christmas time. The school decorated itself and the teachers were waiting for their Christmas bonuses. By the power of the internal and general regulations, members of the union circle were allowed to sit in the boards that decided on the division of the common money. The formation that took care of such matters was called a social commission. And that was Pigeon's Heart's favorite place to sit and meddle in. That was where she received the requests from her relatives and where she could always get some extra money for her private budget. That was especially precious in the Christmas time.

Such a commission had a secret gathering, hidden from the newly created union circle. That formally existed for a month, at that time. When the circle found out about it, they fiercely protested and demanded another meeting. The principal stated that they had no right for such demands, so they decided to check all the documents from the gathering and unleashed another scandal, right before Christmas. In defense, Pigeon's Heart informed the school staff that the union circle delays the bonus payments. She constantly repeated that she had no odes about the formation of the circle and even accused her secretary of not delivering her the documents about the formation. But maybe her intentions weren't entirely bad? Maybe it was a beginning stage of dementia? The loyal secretary pleaded guilty for that situation.

In the same week, the music teacher, who had recovered a little from the chemotherapy, called Krzysztof and told him that because of certain HR malfunction, she won't have any resources to make a living. In an attempt to help, he went to the front office with an intervention. He had no experience in handling such issues and so, Pigeon's Heart and her associate convinced him that that was none of his business and he should not intervene. Also, according to them, the music teacher behaved very badly towards the HR workers and that, in fact, was true. Not only did the deadly ill teacher behave a bit rudely towards the accountant, but she also had the guts to raise her voice over the phone.

Krzysztof suspected that the person responsible for the situation was the principal's husband, the HR manager. The Social Insurance Institution did not receive the appropriate documents about the music teacher's deadly disease, for months. Because of that, the Institution did not change her sick leave into permanent working disability status. The sick, exhausted and eaten by cancer music teacher repeatedly visited the Institution and waited in line for hours, only to eventually find out, that there was a lazy-ass loser in her workplace, protected by his wife, Pigeon's Heart. Fortunately, the music teacher managed to postpone some deadlines and got a onetime benefit that allowed her to get through Christmas. From the new year on, she finally received her long-deserved annuities.

Perhaps it's true, that Pigeon's Heart didn't know about her husband's faults and maybe she should be felt sorry for. But vengeful Krzysztof decided to cynically use that situation to hit the principal beyond the belt. He knew that hitting into her husband's heartless, immoral and unethical behavior towards the colleague was an extremely risky but spot-on move.

At the end of the semester a staff meeting, Krzysztof presented those two issues. He said that, in the interest of the staff, he demanded an answer to a question, what was the principal going to do about the JR management neglects. The principal wobbled on her own legs and without a word of response moved on to a next topic. She switched on the projector that presented the staff with the school budget report and turned her back to the staff. While the screen showed colorful charts and tables, Krzysztof noticed that Pigeon's Heart was breathing heavily with her jaw shaking and eyes tearing up. Why all the drama? She loved taking care of things quietly and sweeping everything under the rug so much. but that bad teacher Krzysztof just wouldn't give her a break!

A few days later, at another staff meeting, the shaken and moved principal informed the teachers that the school was about to enter a very difficult period and that some cuts within the staff would have to be made. She invited the trade union who "always took care of the teachers so nicely" to establish the criteria of the lay-offs. She said she would need the union members' help in solving the lay-offs problem and that she had already prepared an outline for the criteria. The "outline" was quickly and carelessly written nonsense. She suggested such criteria as: performance, engagement (but in what?), participation in teaching groups and family situation.

Krzysztof considered it an intrigue and was convinced that he knew very well what the game was about. He thought that the principal was going to drag the union circle into the awful work of conspiring against other teachers. He assumed that if some cuts would actually be made, she would have washed her hands clean and put the entire responsibility on the circle. He therefore declared that the union circle would not participate, because their mission is to defend the interest of the entire teaching community. According to him, the principal represents the employer and the union circle represents the interest of the employees and therefore, there is a natural conflict of interests between the two parties. That was a smart and secure move. In Krzysztof's view, Pigeon's Heart was on to something very bad. But that didn't have to be the case.

"Poor" principle, had to cope with that rejection somehow. And so, she crossed out and changed the statements in the meeting's protocol. To his great surprise, Krzysztof read in the protocol that apparently "The president of the union circle stated that there exists a major conflict between the principal and the union".

Krzysztof could have let it go at that point, but he was just too tenacious. In his ugly stubbornness, he wrote a protest, insinuating manipulation of the documented information. Just a month later, in Krzysztof's absence, the principal carried out a public survey on whether he lied, having added his own version of the statement, to the protocol. According to the majority, Krzysztof did lie.

At that point, Krzysztof became very interested in the entire, school documentation. He read a lot about the educational and union laws. He demanded access to all documents he had the right to see. He hound out that the school did not actually have many terms and regulations. Ah, the poor Pigeon's Heart, so busy already, was forced to to prepare the missing documents on such short notice. She was rushing so much, that she actually copied most of the regulations of a preschool from another city. The "copy-paste" game may be deceiving not only for the lazy students.

Soon, the ongoing fight in the school was noticed by the trade union authorities. Not Pigeon's Heart had to deal with the phone calls from them. One day, she called the union circle for a meeting and asked:

"Was your union circle created out of spite?"

"Of course not!" The circle president responded, which, of course, was a lie.

Krzysztof wasn't ashamed of his lie. The union circle was created out of spite, to defeat Pigeon's Heart. Its members knew that soon, the principal would do something revolting again, that could be disclosed and used to her disadvantage. They were no longer afraid of her actions – they were awaiting them. The game became the hunter, lurking in the bushes.

They didn't wait long. As if an omen, a bunch of rats appeared at school and soon afterwards, there was a sewage spill in the basement and the locker room. The entire school was filled with an overpowering stench. It was impossible to enter, not to mention working. Pigeon's Heart stood at the front door with a fake smile. She ordered removing the excrement with rags and buckets. That job was impossible to do, because of the range of the spill and the stink. The cleaners were fainting and in case of a cut, they could be in deadly danger. Fire service was then called for the proper cleaning.. There were potatoes swimming in the sewage, but fortunately they didn't go to waste – they were used a few days later in the school cafeteria. The "horrible" union members did not participate in removing ordure. They were talking other workers into rebelling against the job and presumptuously filmed the entire event.

One day, Krzysztof decided to create a union circle website, because he realized that the best way to defeat the principal would be using her own weapon of internet discussions, which she used to get rid of the death girl's parents. He took evil pleasure in making those plans – that felt like revenge of the century. Few people know that he loved celebrating anniversaries as well at hitting with powerful revenge a year after the event he wanted the revenge for. And so, he put great effort into creating that virtual space and soon, it would become a space of expression for numerous, harassed teachers and parents, of different schools. Some of those harassment stories were amazing, even to him. Soon, he didn't have to create discussion topics – the board started to live on its own. Of course, Pigeon's Heart's frustrated associates found the board and created a presentation out of its post. They wrote a protest against the union circle, suggesting that the message board decreases the amount of pupils enrolled, which was, in a sense, true.

Every action causes reaction. Soon, the principal attacked one of the union members. The already mentioned teacher, who had unfortunately signed the backdated document, one again began her efforts towards getting promoted. To make things extremely hard, the principal did five visitations in the teacher's class, over a period of less than two week. That was an amazing record. Krzysztof had never heard of anything like that before. The teacher was physically and mentally exhausted from that situation and asked the union circle's president for help. Krzysztof decided to assist her in her conversations with the front office, mediate, if necessary, and possibly, use that to the principal's disadvantage.

However, Pigeon's Heart had a different idea:

"Sir, I'm afraid I'm going to ask you to leave, now! Together with my colleague, the associate, we are going to have a conversation with the teacher and your presence is unwanted here, you have no right to be here now!"

"But Madame, I do have to right to be here, by the power of the trade union law, as a member and the president of the union circle. Would you be so kind and tell me, what are you so afraid of?" Krzysztof explained.

"Leave now! All you are allowed to do is stand behind the ajar door and listen to the conversation. Nothing else!" Pigeon's Heart yelled.

The union circle president treated like an intrusive dog, informed the trade union headquarters about it, over the phone. A few days later, a union inspection came to school with an intervention about bad treatment of the union members. The principal began to sob and whine about how mean the union members are. But when the trade union president said that she came over for serious conversation and that such emotional behavior is inappropriate, the sobbing stopped immediately, which astonished the trade union representatives. They were amazed at how quickly Pigeon's Heart collected herself after such a meltdown. Of course they didn't know what a brilliant actress she was.

The above-mentioned teacher's case did not end at that point. The issue of her evaluation was taken by the board of education. Meanwhile, the front office came up with a new system of taking tests in the youngest grades. They decided to show the little ones, what a real test looks like. They treated them like high-school graduates, creating an atmosphere of a real, serious exam for little children who couldn't even write or count yet. The children were frightened by it and the teachers were confused. The above-mentioned teacher made a small mistake while grading the papers and the principal immediately punished her for it, just a few days before the commission at the board of education. That completely diminished her chances for the change of her performance evaluation and for promotion. When Pigeon's Heart found out that the board of education rejected that teacher's request, she went into the hall and gleefully announced: 'I won!'. She did, indeed. She had a reason to celebrate.

The school year was slowly coming to a closing, while the teachers experienced one harassment after another. One day, the school welcomed an IT expert team that was supposed to install a number of the fantastic, American computers from the Apple company. Krzysztof didn't know exactly when to expect them. And somehow it turned out, that the team came to school in the early morning, while Krzysztof was still at home and in fact, just woke up. Re received a phone call from the angry principal's associate, demanding his immediate arrival to school. Having just crawled out of the shower, he tried to explain that it was not possible at the moment, because he was naked and dripping water. He promised to come over as soon as possible, after all, his presence really wasn't necessary while the team plugged in those computers. The associate furiously slammed the receiver. When Krzysztof finally arrived to school, many colleagues expressed their disapproval of him. As it turned out, Pigeon's Heart told the entire staff about Krzysztof's "lazy and inappropriate behavior". Just what he needed! His reaction was immediate – he asked the union circle to witness his conversation with the slightly frightened principal's associate. He deliberately called the conversation disciplining, because the roles were reversed – Krzysztof, the union circle president admonished the associate, for her reprehensible and unethical behavior. He actually told her off.

It wasn't long before another unpleasant event happened. A few days before the schoolyear closing, one teacher lowered a grade of the chess teacher's son, the epileptic boy. The boy's parents were not informed about that change, so the frustrated mother-teacher asked the front board for refraining from that decision. But the principal explained (as subtly as she could) that the mother-teacher did not take care of her son properly. That was a hit below the belt and she felt extremely offended. However, her son retook the final test.

On the day of the schoolyear closing, at the staff meting, the principal very subtly and kindly criticized the teachers responsible for the epileptic boy's case, for not following through with certain procedures. A moment later she congratulated and rewarded them for their annual achievements, with a wide and honest smile(achievements, meaning getting the kids through another year, because they didn't really achieve anything else). The "demanding" chess teacher, annoyed by that situation, announced that from the new school year on, she would no longer be holding the chess tournament at that school. She was not kidding – she moved her chess organization to a nearby sports school. Poor Pigeon's Heart had to face another affront, with teary eyes. How strong and immune she must have been, to get through all that drama and struggles! Many admired her immunity to stress and to ugly people's actions. Maybe she took her power from prayers?

Apart from the unpleasant events, there were also very puzzling things happening, that allowed the union circle to gain mental strength. One of those amazing events was Krzysztof winning a spectacular, blue convertible, in a bank giveaway. How did that happened? During the union circle meetings, members would not only talk about the matters important for them, but also took part in competitions, just for fun, to relax. And Krzysztof was fortunate to have won in one of those. It made him extremely happy, because he finally had some capital that he could use, in case the darkest scenario unfolded, meaning, if Pigeon's Heart fired him. He would soon find out that the car was quite irritating for certain people.

Over that Summer, the former music teacher passed away. Krzysztof was deeply saddened by it. When he saw Pigeon's Heart at the funeral, in a big, red hat, making her way to the front row in church, he clenched his fists in silent hatred. He decided to definitely defeat that woman. He committed completely to that decision.

# The mechanics of politics and institutions – the childlike naivety of the union circle

There is a common belief that if, God forbid, a person finds themselves in a difficult, life situation, they would sooner or later receive help from appropriate institutions, established to provide help in such situations. A citizen expects, that in case of health issues, he will be provided help from doctors and hospitals. They expect, that if they had trouble with the law, appropriate institutions would quickly and efficiently take care if their case. But, news flash – it does not work that way. As it turns out, reality stinks and it stinks bad. It takes a lot of luck and effort to get through the maze of different rules and regulations and get anything sorted out. One has to be clever and take an opportunity, if one comes...

The union circle met over the Summer to mourn together the death of their colleague. They also shared their worries about how mistreated the other colleague was, in her attempt to get promoted. They worried about those littlest children, who went through the trauma of writing a serious and unnaturally difficult exam. And so, they thought up another intrigue. They requested that the higher authorities decide if examining little children like that was appropriate. When they got a response that validated their assumptions, they were convinced about the inappropriateness of the techniques applied to little children. They knew that the new school year would begin with another scandal and they couldn't wait to see the stress and worry on the principal's face. Their personalities have gone really bad, far from the kind and honest people they were, before they had met Pigeon's Heart. Nobody's perfect...Everyone lack something. The union members lacked qualm and they came together with their remorselessness. A gathering of remorseless rats, if you will.

Just as they expected, another battle began in early September. During the first staff meeting, the union circle presented the document they received from the board of education and began a huge storm. They were completely disregarded at that point. So, they passed on the board of education's document to the Ombudsman of Children. They also wrote to the board of education about the discrimination of the trade union members. They hang the Ombudsman's reply confirming the abuse of children, in their showcase. In attempt to save the school's good name and reputation, the principal quickly removed the showcase from display and hid it in the back the staff room.

Soon, the union circle received a document from the board of education, which rejected all complaints about the principal's behavior. It really looked as if the police defended the thief. The front office was defended in every single point. The confused union circle could not comprehend, how the authority that controls schooling, could be indifferent to mobbing, counterfeiting documents and mistreated teachers and children. They couldn't believe how could Pigeon's Heart get away with all her nepotism and frauds.

The battle continued. It was sill September, when the principal's associate accused the union circle of apparent refusing to perform their duties. The case ended up with an exchange of rough words and papers.

Soon, a mediator form the board of education visited the school, who began investigating the cases mentioned earlier. During visitation, she eventually asked Krzysztof:

"Is there really nothing you could say in the principal's favor?"

"Oh, I certainly can! Thanks to the union circle's activity, the principle finally began serious work. Important renovations were made and missing regulations were written." Krzysztof peacefully replied.

This time, he did not lie. The union circle really motivated the principal to work. The mediator was speechless, while Pigeon's Heart uneasily wobbled on her chair.

After the meeting, the mediator asked everyone except Krzysztof to leave the principal's office. Then she asked him.

"Have you ever considered becoming the school's principal?"

"Yes, madame, it used to be my dream and I even tried to get appropriate qualification at an education management course."

"So why didn't you pursue that?"

"It was a strange turn of events. I was asked for the principal's approval of my participation in that course, then the dates were postponed until eventually, I was informed that the course had just ended. You are welcomed to draw your own conclusions."

On the following day's evening, to relax after a long and hard day, Pigeon's Heart turned on the TV to watch the broadcast of the ceremony of presenting the new monument for the Polish Underground State. Along with the Polish government delegation, there came the former prime minister of the UK. Pigeon's Heart also sent the school delegation to this event, hoping to see her pupils and teachers on the broadcast. And whom did she see? Not the kids, not the teachers, not even the president. Her first sight when she turned on the TV, was the bench full of VIPs and veterans...with Krzysztof among them, helping out an elderly veteran lady and proudly singing a patriotic song. Pigeon's Heart, always classy and well-behaved, exclaimed 'holy shit!'. Her family didn't understand why the sight of her employee angered her so much.

Since the mediator's visitation, the principal seemed to really muster their employees, discipline them and consistently evaluate their performance. It made Krzysztof remember his struggles with the difficult class. He knew that the front office began to execute the "Evaluation Card for the whole staff plan. It was the old method – exhausting all the soldiers to the point where they begin to rebel against that one soldier who caused all the trouble. And it worked – the staff signed the protesting letter to the trade union headquarters, against the union circle activity. The principal's plan seemed to unfold perfectly.

One day, Krzysztof found out, that the HR manager, Pigeon's Heart's husband behaved very inappropriately towards a pregnant colleague. He laughed at her and insulted her pregnancy, stating that it's a "scar that she will never get rid of". The insulted administration worker turned to the city hall, for intervention. After a little investigation, Krzysztof discovered that the HR manager harassed and insulted a few other teachers, in a similar way. One of the clubroom teachers even insinuated a sexual deviation. She claimed that often, when using the toilet next to his office, she heard the obvious noises of heavy breathing and moaning, coming from behind the wall. She believed that the HR manager used the school computer to watch pornography and masturbate. Krzysztof definitely refused to use that unofficial information, explaining that trade unions do not involve in such matters. He showed compassion for the poor man, who could be suffering in an unsatisfactory marriage with Pigeon's Heart and also frustrated by everyday sight of attractive, young teachers.

Krzysztof attained the copy of the administration manager's correspondence with the board of education and the city hall. Those were ridiculous and grotesque papers. Both institutions seemed to defend the principal's and the HR manager's interests. The executive of the city hall's department of education suggested a simple reprimand from the front office. That was just the perfect information for the vengeful member of the union! He reported that case to the trade union headquarters and soon, he was informed that the principal's husband was illegally employed. Krzysztof knew that Pigeon's Heart hired her while family at school and knew the term 'nepotism', but he didn't know about the law that forbids hiring family members as one's direct subordinates.

The events gained momentum. The trade union informed the mayor about them and soon, the city hall demanded that Pigeon's Heart immediately fires her own husband. That was a terribly painful slap. Someone even called her husband a scapegoat and others followed and that word was then frequently used with ridicule, in the staff's conversations. Rumor had it, that Pigeon's Heart's neighbors complained about the screams and shouts that were coming out of her apartment. However, years later the while issue was disclosed and it turned out, that firing the principal's husband wasn't very easy. In fact, the authorities involved quietly and thoroughly swept the issue under the rug.

Was it purely coincidental, that on the following day after the authorities told the principal to fired her husband, the front office received a letter from one of the parents, who demanded reprimanding Krzysztof for invalid teaching methods? That letter contained vocabulary known and used only by teachers. And most interestingly, there were stylistic errors typical for the principal, errors often ridiculed by the union's poet and mocker. The "teacher" who wrote that letter was actually the principal's and it was signed by the parents of the parents' board that always agreed with everything Pigeon's Heart said. The letter was actually prepared by his own employer. That was an action-reaction, rage and a cannonball shot in the partizan's officer. Though it was completely understandable, considering the poor Scapegoat's situation and Pigeon's Heart's suffering. She wanted to get back at Krzysztof so much, she hied a courier to spread the letter to other educational and union institutions. It was clear, that she couldn't handle the disobedient employee on her own. She needed support.

An amazing coincidence, but also his cleverness had saved Krzysztof from catastrophe. He used his hypertension to get a sick leave and disappeared from the battlefield. That act saved him from immediate sentence without any chance for defense. He knew that from his sick leave he would go straight to a training course to another city, which he had planed much earlier. It made it impossible for the enemy to destroy him. Krzysztof had time to prepare his defense – he always escaped traps like a slick, old rat.

An amazing turn of events occurred on a plenary union meeting. A bit tired and absent-minded, Krzysztof sat in a room filled with other presidents of union circles. The former trade union chairman, that sad woman, who took care of him in his time of vulnerability, had recently died. On that day he way again feeling helpless and was mostly disinterested in what was going on in the room. The gathering was held in the presence of the national chairman of trade union herself and all the members were electing new regional and inter-company headquarters. Suddenly, Krzysztof's neighbor very roughly criticized the work of the union headquarters. And the situation at that moment was stressful, because the activists were preparing a national strike. A violent discussion unfolded. One female delegate flauntingly left the room, having had pointed out Krzysztof's courage earlier, as an example for others. She admired how passionately he fought for his rights.

After the break, it was time to elect the successor of the dearly departed colleague. And all of the sudden, that bold man, who ha the guts to criticize the authorities before, suggested Krzysztof for a candidate. Krzysztof agreed to candidate, because, desensitized by all the events at his school, he was no longer nervous in such situations. He answered swiftly and logically to all questions from the room and easily stained the highest number of votes. The national chairman didn't seem to be particularly happy about such a result of election. Some say she though of Krzysztof as some rat, who accidental found himself among the serious, union activists. Taken aback by his unexpected success, Krzyztof didn't yet realize, he had just been elected a regional representative of the teachers trade union, which meant he had become untouchable. His new position protected him from being fired and even from changing his work contract. From an average chess piece, he turned into a bishop, or even a queen. Was he protected by some higher force?

Meanwhile, at school, Pigeon's Heart finally managed to win a small battle. She forced Krzysztof into meeting that apparently "unhappy" group of parents, that signed the complaint letter, mentioned earlier. She forced him in a way he could not stand against. Out poor, little union rat knew he was going right into a trap – a public denouncement.

The principal and the board of parents were perfectly prepared for the meeting. They had many different documents, some of them accused Krzysztof of the lack of competence and inefficient work. The room fell silent, when he asked the parents if it was their desire for their letter to be sent out to different institutions. The meeting wasn't recorded, but fortunately, wise Krzysztof brought his own, high-quality voice recorder. Later, he listened to it, then made a thorough report from the meeting and added to the school's database. He wondered if it was enough to get back at the principal. He knew she used similar techniques, but in that area, Krzysztof was invincible. He knew hot to use is strong suits. The battle on the school chess board continued. After the memorable incidents from June, the former colleague organized the regional chess tournament in a different school, supported my its front office and the union circle. Pigeon's Heart was deeply unhappy about that. When the "chess teacher's" daughter fell sick, he principal could finally get her revenge. It was the time of very important chess competition that took place in the afternoon. Fortunately, when the main manager of the event had to be at school, her husband took care of their sick child. Pigeon's Heart sent her associate with the former chess team, over to the event to make pictures there. On the next day, Pigeon's Heart sent the pictures of the chess teacher over to the Social Insurance Institution, insinuating that the teacher left her sick child alone at home and went to a "party" and therefore she should be denied the welfare for taking care of the child. When the furious chess teacher went to the Social Insurance Institution, a very kind official told her that he did not recognize her on this pictures, because she is much prettier in reality. Pigeon's Heart lost again, even though she was so close to defeating that "horrible, demanding teacher".

And only a weeks later, while Krzysztof was on an IT training course in another city, his phone rang and he found out that he won another car – a blue limo. When he returned to school, a day before Christmas Eve, he was not congratulated on his new prize. The principal anxiously wobble, when she saw him and quietly hid in her office. Interestingly, most of the union circle members won in that competition. For example, another member also won a car and the chess teacher, a bike. Christmas was very joyful that year. After all the drama they've been through, the loathsome union rats finally got some yummy treats. They all shared happy laughs. Krzysztof won 2 cars that year and became untouchable at work – he theoretically had big reasons for joy.

And what about Pigeon's Heart? What could she think about at the holiday table? She had to fire her own husband and the damn union circle won new, shiny cars. Poor thing, she probably quietly cried there.

# It all comes down to this

The rules of the psychological war dictate that the enemy ought to be attacked in their hardest times, therefore, before Christmas, Krzysztof filed a protest against mistreating of him and against his moral loss. After Christmas, of course, he received a vague and neglectful reply. But he didn't care about the principal's reply, in fact, it was completely meaningless . For quite some time already, he had been inserting documents regarding difficult issues, into the school's database. He hoped that eventually, some higher authority or even court, might consider it a useful and informative material against the principal. Throwing all those letters and documents on that poor woman became Krzysztof's second nature. He took shameless, almost sadistic pleasure from his actions. That's how cruel he was.

After New Year's Eve, the principal "invited" an educationalist from the board of education The man appeared out of nowhere – his visit was planned in order to either proof Krzysztof's incompetence, or too scare him. Nowadays, it's the teacher who invites an educationalists to a class, not the principal. SO, the educationalist observed the IT class, where pupils worked on new computers, and later, in the front office, he admitted that he was no expert in new technology and he would gladly learn something from Krzysztof. He also claimed that Krzysztof ought to be eternally grateful to Pigeon's Heart, because there is no other principal as kind and well-behaved as her. Krzysztof ignored that statement and he definitely was not eternally grateful. He would meet that man again years later, at an IT course. The educationalist had nothing interesting to say there. He disappeared in the sea of trainees.

Was the following event a coincidence or an attempt of a trap? By the end of the school year, after the final grades were given, Pigeon's Heart ordered Krzysztof, very seriously in raised voice, to do additional tests with the graduates. It was an official order. It was very unusual, because the graduates already received officially confirmed, final grades. And so, they had no motivation to give actual answers to questions. Some pupils drew tiny penises, some handed in blank papers. They didn't care for another grade – they had already received promotion to junior high and none of them or their parents had any annotations to the given grades or the gained knowledge. But for the front office, the test had a different meaning – it could finally prove the "bad" work of the teacher.

Krzysztof thoroughly checked the papers, summarized them and presented the principal with a short report. The problem was, that pupils from one class wrote in all questions: "this was not discussed with the teacher in class". And it was still better than what some other kids wrote. That one class was expert in intrigues – the class that kicked the deaf girl out.

From the beginning, Krzysztof was rushed to bring the papers as soon as possible. He wisely denied and prolonged it, until eventually, he wrote a letter where he claimed, that examining the kids at that point of the school year has no real use. It was a fortunate coincidence, that around that time, the school was visited by the board of education. The issue was immediately forgotten, because it didn't look good. Moreover, the inspector clearly insisted that the test is a pupil's property and the school has no right to store it. Pigeon's Heart failed at yet another trap.

What could have been the reason behind all those events? Well, there are several ways for the principal to get rid of an inconvenient teacher: cutting their salary, multiple inspections and bad performance evaluations (which may raise suspicion regarding mobbing),also, making parents request an inspection at the teacher's class, which would wash the principal's hands clean. That probably was what Pigeon's Heart had in mind.

In March, people usually look forward to upcoming warmer days of springtime. Easter holiday is approaching, the time spent within the family circle. This year, the Easter season wasn't joyful in the Pigeon's Heart's home. By the end of March, her husband, the Scapegoat left his job, seen off with cries and flower bouquets. He didn't manage to save his position, even after putting all the blame on one of his colleagues (who was fired on Christmas Eve). The insulted, pregnant, administration manager, as well as the merciless union members succeeded in defeating that poor man. He had to go, having been granted a small annuity. From that point forward, Pigeon's Heart had much harder time helping out and supporting her sons' families. To make his leave less bitter, the principal gave him a handsome payoff, which of course, made a huge dent in the school budget.

The union circle could not understand, why was this man still working for six months after the disclosure of his illegal employment. They didn't know it was a kind of a deal between Pigeon's heart and the city authorities and maybe also the trade union headquarters. Actually, Scapegoat handed in his walking papers himself, explaining it with bad health condition. Interestingly, just a month later, the doctor claimed that the man was, in fact, well enough to continue his work. But maybe it was just a momentary whiff of vitality. Doctors know very well that such things happen often...most often in case a patient is close to dying.

In the Easter season, Pigeon's Heart, who liked to be up to date with regional events, keenly watched TV, hoping to see her school's holiday preparations. She knew certain people in the local TV channel and did her best to promote her school in every possible way. And the atmosphere this Spring was heavy, not only because f the air warming up. The tension in the world of education was rising, as the trade union prepared a nationwide strike. At first, the strikers organized a picket by the regional office. And again, in one of her most important broadcasts from outside the regional office, she noticed Krzysztof as he rang the siren and whistled joyfully. The colorful Easter eggs and chickens from her school were not included in any broadcast, that day.

Before Easter, the union circle met up in order to think up another intrigue – the election of the new, social labor inspector. The former one, who wasn't necessarily chosen in accordance with the law, had finished his term. They knew that in order to obtain such a position, one had to be a union member, elected by the trade union headquarters. And so, the headquarters thought that the circle had already chosen their inspector by themselves, over Easter. That was followed by a series of misunderstandings.

After Easter, Pigeon's Heart had to face another tough challenge. The school was visited by the national labor inspector. The inspector's visit was caused by the denunciation from the former administrative worker, who was fired on Christmas Eve. The woman worker closely with Pigeon's Heart's husband. She knew all the principal's secrets, therefore the inspector didn't have to look to far for the frauds. It turned out, that Pigeon's Heart harmed all of the administrative workers, by giving them job contracts that were against the law. Now she had to pay 5000 zloty of fine from her own pocket, change the contracts and pay compensation to all those employees. The inspector informed Krzysztof about the results of her inspection and he immediately passed the information on to the educational authorities.

It was believed that the union circle conspires against the principal again and sends "some" inspectors to the front office all the time. Poor Pigeon's Heart had to spent many an hour on hearings. instead of lovingly watching over her pupils. The union members didn't deny those rumors, in fact, they were cynically happy about them. Had they known about those frauds before, what a storm it would've been! If only the fired administrative worker got in touch with them earlier. Had she done so, maybe Pigeon's Heart would have been defeated by now. They would find out later on, that the woman had such trauma after working at school, that she had a panic attack each time she walked past it. A year after losing her job, she died from a stroke. The principal forbade the schools staff to attend the funeral, explaining, that there were other "important matters" to take care of, but eventually, she withdrew from that decision. Some thought she did that after she found out that the entire union circle would attend the funeral. And the most cynical ones laughed that she went to the funeral herself, in order to check if the right person was being buried...

After Easter, the school was visited by the representatives of the two most important trade unions, who created the rules and regulations for the election, after serious negotiations. Then there was some push and shove about the date-setting. Teachers of a certain attitude signed another protest. Little that they know, that such matters are controlled to the smallest detail. Meanwhile, the union members rubbed their hands with satisfaction, because certain documents were exposed that proved that the staff had been manipulated. Eventually, the elections took place and Krzysztof was the head of the board. On the elections' day, Pigeon's Heart publicly apologized the former administrative worker for that tiny fault that was the invalid job contract.

Krzysztof listened to the apology without a comment. Attacking the principal in that moment wouldn't be political. He was happy to be leading the elections. He boldly closed the meeting, having disallowed the open discussion. But he lost that battle. The candidate from the union circle lost to a friend of Pigeon's Heart. Therefore, the election was once again won by the former inspector – a trusted and definitely loyal Pigeon's Heart's co-worker. She was a big, trapeze -shaped lady with a mysterious, who haven't seen a single flaw in that school, apart from those pointed out by Pigeon's Heart. The poor principal, exhausted from all her recent traumas finally had her little moment of triumph.

The Summer was approaching and everyone hoped to have some good rest after such an emotional year. One of the school traditions was an annual Spring festival in May or June. Originally, the happening was thought up as a way to make up for the days between the holidays, and also, as a way to promote the school. This time, the front office was absent during the event. A few days earlier, Krzysztof borrowed a small laptop to control the speakers and to play music at the event. After the party, he put the computer in the closet, in is classroom and forgot about it. He left the key to the classroom and to that closet in the school's office.

He was furious when a few days later, he found his closet broken into and the computer was missing. He ran to the office to report the theft of expensive equipment, only to find out, that the laptop was taken by the front office. How determined she must have been to take such radical action...Krzysztof suspected that she hoped not to find that computer in the classroom's closer. Had he kept it at home, she could have accused him of theft. Once again he escaped the trap.

On one of the last days of the school year, Krzysztof was called into the front office, where the principal demanded all the passwords to the school computers. Those passwords were set by a company that represented the Department of Education. Krzysztof ad access to them and did not change them, but refused to provide the principal with the system administrator's password, because he was worried that the technological dummy, whom the principal unfortunately was, might break the device. It also could have been another trap. Soon, it turned out, that the principal possessed the passwords all along, from the day the computers were installed. She put them in the school safe and forgot about them. After a long while, she would regret it.

Our teacher immediately received a reprimand, with which he appealed to the court. Around the same time, the court received another, more important case, an attempt to fire Krzysztof. This time, the poor, incautious principal disregarded certain regulations – the trade union representative cannot have his job contract changed and absolutely cannot be fired. At that point, following his lawyer's advice, Krzysztof opened another court case. It was quite a bold decision, but the experienced, union lawyer assured him, that it's a smart, brilliant move, a catch, that is most likely to end with success. Together they laughed about their trap, into which Pigeon's Heart fell. The lawyer was cautious though. Based on his experience, he knew, that there always is a possibility of an unexpected turn of events, that could change the judge's ultimate decision.

Around the same time, the principal fired the chess teacher, whom she tried to accuse of hitting a child. Pigeon's Heart probably wanted to sue her. The wise chess teacher informed the parents of the apparently hit child, about the principal's attempts and so, the child's grandmother went to school with intervention. The chess teacher decided to join her in that. Interestingly, that grandma also worked at that school and was famous for her punchy, ungovernable language. As the angry grandma stood in the school door, everyone immediately disappeared. The front office was empty, the desks were messy, the windows were open and the curtains swaying in the wind. 'Of course, those bitches chickened out!',said grandma and left.

Right after the closing of the school year, Pigeon's Heart got enraged by another TV broadcast. Every June, the city of Poznań celebrates the tragic events of the year 1956. Krzysztof was there as the union's color guard. Unfortunately, he was late and an unknown elderly man replaced him. When Krzysztof arrived, he was suddenly included into the main, union delegation. Together with the regional union representative, he laid flowers at a few monuments. The national television pointed their camera directly at Krzysztof. The vie was captioned: one of the important, city representatives pays homage to the heroes of June 1956. Some claim, that Pigeon's Heart slipped off her chair in dizziness, moaning: Jesus Christ, I must be losing my mind, because I'm seeing hallucinations! Just a few days earlier, she had given that man a reprimand and got sued by him and now he represents the city authorities? That must have been an illusion! What a nightmare. And calling out to the Holy Savor in such a situation wasn't a sin. It is perfectly alright to ask God for help, when one believes they're losing their mind.

# Banishment

That year's Summer was a difficult time for Krzysztof. He didn't know what would happen to him next and was very anxious about his future. He suffered from frequent nightmares. He knew that he wouldn't go to work in September and assumed that his case could be dragged for months. He was right. He predicted the time of the decrees, almost with accuracy to one month. This time, he didn't sit and passively wait – he replied to a job ad, about a private school teacher. There was quite a competition for that position, but he won and was hired as a teacher and serviceman in a popular language school. In August he had to quickly learn how to work with the interactive board, because he was supposed to teach other teachers to use it.

It was an astonishing coincidence, that Krzysztof found himself in a school that was funded by Piotr Józefowski – the principal, who banned him from high school for bringing Whiskey to class, and then, a "colleague" during teaching studies. The owner and the principal of that school was a kind and a bit hearty man, a friend of Józefowski. He was informed about Krzysztof's war with Pigeon's Heart, but he hired him without hesitation. He also knew, that if his new employee won his cases, he would return to the school he previously taught in.

That private school was very different from Krzysztof's former workplaces. Its pupils came from an elite, very affluent environment and tuition was very high – it was practically the amount of the beginning teacher's salary. Parents in that school had many rights and a lot of influence on the staff choice and on the class evaluation. The school was very successful in the city, and its students and graduates often achieved the top of competitions and rankings. So this was an entirely new experience for our teacher.

In that new school, Krzysztof literally shone bright with his skills, as well as his amazing approach to people and work. He quickly gained trust of the students and the staff. Other teachers would happily take his interactive board training and students, relieved to have a kind IT teacher after their unpleasant past experiences, were also very friendly to him. Krzysztof showed off his technical knowledge and created an interesting multimedia presentation for the school's anniversary. It seemed that that school was a perfect place for him to peacefully wait for the cases to end.

But unfortunately, peace was soon taken away. One unhappy person was enough to crush that plan. That person was another IT teacher, whom Krzysztof called Hops Greybeard. That individual must have felt at risk, because he also started to work as a trainer, but in a sales corporation and began to give the "new IT guy" a little hard time. Krzysztof informed him clearly, that he had no intention of competition and that he only had a temporary job in that school. In fact, he couldn't compete with Hops Greybeard, even if he tried. The man was well-settled there – he was the creator of the school's computer labs and networks. He knew every corner and every device in that building. Actually, Hops Greybeard pulled strings that even the school's front office didn't know about. He electronically monitored the entire school, even from his own home...

Despite the principal's and the staff's great kindness, Hops Greybeard managed to distort their faith in the new teacher's competence. Exhausted from court hearings and taking care of his dying father, Krzysztof didn't feel like competing with that brilliant, spiteful and condescending man. He realized that the situation of that school's staff was really unfortunate. Actually, only the principal's daughter, Hops Greybeard and one more person, had stable job contracts, while the rest of the teachers were hired on short-term conditions. They didn't have the benefits of the Teacher's Card either. Many of the social rights attained by the trade union, did not apply there. Involving in such workplace meant everyday stress and uncertainty about the future employment. That stress could not be compensated by a salary little bigger than in public schools. Therefore, to many teachers, that was just an extra job in addition to their stable occupation somewhere else. Some teachers were already retired and socially secure. And Krzysztof was still receiving basic emolument from the elementary school with which he had a court case. That private school was, at that moment, his training ground where he developed his skills and earned extra money. He would spend more time fixing the equipment than teaching, but his growing spinal issues had already made many actions impossible. Krzysztof felt the old age approaching, so much so, that he could no longer show the entire spectrum of his skills.

At some point, a coming together of many events caused his longer absence at work – health issues, taking care of his dying father and unexpected winning of a trip to Italy, in another competition. Hops Greybeard used that situation right away and told the principal that Krzysztof was avoiding work, that his students are very upset by his absence and he may not be able to properly evaluate them before the end of semester. That was untrue, because, having had predicted some of the events, Krzysztof had quickly and efficiently gone through the required material with the class and have a proper amount of grades.

Soon, the court case ended and Krzysztof made the decision of no longer teaching on that private school. Although, the principal probably thought that he fired him first. But Krzysztof didn't really care what anyone from that school thought of him, at that point, especially Hops Greybeard.

# The law, the court fraud and the outlaw's return

As Krzysztof began to worked in the above-mentioned private school, it was also the time of his court hearings. At least once a month, groups of witnesses were invited to court. Pigeon's Heart would visit the court accompanied by her "team", in Fall and Winter. She didn't feel as comfortable there as she did in "her" school. In court she appeared to be smaller and more humble. Meanwhile at school, parents and other claimants pointlessly looked for any authority, responsible the school's work.

Inviting the witnesses of both sides to hearings separately was the natural procedure and strategy. Therefore, after the first hearings, the witnesses of one sides had no idea what the witnesses of the other side said. Interestingly, one thing connected them all – the were dissatisfied by the hearings. They all prepared plenty of documented proves and the judge did not allowed using them, ignored them and asked short, specific questions, expecting short, specific answers. His questions were surprising and drove several confused witnesses into irritation. They suspected that the judge was biased.

Only Krzysztof and his lawyer knew all along, what that game was about. They knew that many testimonies would not be taken into account, because the case does not concern mobbing, but breaking specific, trade union laws. Therefore, criticizing Krzysztof, as well as criticizing the school's front office had very little influence on the judge's decision. Only Krzysztof and his lawyer knew that the words uttered against him may actually serve him. Because, criticizing the actions of the trade union representative, suggested that the principal didn't cut his hours because of objective difficulties in the workplace, but because of the principal's evil will to defeat the inconvenient employee. But nobody knew about that – not the Pigeon's Heart's team, not the union members, not even the union headquarters. At some point, they were even irritated by the judge's attitude.

Actually, the judge had a lot of fun, observing all the drama unfolding in the court. And it was all about one, little, supposedly perfect school, located in one of numerous city estates. The judge asked easy and hard questions and listened to all the stupid answers, keeping a poker face. Some o those questions and the way they were reported suggested unusual intelligence of that man.

During one of the last hearings, the judge talked with the principal's closest co-workers. Her associate was the first to depose.

"Answer me this question. How are the organizational paper created in your school, if the plaintiff who was not employed full time, worked even extra hours?"

"I don't know, your honor, I would have to look into the school's documentation...but this is our tradition...of our establishment." The associate answered quickly.

:Tell me, what kind of an employee the plaintiff is."

"He was very efficient and helpful, before the emergence of the union circle. As a union circle president, he began to fight with the front office and the non-union employees," the vice principal answered. "And then he besmeared the school, blaming the front office for the sewage breaking." She added right away.

"Was the plaintiff discriminated?"

"He was not discriminated and cutting his hours had nothing to do with his activity." The vice principal replied. At that point she was wobbling on her own feet. Her shaking jaw and hands gave away the enormous pressure she was under.

Subsequently, the judge asked the accountant:

"Please characterize the business relations and your own collaboration with the pontiff."

"He used to be a very kind an accommodating colleague, who would fix our devices even during breaks. However after his hours had been cut, his attitude radically changed and he doesn't even talk to me anymore, your honor, can you imagine? He demanded to be paid for all the repairs and the school could not afford his services, therefore an outside crew had been hired. I do not see the connection between his union activity and the cutting of his hours." She added at the end of her monologue.

The most interesting testimony was the one given by the psychologist.

"I would like to ask you the same question, please characterize your work experience with the plaintiff" The judge asked calmly

"Actually, we weren't very much in touch, even though we had worked together for ten years," the psychologist said. "Although, I must admit I've been somewhat upset with him."

"Please describe shortly the way in which the plaintiff upset you." The judge requested.

"The president of the union circle asked me publicly if the principal is my aunt."

"At the beginning of the conversation you stated that in no way are you related to the sides of the conflict. But besides that, do you consider it offensive to assume that you may be a member of the principal's family?"

"Absolutely not, that is not what I meant." The psychologist slightly rolled her eyes, as if she was looking for an important thought.

"Please tell me then, what do you know about the union circle activity," the judge asked.

"I can say a lot here. Since the circle was established, I observed a radical change in the behavior of its members."

Krzysztof was about to rise and protest, assuming that the psychologist was going to laugh at the members, but his lawyer stopped him, saying that it probably was a misunderstanding.

"The union members attempted to take over the power and control over the school. They also besmeared the school," she continued her testimony in the same tone.

"How did the besmearing take place?"

"They had created an internet discussion board, where, using strange nicknames, they wrote about sewage at school."

"Was all that information true?"

"Yes, your honor."

"And what nicknames are you talking about?" The judge asked.

"Well, those were nicknames like "giraffe", "doggy", "kitty"..." she enumerated.

'So, I understand those were the so-called "usernames"?

"Yes indeed, you honor. And I would also like to add, that the comments they made were very aggressive," the psychologist quickly added.

"Please describe the aggression of those comments," the judge requested.

"Yes, they used such words like disinfection and..some kind of control..." the psychologist could not remember that last "aggressive word".

"Pest control..." the judge assumed. "Were there any other forms of aggression?"

"Yes, absolutely," the psychologist continued. 'The union members made sarcastic remarks about the syntax of the sentences that the principal wrote in the annual report. They were commenting that the principal cannot write in Polish. They had also harassed the principal with numerous documents.'

At that point, Krzysztof's lawyer couldn't help but ask:

"Were those documents written in concern about the employees' matters?"

"I don't know..." the psychologist answered uncertainly. "I didn't read them But I saw how upset the principal was."

Having heard that testimony, the judge ordered to report that: "The school psychologist claimed that the union members attempted to take over the school, besmeared the school on the internet by giving true information about sewage, they were aggressive, because they used words like: disinfection and pest control. They also made ironic comments about the principal who can't write in Polish."

Hearing the report, Krzysztof and his lawyer exchanged looks and then simultaneously looked into their notes. At that moment, our teacher was fulled with respect for the judge's astuteness and ability to create such spot-on reports.

Unbelievably, after all those testimonies, Pigeon's Heart was so sure of her winning, that before Christmas, she started a rumor about Krzysztof's failure. Having found out about it, he immediately put up a refutation in the union circle's display cabinet. A day before Christmas Eve, he received to his home address, a written demand to remove the refutation from the cabinet. He reply that such a demand is baseless and aimless.

The new year began with the verdict re-establishing Krzysztof's employment at Pigeon's Heart's school. In the argumentation, the judge explained that the front office's "original sin" was the attempt to fire the trade union representative. That was a violation of the trade union statute. The front office was informed that even if Krzysztof hugely violated his work statute, he would have to be taken back to his job at his previous terms, by the power of the union statute which strongly protects every member.

After hearing the verdict, Pigeon's Heart called an emergency meeting of her "team", to whom she complained about the judge's decision. She asked them for advice whether she should continue the fight and appeal to the higher instance. One might comment here, that she didn't need her team's advice when she attempted to hurt someone – but in case of a lost battle, she had to spread the responsibility over a larger group of people. However, eventually, the "team" advised hr not to continue the fight in court.

And so, Krzysztof went back to work. Both sides of the conflict had to meet to establish the terms of his comeback. Both sides were suspicious about each other and kept an eye on every little detail. Literally every aspect, including the medical check-up, the OSH training, _etc._ everything was established with extreme precision and law-obedience. Kzysztof was afraid that the principal would try to play a trick on him again, that wouldn't allow him to go back to work. On the other hand, Pigeon's Heart was also worried that she might overlook something that her employee would later use against her and sue her again. And in that atmosphere of mutual mistrust and fear, Krzysztof went back to his school. After many years of war, he returned to his full-time position, which was once illegally taken away from him.

But Pigeon's Heart didn't give up. In Spring, she informed him that in order to secure his job for the following year, she would have to fire one of the clubroom workers. And soon, our teacher would see the hateful gazes of his colleague from the clubroom, who stopped greeting him or even noticing him. They probably were informed that because of Krzysztof, one of them will have to be laid off. He, however, having had learned his lesson about educational laws, demanded that the principal finds another school where he can work the additional hours, if her school cannot afford his full-time position. He knew that it was the principal's duty to provide him with the full time position, in her school or in a different one. Trying to fight that huge old rat with some baby rats did not work. Soon, Krzysztof told his clubroom colleagues that, half of his amount of hours will be transferred to a different school, therefore nobody will get fired. He wasn't surprised then they instantaneously became nice to him again.

Thanks to a certain, fortunate coincidence, there was a vacancy in that same sports school, where our chess teacher moved. From that point forward, Krzysztof had the so called inner peace. He couldn't be evaluated for his annual achievements, because he returned to school right before Summer. Therefore, every fault could have been easily assigned to the teacher who replaced him. The front office watched him closely and he closely watched the front office. Now he knew how to use every manifestation of discrimination or harassment. He was acute, astute and ready for every potential attack. He could use every such situation to get the principal punished. But this time it seemed as if nothing was out there to get him. No traps, no conspiracy around the corner.

# Two schools

Rejuvenated after Summer, in the new school year, Krzysztof began teaching in two schools, simultaneously. He would work two days in one and two days in the other, and on Wednesdays he would attend union meetings. Working two schools had its pros and cons. For instance, he had fewer extra duties, but double amount of parent-teacher meetings and staff meetings. Even though he worked two jobs in two schools, it wasn't noticeable in either of them. Such situation enabled him, however, to draw comparisons between different organizational solutions and approaches towards the staff. In the sports school, he worked on both the elementary and the secondary level and in Pigeon's Heart's school, just the elementary pupils.

The front office in the sports school consisted of two young, kind and confident principals. They were never condescending and always treated the staff respectfully and equally. That school appeared to be free from any drama within the staff – it looked like a good, harmonious team, working towards mutual goals. Sometimes, the principals would take care of things such as carrying desks, chairs and speakers. They would dress humbly with class. Once, after a large-scale renovation, they cleaned the school together with the staff. So for Krzysztof, only disadvantages of working in that school was difficult youth and very old IT equipment. If only he could attain full-time contract in that school, he would have immediately broken up with all the life-sucking drama in his other job.

In Pigeon's Heart's school, there was the same front office since 20 years – the old and ugly principal with her younger and also unattractive associate. When they stood next to each other, they looked like Laurel and Hardy, but nobody would laugh about it. Pigeon's Heart often repeated that she was the principal who learned how to do her job, while her partner would blindly follow very order, including the intrigues and frauds. The principal would always dress pedantically and neatly, but tastelessly, flamboyantly and colorfully. Her associates would follow her style, that in Poznań was called "bamber", meaning, just plain trashy. The atmosphere at school was one of fear, rat race, ass-kissing and denunciation. The well-trained associates were experts at conspiring against those who dared to oppose the principal. Of course Pigeon's Heart would never ever carry anything, clean anything or help out with anything. She looked like a walking and talking wardrobe with a vase on top. To Krzysztof, that place was just frightening. Its only advantages were close proximity to home, calmer youth and much better IT equipment.

Working in two schools enabled him not only to compare, but to sell his observations in both directions. During peaceful conversations with teachers in one school, Krzysztof would tell them about his experiences from the other school. The facts he presented were astonishing for both environments. People in the sports school would gasp at the stories about terrible treatment and harassment that happened in the other school on a regular basis. Staff of the Pigeon's Heart's school could not believe that somewhere out there, there is a better environment without too much bureaucracy, where teachers are treated like equal partners and adults.

In that time, Krzysztof worked more or less peacefully. Sometimes he would return home, tied from all the school noise, but at least he wasn't experiencing so much harassment anymore. Once, during visitation, the principal of the sports school said she liked the class so much, she would gladly take it herself.

On the other hand, in Pigeon's Heart's school, there was another scandal, around Christmas time. The principal fought for school's wi-fi establishment for a while, which was interesting, since she loudly protested against installing an antenna on a nearby bakery's roof. She's been trying to install wi-fi at her school for months, but parents were collectively against it. This time, however, it was Krzysztof who silently disrupted her plans. He knew that in many schools, the attempts to install such antennas usually ended with rebellion. He also knew about a place where the installed antenna caused the cancer morbidity increase. He didn't want such an antenna to radiate at him! He learned very well from his past experiences, that in no way was Pigeon's Heart interested in the well-being of the children and the staff. So, he simply informed the appropriate authorities about the principal's plans and that was enough for a huge scandal to break. Krzysztof just sat back and watched the unfolding. Somehow, the information reached a very energetic person, who loved intrigues and scandals. From that point forward, the front office was frequently visited by enraged delegations of the local estates. Screams and shouts issued from behind the door.

Before Christmas, Pigeon's Heart received an anonymous phone call from a female, who said: 'Know that for every terrible thing you've done, a terrible thing will happen to you.' Krzysztof had nothing to do with it, so how did he know? He had his good authorities at school. It's good to remember that even the biggest dictator cannot completely trust his associates. Often, the most trustworthy person turns out to be the betrayer. This time, it was a trick of two of the principal's co-workers, who just could not stand her any longer. The teachers, who knew about it, had a great laugh.

For quite a while, there was a little rhyme, going around the school staff: 'Pigeon's Heart, you big, fat cow, may you slip and fall down'. Krzysztof did not want anything to do with that, because he knew, that the author of that poem was a former member of the union circle. He laughed a bit, but he didn't think that the rhyme could be a frightening prophecy. But during the school Christmas celebrations which took place in the presence of children and their parents, the principal tripped over a bench and loudly slammed her body on the floor. She spilled the wafer that she was holding on herself and her skirt went up. The entire room went silent for a moment and then a little girl shouted: "Look, the principal's panties!" The whole group of children started to laugh. The principal was picked up by a member of the horrible and spiteful union circle, but she did not show any appreciation for that help. To her, it was a heartbreaking humiliation. She remained almost completely silent for the rest of the day and did not wander around the school with pride, as she usually would.

After New Year's Eve, the principal asked Krzysztof for a conversation about the school terms and conditions. During the talk, she complained to him, that she had been cursed by an anonymous woman, over the phone. Krzysztof could not be completely serious about it. He told her that he finds it funny, because it reminds him of medieval times. And anyway, he didn't want to waste anymore time for that topic, because he came to have a serious conversation about the law. Really, she complained to him? About a curse? Later at home he thought that maybe she tried to find out if Krzysztof was responsible for it. In early Spring time, there came another big change, which is described in the next chapter.

# The leaving

Just like the sportsman after a big and glorious achievement, Krzysztof's body broke down a bit, after all the years of exhausting and draining events. Ironically, it happened during a period that should have been peaceful and relaxing for him. That was the price he paid after living in great stress and uncertainty for so long. Krzysztof began to experience a variety of serious symptoms and went through a series of heave surgeries. He would wake up at night frightened and breathless. He would frequently suffocate. During the day he was exhausted, had reflex issues and sometimes could not resist his sleepiness. Soon he found out he was suffering from sleep apnea, so severe, that it could cause a stroke or even death. Eventually, he was in such poor condition, he had to be taken to the hospital. Perhaps, those were the repercussions of living in constant stress and fear, for years. And therefore, he decided to take a year-long sick leave to save his life at least a little bit.

He left sometime around the union elections, that he had lost. He expected such a turn of events and was prepared to lose his position of the regional representative, which also meant he would no longer be so extremely protected by law. Of course, he didn't tell anyone at school about it – such an information could instantly defeat him in Pigeon's Heart's school. The only wise solution was to use his poor health to escape the dangerous battlefield.

Krzysztof finally had time to recharge his health, regain strength and most of all, he could get some proper rest from the toxic place, where he was reviled, harassed, humiliated, ridiculed and alienated. Such a break, escaping a crazy and toxic workplace allows not only physical, but also mental rejuvenation. It gives an opportunity to rethink some matters, get some perspective and possibly, try again.

However, so much had happened over those months, that instead of lying back and putting up his feet, Krzysztof occupied himself in things, he would never though could matter to him. He engaged in political activity and joined a political party. He created a completely functional internet platform for certain social organization, where he published video clips that he made. He have met lots and lots of influential people. He participated in formal and informal meetings of groups that ere responsible for the organization of celebrations, marches and manifestations. It was an extremely emotional time of unforgettable experiences. During the municipal elections, he took on a social role of the man of confidence and intentionally chose the commissions that would later work in his school, during elections. The school employees were surprised, seeing Krzysztof supervise and control three electoral commissions. He could not work in the commission though, because he was not allowed to have any other paid work during his sick leave.

Meanwhile, in the middle of the school year, a crucial event occurred, which would radically change the school's future. Pigeon's Heart's term was slowly coming to an end and there came the time to choose her successor. The competition took place in December. The vice principal withdrew her candidacy, right before the elections and it turned out, that nobody else ran, except for one teacher who had always been a silent opponent of Pigeon's Heart. The principal decided to meddle in the elections organization. She called the Department if Education to inform them that the candidate was illegitimate and completely unprepared for the challenge Fortunately, the trade union president witnessed the conversation and immediately denied those lies.

Thanks to her own, hard work and the silence support from the union members, the sports teacher easily and unanimously won the competition and became the school's new principal, yet she had to wait 6 months to take over her new responsibilities. It was a nice Christmas present for Krzysztof. After all, a present does not always have to be material. This time, the awareness of the election results was the best gift from heaven he could ever ask for. He finally had a possibility of working in peace, until retirement.

That sports teacher actually was the one who had the union circle back, when it was in the making. A few months before the principal election, Krzysztof understood that the reason for the teacher's refusal was that she had been planning to take over the principal's position, for years. It was her long-term goal, towards which she had put serious effort. Signing the union membership declaration would actually mean openly declaring opposition and denying herself the opportunity she dreamed of. Thanks to the decision she had made back then, shed id not upset Pigeon's Heart, she could peacefully study educational management and most of all, she could easily attain the best work evaluation. She was wise, heard-working and after many years she finally achieved her goal. In her view, the war with Pigeon's Heart was pointless and unpolitical. Did she know what was going on at that school? No one ever knew, because she was quite an introvert.

Returning to work made it impossible for Krzysztof to continue his social and political activity. Like a terrifying deja vu for Pigeon's Heart, there he was again, returning to his full-time position. Moreover, her term was coming to an end! Krzysztof would then spend much time taking care of the kids in the clubroom. Those activities and that noise generaed by the kids was so tiring to him, that every afternoon, after dinner he would switch off his phone and go to sleep. He was not so vital anymore and everyday rejuvenation became necessary. It took a little while for his acquaintances from the world of politics to understand his sudden disappearance.

Krzysztof gradually realized that the actual activity of the party differs a lot from his idea about it. Once again he witnessed how the particular, individual interests dominate the common interest. He sobserved the smallness and pettiness of the leaders, the laziness of the parry members and the lack of democratic procedures when creating hte lists of candidates. He felt disappointed and discouraged about further activity. He predicted the results of the elections already in Spring and got criticized for it. Unfortunately, his predictions were right...but it id not cause him satusfaction.

And so, he peacefully watched the end of the era of Pigeon's Heart. The school worked with the drill it had acquired over the years, that was ridiculous and terryfying at the same time. Sometimes when talking to the young, new teachers, Krzysztof would occassionally throw in a horrifying fact rom the school's history and then leave them frightened.

At the end of her term, Pigeon's Heart decided to walk away in the flashlight and fanfare. It was obvious for the mean, fraud detector that Krzysztof was. She simply decided to leave the school with as much money she could bear. She organized school's anniversary in June instewad of November. She also organized big farelwell parties, one for her « team », another one for the school staff. During the staff party, naturally, she cried.

"Please remember, ladies and gentlemen, that everything I have done, I have done for the children, and for the children only," she said with her voice shaking

"You mean your grandchildren..." some very mean voice added quietly

The food service for all those parties cost the school a large sum of money. Why would she organize the anniversary in June, if the school had been open in November? Well, that event was a great opportunity for her to invite many authorities for the last time, before retiring. And of course, the mayor could not let her go without a big, fat financial reward. Meanwhile, all the parties took away the school's budget for the following semester. And so, the new principal at the beginning of her term was faced with severe financial crisis. Moreover, Pigeon's Heart demanded repayment for unused vacation days. She literally took everything she could from the school's budget and left it completely empty for the next school year. That way, she cleaned out the staffs' pockets, filled her own and threw a ticking bomb on the new principal's desk – great dissatisfaction of the future employees. Such a slick and brilliant game...she should have gotten a Nobel Prize for spreading herself too thin. That was the perspective of her invincible enemy with the rat-like personality, the spiteful union circle creator, Krzysztof.

When the new school year approached, everyone somehow forgot about Pigeon's Heart. Nobody mentioned her anymore, as if she no longer existed. Some say, on her retirement she became a director of a nursing home, where she put new carpets and an antenna on the roof. Some meanies commented that the increase in death rate was Pigeon's Heart's fault. People can be really heartless. Meanwhile, it it wasn't for Pigeon's Heart, that nursing home would never prosper.

Pigeon's Heart would then live until her really late years and die peacefully, surrounded by family and friends. She didn't suffer – she simply coughed and fell asleep. Some late, old meanies would speculate, that she got poisoned by the toxic glue in the floor of her nursing home.

Krzysztof worker peacefully for the following few years. And then there came a day, when that old and tired teacher walked to the blackboard during a class, picked a chalk and started to write "Pi...". He did not finished. Something twinged him in the loins, he fell to the ground and momentarily, to the children's shock, passed away. His stiff body would looked rather grotesque later on, because his contracted, due to the heart attack, left arm looked like a famous, pole vaulter's gesture, while the chalked in his right hand looked like the obscene gesture often presented by drivers. As if an omen, an old and gray rat slipped by the legs of the funeral director that came to school. A group of pupils with their parents stood outside the school and watched Krzysztof's body being taken away.

What did he want to write on the blackboard? Was it an act of attrition? Some have a theory, that he wanted to write "Pigeon's Heart, forgive me". According to them, in his elderly years, Krzysztof would often mention that he owes Pigeon's Heart much of his success, because she motivated him. Others claimed that he wanted to write a nasty word – those did not necessarily believed in the change of his personality. One of the teachers believed he wanted to write a simple noun. But maybe they were all wrong?

One thing was certain. Both Krzysztof's and Pigeon's Heart's funerals were huge and emotional events. Both were celebrated with orchestras and color guards. Both events were attended by school delegations, educational authorities and trade union members. Their graves were established amazingly close to each other, within the area for the deserving dearly departed. Interestingly, on the Poznań's graveyard, the ally of the well-deserved from the Polish People's Republic is situated very close to the alley of the political prisoners of the Stalinist period.

# The Pigeon's Heart's co-workers

There are no real wars or battles without soldiers, proper armory and resources. Both Pigeon's Heart and Krzysztof had intrenched themselves well with an appropriate number of trusted warriors and also possessed massive weaponry and resources. During the first years, Pigeon's Heart's soldiers were working quietly, in camouflage. It was a well-working safety mechanism based on deception and denunciation. Meanwhile, Pigeon's Heart collected rumors and information and then cleverly processed and used it. Her most trusted co-workers attained positions that made them untouchable. Not everyone knows that certain social occupations like Social Labor Inspector or OSH inspector guarantee an immunity of a few years of protection from any job contract changes, especially the contract termination.

Many people suspected that Pigeon's Heart had some special protectors in the board of education or the city hall. There must have been something there, given that all complaints regarding her activity had always been swept under the rug and she did not face any consequences of her clear frauds and faults. Some even believed she had some family connections within the city authorities.

At some point, a criminal scandal broke abroad, that involved rape and murder. The scandal quickly transferred to our country and our city, because the rapist and the murdered turned out to be a graduate of the Pigeon's Heart's school. Amazingly, that man had the same last name as one of the city authorities. And so, an association had been created in order to defend the good name of the authority ,protected by a popular politician. Another strange coincidence was when a trusted teacher and a group of pupils was sent with a picket to court in attempt to defend the authority, whom haters called a degenerate. Even more interestingly, the degenerate's mother and sister were hired at school on some strange job contracts. Too many coincidences! - the union members thought, but they weren't able to prove anything. Anyway, Pigeon's Heart had amazingly friendly relations with the city authorities. And after all, such friendship served the school and the kids as well.

Who was the most faithful co-worker for Pigeon's Heart, and who was the best one? Probably all subsequent vice principals and those with immunities. The first vice principal, nickanmed Hen was a simple, non-intellectual individual, who faithfully accommodated to all Pigeon's Heart's orders. She was so good in that role, that all harassed teachers threw their resentment directly at her, without her knowing. However she chose to retire early – perhaps, she couldn't handle the harsh critique from the union circle, regarding the dying, music teacher's matter.

Another vice principal was a young and attractive woman with a closed-off personality. A loner type, a bit stuffy precise and particular – perfect to use. The principal had such strong influence on her, that the woman actually started to resemble Pigeon's Heart. She started to dress like her and gained a few pounds – she looked like a better version of the principal. At some point, a close co-worker gave away a secret that Pigeon's Heart was disappointed, that none of her sons were interested in marrying such a perfectly shaped vice principal, such a great catch. That actually was hard to understand. The vice principal would have a wonderful mother-in-law and the principal would have a wonderful daughter-in-law. After a while, the vice principal lost Pigeon's Heart's approval. That fact should not and must not be connected with personal matters.

There also existed the so-called gray eminences, who worked in the background. One of them was the former principal's daughter. In time, it turned out that it was a very intelligent and dangerous person, who worked in the background for a few years and who was the main defender of Pigeon's Heart in the hardest moments. After a few years, the pieces fell together for many people as they understood that she also took part silently in many scandals. Once, when asked why won't she apply for the vice principal's position, she replied: "Why would I kick the horse?"

However, she did apply for the position, eventually. It was when the famous Hen had retired. It was a great surprise and disappointment for the would-be daughter-in-law, who expected to be the one who would naturally fill in the retiring colleague's position. But surprise, surprise – it turned out that she would lose her job while the vice principal's position would be offered to an utterly incompetent person.

The new vice principal earned that position with her spectacular attacks on everyone, whom Pigeon's Heart didn't like. Such a person was extremely useful at that time. The former would be step-daughter used to be a hard-working and loyal employee, but she did not have that power and skill to attack people. She lack ruthlessness and often was held back by ethical and moral qualms. The new vice principal had no mercy. She was tough and able to destroy everyone to whom Pigeon's Heart pointed. Moreover, she was slick and intelligent. She could step on anybody and smash them, without noticing the blood on her shoe. She only lacked independence and confidence in contacts with large crowds. But regardless, she was a fantastic co-worker and a wonderful friend.

Among the Pigeon's Heart's important co-workers one cannot forget those who saw her as a kind aunt or caring mother. Among the elderly, there were: Labor Inspector, the folk music teacher, and the chief of the senior teachers. Among the young, there were teachers and administrative workers, who had various debts of gratitude. Some lost their previous jobs, some where formerly unemployed, others were head over heels in debts or suffered from diseases that disqualified them in different workplaces. Those people were truly grateful, that such kind and well-behaved principal gave them jobs. They had enormous gratitude debts and could not stand the spiteful union circle's attacks on that merciful principal. They stood by her faithfully with no hesitation and defended her like independence. Meanwhile the union members suspected that it was the principal's wise tactic to always employ those who would have a gratitude debt and would depend completely on her will.

But the most interesting co-worker must have been our one and only Krzysztof. In the good old times of peace, thanks to his skills, he would reside in the close vicinity of Pigeon's Heart and her relatives. Having been the IT expert, not once did he visit her home and also used to be a frequent guest in her friends' homes. One of them even used to refer to him as "the computer genius". During the time-consuming repairs and installations, our chatty "genius" had many interesting conversations, that happened to also be quite informative. Some of the information was very confidential and could have been used by him in a negative way. In those apartments, Krzysztof would see devices that were school's property and knew about the illegal operating systems installed on many computers. Interestingly, most of that he would find in homes of those who worked in law. Hence, for a while, his conflict with Pigeon's Heart evoked much worry and concern. Krzysztof knew a lot and could know much more, because he was an expert in programs enabling access to all computers in the network. He could retrieve data from apparently formatted discs. Eventually, the principal's friends and relatives pronounced Krzysztof a betrayer, while still being afraid of the possible consequences of such a statement. Supposedly, one of those people once said: "Look what a stinky rat we've let into our homes".

# The wings of the union circle – intelligence and counterintelligence

As mentioned before, during the war with Pigeon's Heart, Krzysztof used formalization and institutionalization of defense and attack – established the union circle. Thanks to that, there emerged a group that fought harmoniously, using law as their weapon. Pigeon's Heart had never experienced that before. When she attacked one union member, the defense would come from another member/ She couldn't throw one person off balance, because there would always come someone else who had more distance to the subject at hand. Moreover, the union circle went into attack with criticism. The roles changed and that hunter, who carelessly moved around the woods in attempt to kill the game, would later be chased by a very big and dangerous beast with strong and sharp claws.

One of the first union circle meetings took place in a cafe at a popular promenade. There came the circle founders and the new (later anonymous) circle members. During a very exciting conversation, they quickly moved to the specifics of how to stand against the principal and how to banish her from school. They also thanked Krzysztof for creating a space where all the principal's opponent could unite. Fortunately, one member happened to be a close relative of the Trade Union President herself. The president did not need much explanation, as she knew about the school's situation for a while and was aware of whom she was dealing with. She knew about the nepotism, lobbing and numerous, questionable businesses. Years before, as a board of education member, she encountered a number of Pigeon's Heart's strange incidents, that were swept under the rug.

Krztsztof felt happy and pleased to have connection with the trade union president. It gave him hope for victory. Suddenly, the union circle was no longer a small, partizan division, that rushed inhere angels feared to tread. They were turning into an interesting coalition, that could become very powerful. It seemed that it wouldn't be long until Pigeon's Heart was defeated. It was a mistake of too much optimism, because the war was only just beginning and would last for four years.

Unfortunately, the union circle experienced some internal conflicts and misunderstandings, as the trade union president wasn't happy about Krzysztof's becoming the regional representative. She was completely taken aback by that election which disrupted her plans of suggesting a different candidate. Soon, Krzysztof would witness a series of personal and substantive conflicts. Remaining loyal to his supporters led him into a very uncomfortable situation known as in between the devil and the deep, blue sea. It turned out that in the trade union headquarters, like in every social place, there were clicks and interest groups. Apparently, there were headquarters within the headquarters, who take care of certain matters quietly, in confidence.

After a few months, Krzysztof found out about such situation and was no longer eager to participate in the circle meetings. But he had to put a happy face sticker on, nonetheless. Participation in a variety of union activities gave him huge, personal benefit – authentic, lawful help in fight with Pigeon's Heart. In the early days of his activity, he participated in pickets and demonstrations and it surprised that so few people from his profession take attend those events. After a while, he stopped participating in that altogether, as his physical and mental strengths decreased. No one knew, how painful it was for him to walk in those manifestations. Slipped disk and spinal issues caused him so much suffering, he often had to stop, sit down and take painkillers. Meanwhile, next to him walked a diabetic, a neurologically ill man and a chemo convalescent. That's the way educational fighters looked. Weak and crippled people, who were supposed to raise their voices and carry banners. Once, during such a demonstration, Krzysztof wrecked his feet so much, his shoes filled with blood. He would then have huge difficulty walking, for a long while.

Meanwhile, his poor colleagues sat all "comfy and cozy" at school, waiting and expecting the union members to win some improvement of their situation. Because it wasn't the responsibility of the government, the politicians or the department of education. They were completely innocent. The entire responsibility for the sad, teachers' fate fell on the union circle. At least, hat was what many teachers thought.

Krzysztof was utterly disappointed to see the weakness of the trade union. He observed how they lost the subsequent battles with the government, city hall and regional authorities. He was mostly upset by the lost case of the teachers' right to retire earlier. His perspective changed to a point where he could no longer see the horizon. He could have retired after two years and suddenly, two years changed into fourteen...

Along came the inevitable defeat of the union. Krzysztof found himself in the opposing group regarding the trade union president. On one hand he was grateful for her help in the early days of his union activity and remembered that she was a member of one of the activist's family. On the other hand he also supported his assertive colleague, who criticized the union's certain financial actions. Krzysztof probably angered the trade union president the most, when he expressed his unhappiness that the mayor rewarded Pigeon's Heart – the woman who got heavily fined by the labor inspector, who lost two court cases against her employee. The woman who frequently risked her own school's budget and the city budget. He felt humiliated and expressed his mistrust in the trade union president herself, suspecting some undercover deals. He did not understand, why the trade union wouldn't use their fellow member's amazing court success, to create some good publicity. After all, he defended himself spectacularly and got his job back.

When there came the time for elections, all the trade union president's critics got eliminated. The headquarters chose themselves again and cleaned the union out of of all inconvenient members. Krzysztof was merely a random, tiny chip that fell out immediately during the cutting of the wood. But actually, he didn't put too much effort in his work there. All the conflicts in his school, health issues, deaths in his family and some strange turns of events – all of that made it impossible for him to commit completely to the trade union.

Undoubtedly, he found his best friends and co-workers within the union circle. There were some brilliant strategists, people of beautiful, creative minds and Krzysztof's loyal supporters, who would stand by him in the hardest of times. Sometimes, they also needed help and support. Among them, there were some gray eminences, who would often work from a distance, or even virtually. For example, that assertive colleague, an old and slick fox, who was in the trade union from the very beginning. That man had known, heard and seen a lot. He could immediately evaluate the issues and suggest many solutions to seemingly unresolvable situations.

Had Pigeon's Heart known, that the union lawyer of many years was Krzysztof's good friend from college, she would not attend those court hearings with such confidence and condescension. The lawyer treated Krzysztof's case very seriously and professionally. Years and years ago, they worked together by the death beds of the nursing home. It was an unforgettable experience. Although, his colleague remembered Krzysztof as more exhausted from the nightlife with nurses, than from his daily duties.

Our teacher also had connections and spies within the Pigeon's Heart's camp. Those were deeply conspired people, who would only provide him with information in the most dangerous situations. He was deeply grateful to them, but at the same time, extremely careful, worried that they may be playing both teams. Sometimes he would test his connections by releasing some kind of a rumor, to see if it came back from anyone. Sometimes the rumor would come back and then he would verify such a person. If he found out that someone passed a rumor over to Pigeon's Heart, he would not denounce such person, but use them to misinform and confuse the enemy.

But the most interesting co-worker for Krzysztof, was his close relative, who also worked on a high position in the educational system. He was very happy that she had changed her last name when she got married. Thanks to that, nobody would associate her with Krzysztof. Because she lived and worked in another part of the country, she would interact with him over the phone or e-mail. She knew every trick a principal could use to get rid of an inconvenient teacher. Krzysztof would visit her a few times every year and amaze her with stories about his school. He tried not to overwhelm her with his problems, though. As she worked as scholar and wrote books. He also did his best to pay her back for everything, so he would always help her with every computer problem. Even the union circle did not know about that connection that he had. Krzysztof hardly trusted anyone and did whatever he could, to avoid betrayal, mostly because he knew that it can come in all "shapes and sizes". Even the closets friend could blabber something unintentionally, in a wrong place and wrong time. One could never be completely sure about anybody, even about themselves...

# The school's ghost, curses and other amazing phenomena

It is believed, that there are certain, inexplicable phenomena occurring in our lives and in nature. Phenomena impossible to be rationally understood. Some people do not believe in god, or any inexplicable phenomena. Some are passionate followers of their religion, who believe in ghosts, spirits, superstitions, horoscopes and dark magic. In his life, Krzysztof encountered a number of amazing phenomena and events, that made him question his reality perception and he really wasn't' sure anymore if those are just made-up stories and lies. He didn't pay much attention to horoscopes or parapsychology, on a daily basis, but as a kid, he read a few books about UFO and spirits.

There was a legend, going around his workplace, about a ghost from the 2nd floor. That story was particularly popular around the porters and cleaners. The ladies who worked as night—porters were often startled by every little noise at school. The story emerged after one Summer camp, in early 80's. In that time, school buildings were often used for organizing vacation activities for kids. According to the witnesses, a group of sports kids, accommodated at school had a lot of trouble sleeping on the 2nd floor. At first, it was assumed that kids were joking. But despite the windless weather, something was knocking and humming, doors would close by themselves, some kids were feeling someone's presence...The eldest school workers claimed, that there once came a medium to school and performed a spirit seance. Apparently, the medium called up a spirit if a worker, who was murdered at the school's construction side and buried in the substructure. The ghost supposedly said that the school was cursed and would remain cursed until finding of the body and identifying the murderer. It also predicted that eventually, the school would burn, because of poor electrical installation.

Some may believe it, some may laugh at it, but the truth is, there really were some strange things going on at that school. Weird noises were coming out of nowhere. Once, during an individual physics class, a teacher suddenly felt a wave of cold air and heard someone step around her. There was just her and one boy at class and there was no one in the hall. The teacher, thinking she may be going crazy, asked the boy if he heard anything. He nodded with fear in his eyes and murmured that he would really love to leave quickly.

Some thought that it was all one, big joke. Others assigned the noises to the wildlife that frequently visited and inhabited the school. Animals were attracted to the building, because of all the food scraps that the school produced. Krzysztof knew about a fisher that lived in the school loft. He also used to encounter rats, cockroaches and hornets, so such visitors didn't startle him. So, perhaps, all those mammals, reptiles, amphibians and birds could have been responsible for all those noises, door-closing, knocking...and, during estrus, also moaning. There were also those, who thought that the noises were caused by teachers having laud and dynamic sex with each other, in classrooms, after classes. There as also a belief that those teachers stuffed the keyholes with paper for soundproofing, but it never worked.

However, some occurrences were really unexplainable. Were those paranormal phenomena? For instance, the winning of the cars in competitions by all the harassed teachers. Or, the fact that the funny rhymes written by one of the teachers turned out to be powerful and accurate premonitions of events such as that winning, or the principal's public collapse? How could anyone explain the fact that all those harassed teachers always somehow got away with their revenges? Or, the fact that in the hardest time of the war with Pigeon's Heart, the rats and insects emerged from the underground and the sewage spilled?

Coincidence? Fate? Curse of the body from the substructure?

# EPILOGUE

### The horrifying title of the book

Where did the idea for the title come from? That was a sign, that Krzysztof got from Heaven or some magical force. He found six bodies of mummified rats, one after the other, in a school's basement, in a short period of time. That basement was in a school where he once lived and where his, an elderly lady, still lives, 'till this day. The rats were massive, brown and gray and one of them was fur-less. They were flat, but slightly bulgy and only one of them had grubs. The stink of decomposing rats is specific, a bit sour, like urine of a sick person. Krzysztof learned to recognize it. Amazingly, all of those rats that he found laid always in the same place maybe with a difference of 20 centimeters. Incredible and yet true.

Where did the dead rats come from? Probably from the school cafeteria 200 meters away, where they were effectively poisoned. Running in the underground halls they would always end up in the same basement. That may have been their getaway, or perhaps, that was the silent and safe place for them to try to recover. Who knows? Anyway, those rats that were used to eating school scraps and to the school's underground and traps, seemed to have found their last way and their ultimate resting place there. That basement became an informal graveyard of rats.

But there is a deeper meaning to the title of this story. It's a kind of a metaphor, comparing the world of man with the world of animals. Usually, humanity hates rats, kills them, but somehow they are not extinct. Some admire rats, some loath them. Some admire their slickness, social organization, survival instinct and their ability to learn. But they loath their appearance, especially the tail, and their smell. People know that rats did and still do carry terrible disease. They've learned at history lessons, that rats had spread the plague that killed almost the entire Europe. But really, that was all caused by those humans, who built cities where no rules of hygiene were obeyed.

In every social group, there are individuals fighting over power and domination, sometimes they gather in groups that compete with each other. War and fighting can occur even in the smallest societies. There are no good and bad guys there, just winners and losers. No holds barred. If that metaphor was transferred into the real, social life, analogies could be found in every environment – in schools, preschools, trade unions and political parties. Even on a large scale – in international relationships and games between groups of countries. Such rats were Jews, early Christians and Indians. Such a rat may be the chief of the opposing party, or a trade union member. Nowadays, people don't need scapegoats – they need rats to hunt down and slaughter. They need the sight of blood and guts of the loathsome creature. People fear rats, people need rats and the omnipotent media know how to find them. What could a rat's name be? Anything – Saddam, Osama, Muamar, even Jarosław. That does not matter. A rat is a rat.

The example of the life of Krzysztof whom I compare to an old, brown and gray rat, could apply to any person or a society that is harassed, condemned, prosecuted and hated just for their willingness to be and live. That's a scapegoat syndrome and a scapegoat is worse than a rat. A goat is cute and silly, although it can stink. A rat is slick, intelligent and cunning, but apparently looks disgusting. Goat was a sacrificial animal, killed in rituals to praise God and also, to enjoy the sight of blood. Rats are killed in a different way. They are hated and killed simply for the fact that they exist and look disgusting. Nothing mystical about that, it's just the desire of killing. That is the rat syndrome.

So why was Krzysztof compared to a Rat? At some point, his life was dominated by those creatures. When he was a child, rats brushed over his legs time after time and sometimes he watched their scraps burned in the boiler room. There were always around. Kzysztof was afraid of them, He knew that they live right next to him, lurking. He knew that they are clever, dangerous and difficult to kill. He knew that only the young and inexperienced rats fall for poisons and into traps. He knew that those brown or gray rats, often the size of a cat, are the "tough guys" - serious and dangerous enemies. Such rats live through many traps. And that's why, when he himself was hunted, when he was turned away from as if he carried a plague, that was when he knew that e shares fate with an invincible, school rat. A psychologist could say that Krzysztof picked up many rat features, along his physical trail.

Old rats that are used to the school scraps and familiar paths cannot turn around and go outside, at the end of their life. Those old survivors that didn't catch in a trap or get poisoned, they dies in the places they are used to. Old rats do not emigrate. They end their lives in their most familiar surroundings.

Life goes on, individuals pass away, the species lives on and all is well with it.

Graveyard of rats...
