Roseanne's Summer Vacation- Chapter 21
“Do you want me dead, sir?”
Nika wheezed as she climbed the steps of Kamienna Góra. In English, the most appropriate name for this spot would be “The Stone Mountain”. It wasn’t really a mountain, but a hilltop on which an entire residential district was built. It had an observation deck that was decorated with a big metal cross.
“Only in the Land of Po…” Nika said, searching for a lighter. “We have an obsession about crosses.”
“Nika, you have to know history first. The cross was placed here in the 1930s to mark the construction of a church, but World War II happened, and the church was never built.”
“World War II sucked, Mr Orville. That’s for sure.”
“Every war sucks.”
The teacher asked if Nika was okay. She definitely had a problem with smoking, but he didn’t want to bring that up. This trip was not addiction counselling.
After a brief stop at the mountain, the students travelled down the street, which led them to a beautiful promenade along the sea. The place was crowded with tourists and cyclists, which didn’t sit well with Roseanne. Nevertheless, the noise of bystanders didn’t discourage her from enjoying the gentle sound of waves splashing against the breakwater.
There is a specific point on the promenade at which the sidewalk ends and the sandy beachside begins. But Mr Orville didn’t lead them to the beach. They went up the stairs again and reached a wide clearing surrounded by a forest.
“I feel like I am in the mountains by the sea,” Milena gasped.
“It’s very green. If you told me there’s a beach down there, I wouldn’t believe it. It’s a real forest,” Roseanne remarked while taking pictures.
“That’s the structure of Gdynia beyond the harbour. You have a thick forest that suddenly stops at the edge of cliffs,” Mr Orville said.
They rested for a while on wooden benches set around extinguished campfires. Thally evidently couldn’t help herself and asked for permission to relieve herself, and so she disappeared among the trees at the elevation. Mr Orville checked the time, and after five minutes, he called her. “Thalia, come down here!”
“But the view from up here is beautiful! You should check it out!” her shout came down the elevation.
“No, we’re going by the forest.”
“But going by cliffs would be awesome!”
“If the view is nice, I would like to go up there, too,” Natasha said.
Mr Orville didn’t want to be the joykiller, so he hesitantly allowed the girls to join Thally at the top, but he warned them to be careful. One careless step and they could fall to their death.
“I’m not afraid of dying. I’m afraid of living,” Nika commented with a fresh smoke in her mouth.
“Where are we going anyway?” Roseanne asked.
“This forest and the pathway on the cliffs lead to Orłowo. It’s another district, but it has a nice jetty. And it’s for free! Unlike the one in Sopot.”
The student was amazed by her teacher’s knowledge of the area. They didn’t wander aimlessly from one place to another using Google Maps, which happens frequently on school trips.
The view from the cliffs was breathtaking. Roseanne could see the horizon where the water and the sky merged into one horizontal line. The cargo ships moved in the distance, either leaving or entering the city. The bushes and leaves in front of them were thick, but thankfully, the pathway—tamped by hundreds of adventure seekers before them—remained clear.
As they marched forward, minding crooked trees or stepping too close to the edge, Thally levelled her pace with Mr Orville.
“By the way, sir. I should tell you somebody tried to enter our room in the middle of the day,” she said.
The teacher looked at her, nearly tripping over roots sticking out from the ground. “That’s why you have phones to call me when you’re in danger.”
“I know, but the room was locked and we were safe.”
“She left the room! She left the room!” Milena cut into the conversation.
“You tattletale!” Thally yelled and turned again to Mr Orville.”I made sure the coast was clear. I just went to the exit and from there saw somebody following around in the bushes.”
“Fooling around in the bushes? Have you seen a pervert?” Mr Orville asked in disbelief.
“No, not like that. The guy, I think he was a guy, was playing with some boxes. Then he took off and just left them scattered away.”
Mr Orville thought in silence for a while. “Have you seen his face?”
“No, sir. It was too dark.”
“You shouldn’t have gone out in the first place.”
Mr Orville knew it was a fool’s errand expressing such clichéd disapproval to someone who had the habit of jogging at midnight against her mother’s wishes. Thally’s mom complained to Mr Orville, but what could he do? The girl had the conviction that she knew better than adults.
Roseanne listened to the conversation. Had she experienced an attempted break-in, she wouldn’t have played any sneaking-up games with the perp. She was trained in hand-to-hand combat. Thus, if she were in Thally’s shoes, she would charge at him immediately.
“A good fist fight is the best solution,” Roseanne commented.
“I would simply gun down the bastard,” Natasha said.
“Yeah. You’re so lazy, you would shoot straight out of bed and go back to sleep.”
“I guess you’re right. You know, it’s not even a matter of having a pistol. There are special bed frames from America on which you can suspend a shotgun. Now that would be a convenience for heavy sleepers like me!”
“Shoot the bad guy at night. Get him a body bag in the morning.” Roseanne imitated the sound of a TV salesman. “Don’t let intruders disturb your nap.”
***
After roughly an hour of hiking along the cliffs, the view of the Orłowo jetty emerged far up front. The group was still pretty high. As a result, Mr Orville worried the path might take them away from Orłowo rather than to it. However, as they neared the site, they could see individual tourists on their path. Behind one of the slight turns, wooden stairs emerged that took them right down.
The girls walked around the jetty. Thally and Nika went to a snack bar near the beach, whereas Roseanne and Natasha headed to the end of the wooden construction, which was occupied by fishermen. Mr Orville and Milena sat on a bench in the middle, looking at tourists struggling not to fall off a speedboat.
“Look at these sorry boneheads, Milena.”
The girl smiled faintly.
“Are you feeling better? Here, take this.” Mr Orville took out a sweet roll from his backpack.
“Thank you very much,” she took the roll and opened the wrapping. “I’m sorry again for what happened this morning.”
“I told you not to apologise.”
“Still, I should’ve warned you beforehand about my condition.” She took a little bite. “Where are we going to eat breakfast tomorrow?”
“Don’t you worry about that. There are plenty of places to choose from.” He looked at her. “Milena?”
“Yes, Mr Orville?”
“When something bad happens, call me immediately.”
The girl didn’t say anything, but nodded firmly.
***
All the benches were taken, so the girls sat on wooden planks, away from fishermen who continuously cast a fishing rod. They didn’t want to be hurt by flying hooks.
“Fishermen are crazy,” Natasha complained. “Once I saw a guy who brought a chair and tried to fish in a pond in the middle of a park! It’s forbidden to do that there.”
“People do crazy stuff literally everywhere.”
Natasha brought out her Uno cards, but there was no use playing them on the jetty because the wind swooshed them away. It took Roseanne a good five minutes to track them all between the legs of benchers, praying in the process that the cards wouldn’t fall into the water through the plank cracks.
How I wish Tae-jun was here. She suddenly thought. Then another thought hit her. But Mr Orville is right, he is a stranger. I should proceed with caution. It’s better to focus on whether or not I should send that novel.
The girl looked in the direction of a teacher, wondering if he had read anything or just tossed her text aside. She worried he had done the latter. This usually happens when you let your heart out on pages and ask people you know to become beta-readers. They’re busy. They have their own lives. In consequence, they don’t give any feedback.
She winced again at the memory of what she did yesterday. Sooner or later, she will have to ask the teacher for the return of her novel.
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