The Swallows that Never Returned- Part 2

If you would like to read the story from the beginning, click here and start from Part 1 at the bottom of the page.

In her long trip to "the America", Wladyslawa forever left behind the dream of a love that left her an empty soul until the end of her days. Ahead was the love of her life, a kind of real love that makes you put brick by brick with your bare hands, side by side building the dream of owning a house; a love that makes you take turns to generously change smelly diapers; a love that insults you in the morning, refuses to speak to you in the afternoon and forgets everything in the evening; that kind of love that is always there and makes you take it for granted, just like the water flowing from the tap or the light always awaiting behind the switch ... How could you do without such a love?

Behind she left a thorn, a needle stuck in the middle of her heart that she could never overcome. The boyfriend of her teenage, associated by everyone in the village to her future, was gone, like so many others, to "the America". In this case it was North America, and he had promised to raise money and send for her. Antoni, he was called, came from a nearby village; he often came to Wladylsava’s village to sell cheap animal feed. Between flirting glances across the muddy streets and nervous chats next to the drinking troughs while waiting for the animals, he slowly conquered her heart and one day he even snatched a kiss from her. He was quite older, much older than eighteen when he decided to emigrate, whereas she was just coming out of puberty. While her parents approved of their courtship, Wladyslawa still did not know the boy's family, as it would have been folly to allow marriage while she was so young, and let her cross the ocean without certainly knowing her destination. So, they agreed that he would write regularly and when he could send the ticket for her to follow him, he would. At least a couple of years would pass before such thing, long enough to let the in-laws get to know one another.

Antoni had just left for America when Jan, a young neighbour of naughty reputation but the son of a good family known to everyone, started approaching Wladyslawa with clear amorous intentions. Both were about sixteen years of age, and although she knew him well by his constant practical jokes throughout their childhood -snowballs brutally slipped into the back of her winter clothes, making her trip on mud, giving her beautiful decorated boxes for her birthday containing cow dung-, at this point she had begun to like his twinkling eyes like those of a lurking beast that came out to meet her around every corner. Wladyslawa's parents always spoke well of Jan’s family; in fact, he came from one of the most affluent families in the area. Whereas most households had a few cows and a handful of chickens, Jan's family had also quite a lot of pigs which were butchered and sold mostly at Christmas, even in neighboring villages. It was a blessing, Wladyslawa’s parents used to say, that Jan had set eyes on her. But she insisted that she was waiting for news from her beloved Antoni.