Path I: Blue Riskshaw

And he didn't find anything unusual, just a school card. Well, actually a notebook in a bag and the school card was inside the notebook. As a bookmark. The notebook seemed to be some kind of a diary or something. A bit old. Nothing out of the ordinary. Ugly fabric cover. Inside there were dried leaves, pencil drawings, newspaper clippings, grey pictures and this strange writing, so even and girlish. And not written with a pen. One could guess it was ink, but still it had a strange colour, also a bit grey. Who reads such things? The school card had a colour picture, though, and the girl on the picture was sticking her tongue out and making a squint! In a word, she had the ugliest look in the world. And the card was from a school in Toruń. You couldn t tell how old she was because of the look. However, if someone has such a picture on a school card then maybe by some chance it s someone, who s fun, he thought, on second thoughts, maybe she s old or something, well, she s from a lower secondary school than she s not that old, just a little bit. It would be better if she was from Bydgoszcz and not from Toruń, though.

When something interesting starts to happen it usually happens in Toruń. Aren t there any more interesting places in the area? On the other hand, it was intriguing what she was doing in Bydgoszcz. Because, if she lost her bag here, then she must have been here just recently. It s curious whether she came here or left? What for? The train for Toruń came, so he climbed aboard. And why not? Maybe she s in this train and she s going back to Toruń? He didn t have anything better to do at the moment... There was an address and a telephone number on the school card. One can call and ask. There were two lads sitting two seats further and holding a big suitcase on their laps. The girl sitting in front of them was constantly talking and gesticulating... He listened for a bit, I ve got you... it was her who lost the bag! I m so lucky, he thought, contented. She was infuriated and said she gave them the bag for them to look after it while she was carrying the suitcase into the train, and they lost it, and that there were important documents there and she doesn t care that one of them is a national lame duck and the other a foreign one...

They got off in Toruń, he waited for a moment and then followed them. There will be some occasion to give it back. First he wanted to see what would happen. He had time.

Strange as it mat seem, he was alone in Toruń for the first time. The guys were lugging the heavy case, she marched in the front. Quickly. She must have been mad at them. The suitcase wasn t on castors and looked heavy. He followed them to the bus stop. They got off across the bridge and walked a short distance. He saw the Town Hall. They stopped by some funny and colourful bicycles.

He took out the notebook and gave it to her. Is it yours? Thanks, mate, she nodded her head. She had to hold it firmly as the rickshaw driver parked his vehicle in such a queer way that it nearly made him fall onto the pavement and scatter all the scraps of paper that were inside the notebook. He held it tight on his side to make sure she didn t pull it out. One picture found its way to the ground, though. They simultaneously bent over to pick it up and bumped their heads. Oh no! She is dead set upon it, weirdo. When he lifted himself she was rubbing her forehead. Are we going or not – the rickshaw driver was growing impatient. He looked at her and they both smiled in the same, awry way. Naa..! They both yawned and the girl put on a look exactly like the one in the picture. Crazy Teutonics. They hobnobed, it shows. The rickshaw guy had dready hair and giggled, he had a bump on the head and was still holding the notebook, she had an awful look on her face and the photo, which fell out. Full identification. “So hi boys,” she said to “these two” standing next to the suitcase looking at her with a stupid look at their faces. “We have to check something here and you take this suitcase home.” She gave the address to the rickshaw guy and paid. “I’ll call mum and explain everything. You can go alone from here. This friend will take you home, it’s not far, is it?

“Get on” she pointed to the blue rickshaw, “I m buying. Do you know where this is?” – she showed the picture to the dready guy. He looked for a moment. “Easy”, he said. “It s right round the corner.”

“My nanny wrote” she started talking while the rickshaw guy was taking a turning and bent towards him putting the photo just in front of his eyes. He had to catch the other side of it, because he could see nothing, “My nanny wrote that this picture was taken by her fiancé”, she said, “look, she put down all the important moments in history and this photography is also very important, because it was the 21st of January 1920. It was her names day and she saw general Haller on the bus station, and then they came here together and saw him again. They... What “they”, he interrupted her, your nanny and other people? Well, not exactly, she looked at her sandals and pulled a face, I don t know whether I should tell you this – she stuttered, well, but it was you who found the notebook, so if you swear you won t tell anyone, than I ll tell you.”
“Thanks mate, we re even,” she said to the dready head, “we ll go on foot from now on. Sorry, that the ride was so short, not that I m mean, but I wanted to get rid of those two, she tilted her head to the left. He made a look full of understanding. “This is my brother and cousin”, she continued, “an Englishman, who has just come here by plane to witness our joining the EU. How did you find me, they had lost the bag in Bydgoszcz. Were you on the train with us? He nodded his head. Why didn t you give me back the bag in the train, I wouldn t have been mad for so long”.” Well, I wanted to see what was going on. In fact it s all waste paper and you were talking about some important documents.” She laughed him down, because he was probably thinking about the card and that was why he wanted to give it back in person. She also told him to look forward to some finder s fee, because the card is of no value to her, however, he deserves the money for giving her back the notebook.

But she didn t manage to say anything, because the time the rickshaw turned round the corner it all began. “What the... where did all these people come from” she asked “and ... where is our rickshaw!!!” They stood leaning against the wall of the town hall and in front of them they saw a military parade! On foot and on horseback... An orchestra, a military one it seems, was playing a march. Umpa Umpa, Puf, Puf. In front of the Holy Spirit Church, the post office and all around there were crowds of people, all cheering and happy for some reason. Their faces were radiant, however they were dressed in a strange way... What s happening? Why weren t we able to hear this just a while ago? She looked at him an the people around her, they must be making a movie. Let s watch, just don t get out. Look, one can also watch from the balcony of the town hall, I didn t know that, there are some people there and a large carpet is swung over, wait a minute... they looked at each other and at the photo... it is the same as in the photo. Exactly. Look, I didn t know that there was going to be a film about Haller in Toruń. She put the photo just in front of his eyes once again, it was too close, so he had to take it and move it away to make anything out. Well, you re right, this is the scene, it must be based on old photographs... and then they realized that there is no film, no crowds or horses... The same view as usual, everything disappeared. They were standing in the middle of the Old Marketplace, in front of the balcony of the town hall, on which there was no carpet and nobody was making a movie.

“Take a look what’s in the notebook and hide this photo” he said. Totally calmly. Just stay cool. The rickshaw disappeared, but the ride was short, so it’s o.k., but what was that, loosing consciousness with hallucinations? Was it only him who saw it a moment ago, or she also saw it , he wondered, may be he fainted or fell out of this weird rickshaw … He looked at her. May be they have some kind of riots organized for those from Bydgoszcz… And she was totally calmly looking at the old photographs in the notebook.

Aa, she looked a-slance, aren t you curious?. “Hey, do you want to know what the mystery is, or not? You want to, you are dying to know. Well, what do you think about Copernicus?” – “ I don’t think anything at all, why am I to think about him.” - “Not about him, but about his monument.” - “ I don’t think about the monument either.” -“That’s stupid, because there was a big lark with the monuments of Copernicus. And the one standing in front of the town hall is not the ordinary one and the proof of it is that the original astrolabium could have been exchanged into a fake one in Bydgoszcz. Or in Solec. Or perhaps later, when they got their bearings that it wasn’t an ordinary astrolabium. Because this one was made of gold and precious stones. And because different rich people from abroad gave money for it, and the whole monument wasn’t made of gold, but it only had such a precious astronomical instrument and someone switched them and hid the original one. And this is the mystery”.” You must be out of your mind. And nobody noticed it? Where do you know it from?
“From the nanny’s note book. They tracked down that this monument was mysterious and even were checking in different places, searched for traces, notes, because if they could find it and sell or get finder’s fee .. But it turned out that the CODE was needed to find it and there are notes in this notebook where the treasure is … read on your own.

“Now, you understand, that if so many people gave money for this monument, from different towns, even from Bydgoszcz, the rich from abroad, some nobles, it couldn’t be for an ordinary monument, like the one today, but they must have invented something extra. You have seen different things at the treasure houses and museums. It couldn’t have been entirely from gold, but it must have had a precious piece, a decoration. They wanted to honour him, so they raised money for that symbol of astronomy, the golden astrolabium. And why did they dig out the well and half of the town? I don’t think you believe that they wanted to even the marketplace. Nanny and her mate didn’t believe, and you? Now, think. If that monument wasn’t special, would they stop with it in Bydgoszcz and Solec and then close it in a sealed box at the church? All the time they thought that everything was on the spot, that astrolabium couldn’t have looked as if it had been golden, but nanny wrote that there was an artist who dealt with gilding different things and he must have suspected … Look what she wrote about him, here.” She opened the notebook and tapped the paper filled with handwriting in blue ink.

Well, do you promise that you won t tell anyone? Under the threat that a pip will grow on your tongue and you ll have an everlasting hiccup, because when you backbite someone, the person has a hiccup, so if you tell anyone I ll backbite you in front of everyone, do you understand? Of course, he said, I knew that there was more concerning that notebook than meets the eye, because you were not concerned with the card, he glanced at her, but she wasn t looking at him. She was looking at the people surrounding them. So, he spoke on – when I was skimming this notebook and found the card, I thought it was the most important thing and not those clippings and notes. Can such trash have any value? Hi, hi, hi, she smiled in an awry way again, imagine that it can. You see, nanny was very young, well a bit older than I am, and with her, they called him “friend”, you know, her lad, you get it, they made a research why Toruń hated Bydgoszcz and the other way round. They thought that they may find some traces of the monster sitting in the dungeons, or a gang, and they found different interesting traces and all they found was noted down in this notebook! They assumed that there is something with that monument and that it may be related to what is happening between Toruń and Bydgoszcz and what in their opinion had any connection that they noted and gathered the evidence, precisely. Here we might find the first key. We should see what nanny wrote in the diary and look around … Look, here is something strange, I don’t know if it is an ornament or writing…

And a piece more …

“And it looks like a coded inscription, but in which language … like Greek … do you know anyone who would be able to translate… well, I have an idea. Several ideas even. I know someone, who translates eerie codes into human language, we do, however, have to submit the text in binary code. I wonder if it will work.”