My daughter Margaret looked up immediately. “Did he bother you?”
“He asked whether my grandmother’s name was Zofia.”
My teacup stopped halfway to my mouth.
“Exactly what did he say?”
“He asked if I was Emma, then whether my grandmother was originally from Poland.”
“Did he give you his name?”
An elderly man approached me outside work.
“No. But he gave me this.”
She placed a small package on the table.
“And he said something else.”
“What?”
“He says you must keep your promise.”
My grandmother’s name was Zofia.
I unwrapped the package. A tiny copper ring lay inside.
“Grandma? What’s wrong?”
“I know this ring.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’d recognize those crooked bends anywhere. Even after eighty-seven years.”
But I had no idea why he’d chosen to return now – or what else he might have kept from me.
She placed a small package.
“Describe him,” I whispered.
“Tall. White hair. Blue eyes. An accent.”
Margaret leaned forward. “Mother, do you recognize it?”
“I made a promise to a boy named Stanislaw. Eighty-seven years ago.”
Emma pulled out a chair. “Grandma, are you telling me somebody just delivered your childhood engagement ring?”
What else he might have kept from me?
“Apparently, I’m still very popular.”
Margaret wasn’t amused. “This could be somebody playing a trick.”
“Then somebody has an extraordinary memory.”
Beneath the ring was an envelope with my old Chicago address.
“Mom, what’s that?”
I’m still very popular.
“Our old apartment. Remember?”
Margaret nodded.
“And look at the date.”
“1964?”
“He found me, Margaret. All those years ago.”
This could be somebody playing a trick.
Emma frowned. “Then why didn’t he contact you?”
I had absolutely no answer.
And suddenly, the ring wasn’t the most important thing in the package.
The question wasn’t whether Stanislaw had survived. It was why he’d stayed silent when he already knew where to find me.
Look at the date.
“We need to investigate before you get involved,” my daughter insisted.
“Margaret, I’m already involved.”
“You don’t know this man anymore.”
“Then I’ll find out.”
“Mom, you’re not listening to me!”
Why he’d stayed silent?
