It’ll be just like a real one,” says the barber.

“But you will invite us to the show, won’t you? Don’t forget,” says the girl.

Kaytek’s friend is getting impatient.

“What took you so long?”

“They wanted to spray me with perfume.”

“For free?”

“I guess so.”

“Why didn’t you let them?”

“Why should they waste their stuff? It’s all right to have a joke, but I’m not a jerk. I don’t like cheats.”

“Well, sure.”

Kaytek goes into a store selling cleaning products. He asks for flea killer.

The lady gives it to him.

“That’s for fleas, bedbugs, and roaches.”

“We don’t have any bedbugs or roaches at home. My mom said just get it for fleas.”

“Doesn’t matter. That’s good powder, everyone buys it. Show me how much cash you have.”

Kaytek tightly clenches his empty fist.

“No . . . I have to ask . . . I have to do what my mom says.”

“Well, go ask her. And tell her it costs a zloty.** Do you live far from here?”

“Just round the corner.”

“If you buy things here often, you’ll get candy . . . See this?”

“Yes.”

She shows him a jar full of candy. Kaytek leaves.

“Thinks she’s so smart – as if I’d give her a zloty right away!” he tells his pal. “She thinks I’ll be tempted by candy. It’s been dyed those colors for sure. How many stores is that now?”

“Six.”

“Exactly half.”

“OK, let’s go on.”

“What’s your rush? Let me take a rest. My head’s already spinning.”

But it’s nothing. Kaytek is okay. He goes into the seventh store.

It’s a garden center.

“Can I get a coconut palm here?” asks Kaytek.

“We haven’t any,” says the lady.

“Please would you look, miss? The nature teacher told me to get one.”

“So you tell the nature teacher he’s got bats in his belfry.”

“No he hasn’t. Our teacher knows what he’s talking about. It’s not nice to talk to children like that. You’re not allowed to insult the teacher.”

“Get out of here, you little brat! Trying to preach morals at me!”

“Sure it’s about morals, because you shouldn’t talk like that.”

In the doorway he sticks out his tongue at her.

“Pity I didn’t tell her to get stuffed and wallpapered too.”

“Why are you so annoyed?”

“Because I’m getting bored with all this traipsing about.”

“Tough, you made a bet.”

“I know that without you telling me. I started it so I’ll finish it.”

Outside the store there’s a stall selling soda water.

“A glass of gas, please,” says Kaytek.

The lady fills a glass with water and hands it to him.

And Kaytek says: “I don’t want the water, just the gas.”

He makes another innocent face. But she doesn’t even look.

She takes a swing and flings the water at him.

Kaytek dodges just in time.

She misses.

“Go break an arm and a leg, you thief!”

But Kaytek isn’t a jerk or a thief. He could have drunk the water and run away. And he is feeling thirsty.

“You’re the cheat, lady.”

He’s mad at her, and at himself.

And at his pal.

“Hey, listen,” he asks his pal. “What does ‘he’s got bats in his belfry’ mean?”

“It must mean he talks garbage. You could have figured that out for yourself.”

They stop outside a photography studio.

“I’m coming in with you.”

“As you wish.”

They go inside.

“How much do half a dozen pigeons cost?”

“What sort of pigeons?” says the lady.

“Carrier pigeons, for the office. We’re going to keep them on our laps.”

“Do you have any money?”

“Not yet. But we’re trying to get some.”

“First go try, then come back.”

“What are you telling them?” a man in glasses butts in. “Here we only take pictures of people. And jackasses.”

They leave.

Kaytek says nothing.

Then he remembers:

“That guy called me a jackass, the other one called me a little brat.