She nodded, as if she was agreeing to something uncertain. “Married?” she asked, looking at you.

“No, ma’am,” you said, shaking your head, smiling at her. “Not yet. Am still young.”

She laughed in her hoarse voice, revealing a set of missing front teeth. “And you?” she said, turning to me.

I could feel myself blush. “No, ma’am.” I took a sip of milk to hide my discomfort. My lips brushed against the floppy skin that had formed on top, sending a wave of nausea through my belly, and the liquid scalded the inside of my mouth. I tried to keep a straight face and reached for the bread.

She watched us eat with apparent satisfaction. “So you’re traveling. Know where you’re going?”

“Just looking for a quiet spot,” you said. “Can you recommend anywhere, ma’am?”

She looked out the window, where nothing much of the outside could be seen, only a hazy green from the trees and a vague blue of the sky. “There is a place not far from here where we go and pick mushrooms in the autumn. Travelers don’t know about it. It’s pretty.” Her eyes sparkled, and in one moment I saw, really saw, that she had once been young. “I’ll tell you how to get there.”

After breakfast, we rolled up our sleeping bags and packed our things.

“Just walk, about four miles straight through the forest from the Marianki junction,” the woman said, standing by the entrance of the house. “You’ll know when you’ve arrived.”

“Thank you. You’ve been very kind,” I said.

She took my face in her solid waxy hands and kissed me drily on the cheek. “Come and see us on your way back. Have a good trip.”

In a nearby village we found a small truck going in the right direction. The driver was bringing a load of cherries up north, and the only space he had for us was in the back, in the mountains of fruit. We ate beyond hunger. Stuffing our faces, staining our hands, we spat the pits into the passing fields. The sky was infinite and light; it felt as if we were flying through it. Almost every farm we passed had a stork’s nest on the roof, with the elegant creatures atop, resting or flying off to look for food after their long journey from Africa.