Withdrawing Fables From The Memory Bank
Part Four: Secrets, Reliable and Unreliable
In February Basil’s mother’s got news that her brother Tomas had passed away. He had stayed behind with their parents in what Maria always referred to as the Old World. Their parents—father Ukrainian, mother Polish—both died there over a decade ago.
As they were getting quite old, Maria did visit them once by herself when Basil was very small. It was the last time she saw Tomas.
Basil knew little about his Uncle Tomas except what his mother occasionally read to him from letters he sent. His uncle was a writer for a newspaper in Krakov. He didn’t marry and had no interest in traveling to the United States. When he sent photos—there were a few under magnets on the refrigerator—they were of him and his three cats.
There is a book on Maria’s self. A collection of short stories Tomas wrote in Polish. It was published a year before Maria took Basil, a toddler, and his older brother Marko and moved to the New World. She’s often wondered when, or even if, she would ever mention it to Basil. A barrage of difficult questions would surely ensue, and, if she were to be honest, even more difficult answers.
While Basil was out with his friends she sat leafing through the book.
