The rainbow never sets

"Oh no, he is only teasing you." He also had a safe in the cloak room, firmly cemented in the wall and hidden by a large picture. We were always fascinated by it, as it seemed difficult to unlock.

"How do you unlock this door of the safe, Opa?" I once asked. "Oh, that is very difficult. You need to say a magic formula, and then you can open it."

"Could you tell us this formula please Opa?" "Well, seeing that you are now big boys, I'll tell you. You have to make six crosses over the rim of the door, three on top, and three at the bottom, and each time you make a cross you have to say: 'Rotototoo, rotototoo, rotototoo".

"Can you show us?" He inserted the big key of the safe into the key hole, turned it over once and said: "You see, it doesn't open. Now watch."

He made a half turn with the key, made his three crosses at the top and three crosses at the bottom, each time, with a solemn voice chanting: "Rotototoo, rotototoo, rotototoo."

Before our amazed eyes, he gently opened the door. Then Günter said: "Can I try it, Opa?"

He performed the exact ritual as Opa had shown him, but he still couldn't open the safe.

"Why doesn't it open for me?" "You need to be grown-ups to open this door," he said, and he never told us his secret of the half-turn.

Rumour had it, from reliable sources of course, that when Opa came past the women near the cow shed, when they were leaning over as they were scrubbing the buckets and milk cans after milking, that sometimes he would use his walking stick to lift their skirts to see if they were wearing underpants. Maybe his rationale for doing this was, although there is no proof, that he wanted to encourage them to wear underpants. But it is just as likely, that he enjoyed this type of practical joke.

All the workers loved him. They called him Wiele Moúzny which means 'The Mighty one', and when they greeted him, all would kiss his hand, men and women. That was their way of showing respect.

Before I went to school in Posen, I had a bad infestation of worms. The doctor had suggested a couple of days treatment in the hospital in Poznan. I went through two days of terrible trauma, all by myself, and a wardsman putting ointment on my anus several times a day. I was very embarrassed by the whole procedure. The following day I managed to get home on the train by myself. At the station Opa was among those meeting me. In his loud voice he asked me: "Did you get rid of all the robakis?" He said it in his poor Polish, so that everyone could understand it. Robakis means worms. What would I have given to disappear instantly from the surface of the earth!

82