Vito's friend from school
Hana is a girl who reads more than she speaks. At school she sits in the last row with a book and chocolate, and most people think she's shy. But when Hana speaks — everyone goes quiet. Her words carry weight because she never wastes them. She's brave in a quiet, unexpected way — she won't shout, but she'll stand in front of injustice without blinking an eye. She loves old libraries, rainy days, and stars. She can't stand noise and people who talk a lot but say nothing.
In the basement of an old building in the square, there was a library that wasn't on any map. It had no sign, no opening hours, and the doors opened only for some. Hana stumbled upon it by chance, escaping the rain. She descended the wet steps, pushed the heavy wooden door, and entered a room full of books from floor to ceiling. It smelled of old paper, wood, and something sweet—like honey mixed with dust. At the table sat Helena, Eva's sister, with a smile that promised adventures. Loli, the family cat, curled up on a shelf, watched Hana with her green eyes. "Go ahead, but don't choose," Helena said, without lifting her gaze from the book in her hands. "What?" Hana was puzzled. "In this library, you don't choose books. Books choose you."
In the narrowest street of the old town stood a bakery that never had more than one customer a day. Every morning, an elderly woman named Maria would knead the dough, braid a perfectly shaped bun, and place it on the window, where the cat Loli often slept. Then she would sit and wait. The customer was always the same — an old man with a blue hat who would arrive exactly at 7:15, leave a coin, take the bun, and leave without a word. People thought Maria was crazy. 'Why doesn't she make more? Why doesn't she sell to others? Her buns are the best in town!' But Maria would just wave her hand and say: 'I don't bake for everyone. I bake for the one who needs it.' One morning, the old man with the blue hat didn't come. 7:15. 7:30. 8:00. The bun sat on the window, cooling. For the first time in thirty years, Maria began to cry in her bakery. Then there was a knock at the door from someone she had never seen before...
On the terrace of the family house, under the light of the setting sun, Grandpa Otto gathers his grandchildren around him. His hands, strong and skillful, have shaped thousands of wooden creations, but now they hold only a cup of tea. "I want to tell you a story about a teacher," he begins, and Pino is already leaning forward, eyes full of curiosity. Hana sits quietly, while Jole lies beside the children, occasionally lifting his head as if he's following the story too.
Hana had a peculiar habit. Every time it rained, she would rush into the yard with an empty glass jar and collect rainwater. On the shelves of her room stood more than a hundred jars, each with a date and a small label. "Hana, why do you collect rain?" they asked her at school. The children laughed. "It's just water!" But Hana knew something others did not. Her grandmother Maria, who lived in a village on an island, had taught her this before she passed away. She had told her just one sentence — a sentence Hana never repeated to anyone. One day, the worst drought in fifty years struck the town. Parks turned yellow, fountains dried up, people waited in lines for water. That evening, Hana sat on the floor of her room, surrounded by jars, and for the first time opened the oldest one — the one she had filled with her grandmother on the last day they were together. When she opened the lid, she smelled something that stopped her in her tracks...
When Hana was cleaning the attic after her grandmother's death, she found a box full of letters. Hundreds of them, neatly arranged, each in its own envelope — but none of the envelopes were sealed. And none had an address. "Dad, did Grandma Maria write letters she never sent?" she asked Dundo, who was standing on the ladder. Dundo climbed up into the attic, took a letter, and read it. His hands trembled. He took another. A third. Each letter was addressed to the same person — but it wasn't a name Hana had ever heard. "Who is Helena?" Hana asked. Dundo was silent for a long time. Then he sat on the dusty attic floor and said, "Sit down, Hana. Your grandmother Maria kept a secret for fifty years. And I think this box is her way of finally telling you."
