Backstory

Franciszek Sojka was born on June 4th as the only child of Katarzyna Sojka and Paweł Sojka. He was assigned female at birth. His grandparents often took care of him when he was younger, because his parents were busy with work. His relationship with them was weaker than the one with grandparents, but it couldn’t be called bad – they just don’t see each other that often.
He was never feminine, even before he realized he was trans; he preferred to wear pants, and always played with the boys in the kindergarten, pretending to be characters from Star Wars. Even then, he had relatively short hair, but everybody thought he’s just a “tomboy”. He was always a good student, he never had problems with studying, but there was one big problem… His shyness and lack of any friends in elementary school. He was always sitting alone, came back home alone, nobody ever visited him to spend time with him or do school assignments together. Instead of this, Francik took walks around the estate alone, he played alone, or spent the time reading books or watching movies. He had some Internet friends, but never planned to meet them in real life.
At the age of 12, he started to get interested in the topic of gender identity. He always knew something was “wrong” with him and realized how jealous he felt when he looked at men’s bare chests – he wanted to look like them. Thanks to the Internet, he learned of the term “transgender” and now knew there are more people who felt like him. He chose the name Francik and came out to his family, who accepted him and helped him present more masculine. When he went to the high school, he already had a binder and, after some time, explained to his classmates that he’s a trans man.

At the age of 15, he met with 14-years-old Lidzia, who also lived in Nikiszowiec, during one of Odpust u Babci Anny happening in July. Despite the differences in their personalities, they quickly became friends and since then, they often text each other or just spend time together. They share their interests, especially history and exploring Nikiszowiec in different ways.
At the age of 17, together with Lidzia, they found a clue leading to the mythical “Zillmann’s treasure” during one of the tours around Nikiszowiec. The first clue was a horizontally flipped hammer and pick, the symbol of coal mining, on one of the buildings. Along the way, they met a ghost by the name Siegfried Degen, who was murdered in Katowice in 1933, and (at least according to him) is linked to the Zillmann’s treasure.