Chapter 13
Grandpa-Nanny and New Activities
The next morning I packed up my case and bag and went to the subway to ride to the airport. Before I went down the stairs I saw a man sit on the pavement and selling books. I took one: Second Foundation by Asimov. Price at publishing USD7, I paid 1 dollar. Then I went to the airport. There followed the most boring flight I ever had including the one back to Ethiopia after holiday. I was drowsy and wanted to sleep, but it was impossible. My back neighbour was kneading my kidneys continuously, there was a small baby crying all the time and besides, the flight could have been a charter one for participants of a conference for people of Jewish origin in Budapest. One of them even made a fuss about food. Only after dawn came was I able to rest a little – massaging ceased, almost all, even the small child sleeping – and I was watching the landscape until touchdown.
It was Friday again, just as on my start. My arrival time coincided with my going to work some years ago and I was amused to see the same people on the bus as those long ago. I didn’t go to sleep, I wanted to be very tired in the evening so as not to have any problem with falling asleep. It was fine to see my grandson again. However tired I was I picked my grapes as the weather forecast was pessimistic. My family was curious about my account on the New World, during that time I called them by phone only once.
My return to the working place was welcome as there was a change in sight. My colleague Leslie the graphics editor had got his Hungarian citizenship after a waiting period – and some examinations – of about two years. He was and is a very tough person and did everything in the favour of a positive end result. It was just the opposite with the other candidate for citizenship, i.e. Kinga, as she was just waiting for something to happen after she had applied for it. L. was moving to Hungary. In a small village in the eastern part of the country members of his family were still living, who were descendants of brothers of his grandparents, remaining in the central part of the country when his grandparents went to Transylvania. Also, the site of the ancients was still registered for him. He restored the old house – wanted to build a new one later – and moved in. He retained his property in Transylvania and even invited me (perhaps a Brazilian invitation, advised not to accept) to spend some time in his summer house high in the mountains.
Well, he was taking a job in the big town near the village and so he wanted to retire from this work in our company. It was decided I would have to take his responsibilities. A year earlier he taught me some basics of graphic editing for preparation graphic details in my manuscript, that means I could do it, only had to learn more and acquire practice. In the following months until his leaving I managed to do it.
Generally speaking I had translated all the English and German material that was necessary for the formulating of the codex, and with the shift in responsibilities I was doing it. Kinga was a great help at this job and she made a great progress. Actually her qualification partly covered that kind of work and it was also her hobby to do artwork. Her father is a well known photographer and she also had an uncle who got worldwide fame with his works. We did our work together with her and T. could always rely upon us.
My grandson was growing and getting cleverer every day. He was a very lively creature with good humour and, as he felt that he was the most important person for me in the family, he also got a liking to me. There was a small detail he was interested in very much, my glasses. I always had to be very careful with him, because as soon as he could he grabbed my spectacles and took it off. But there were other things that interested him, such as books. As it is usual with children’s rooms, there were rubber and plastic animals, building blocks and fanfold children’s books. As soon as he stood up and began to sit we gave them to him and he could recognize shapes quickly. When he grew out his playpen, he was free to take any place in his room from the carpet to the upholstered furniture. Once I tried to attract his attention by taking one of his books and showing what he saw as well as reading the captions. From this time on when I entered his room he was running to the books and expected me to do the usual reading.
The baby carriages my wife took from the attic did very good service. He liked being pushed in the cold weather dressed warm very much. Clair wanted to stay at home with him only two years instead of the whole three years allowed, but it would be impossible to take him into the nursery. He wouldn’t like it and so his mother would stay with him another year. During the first year of his life everything was orbiting around him. A child of quick progress, he had his first few teeth early and also his speech developed soon. Even before his first anniversary he was forming some words. Once I stood near to him standing in his playpen and he was holding a ladyfinger in his hand. He showed it to me and said: “Cakes.”
His mother took him up to us frequently. He was playing abandoned as if the world had been just to amuse him. But he wanted us to join his world too, and made me read to him or his grandmother to play with him with toy cars or balls. As the spring began to arrive he spent more time outside. His parents took him in car with them to do shopping and he was very proud of that position. It was also no problem for him to lie down in his coverall. We have a lot of photos about him of course.
With spring there were some things for me to arrange too. With my American flight I almost used up premium points, but there remained enough to fly to Western Europe and back. I knew that T. had an unfinished task for MATISZ about joining the EFCI federation. In March he was to present a document at the annual meeting of its board and as he was not perfect with his English yet, we agreed that I was to arrange my flight that would not cost anything for the association and to take part in the meeting and presenting the documents. It turned out otherwise. From my part I arranged the flight for the date of the meeting, but in the meantime two decisive members of MATISZ complained to T. that it was their job to ‘step into talks’ with EFCI and they delegated themselves. Of course it wasn’t to be free as it would have been in my case. I noticed it and my trip was to become an ordinary tourist sightseeing.
T. felt himself somewhat guilty, however, because of the business. He was to visit the two-yearly trade exhibition in Amsterdam during May, organized by the European branch of ISSA and the Dutch exhibition centre. It was staged the very first time in its new form, its first event was two years before in 2000. He asked me and also Maria the other director of the firm to take part in it. They would go by the company car still in lease and I would fly to Brussels – I couldn’t change the destination, only the date was possible the alter for a small sum – and by train I would travel to Amsterdam. The homeward journey would be the same in the other direction. The company would take the cost of accommodation and would pay for catering in Amsterdam. This way I got a little compensation for the disappointment I endured.
My family wished me good luck for the visit to the capital of Europe and told me I had to be careful as I was no youth anymore. It goes without saying I knew it myself. For my trip to Brussels I reserved my place in a youth hostel in that town, for the first two night before the railway trip the Holland I even got a room for myself. I also helped other people travelling to the trade fair in getting their accommodation in Austria there and back. They included also S., manager of SERI. In general we had a lot of arrangements for the exhibition, as we were not only visitors there as other cleaning company managers I mentioned already, but we were to have a small area for our disposition to exhibit our products that was let to us by the Italian association. We had to produce visiting cards for all our customers, to print flyers and to write some CD-ROMs for demonstration. T. had already purchased a laptop and he was to arrange such programs.
Something recalled me my days with the Customs and Border Service. There was a lot of equipment for the demonstration and, as joining the EU was still two years away, it was necessary to get customs clearance both for the outward and inward border crossing. It took me some days to organize it. However, as T. came in by another route than the outward one, we would have to labour once more a lot to certify that we had not committed anything wrong. That time T. did not have a proper projecting screen, but I had one from my old slide projecting days, thus I lent it to him.
There was something going on at that time that made my mouth bitter for a long time. The young man who managed to climb into the big chair of the premier of the country four years before – the English would say it otherwise: took too big shoes on – and at last was earning enough money to buy a good razor to eliminate his bristle could prove it successfully that it had been a large mistake to give him a mandate to govern the country. At first everyone had been waiting and watching, but soon the missteps had began to follow. Let alone being late in expressing sympathy with the American people on the 9/11 event he had started with telling Dakota jokes. His governing circle was called OTPK (an abbreviation for two surnames, his and his closest partner’s, as well as ‘civil cabinet’) for doing state affairs as their backyard business. Even twelve years after the end of his reign verdicts are voiced by courts for misdeeds during that period.
Well, in April of that year it was time for parliamentary elections to take place. Due to the line of events in 1989 to 1990 the election law in this country cannot be considered a proper one. It had been negotiated at the (rather long and rectangular) round table where everyone had had a place whose voice had been loud enough as it is customary in revolutions. As a result elections in Hungary have two rounds, the first one for voting on parties and individual candidates and the second one only for voting on the three individuals having the highest scores. Although polls showed the opposite, after the first round in that year the biggest party of the left was leading – exactly as four years before – and it could keep its position also in the second round. In our district both winning individual candidates for member of parliament were from the left, even there was no need to keep a second round as they got absolute majority in the first one.
On Monday following election day that is always on a Sunday in this country we were discussing the election results and prospects in the next years. I made a remark that it was very wise from voters to give enough votes on candidates so as not to be needed to keep a second round. I could have foreseen the reaction, because it meant I agreed with the results and both S. and Maria standing nearby were almost bigot followers of the former premier. They told me such things that were bordering personal offence. I think they would never be able to pardon me this statement – theirs must have been another matter.