Chapter 23
About All
My son began his secondary studies in September. Alas, troubles came quickly. In the class there were some rotten boys, who did not bear anyone with a talent. My son soon realized that if he wanted to stay there, he had to perform less excellently.
On his narratives I went to his form-master and asked him to stop them. I sensed something like intimidation. That time it had not been such an accepted custom, as it is today. When nothing has changed, I called him by phone. He said he would come to us that evening. He tried to convince us that our son was faulty for that constant annoyance. When he finished, I informed him about the true nature of the case. He was on the bottom, but I think he could not confess his defeat. He began to doubt the truth in my son’s word. Then I said to him:
”I am very sorry to say, but I think the boy would gain by leaving a school where moral level is much lower than his own.”
The teacher became red and would not say a word. He took his coat and went without saying good-bye.
Problems of that kind stopped. May be, my son spoke to his classmates about our conversation. But the anger of the teacher was felt on everything. My son became pursued by him. Even he did it in a cowardly way to hide behind another teacher.
I decided to make my last step. Armed with the information of a recent case, I went to meet that other man. It was a parents’ meeting and accidentally my opponent kept it. I waited until all other parents left, and then I introduced myself. He raised his voice at once and told his story as working on springs. I kept myself cool and, when he finished, I said now it was his turn to listen. First I asked him about the central question. He had reported the boy for being late on the lesson. I asked him what he knew about the first aid my son gave to another boy. He looked astonished. Then I informed him about all the happenings from the beginning of the school-year and that time I repeated all my complaints about the form-master and his cowardly behaviour.
As we talked, a late parent, a woman, came in. She could not say a word, only listened. The man was defeated, but, as I saw it at once, he stood onto the right side. He was a true military petty officer, to whom a joke has to be told twice to be understood. But an honest person. When I finished, he thanked to me for the information.
As days passed I became convinced that in that school my fight could only be a quixotic one. As soon as the side of teachers has been restored, there came again the bad boys’ side. My son was not on the right place, I realized.
I decided, if he had asked me to take him to another school, I would do it at once. But he found the obvious solution. He has got "failed” mark in four subjects at the end of his first year. I said to him after that, I would not bother him with anything. But he could rely on me, if he had needed my help. He found an apprentice school in the same trade and in three years he would get his certificate. Only he would not work in that trade.
In September 1985 I had again the possibility to take part in a Meehanite conference. That time in Torquay, Devon, England. This time it was my task to get everything, money, air tickets, visas. Again two of us have been travelling. Only hotel reservation has been done by our English partners.
I did not have much time to digest my experiences in England, my boss has made another modification that involved me, too. He delegated decision rights for brake unit production and sales to directors of the factories. Thus my responsibilities would decrease, making me free for other jobs. I have got two of them: Poland and France for export of NC machine tools.
Now it became clear that he would only give me impossible work. I spoke Russian, but Russia he assigned to a colleague actually not speaking any languages, his old field, Poland, has been assigned to me. And France, actually nothing had been sold there from the beginning of times. Besides, he knew that French was not included in my 3 high-degree exams. That moment I decided I would leave as soon as possible.
Anyway, my new sales manager advised me to look for a French course at least on a level so as I wouldn’t be sold for a slave. In the foreign trade company for export of railway brakes I found a course. My company would undertake payment for it. I would visit that course for six months, until I would assess language skills to be able to read books continuously. By that time my boss would take France from me. Of course, it was not worth, as I understood the language. His frustration might have grown again some inches. I was given Bulgaria instead.
My German and French – at least the passive vocabulary of them – has been improved by an old colleague of mine. He was considered the linguistic guru of the company. He brought me books to read, in German "Winnetou”, three volumes, 1,800 pages, and other books from Karl May, in French some Agatha Christie novels.
Poland I found promising. The sales executive from the foreign trade company has been a good expert of how to deal with them. Also, we had a service office in Warsaw and our representative and his two Hungarian colleagues did their work well. Contacts have been created, they must have been maintained.
My first trip to Poland on machine tools has been in April 1986. It has been a monster event, two sales executives, sales engineers from machine tool manufacturers and service representatives. In Warsaw we have been placed in the hotel "Forum” in the centre of the new town. In Warsaw we had our talks with foreign trade partners, the next day we travelled to the airplane works in the country.
They would be the actual customers. A very hard day followed, problems had been turned upside-down. Ordinarily sellers would sell more, customers buy less, than proposed. We could sell less, than they wanted to buy. In the Comecon it has always been that way. In the meantime the other sales executive, Judith, went to another customer, a buyer of Csepel machine tools.
The very day we were returning from Warsaw happened the calamity in Chernobyl. We did not know about it then, but we might have got a fare dose. So far I have not had any consequences and I hope it would go on so.
Soon after when we took our house, I had experienced problems with house and rain. Or rather snow. In the winter of 1985 I was astonished to see that under snow our basement would let water come in. Its ceiling has not been watertight. Either I would cover the terrace with an additional insulation or make a roof above. I chose the latter as that way I would also get a covered place.
To prevent our kitchen from becoming overshadowed, I decided to use polyester reinforced with glass filaments. I designed it and purchased necessary materials. The roof would be supported by a steel structure with legs standing on the railing and with its beams fixed to the rear wall of the house.
I have set myself on work and finished it in a couple of days. Rainwater from the sloped roof was collected in a gutter and drained away. At the first big rain it would be clear that its sloping was insufficient. And in winter the beams would be bent under snow. I would turn its simple beams into triangular ones by loading bolts and force them back into a straight line. But in eight years polyester would be worn out and I would have to replace it with slates, until new troubles would be induced by a roof on the house. More about it later.
Anyway, for a long time the basement would be well preserved.
Second – and, fortunately, the last – disappearance of my son happened that summer. One evening my wife has not come to bed, she was very anxious and, when I asked her about its cause, she said, the boy had not come home. It was about 10 p.m. Sometimes it happened that he was coming late, but by 10 he always did it. I tried to be calm, as the other day I had to fulfil expectations of my bosses. Anyway, although after my "second shift” in the garden I was very tired, I slept unwell. When I got up at dawn to water plants in the garden, my wife was taking her cloths. She said he had not come yet. She was going to the police station to report.
I sometimes cannot understand myself. As on the day, when I got the telegram about the death of I., I stayed similarly calm and went to the garden to do my work. I just finished irrigation, when I saw our son arrive. He greeted me and asked where his mother was. I said:
"You had better go to the police to relieve her from stress.”
He did not answer, only drank a glass of water and left.
I have to confess, that was those months, when the life of our son hung by a single hair. I was so busy with my multiple jobs that I did not care for my family enough. I had a false idea that as I could care for myself, everyone could do the same. I neglected human silliness and that my family have not fallen apart, it was only by chance.
It has begun somewhat earlier. I had always been trying to keep my son distant from dangers threatening mainly young boys and girls, namely, drinks, cigarettes and drugs. The latter has not been an everyday topic that time, but, as I would learn later, the boy has tried it. Also, years later I would be informed by my wife, he tried to die by cutting his veins after the death of his favourite in a car accident.
Alas, my wife did not understand the danger of cigarettes and, while I prohibited it for the boy, she was buying and taking it to him. He has been a smoker until now.
There were sometimes peculiar things I let him do, e.g. to buy a second-hand small-volume motorcycle. He needed my help sometimes and his grandfather’s, too. I even bought a new carburettor for a Russian moped and mounted it to improve his vehicle.
At the end of that day I asked him to tell me where he was. He said he went with a friend to a girl somewhere north of the capital and in the dark they lost their way. They slept in the woods and in the morning they were helped to find the suburban train. He promised us never to do similar and he has kept his word.
That summer I had a gift from Leslie, husband of my elder sister-in-law. Not as he wanted to make me happy, only something has become unnecessary and he brought it to us. Their flat has been on the 4th floor of their block of apartments, directly under the flat roof. Years before they had an acquaintance make them a good antenna mast for the reception of as many TV channels as possible. That man was Emery, the boy my aunt, sister of my mother, had brought up in her house. I have written about him earlier. It was me, who introduced him to Leslie, when he was looking for a TV antenna specialist.
Emery had called on us one evening in person the second year we were living in our flat in the apartment house. When I opened the door to answer the bell, he was standing there and said:
"I am looking for Mr ,Expert’.” My wife had put a label on the outside of our entrance announcing my being an expert, she had it made by an engraver.
I have been surprised to see him. He had started his own life after finishing the university as an electrical engineer and marrying the girl he met as a student. She was a druggist. First they were living in the basement of the house of my aunt turned into a comfortable little flat. But, as the girl became pregnant, they moved to a flat in the same neighbourhood. When he came to us unexpected, they had their own apartment and their daughter was some weeks younger than our son. Following this visit of his, they would come to us and vice versa frequently.
His visit was due to an assignment the management of our apartment house had given to his employer. Our management was creating a good community system.
Returning to real time – 1986 – I have got that antenna mast with all its antennae and amplifiers, because their management decided to eliminate all unique masts from the roof and have a common one built for the community.
Of course, all cables have been cut into many pieces, I had to find out how it all worked. I could not do it myself, I found Emery and he promised to do it, but he did not. At last, when that same year I went to the GDR to participate in a negotiation with the former KB works, I bought all the amplifiers, dividers, unifiers, etc., needed for the system.
That year was again a busy one for my business trips. Beside my visit in the airplane factory in April in Poland, I had two more trips to that country and one to Bulgaria, let alone a GDR trip and the conference in England.
My visit in Berlin was organized by Maria, sales executive from the company to export our railway brake units. She had to carry on talks about a cooperation between the former KB head office and our Szekesfehervar factory on certain control units. The GDR firm wanted to utilize our agreement with KB, as they have not been allowed to have over-the-wall contacts.
I took advantage of this and went to find our friends. I succeeded in it, but I found the four members in four places. Their family has fallen apart completely. First I found Sabine. Her address we have had from her letters. After return from our country, she was living in a small flat in the most ugly old part of the city. She has not been home at my first visit, but, when I returned late afternoon, I found her. She was happy to see me, she has always liked me. I remembered my inconvenient situation in 1970, when I visited them and she, a girl of 9 then, always kissed me on my lips.
Now she was a true lady with her 25 years. She was working in her trade – mathematician – and she has had a boy-friend to live with. She helped me to find her mother. Elfie was living alone in a small, but comfortable flat.
My last day there I spent to find Hans. He was living with his new wife and her son from her former husband. She was an energetic lady and I could not help thinking that Hans needed such a firm woman to rule him.
Elfie visited us the next summer with her friend, in whose apartment we spent some nights in Berlin in 1965, when her small son found us in our bed. She slept in our smallest room on a sofa. She enjoyed it, only barking of the dog in the neighbourhood was too loud through the open window. She said:
"Diogenes could not sleep and he did not let me, either.”
I called the dog on that name, because his house has been a barrel.
It was the last time I have seen either of them. I have not heard about them, they have been completely lost for us.
At the beginning of September I had to travel to Bulgaria, participating in talks about machine tools in Sofia and to visit our stand in the Plovdiv international fair.
I had very little time left to prepare our trip to the Meehanite conference, but at last succeeded. This time my usual companion had a great bad-luck, but it did not spare me, either.
We flew to Frankfurt-am-Main, there changed to a plane directly to Birmingham, venue of the conference. Leslie had dressed informally, jeans, blue checked flannel shirt without tie, jogging shoes. His baggage was sent by mistake to another place. First afternoon’s lectures he sat through in those cloths, only a necktie could be found by the amazing helper lady -- for compensation she gave one to me, too --. His bag has arrived late night.
I have arranged our return trip via Paris for two reasons. First, a direct flight would have been only the next day. From Paris every day there was one and hotels in Paris have been cheaper. Second, I wanted to see the city.