Let's Go to Nadudvar!

I don't know if there was any spanking. What I do know is that some time later when I did the same sin I was very much spanked. One nice summer morning, I sat beside the well, dreaming, enjoying the sunshine, the beautiful sky and the stork atop our chimney. Just then, my younger brother Bela approached me on his way to the Talmud Torah School (it was summer vacation and the regular school was not in session). "Irene", he said, "would you like to walk with me to Nadudvar"? The proposal delighted me and I answered with a happy yes. I probably had not yet eaten my breakfast, but breakfast was not much of a concern for me those days. We were both less than ten years old, and all I cared about was making sure he knew the way to get there. So we went our mischievous way, luckily meeting nobody who knew us in the streets.

As we reached the outskirts of Puspokladany, we passed by a sign which said "Nadudvar - 14 kilometers". We passed by the railroad station, then the Catholic cemetery to the right, its gate and fencing surrounded by tall trees. There were a few houses and some orchards on our left, and trees on either side of the scarcely paved dirt road.

We had already walked several kilometers when a gentile man with a horse-cart stopped beside us and heartily offered us a ride. We had a real adventure. We were fearless, clever, mischievous children. Our host asked us where we were going, and we told him that we were on our way to Nadudvar to visit our grandmother. He then asked us if we had parents, and if they allowed us - two very young children - to walk alone from Puspokladany to Nadudvar. After we innocently lied to him, he asked us many more questions, which I do not presently recall. He was an honest, decent man. We enjoyed the ride and his company. We reached an "intersection" where the road to the left led to the town of [Yharcaz], and the road to the right led to Nadudvar. Here, he most humbly told us our ride had ended, not before he gave us directions and told us to take care of ourselves. We thanked him for his kindness and got off.

We enjoyed walking the rest of the way, and by 10:00 a.m. we stood before our grandmother in Nadudvar. She asked us if our parents knew about our visit - we hastily reassured her that they did. Actually, they had probably found out by about this time, or shortly thereafter, as my brother Sanyi told them that my younger brother was missing. In retrospect, I feel bad about lying to the horse-cart driver and to my grandmother. But if we would have told the driver the truth, he would have tried to force us home. As for our grandmother, she probably knew the truth, but we wanted to avoid her reprimand. We were driven by fear and pride.

It was a Wednesday, a market day for Nadudvar. My grandmother was busy dealing with customers at her house-paint store. We had to wait until she closed the store for the day. Closing time - we walked with our grandmother to her home. She lived with her daughter Lora, Lora's husband, and their little boy, Tomy. We washed up and sat down with our relatives for dinner. Till today, I remember how good it tasted; green beans with sour cream, then cheesecake.

After dinner, everyone took a nap - everyone except for my brother and I, that is. We had to sit quietly and wait for them in porch, where the grapevines' green leaves provided cool shade on the hot summer day. We picked some grapes - they tasted very good.

At last, grandma, Aunt Lora and Cousin Tomy came out all dressed up. We walked about half an hour to Aunt Rosa's house, with its big, grassy courtyard quite familiar to us. Aunt Rosa served refreshments, but I asked to be excused and went out to the big courtyard, where I searched for four-leaf clovers. Some of my friends told me that if you put them in your socks, they bring you luck.

© David Muskal, 2001