Pulse of Heroes (47 page)

“Oh?” Michelle asked and Eranka took two
plastic bowls off the table and handed them to her. She pointed
Michelle to a small garden in the back corner of the yard and told
her that she needed to fill up both bowls with green beans. One was
for dinner and the other was for the neighbor. Michelle happily
went over to the garden. Eranka must love beans she thought when
she saw the mess of bean bushes creeping up along the back fence.
She crouched down and began snapping off some of the crunchy pods.
Although she did eat a few herself, the bowls were filled in no
time and just as she was about to get up and return to the house
she noticed something furry under the plants. At first she was a
little nervous but when she crouched down she saw that it was
nothing but a fat brown rabbit. The animal didn’t seem scared of
her, so she petted it and eventually picked it up and carried it
towards the house under her arm.

“Look how cute, Mom. It’s a rabbit and it’s
not scared either,” Michelle said. But when Eranka saw the rabbit
she became very angry and told Michelle to throw it over the fence.
It belonged to the kids on the other side and it kept sneaking in
to eat her vegetables. She even threatened that she would make soup
out of him because he was so fat and had all her vegetables inside
his stomach. Michelle nuzzled the little bun before she lifted him
and dropped him on the other side of the fence. When she watched
him hop away she was reminded of the time when Elliot lowered her
down to the woods from the school wall. Was she just like the
rabbit, a rabbit that returned even though it wasn’t wanted? Was
she already soup?

In the afternoon Michelle joined Eranka in
the kitchen because she was told that she was needed to help make
dinner, but in fact she didn’t do anything even close to helping.
She watched Eranka cook and listened to her talk about how she had
always wanted to have her own daughter. She asked Michelle if she
wanted children, and although Michelle had never thought about it
she realized that if things were right she would probably enjoy
being a mom. Sadly she told Eranka that she didn’t have a
boyfriend, her thoughts wandering to what it would have been like
being married to Elliot. Would he want to have children again?
Would he be a good father? Silly girl. Michelle got mad at herself
for even thinking about such things. There was a knock on the front
door and Eranka asked Michelle to go see who it was. It was a
handsome boy, a bit younger than her, and he looked like he had
been working outdoors because his face was brown and his clothes
were dusty. When he saw Michelle he blushed and Eranka who had
joined them at the door said something to him in Hungarian that
didn’t seem too nice, judging by the way his face turned sour. He
handed her a small bowl filled with eggs and Eranka gave him the
extra bowl of green beans. Eranka left to put the eggs away in the
refrigerator leaving Michelle alone with him.

“Hi,” Michelle said to him smiling. She
didn’t know if he spoke any English. The boy blushed again and said
hi back to her, then turned around and began walking away.

“Bye,” Michelle called after him, amused at
her womanly powers. The boy, Edvard as Michelle learned later,
turned around and waved goodbye to her before disappearing around
the corner. Well Elliot, Michelle thought to herself as her
self-esteem and ego got fed for the first time in a while, maybe
she won’t be alone for too long. Maybe other guys were the magic
cure-all for her broken heart. She must not be too bad if she could
make a cute boy blush like that, she thought to herself as she
straightened her back.

In the morning everybody piled into the
silver egg-shaped rental car because they all agreed it would be
nice to have breakfast in town. Michelle watched the scenery of wet
lowlands passing her by; large squares of greens, browns, and
yellows. She realized that the water she had seen from the upstairs
bedroom window was not a river, but man-made canals that supplied
water to the various farms dotting the area. The town of Abony was
very small, yet it boasted numerous churches of different
denominations, each trying to outdo the other in architecture and
grandness. Michelle liked the yellow and white Catholic Church
because those colors represented peace and happiness to her. But
even in this foreign land things kept reminding her of Elliot. On
one of the small roads she saw an old dilapidated structure that
still had fragments of gold painted stucco and fancy Roman columns
holding up a triangular front gable. A chain link fence surrounded
the building and the grounds were overgrown with weeds. “What’s
that?” Michelle asked, pointing at the sad display. Eranka looked
at the building and let out a long sigh.

“That used to be a beautiful synagogue, but
no more,” she added sadly.

“Why not? I mean why doesn’t anybody fix it?”
Michelle asked, confused. Eranka explained that the Jewish people
had never wanted to come back. Most of the Hungarian Jewry had
perished in death camps or in execution-style roundups.

“Would you want to come back?” Eranka was
talking about the Holocaust. Michelle felt a dark cloud descend on
her soul and remembered Elliot telling her how some of his Jewish
descendants had perished in horrible ways during those years. Had
some of them lived in Hungary?

Elliot considered himself to be Jewish.
Israelite to be precise. He had descendants belonging to almost
every religion in the world, but he himself had converted to the
ancient faith thousands of years ago when he married his first
wife. That was when he took on his Hebrew name and it felt natural
to him. He has been Elliot ever since. Michelle had found the story
fascinating, but it was still hard for her to deal with Elliot’s
amazing devotion to his first wife. When Elliot felt Michelle’s
insecurity looming beneath her thoughts, he shifted the
conversation away from the past and concentrated on her own
name.

Michelle had always assumed that her name was
French; ala ‘
Michelle ma belle, sont des mots qui vont tres bien
ensemble
,’ but Elliot told her that it was actually Hebrew just
like his, and that their names were related. His name meant ‘my God
is lofty’, and was a variant of the name Elijah, and hers was a
feminine version of the name Michael and it meant ‘who is like
God?’ He told her that Michelle was an Israelite princess and she
liked that a lot, although he conveniently failed to mention that
he had known her personally. Michelle had felt so much more
connected to Elliot after finding out that their names were almost
the same. But now she felt so far away from him as she watched the
bleak walls of the abandoned synagogue disappearing into the
distance. She wondered how many physical miles separated them, and
how many emotional walls had risen between them.

The old fashioned phone was ringing when they
all got back to Eranka’s. Michelle was excited that Vilna was
calling because she wasn’t sure if she actually would. The girls
were planning to go out to dinner with Marika’s parents the next
evening, and wanted to see if Michelle and her parents could join
them, after which the girls would venture out alone. Michelle was
briefed that the cool places didn’t show any signs of life until
well after 10 PM, so unless she wanted her parents to pick her up
in the early hours of the morning she should just spend the night
at Marika’s. Eranka protested immediately, warning that Budapest
was filled with dangerous places. “She should sleep here,” she said
matter-of-factly. Michelle marveled at the matriarchal Eranka. She
was one strong, determined woman. To Michelle’s disappointment, her
parents agreed with her great aunt and told her that they would go
find something to do in town while Michelle was out with her new
friends. They read in their tourist guide about a few late night
jazz lounges that sounded interesting.

The following evening, Michelle and her
parents parked a few blocks away from the restaurant that Marika’s
father, Mr. Farkas, had suggest they meet at. Although they invited
Eranka to join them, she decided to stay home because the
activities of the last several days had been a lot for the older
lady. Michelle was nervous about her outfit; she hoped she would
fit in rather than announcing to the entire city that she was a
tourist. She wore a lime green paisley printed baby doll shirt that
tied with ribbons behind her neck and around her back, and paired
it with a ruffled white skirt that sat just above her knees. And
since it was summer, she didn’t bother to put on any makeup besides
her famous cherry lip-gloss. Her mother thought she looked great,
but her father worried that she’d get too cold without a sweater.
When they entered the restaurant Michelle immediately recognized
Marika who was standing at her chair and scanning the large room.
She saw Michelle and waved at her excitedly. At the table everyone
made the proper introductions and got down to the business of
ordering. Mrs. Farkas was a very pretty lady, Michelle thought to
herself looking back and forth between Marika and her mom. They
were definitely related, although the daughter was wearing quite a
bit more makeup than the mother. The parents talked amongst
themselves while the girls told Michelle all about the upcoming
open-air festival. It was one of the highlights of summer and
lasted for an entire weekend. Michelle was happy to see the
grownups getting along so well because it meant her chances of
going to the festival were fairly high. Mr. and Mrs. Farkas even
decided to join Michelle’s parents at the jazz clubs later. When
the meal was over and the waiter came with the bill, Michelle’s
father insisted on paying for everyone, a gesture that made
Michelle feel very proud. Michelle watched Vilna put a number of
bills back into her wallet, and was impressed that she thought
about paying for herself even though she was there without her
parents. When Vilna noticed Michelle looking at her she gave her a
sly smile and shyly said that she had enough money to pay her own
way.

As it turned out, Michelle wasn’t dressed
anywhere near appropriate for where the girls were planning to go,
so they headed to Vilna’s brother’s place to change. They hopped on
a bus and after a few blocks they got off in front of a
medium-sized Victorian apartment house. It was a beautiful
building, but it looked a little dreary with all the smog stains
turning the white walls an ugly shade of gray. Still, Michelle
thought that she wouldn’t mind living there; it was cool. The small
open cage elevator seemed a little scary, but Vilna assured
Michelle that it was safe and only looked old. “You’re going to
like where I live. It’s the penthouse,” she said, smiling. Michelle
asked the girls how old they were. Marika was 18 and Vilna 19.
“You’re the baby,” Vilna laughed as she jiggled the keys to the
apartment’s front door. When the small wooden door swung open and
they all entered, Michelle found herself staring at an amazing
panorama of a beautiful lighted bridge stretching across the Danube
River.

“Wow!” was all Michelle could say as she
walked over to the wall of windows.

“Is the Chain Bridge, first bridge to build
to cross the Danube,” Marika explained with pride. Suddenly loud
music began blasting through various speakers in the house and
Vilna returned hopping and dancing with a large grin on her
face.

“I can use my brother’s car tonight!” she
screeched in excitement. “He will stop by soon and give me the
keys, that way we can go to many places. We need to get dressed,”
she said, taking off her t-shirt and kicking her flats across the
living room floor to the front foyer. As Michelle was led towards
the bedroom she noticed how beautiful the place was. It had an
interesting multi-colored wood floor, and high ceilings with
beautiful crown mouldings. There were crystal chandeliers hanging
from above, but the decor felt modern, not stuffy. The living room
couches and ottomans were made of alternating black and white
leather that accentuated the room’s classic ambiance. There were
also several standing lamps in corners, and an array of beautiful
black and white framed photographs. Michelle wondered if Vilna and
her brother came from a rich family to have such a nice place, but
she was told that Vilna’s brother was an investor and that he did
pretty well on the international market.

They passed by the open-style kitchen but
Michelle didn’t see a dining table anywhere. They must eat over at
the bar, she mused, looking at two black leather bar stools. Vilna
must have read Michelle’s mind and commented that she didn’t know
how to cook and mostly ate out when she was in town, and that her
brother was hardly ever home.

“It’s not like he cooks anyway,” she said
with a smirk, “and even if he did I don’t think I would trust to
eat it.” Michelle laughed and thought about Toby and how she could
probably live with him and that they’d get along just fine. Marika
lightly elbowed her and in broken English told her that Vilna’s
brother didn’t need to cook because all his girlfriends cooked for
him. Vilna, still in her padded pink bra, returned from the kitchen
with a bottle of red wine and two glasses. She handed them the
glasses and poured the wine, laughing and shaking her head.

“Marika is just jealous because Haden
pretends she doesn’t exist. He doesn’t even breathe in her
direction.” Michelle looked at her glass of wine with hesitation
and both girls laughed at her. “It is legal here. You are not
breaking the law like in America. You can buy wine at eighteen and
drink even earlier,” Vilna said, taking a large gulp from the
bottle and proceeding to wipe her mouth with the back of her hand.
“Besides, if my brother finds out I opened his wine and didn’t
finish it he will be very angry because he doesn’t like wasting
it.”

“What about driving? That can be dangerous,”
Michelle asked after taking a few sips and feeling the warmth
slowly descend down her throat.