BY ZARY FEKETE
Copyright is held by the author.
I live in Budapest in a building built before the 2nd World War. My apartment is on the third floor. My neighbour on the ground floor is a 90-year-old bachelor. He spends most of the day sitting at his window so he can see who is approaching from down the street. He has rigged a little button that controls the electronic lock on the front entrance. If he recognizes the person approaching, he will automatically buzz them in. When I’m carrying a heavy grocery bag home from the corner store, I’m always glad to hear the buzz of the front door. It’s a small reminder that I belong to the building.
My neighbour has no teeth. Every year at Christmas and Easter he gives me the chocolates he receives from his relatives. “I can’t chew it anyway,” was his response the first time I tried to protest. He gave me a toothless grin and ever since the chocolate arrives every holiday like clockwork.
The other thing about him is that he’s missing his left leg. Once I asked about it. He said that he had been playing with some friends when he was 12 in 1932 (the same year our apartment building was built.) One of their favourite games was to run behind the electric tram on Bartok Street, jumping on the back fender for a free ride down to the river. One day he misjudged his jump and slipped, and the steel tram wheel cut off his leg. He fainted from the pain.
A crowd of people gathered around his body. The ambulance service in the city was unreliable, so they hailed down a passing firetruck and tossed him on the top with the water hoses. The firemen drove him to the nearest hospital.
I think about this story whenever my neighbour buzzes me into the building. I am benefiting from residual communal generosity he received as a boy and he’s paying forward now.
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Zary Fekete grew up in Hungary. He has a debut novella (Words on the Page) out with DarkWinter Lit Press and a short story collection (To Accept the Things I Cannot Change: Writing My Way Out of Addiction) out with Creative Texts. He enjoys books, podcasts, and many, many, many films. Twitter and Instagram: @ZaryFekete