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Henryk had a feeling that he had heard his grandfather was from India, but he had never put two and two together and thus realized that this meant he had Indian blood coursing in his veins and that was why his skin was so dark. Most of the cabbies in New York are Indian. Sikh, to be more precise: that is to say, from the military caste. Some even wear their turbans while driving. They are like… at the end of this train of thought the pe
“I beg your pardon?”
The bulky fellow nodded significantly as he returned to his band: “The bugger denies it.”
Henryk didn’t know this word.
It’s very kind of you to invite me to come, but I have no wish to stir up in my soul everything that I put the seal on long ago. I doubt if I could speak Hungarian. If Magyar words come into my head, each has some painful memory attached, so I would rather not force the issue. You wouldn’t really understand. Have a good time over there, enjoy life, then come home!
By then Henryk was a salesman in the newly opened showroom of Macintosh Hungary. By August he had advanced to journalist, writing reports for the first English-language weekly, in the “Scenes from the Life of the Capital” column. Of the seven-man team, four were Americans, and of these he spoke the best Hungarian. The cultural column was in the hands of A
Since I have been living in Budapest, I have every reason to feel satisfied. Everything that did not succeed at home is working out here, better than I could have imagined. Here my shyness and unusual behavior is accepted, including my less than perfect knowledge of the language. My finances are also in order. Without my having to make a particular effort, things are working out by themselves.
A
The family whose hospitality A
“So how long can you live here without having to pay?”
“Seventy or eighty years for sure.”
A
“Don’t worry, he won’t hurt you!” A
Henryk became fond of the creature, though he was not best pleased when Bond, James Bond, insisted on joining them in bed when they made love. “I haven’t the heart to chase him off. He was a stray, you know, and strays take everything to heart. He has no one apart from me.”
This sentence struck Henryk like a sharp arrow. I, too, am a stray dog, he thought.
In the company of A
Henryk did not want to send this news to his grandmother, with whom he exchanged letters once a week. Grammy inquired when her little grandson was coming home, and he replied that he was pla
They took Bond, James Bond, for walks by the Danube, and the enormous dog soon became well known on the Csillaghegy stretch of the river. Despite his intimidating appearance, he never troubled other dogs or animals, and was roused to anger only if he thought A
One evening, as they took three-quarters of an hour for their walk, A
“So you’re not really A
“Yes, I am now. I changed it.”
“Mick Jagger the inspiration?”
“Of course.”
“I would prefer to be Le
“Go for it!”
When A
“Would you be interested in looking for your ancestors?”
“How?”
A