"Good morning!" "Good morning!" "I'd like to ask your help." "My husband and I Iive just opposite, we moved here a few days ago." "Our former flat was smaller, so I could take care of it myself." "But now I would just like to write." " What do you write?" " Novels." "Up till now I taught." "Well, if you can find someone to give me references to what sort people you are, I might consider it." "I'm busy right now." "I don't just do washing for anyone, you know." "Good day!" "I could start work for you tomorrow." "excellent!" "Come in!" "Tibor!" "Emerenc Szeredes." "Pleased to meet you." "Szabados." " You're from Hajduseg too, aren't you?" " How did you know that?" "Your a's." "My father spoke like that." "Yes, I'm from the Great Plains, from Csabadul." "I'm from the Great Plains too." "And how much would you Iike for your services, Emerenc?" "Well, I tell you at the end of the week when I know how much work there is to do." "I'll go now." "I wish the master good evening." " Master?" " Master." "... when she wandered around the house, nervous and without appetite... they avoided her so as not to disturb her." "What's she doing at this time of night?" "She brings the carpet back." " Now?" " When she has the time." "But now she's washing up!" "She probably saw the dishes from supper." "You see!" "Oh, you want me to be ashamed of myself?" "At the least!" "God!" "What's wrong with her?" "She's terrified of the storm." "There's probably a reason." "Emerenc!" "Could you hurry please because I must go and I want to ask you to do something for me." "Don't you go disturbing me after hours, I'm not paid for that!" "I wanted to ask you whether you could accept a parcel for me because I must go to the police station." "Ever since we've lived here, about 20 years now" "Emerenc has never let anyone into her home." "She guards her cat inside." "We hear meowing occasionally." "But who knows what else she's got to guard beside the cat." "She even receives her own relatives and her colonel friend ... on the porch, , ," " Yes." "winter and summer." "Sit down, wait here." "Those who are waiting for address registration, please proceed to window no 3." "We haven't met yet, madam." "Bathorffy." "Oh, hello." "Please, come into my office." "Are you getting along with Emerenc?" "Yes." "She's not an easy person." " She has her whims." " None of us is easy." "When I was just a Lieutenant, we opened a special file on Emerenc only with disguised letters of complaint to killing Jews and robbing them." "What she actually did made very little difference." "They said she was an American agent, secretly trying to overthrow the people's democracy" "Details included also some awful accusations against her." "We should have locked her away really." "You don't have to be afraid of Emerenc." "At first I was very scared of her." "Only Emerenc is not scared of anyone." "She's weathered a few storms." "Emerenc would have done anything for her first cat." "And that tomcat was a great hunter!" "A pigeon breeder, a very decent man by the way, used to live here..." "Decent?" "He hung that cat by a wire from Emerenc's door handle." "I saw it myself." "Because the cat killed his pigeons one by one." "That's not true." "Her nights were never undisturbed." "but in summer she often did not sleep at all." "She could not bear the heat." "Her husband, mother-in-law and the servants took it for granted." "They let her sleep in the daytime as long as she wanted and whenever she felt like it..." "Hello, darling!" "And when she wandered around the house... nervous..." "What lovely music!" "Do you know what I'd like just once?" "Silence!" "They give piano lessons even on Sundays." "I've brought back your dish, thank you for the wonderful feast." "Dish?" "That's not mine." "I've never seen that dish before." "Have you ever seen that dish, Polett?" " l..." " Have you?" " l..." " Have you?" "I haven't." "Dear Emma ince my last letter l found some help to keep the new flat clean." "She keeps magnificent tidiness at our place." "But I often don't understand her reactions, and sometimes she evokes answers from me which quite surprise me." " hello, darling!" " Hello, Darling!" "Doesn't Emerenc come here any more?" "Never on white day." "She says we have a roof over our heads so we should sit it out till she has time for us again and she'll make up for it." "And a bit of bending does me no harm." "Aren't you feeling well?" "I think I've got a temperature again." "Come, sweetheart!" "I haven't told you how much I love you today." "How much?" "Not for eternity." " How long then?" " Just as long as I live." "Oh, thank you!" "Don't you dare try to tip me!" "Where are you off to?" "To church." "Wouldn't you like to come?" "I'm not a fine lady to get all dolled up and go trotting off to church." "Besides I have no need of the church or the priest." "I saw how God works during the war." "I've nothing against the carpenter Joseph and his son, they were working people." "The son got upset with the lies of the politicians and when it became unpleasant for the leaders, they got him mixed up in something so that they could execute him." "It's the mother I feel the most sorry for." "Well, then, good-bye." "It's easy to be godly when you got someone else doing the work for you at home." "Look at this!" " What is it?" " Take a look!" " Where did you get it?" " l bought it." " Has the girl's book's been published?" " Um..." "Ask her to sign it for me, please!" "Are you upset because they wrote bad things about you in the paper?" "How do you know that?" "well, it's your fault for choosing such a rotten profession where any idiot can pour dirty water over you." "You should take care of the master instead!" "He's ill." "His lungs are sick." "How do you know?" "I just know." "We are hoping to remove the lung tumour in one piece." "Drink!" "Drink!" " No!" "No!" " Drink!" "Drink!" "Now, don't spend the night worrying, because there's nothing to worry about." "I can always feel the death coming." "Besides, the dogs haven't given a signal, and no glass cracked either." "'Course you don't have to believe me." "You can turn to the heavens, if you like, I'll go and get your Bible." " You don't have to talk to me." " l'm going back to the hospital!" "No, you're not." "You're not." " Let me be." " You are not!" "You're not going back to the hospital!" "I'm scared." "My father was a consumptive." "He was a cabinetmaker and a carpenter too." "But he died before I was three." "My mother couldn't cope alone, so she married the first assistant." "Only he was one of the first men to be called up and he was killed almost immediately." "So I had to leave school while I was cooking for everyone by the time I was 9 and I was looking after the twins." "After my stepfather died my mother decided that she loved him as well, so now she had two men to mourn." "One day after she hit me I decided to run away." "And I wanted to take the twins with me." "But we didn't get very far because... the twins decided they wanted some water." "o l ran to the well with a tin cup which I wore round my neck on a string." "I just got there when the storm broke." "Never in my life have I seen a storm break so fast." "The sky didn't turn black like it did at other times but it was purple as if someone had made a fire up in the clouds." "The thunder split my ears." "I started running back, because I couldn't see the twins but instead I saw that the lightning had struck the tree above them." "Everything was smoking." "I was just standing there bewildered, wondering where the twins had gone because those two black stumps couldn't be my sisters." "So I yelled so loud that it could be heard at our house." "My mother ran out barefoot in her shirt, she fell upon me, she beat me all over." "She didn't know what she was doing." "And then she saw the children." "And then she tore away from me in the rain, her hair was dragging along the ground behind her as it came loose." "he ran like an arrow" "And she screamed." "Birds screech like that sometimes." "I saw her jump into the well but I couldn't move." "If I'd run for help right then, they could have saved her, but I didn't." "I just stood there, wondering what my mother was doing for so long at the bottom of the well." "Afterwards my grandfather came for me." "A young couple came from Budapest looking for a maid and he gave me to them." "They took me away right after the funeral." "Do you know what I'm saving up for?" "A crypt." "As big as the Taj Mahal." "In every window there'll be different coloured glass and on every shelf there'll be a coffin..." "My father's, my mother's, mine, the twins'..." "Do you believe me?" "I believe you." " Were you worried that I'd go?" " No." "Emerenc said that no glass had cracked and the dogs didn't howl, so nothing would happen." "Don't let there be storm!" "That brings the reaper." "Don't let there be a storm" "Storm, lightning, a well..." "How are the intellectuals today?" "Oh, thank you." "We are much better!" "You see, hmm?" "Bye!" " Welcome home." " Thank you." "I wish the Master a speedy recovery!" "Are you admiring my tureen?" "One of my employers, Mrs Grossmann gave it to me in the time of the anti-Jewish Laws... in 1 944, part of the most beautiful china and glass." "The chalice I brought the other day, that was hers as well." "That's for the Master." "Thank you!" " What strange stuffs Emerenc brings." " Nah, it's the Grossmanns' inheritance." "Maybe she didn't know where they were being taken." " It seems I was lucky during the war." " Lucky?" "I mean, I was among decent people and I knew everything." "What did you know?" "I knew who the wagons were transporting, and for what purpose." "And you call that lucky?" "is that the right word?" "It may not be the right word." "It isn't." "And all we've got are words." "So what should the word be?" "I don't know." "Perhaps the Grossmanns left these things with Emerenc for safe keeping." "Or she thought, like so many others that if she didn't take them away someone else would." "Maybe the handyman's suspicions are justified." "Perhaps there are valuables behind the locked door, confiscated treasures belonging to people taken away." "Things that shouldn't be put on show." "How obscene!" "The Grossmanns in the gas chamber, without even a grave while she is saving up for a Taj Mahal!" "She keeps a captive animal as a cover." "Not a bad idea." "Are you writing a novel?" "Didn't the master like it?" "It was too much for him." "Oh, look at that!" "Oh, come here!" "Give me your scarf!" "It's so cold." "Emerenc, look!" "You're home now." "Yes, you are." "This is where you belong." "Ah, good evening!" "Emerenc, come straight away!" "You've got a burst pipe!" "I've already phoned the plumber." "Hurry and turn off the mains." "I hope he likes the 1 8th century." "You can jump up at your mistress, you can sleep beside her on the sofa." "Your mistress allows that because she loves you." "The master is quiet like water." "You never know what's at the bottom of water." "You mustn't annoy the master because he'll get rid of you." " Come!" "You should hear this." " This is a good place for you." "Sit!" "Sit, Viola!" "Viola?" "But he's a boy!" "Sit." "Sit." "If you don't sit you won't get any sugar." "Sit." "Sit, Viola!" "The vet said it was forbidden to give the dog sugar." "The vet's an idiot!" "Sit, Viola, sit." "You're going to get a treat." "Sit." "Sit!" "Sit!" "Can I take him for the day?" "He can guard the house while I'm out." "Aren't you worried about your cat?" "Why should I be?" "I will tell him he has to like other animals, not hurt them." "viola!" "Come with me!" "Come with your mistress." "Let's leave Emerenc in peace!" "Behave yourself!" "viola, it's Magda now!" "Come on!" "Come on, come on!" "You'll get a sugar lump!" "Come here!" "Let's leave Emerenc in peace." "It's Magda now, not Emerenc!" "Behave yourself!" "Viola, come back!" "Who do you think you are?" "Charging over here and making a row!" "Go back home!" "I'll see you later on tonight." "You see?" "Come on." "No!" "Sit!" "You scamp!" "Apologize!" "Go home, your leg's bleeding." "I'll see you later!" "May I ask you something?" "Go ahead." "Viola, sit." "Emerenc, wouldn't you Iike to keep the dog?" "We only wanted to give him shelter anyway." "well, I'd have got a dog long time ago, but I'm only allowed one animal in my flat." "But if you're offended that Viola likes me, well l can solve that out." "It is possible to alienate an animal." "Now I what I wanted... to say was that..." "I'm expecting a guest in a few days time." "Would you allow me to meet with my guest here, in your home?" "You want to receive a guest here?" "All you have to do is make my guest believe that I live here with you." "We'll be gone before the master gets home." "It's Wednesday, at 4 o'clock." "Just say yes!" "If this is a secret dinner, why are you lugging your stuff down the street?" "You can use our plates." "Take out anything you Iike from the sideboard, use my mother's silver cutlery or... do you think I am too mean to lend them to you?" "Thank you." "I never forget a gesture be it good or bad." "But this dinner service is very important to me to make my guest remember." "I just don't want the person in question to know I've no family about me and I have no wish to explain why I don't open my door." "Can I have this?" "Can I take it home?" "It was made for my mother's figure." "I wouldn't be alone." "Why are you alone?" "Why do you lock everyone out of your flat?" "Keep your nose out of my business!" "I don't harm anyone by living like I do." "I don't like it when you preach." "If I ask you something to give it to me, give it without a lecture or don't give it at all." "Fine." "If anybody calls, I'll be back in the evening." "Hello." "Yes." "Good." "I'll tell her." "You ungrateful, bitch!" "Drop dead!" "Who you think you are!" "You can't come to Europe!" "Get off, Viola!" "My mother's Murano!" "What's going on here, Emerenc?" "Are you out of your mind?" "Viola!" "Get down!" "Viola!" "Ungrateful!" "Disloyal!" "You rotten..." "ilar!" "Lousy capitalist!" "You... you can't come on business reason!" "You can't fly to Europe!" "Visit cancelled!" "And you'Il let me know when you can come!" "I'm sorry." "I shouldn't have done that." "Oh, come on, that's going too far!" "will you please get rid of the mess in my mother's room?" "Thank you!" "I want to take Viola for a walk in the forest." "I want to apologize for my behaviour." "This never happened to me before." "And it never will again." "Serves you right." "Why the hell do you have to take everything so seriously?" "Get the food out of the fridge and take it back to her I'm not going to eat the leftovers." "I'm not Viola." "Emerenc, I'm afraid I can't keep the festive feast." "I've brought it back." "It's here on the porch table." "come out and get it whenever you are ready." "is the master ill?" "No, he's not." "I'd like to come in." "I'm hungry." "Have you got any food left?" "Good night." "I'll never forget this..." "Thank you for your love and care" "The food I eat, the clothes I wear" "Thank you, father, for bringing me up" "Thank you, mother, for filling my cup" "Mistress, happy birthday from your servant" "To your wishes always observant" "And here I bring you many a present" "To make you house both sweet and pleasant." "Thank you!" "Come!" "What's the point of living, to wake up in your own home to find a blasted garden dwarf standing on the carpet, a riding boot in front of one's books, and the bookshelf full of all sorts of junk!" "This is how Emerenc tries to show her affection." "Affection?" "This is crazy!" "Master?" "All men are idiots" "Viola!" "Viola, quiet!" "Viola, give it to me!" "Give it to me!" "Give it to me!" "Where did you put the little China dog?" "I hid it from view because it's dreadful." "Are you some sort of a slave?" "I know the master doesn't like dogs, but that means he can't put up with a nice little china one?" "is this ugly shell any better?" "I'll smash this one of these days." "Emerenc... could you please take the little statue back to the attic?" "It's tasteless." "Kitsch." "What's kitsch?" "Kitsch, kitsch is something fake, false." "What is fake about this little dog?" "Hasn't he got everything legs, ears, a tail?" "Why are you lying to me?" "If you don't want anything from me, just say so." "I know you're frightened of the master but don't hide your fear by pretending that this is a kitsch." "Are you out of your mind?" "Who keeps umbrellas in a boot?" "You're a blind, idiotic coward." "Don't know why I like you." "Maybe when you get older you find some courage and your taste will improve." "My aunt has asked me to tell you to look for someone else to help, she is resigning." "She doesn't understand a word of this modern world." "We're not going to beg her to come back." "I offended her because I wasn't prepared to let her turn my home into a flea market." "The only trouble is, sir, that when she looks for a present for you she is thinking of two children." "Whatever comes of this, please don't bear a grudge because there are few such good and upright people on this earth." "What?" "You mean she considers us children?" "Now, you can't talk to her, maybe later." "Goodbye!" "Well, we've fixed that alright." "You're happy about this?" "We'll get along fine without her crazy whims." "Are you put out because she's become fond of me?" "Have you gone insane too?" "PoIett, how would you like to work for us?" "Two or three times a week would be enough." "Just some cleaning, washing, ironing, perhaps cooking too..." "What about Emerenc?" "Emerenc doesn't want to work for us." "You can ask her." "I certainly won't." "God forbid!" "You're the apple of her eye." "She only calls you the girl... lf Emerenc would ask me, that would be different." "I'm sorry." "I can't accept." "I can't take her place." "I see." "Speak to me in French, from time to time... just a little." "We should resolve the issue with the china dog." "It could be on this place when she's here... and than put it away again." "It's too much for you to do the housework, it's not right." "We'll have to apologize." "Come on out, Emerenc, I want to talk to you." "Have you come to apologize?" "No..." "Our tastes differ but that doesn't matter and we didn't want to hurt you." "Won't you come back?" "will you give a home to a china dog?" " Yes." " Where will you put it?" "Wherever you want." "Please, Madam!" "Polett has killed herself." " What?" " l've just found her..." "She hung herself from the walnut tree in the garden." "She pulled a cap over her head." "Have you come about Polett?" "I found her at dawn when the dog gave the signal." "We didn't talk about the cap but we agreed on what dress she should wear when she's buried." "I gave her a black petticoat, because she didn't have one of her own." "I couldn't find her shoes." "Did you find her shoes?" "You knew what Polett was about to do?" "One thing we did agree on was that she shouldn't take poison." "Can't rely on poison." "Anyway it hurts." "No, no." "Hanging is much easier lt were enough of them in Budapest when the Whites were in power they did the hanging." "When the Reds came it was their turn but the hanged people kicked out just the same, no matter what the colour of the politics." "And you didn't try to stop Polett?" "If she had enough of Iife no one has right to stop her." "You know, she ironed beautifully, better than any of us." "Emerenc, shouldn't we... discuss what you're going to say at the police station?" "Nah, don't think I didn't make her write a farewell letter." "I dictated her letter to the police, myself." ""l, Polett Came, did take my life of my own accord"" ""because of illness, old age and most of all loneliness. "" "We weren't enough for her, any of us." "Did you lose your key?" "I want to take Viola for a walk." "Alright." "When the time comes, you must tell the vet to give Viola the injection." "If you love someone, you must be willing to kill too." "The Lord kills." "Don't think I didn't love Polett." "If I didn't, I would have stopped her." "'Cause if I yell at someone, they do what I say." "Come!" "Emerenc!" "Emerenc, imagine!" "The librarian from Csabadul has just rung to invite me to meet the local reading public." "If I accept, will you come with me?" "Why did they invite you?" "Because of my novels." "Do we have to stay the night?" "Because that's out of the question." "Aren't you dressed yet?" "For heaven's sake, Emerenc!" " Besides, is that what you're wearing?" " Yes" "You can't go there like that." "With all that make-up on?" " What will they think of me?" " Stop moaning!" "Will you let me give you a book?" "will you write in it that you gave it to me?" "Of course." "You know I haven't been to Csabadul since 1 944." "My family all upset and... I'm not loved there." "Please, madam, I can't stand in for Emerenc because I've been summoned by the district council." "Its about my shop permit, my living." "Couldn't you ask for another appointment?" " From whom?" " Drop dead!" "You see?" "Your God doesn't want me to go." "It's a shame." "I'd like to see how you fit in a village." "Would you go out to the railway station at Csabadul and walk along the ramp?" "But if anyone asks about me, don't chat, alright?" " l'm fine and healthy." " Yes." "Good morning." "Nobody bottled things up like Emerenc' grandfather did." "Most people at least try to talk." "Maybe they could have helped each other." "Emerenc is here with her little daughter Evike." "This whole time we have not heard any news of her life." "By moving away in the town with the child she was get safe from harm from her grandfather." "But when she turned up with her baby, who he knew nothing about, we thought he would beat her to a pulp" "He would have had that or a stroke." " Who's this child?" " Evike." "Who's child is it?" "Mine." "I must insist you show some loyalty to our family home and for yourself." "You shamelessly fornicate with strangers about the town and now look what you have done!" "Who's the father?" "What about the child?" "Evike!" "In the end, he came to love the child more than his real grandchildren." "He burst into tears when Emerenc took her away, and never forgave himself for letting the child be taken from him, when she was so sweet." "Thank you, Mrs Szabados." "Just wait till the truth comes out!" "That's Evike Grossmann." "That's the person I was waiting for the other day." "She lives in America, she sends me money." "That's what she looked like when I took her home to Csabadul from Pest." "Only now I don't want to see her face because she wouldn't come when I asked her to." "Yet if it wasn't for me, she would have her head smashed against a wall or been killed in a gas chamber." "Up to then I was respected by everybody." "Well, you can imagine how pleasant it was for me to have to tell my grandfather that the baby that I'm carrying in my arms is mine and would you please feed her until after the war because I can't provide for her in Pest." "You remember the Jewish Laws, don't you?" "Yes." "The old ones chose to drink cyanide, but the young paid to escape." "So they gave her to me, and I took her home to the village." "Don't ask me what reception I got." " Take it." " You're a thief too?" "You think because of the war you can get away with anything?" "They took very decent care of the child for over a year." "And then the Grossmans came back and I went to fetch her." "Poor things, wanted to start their life again." "But in the end they went abroad." "And I said goodbye to the little girl for ever." "Did you walk along the ramp?" "Yes!" "I had this heifer." "She was a sandy colour, I looked after her since she was a calf." "People used to laugh at me, because she followed me everywhere." "But in the end we had to sell her." "No!" "No!" "Viola!" "Viola!" "Viola!" " What happened?" " People, the calf jumped off!" "You're safe now." "I had too much..." "Get on with the job, man!" "Let's pray she learns not to love again so she never feels the sorrow that caused her mother to drown herself." "Go on home now." "We have talked enough." "Take Viola home with you." "The heifer was named Viola?" "Go on." "The dog's tired." " Good morning!" " Good day to you!" "Give extra for the collection box, it's bound to count double at Easter." "I would be grateful if at least on Good Friday you could leave me alone!" "And when you've finished, could you please cook the plum soup." "The fruit is out on the kitchen counter." "Why don't you try some sweeping?" "After all you're off to church to weeps, so you may should do bit of works as well." "Because there are two kinds of people in this world:" "those who sweep and those who get others to sweep." "Jesus swept." "ometimes she irritates me so much..." "Forgive me Lord, I feel like killing her." "Although she is self-sacrificing and generous." "Her goodness is natural, whereas I was raised to be like that." "What I think is faith is perhaps only discipline." "Why does everybody trust her when she does not trust anyone?" "Whereas everyone looks at me with suspicion." "Just be more straightforward in the words you use." "Whether you are asking or giving." "To people or to God." "I couldn't wait for you, I was so hungry." "Good Friday was the only day my father would fast." "Even the piano lid was locked so nobody would start playing." "I keep this fast, as you very well know." "Don't look so triumphant because I haven't even tasted your chicken paprika and I'm not paying for it, because I didn't order it." "It's a fine God you've got if he judges with plum soup." "My God, if he exists, is everywhere." "He is at the bottom of the well and in Viola's soul too." "Now you listen to me, because I'm about to strike." "The master's not got long to live, you know that yourself." "There'll be no fasting in that house!" "At least I won't be part of it." "Princess of Plums!" "Go on, go home." "It's Friday, you've got to read the Bible in German." "Now listen!" "I'm going to show you something that no one has ever seen before and no one ever will again until I'm in the grave." "If you tell anyone, I will curse you." "The Grossmanns' safe?" "They pried than open when the Arrow Cross Party was still in power." " Who's that handsome man?" " That's the lawyer's son." "He's different from what I have imagined." " Why were they after him?" " Well, he said he was a communist." "A few years later, his communist comrades took him away accusing him of being a British spy." "I couldn't help feeling happy." "The fate was punishing him for letting me down." "But then later on he became a top dog." "He never mentioned me in his biography, though I was certainly part of it." "It was after he left that I found my tomcat strung up from the door handle." "Well, another one came to replace him, but then that one was poisoned, I think by the same person." "So than I decided that the cat doesn't have to go out, cause he can live indoors like a posh Pekinese dog." "Can't, for the life of me, tell you howl manage to have nine." "They're prisoners but they're alive." "That's why I never open my door." "Because if the tenants find out I have to get rid of seven because you're only allowed two." "When I die you must tell the vet to put them all down." "Because you can't do more for a person than to stop them suffering." "Suppertime!" "We should invite her in!" "She wouldn't come anyway." "The pavement has to be clear." "You haven't slept for days because the God forsaken snow keeps on falling." "When you are done with this you have to start over again." " But you're ill!" " All right, go home!" "Emerenc, you should be in bed!" "Go away!" "Can't you see I'm busy?" "You go home, you look after the Master." "You do the cooking and cleaning while this damned snow keeps falling." "It's nobody's business whether I stay in bed or not!" "I can't stand when they spy on me." "Yes?" "Good morning." "Yes, she's here." "The Minister of Culture." "is somebody pulling my leg?" "Yes..." "Yes, it's me." "Thank you." "Thank you very much!" "Thank you!" "He said he finished my book last night." "He likes it very much." "He told me I should ignore the critics." "They're only party soldiers." "He'd like to meet me." "What could that mean?" "Does he think he's the member of some other party perhaps?" "You have to be careful what you say to him." "About what?" "Anything, anyone he asks you about." "Sign it here, please!" "It's come from Parliament." " Thank you!" " You're welcome!" "Am I to have a Kossuth Prize winner?" "You're allowed to be happy." "Very, very happy!" "Do you know how long it is since Emerenc last appeared on her porch, madam?" "At least two weeks, the porch is covered in snow!" "Something must be done or the old woman might not make it." "I'm in a hurry Mr. Brodarics." "Let's wait until tomorrow." "I must talk to Emerenc face to face." "Why are you sitting here?" "I've opened the brandy." "The men have decided to break the door down." "The doctor will be waiting outside and I'Il get her up the stairs to your flat." "If you could just get her to open the door a tiny bit!" "Just make her turn the key and we'll do the rest." "I don't really like having strangers in the flat, but the old woman needs to be taken care of and kept in a warm flat." " Bring her round to us." " Good Lord!" "You've grown fond of her." "If she doesn't get medical attention, that will be it." "The only way I can save her is if I betray her." "Emerenc!" "I vow I'm not going to neglect you just because you won't open the door." "Nobody will come in but you should come out." "You don't even have to go to hospital if you don't want to." "You can stay with us in my mother's room with Viola." "The doctor's ready to see you." "If you don't go away I'll report you all for disturbing my peace!" "I've got a right to be on sick leave." "Then just, please, step outside your door for a moment so people will see that you are alive." "You know how fond they all are of you." "I'm alive." "Bring me a box." "My old cat has died." "You have to bury him." "You can say you're taking away the laundry." "All right." "The smell has become awful." "If I didn't know it was impossible l'd think it was a dead body." "During the war I often smelled this ghastly stench." "Could you all move aside?" "I've got to stay by the door until I've received a package from Emerenc." "Thank you!" "It's me, Emerenc." "Don't come in, just give me the box!" "Not now." "Would you please stay there?" "The box was too small." "Don't you know how big a cat is?" "Could you do something for me?" "Could you run across and lock the door to Emerenc's flat for me before anyone goes in." "Don't look inside!" "And as soon as she gets here give the key back to her!" "See you at the Parliament." "Would you kindly do a television interview?" "Oh, yes, of course." " You taught me in primary school." " Did I?" "Oh, yes." "You haven't changed at all." "Well, I started teaching when I was very young." "I could mention the names of all sorts of people, first of all my family, my parents, my husband and all those whose story I have written." "But right now the first name that comes to my mind is the name of a woman who saw to everything around me so that I could work in peace." "Behind every visible result stands an invisible person without whom there'd be no life-work." "And in my case this person is..." "Emerenc Szeredes." " Thank you!" " Congratulations!" " Congratulations!" " Thank you!" " You didn't come." " l couldn't." "What's the Kossuth Prize like?" "Oh, nice!" "This is ward 25." "But she hasn't arrived yet." "How can that be?" "Than where is she?" "I had to send her to be disinfected first, because she couldn't have been put to bed in the condition we found her." "By the time I got to Emerenc tha doctor had managed to catch of her arm." "But she couldn't really resist anymore" "Later the doctor told me that she must have had a mild stroke sometime earlier." "She could have been paralyzed for days." "Emerenc!" "I should have suspected something like that ages ago." "But nowadays I don't take notice of anything apart from myself." "You received a Kossuth Prize, Magda dear." "I could have done without that scene." "Which scene?" "Emerenc in her own filth, surrounded by rotting meats and putrid soups." "E- me-renc sur-round-ed by rot-ting meats and put-rid soups." "Are you writing a poem?" "Suppertime!" "Behind every visible result stands an invisible person without whom there'd be no life-work." "And in my case this person is..." "Emerenc Szeredes." " Congratulations!" " Thank you!" "Emerenc was pure and upright, as we all would want to be." "A queen." "And I allowed them to expose her in a single humiliating moment of her life." "Whatever Emerenc says now, that overwhelming stench and filth will discredit." "We wrecked a long life's work." "Maybe Emerenc no longer wishes to persevere, because we have destroyed the legend of her name." "If I'd stay with her when they opened the door a lot of things wouldn't have happened, or at least not like this." "What do you plan to do?" "Nothing." "If she survives I'll take her to stay with us." " l'm not going to fall her again." " Don't dramatize things!" "I'll keep watch over Emerenc." "I had a car accident... and my daughter was killed." "I wanted to commit suicide." "Emerenc came to see me in hospital for months." "She brought me back to life." "And that was the last I saw of him." "Anyway..." "Let's stop this!" "If you hate me so much because I didn't let you die, I accept that..." "But don't keep covering your head, just tell me openly" "I meant well. ." "It didn't work out that way but... I wanted the best for you." "Emerenc... had this happened the other way round, would you have let me die?" "Of course." "And you'd have no regrets?" "No." "But I couldn't have saved you from anything." "Everything would have come to light." "The cats, the filth..." "So what?" "What does a dead person know or see?" "You are the one who thinks there's something up there waiting for you." "angels gonna carry up your typewriter, everything's gonna carry on as normal." "Such an idiot!" "For the dead nothing matters any more, the dead is zero." "What's the marble crypt for then, Emerenc?" "What's the point of gathering your mother, father and the twins?" "If it's so, the weeds in the ditch would be good enough then." "Maybe for you, but not for me, and not for my dead." "One should honour the dead." "What do you know about honour?" "You throw me a bone in Parliament?" "You think I'm gonna follow you around like Viola?" "You know how to make statements but to be there when you're needed... to hide my misery from the eyes of the world, for that you didn't have time." "Go away, make more statements." "You had the nerve to thank me for your prize?" "Are you looking after the animals properly?" "Did you clear away the rubbish?" "Did you fix up some kind of door?" "Now I'll tell her that she's only got half a flat, the door has disappeared, the animals are lost." "No one has put a foot in your home but me!" "As the doctor picked you up in her arms, my husband fixed the door." "I went that night and saw to everything." "The scouring proved difficult, but I managed it." "I divided the rubbish up among the bins in the street." "The cats are well, except of course for the one that I buried under the pinetree." "They eat raw meat now because I haven't got time to cook." "I must go now, Emerenc, because we haven't had our lunch yet and I don't want to get caught in the rain." "Magda dear!" "With these clumsy fingers?" "All alone?" "What are you crying for?" "Why are you crying, hm?" "Now I'lI definitely come home." "I promise." "Yeah. . take these home for Viola!" "He loves chocolate." "Excuse me, please..." "Sutu paid me a visit and told me that, should it so happen, she would be happy to close her stall and take over Emerenc's jobs" " What do you say to that?" " What would I say?" "Nothing!" "It's a disgrace." "So it's a free for-all now?" "That's exactly what I thought." "What a nerve!" "Tibor!" "Did you hear that?" "Look here, you'll refuse Sutu's offer now, but Emerenc has little strengths left for her job." "Jobs will overload her current state." "Emerenc will have to stay with us from now on to make a full recovery or else she will lose her flat too." "God almighty, what will I do with her?" "What?" "How will I be able to fit a paralyzed patient into our lives?" "When will I have time to take her the bed pan, do her washing, cook for her and protect her from bedsores?" "And what will I do when I have to go away?" "And what will you do?" "You haven't told her the truth about her condition." "We haven't either." "Truth is not always a cure." "But now she's got the strength and at some time she must face up to what's happened." " She can go home in a few days." " Not yet!" "Her flat is just as it was after the fumigation." "You must realize she is under the impression that I sorted everything out, she wasn't put to shame, she can happily come home, the cats are waiting for her." "Now it's time to tell her the truth." "You can always count on me." "After all I am just a jumped up peasant girl like her." " Have you met the professor?" " Yes." " Where did we meet?" " You're the chellist." "I live opposite Mr. Brodarics." " Oh yes." " You play beautifully." "Thank you!" "In fact the Doctor says Emerenc can thank you for her life." "Isn't that right, Doctor?" "You won't believe this, but they didn't let me see Emerenc again." "I don't know what happened." "How many cats are left?" "None, Emerenc." "We think we found three of them dead." "The rest are lost." "Go on looking for them because if they're alive they'll be hiding in the garden." "all right." "We'll look." "You lied to me when you said you cleaned up my place." "There was nothing to clean, Emerenc... the fumigators did it all." "What sort of people are you, you and the colonel?" "The Master is the only decent one, at least he never lied to me." "If you'd let me die I would have looked after you even beyond the grave." "But now I can't bear you near me." "You don't know how to love." "I thought perhaps you do but you don't." "You just put people in boxes and you take them out when you need them." "This is my friend, this is my old godmother, this is... this is my love, this is a pressed flower from the Great Plain..." "Go away, just leave me in peace!" "You thought you could save me for what's coming." "You are such an idiot!" "Emerenc... you'd be in a good place with us." "In your house?" "Go to hell!" "The only sane person in your house is Viola." "Quarter past eight." "Quarter past eight?" "Quarter past eight." "The lady was looking for Emerenc." "I thought I'd bring her round to you." "Thank you." "Eva Grossmann" "Evike." "Excuse me... ?" "Evike Grossmann." "Yes... that's what I was called when I was small." "I can't remember her face." "When she returned me to my parents I was still very young." "I can feel her strong arms, and the way she hugged me." "I even remember her smell because I liked that very much." "But... I've completely forgotten her face." "Haven't you got a photo of her?" "There used to be a photo of you and Emerenc but it was burnt at the time of the fumigation." "Burnt?" "How is your life?" "Are you happy?" "Yes..." "I am." "You see, you can thank Emerenc for that." "She saved your life and you became happy." "I saved her life and with that I betrayed her." "She loved and saved." "I loved and... and killed." "How can one make sense of that?" "That's Emerenc's grave." "Emerenc, please, forgive me!"