Christmas... PART 3

 “There are homeless shelters, aren't there?” Robert said.

“My money was stolen there a few times, so now I don't go there anymore.”

“I see,” Robert replied leaning back in his chair, thinking.

The old man took advantage of the break.

“When did you leave Hungary? And why if I may ask.”

“Oh, it's a long story.” Robert waved his hand.

“I told you mine.”

“Yes, you did. Well, I can also give you a short version… I left when I was in my mid twenties. I did not see much of a future here for myself. Besides, I was getting more and more depressed. I wanted to go far away because everything here reminded me of my dear mother's tragedy.”

“Your mother's tragedy?” the old man interrupted curiously. “What happened?”

“She died when I was only about ten years old. I didn't know what really happened to her until just a few years ago. I knew she killed herself but I was too young to know more. My aunt, my mother's sister raised me. I came home from California about five years ago to see her because she was getting very ill. The day before she died she decided to tell me my mother's story. I guess she knew it well because she and my mother were very close growing up together, they shared everything. So, as I understand, one day when my mother was about twenty years old, she met a nice boy on the tram. They got off at the same stop at the Gellert Hotel and continued talking there in the tram stop.”

Suddenly, a big smile appeared on the old man's face as he remembered a similar affair from his youth. That, too, started the exact same way, also near the Gellert Hotel.

The smile did not escape Robert's attention.

“I know, I shouldn't bore you with old stuff like this,” he said apologetically.

“Oh no, you aren't boring me at all,” the old man replied. “I was just smiling because… you know, our younger years were so beautiful. Well, at least sometimes. But please go on!”

“All right, just let me know if you had enough of this story… So, my mother and that boy chatted for some time in the tram stop. Later, they walked up together to the top of Gellert Hill. It was already getting dark but they still didn't feel like saying good bye to each other. It was the middle of summer, very pleasant being outside. On the way down from the top, they found a bench in the dark. They sat down and started kissing.”

The old man began to feel a little shaking in his stomach but he controlled himself to make sure Robert detects no emotions on his face.

“Well, you probably guess what followed,” Robert said with a smile.

Yes, the old man knew what could follow in situations like that. Probably exactly the same that happened in his affair on one of those dark Gellert Hill benches. Love affairs like that were not at all unusual back then.

“It's not the end of the story yet I guess,” the old man said.

“No, my aunt told me much more. They made love on that bench. It was pretty late by the time they were down at the tram stop again where they parted knowing each other only by first name. The boy proposed that they should leave it to chance whether they meet again and my mother agreed. She regretted that as long as she lived. They never met again. My mother got pregnant… and… I was born.”

The old man instinctively raised one of his hands off his lap.

“Go ahead,” Robert said, “I guess you have a question.”

“No… No...” came a rather vague answer. “I was just wondering… I mean, your mother had to be a beautiful girl if that boy fell for her so quickly.”

While the old man was saying that, he remembered the face of the girl he had that unforgettably beautiful night with on the side of Gellert Hill: big brown eyes, fluffy dark hair, and a lovely smile. The only thing that did not go well with that pretty face was an X-shaped birthmark on her forehead right above her left eye. Now he even remembered the year of that affair: it was just over fifty years earlier at the beginning of July.

“She was beautiful, indeed,” Robert replied. “In fact, I can show you. I carry her photograph in my valet… This was taken a few years after I was born but I doubt she changed much during those years.”

The old man took the picture from Robert's hand and leaned back on his chair.

“Aren't you going to look at it?!” Robert asked in surprise.

The old man did not answer right away. He just held the picture in his hand and kept gazing straight ahead of himself. The storm was gaining strength inside him and he had some difficulties hiding it. He felt that the hand he was holding the picture with was shaking slightly. Finally, he regained his composure.

“Oh, just memories,” he said finally and looked at Robert. “You know, I was young once, too.”

“Right, weren't we all?” Robert said nodding. “Can you see without glasses?”

“I used to have reading glasses but I needed them only if the letters were too small.”

The old man placed the picture in front of him on the table and glanced at it. The first thing he saw on that face was that X-shaped birthmark on the forehead right above the left eye. After the birthmark, he looked at the big eyes for a while and then he handed the picture back to Robert.

“Thank you for showing it to me,” he said calmly.

“Do you care to hear the rest?” Robert asked after he placed the picture back into his valet.

“Yes, of course.”

“According to my aunt, my mother was deeply in love with that boy, especially after she realized that she was carrying his child. She desperately tried to find him. She often waited for hours at the tram stop where they met and kept roaming the streets in the evenings hoping to run into him. They never met again. After I was born, there were men who wanted to marry my mother but she declined every offer. She just kept hoping for the day to come when she would meet my father again. Finally, she started drinking. She drank more and more and the alcohol was destroying her. One morning, she was found dead. She overdosed on sleeping pills.”

The old man stared at his hand that had been resting on the edge of the table after he gave back the picture. He was unable to say anything.

“That's all right,” Robert said, “all this happened long time ago.”

“How long?”

“How long?” Robert repeated the question. “Well, you can figure it out. I'll be fifty in the spring.”

Exactly, the old man thought, fifty in the spring.

“You look like getting tired,” Robert said. “Perhaps it's time to get some sleep.”

“No,” the old man shook his head. “I'm not tired now. I'd like to hear more of your story... like what happened to you in America, why you became a gambler… and how you're coping with your life there.”

“Why I became a gambler… Good question.” Robert paused.

The old man waved. “Sorry about that, you don't really have to...”

“No problem,” Robert interrupted, “I can tell you exactly why. When one is lonely in a foreign land, far away from home, without relatives, without true friends, often full of frustration due to work related problems, there is a need for some activity that can mask reality, that can bring some excitement, that can relieve the accumulated stress. I found this activity in the casinos. No doubt, it can be an expensive therapy, and the treatment needs to be repeated, but at least one also has some fun. No, I don't deny it becomes an addiction. However, it is far less damaging than escaping into drugs or alcohol. The worst thing that can happen? Depleting one's savings too much… or even getting into debt. The latter actually happened to me, too. I now owe about twelve thousand dollars on my credit cards. I had just done some quick thinking before I left the casino tonight. I can pay off my debt, make a down payment on a brand new car, and… and start a brand new life. I mean… you know… start socializing… finding myself a wife.” At this point he started shaking his head. “Although,” he went on, “I don't believe it can really happen… I mean finding a woman I could marry. I've had quite a few bad relationships, a lot of disappointments. These were also responsible for my gambling habit. You know, the older we get the more we expect from a relationship. The woman I keep dreaming of probably doesn't even exist. Settling for less? No, I don't like half-solutions.”

The old man listened carefully.

Robert stopped talking. He stood up and started walking back and forth by his bed between the two walls. The expression on his face clearly indicated that he was doing some serious thinking. Finally, he sat down again and looked at the old man.

“Actually,” he said, “here is what we'll do.” He paused. “I need to ask you a question first. Tell me! How much does a studio apartment cost here these days?”

“A studio?” the old man said.

“And I don't mean to rent. How much money is needed to buy such a flat here?”

“You want to move back?” the old man asked.

“Just tell me, how much money buys a small flat here?”

“Depends on where you buy it. Four or five million forints should be enough. Even less if you don't want to live in Budapest.”

“How long would it take to find one?”

“It's still a buyer's market until the foreigners realize how safe it is to live here.”

“Great!” Robert paused again. He grabbed a glass from the table, stepped inside the bathroom and filled the glass with water. He returned to the table but did not sit down. He drank the water standing.

“So, here's what we'll do,” he said after putting the glass back on the table. “And I don't want to hear any objections from you.” He started emptying the money from his pockets. “Look! Most of these are twenty-thousand forint bills,” he said after he had all the money on the table. “It's more than five million… It was my lucky night.”

After tapping the bills a couple of times with the back of his hand, he began to stuff them back into his pockets. After he finished, he sat down and looked at the old man.

“Now, listen to me! Today is a holiday. I'll hang the no disturb sign on the door-handle outside so the cleaners won't come into the room during the days. You can rest safely and undisturbed even when I am not here. After the holiday… After the holiday, I'll find a real estate agent and buy a small flat… for you. No-no! I don't want to hear anything!” he said seeing the old man raising his hand. “Look! It's not to soothe my guilty conscience or anything like that. This money is a gift from life...”

“It's money that used to be yours,” the old man interrupted him, “and now life is giving it back to you.”

“No, I can no longer look at it that way. You see, if I didn't start playing in the evening, this money wouldn't be here. In fact, normally, even what I started with wouldn't be here.”

“Listen!” the old man replied quietly but resolutely. “You're still young. The plan you had earlier is the right plan. Eliminate your debt, start a new life. I'm an old fart...”

“You're a human being!” Robert took over again. “What happened to you here is despicable. It'll give me great satisfaction when I know that those crooks were not able to destroy you after all. Giving this money to credit card companies would be the biggest waste, as well as a sin when I can use it in a noble way. After we are done here… I mean in Budapest... I'll go back to my job and start saving. I'll recover, don't worry about me. As you said, I'm still young. I'll do all right... You just take it easy, and relax. Make yourself at home in here. Now, I'll run down to that grocery store I saw open around the corner and bring some food. I'll pick up a bottle of whiskey as well to make sure we have something to get your frozen muscles thawed. I'll be back in a few minutes.”

Robert grabbed his coat and left the room.

The old man nervously stood up from his chair. For some time, he just stood there looking around inside the room. When his glance fell on his ragged coat on the floor, he began nodding. “Yes, that's what I have to do,” he mumbled.

He waited another minute to make sure Robert leaves the floor, then he picked up the coat and as fast as he could move, he left the room.

“Lucky,” he told himself half aloud as he heard the door of the elevator closing when he entered the corridor. His ride came about a minute later. Enough for Robert to be outside the hotel by the time he gets down to the lobby.

When the door of the elevator opened in the lobby, stepping out he almost bumped into a uniformed young man. He recognized this doorman; he had seen him several times when walking by in front of the hotel.

“Hey, Peter!” the doorman shouted to the receptionist and waved at the old man before getting into the elevator.

The old man tried to reach the revolving exit door in a hurry.

“You bastard!” the receptionist shouted at him. “Weren't you told many times before that there are no public restrooms in here?! And you're not even coming from the lobby? What were you up to? And how did you get in here?”

The old man did not hear the rest because he managed to slip out from the building. He did not care about the pain in his knees, he walked as fast as he could to get far away before Robert is done with his shopping. He walked in the opposite direction and disappeared around a corner.

Robert returned to the room with a large shopping bag. First he thought the old man was in the bathroom but then he saw that the big ragged coat was missing from the floor. He rushed to the bathroom. He realized that the man was gone.

'I must find him!' the thought flashed through his mind.

He pulled out the bottle of rum he could buy in the store, put it into the inside pocket of his coat and left the room in a hurry. After he exited the hotel, he looked around but saw nothing moving.

'He must be heading back to Liberty Square,' he thought.

It did not take him too long to arrive at that bench on the square.

'Where is he?' He looked around but then he realized that the old man could not walk half as fast as he did so it would take him some time to get there. 'He is probably coming through different streets, that's why I did not see him.'

He decided to wait. He sat down and opened the bottle. He hesitated for a moment; the rum was for the old man.

“Oh, heck,” he said loudly, “this night is an exception, and that waitress has already conditioned me to drinking over the limit anyway.” He swallowed once. He liked the flavor so he poured more into his mouth. Later, he raised the one liter bottle to see in the streetlight how much was already missing. “Plenty left,” he said and drank again.

He looked at his watch several times but then he realized it won't make the old man arrive any sooner.

“Patience!” he told himself and drank a little more.

He did not feel the cold at all, the alcohol was heating his inside.

Soon, he began to feel very sleepy so he stretched out on the bench. The old man will wake him up when he arrives.

He put the already half empty bottle on the ground and then fell asleep.

***

The sun was already up in the morning when a young couple and their little kid walked by.

“Look Dad,” the boy who ran ahead shouted back, “there is a man here.”

“Wow!” the woman said pointing at the bottle when they got to the bench. “He got drunk and fell asleep.”

“Right, and froze to death,” her husband added.

“You're sure he's not alive?” the woman asked.

“Alive? You're kidding? He's an icicle.”

The woman pulled her mobile phone from her handbag.

“I'll call an ambulance.”

“You'd better do calling a mortuary.”

“Well, I'll call the police then.”

Soon, they heard the siren and a police car arrived. Two officers hurried from where they parked.

“I'm also a paramedic,” one of them said when they got there. He tried to bend Robert's arm. “No way, the man is solid ice.”

“Probably one of those homeless miserables,” the woman commented.

“I don't think so, looking at his clothes,” replied the paramedic.

“Well, let's see!” the other officer said and began searching Robert's pockets. “Wow! Look at this! Just look at this!” He kept pulling money out of every pocket. “And here is the guy's passport… American citizen… Robert G… Born in Hungary.”

“I'll go back to the car and call the unit that can take him in,” the paramedic said. When he returned he had a large envelope in his hand.

After everything from Robert's pockets was packed inside the envelope, the officers sealed it, and then one of them wrote the following four words on it:

Christmas on Liberty Square.

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