Spring 2024 - Recrudescence

Things To Do After My Death

shouting in front of the town hall. The town’s three policemen, their faces as white as ghosts, blocked the entry of the building and waved their pistols around. One of them kept repeating in a robotic manner: Keep moving people, or there will be serious trouble! No one paid attention to him. It was a group of Gypsies—wielding long handled hoes—who first worked up enough courage to chase away the police officers: Don’t even think about shooting at us, there is a revolution, in case you didn’t know!—they swarmed the building. By then, the party secretary and other officials had managed to sneak out the back door. The Gypsies knocked over some cabinets inside and broke a few windows—that was the end of the Ladánybene Revolution. At night they held a meeting at the elementary school; all the attendees wore cockades on their shirts, flaunting the national colors of Hungary. Sanyi got his from Józsi. They formed what they called a Revolutionary Committee, whose sole responsibility was to govern the town. The Gypsies unanimously cast their votes for Józsi Balog, so he became president. Once his position was secured, he insisted on Sanyi being his vice-president. Afterwards they went across the square to the local pub to celebrate that now they were the ones in power. Sanyi hardly ever consumed alcohol, so the bootleg pálinka went straight to his head, and he soon found himself under the table. Józsi took him home and laid him down on the bed, the only remaining piece of furniture in the so-called parlor of Sanyi’s house. He slept through the next two days of the revolution. He never heard his friend knocking on the door, reminding him that it was time to attend the meetings; therefore, the other four members of the revolutionary committee were forced to make important decisions without his input. The meetings usually took place in Józsi’s backyard, in the summer kitchen. When Sanyi finally came to from his drunken stupor and joined the group, he was so hungry he could eat a horse. Józsi’s mother fed him a generous portion of bacon, warm homemade bread, and cottage cheese made from fresh sheep milk. He couldn’t 109