TE19 Iberian Adventure

Gabi Csutak

They’re Crying on the TV The only thing I noticed at first was that my parents had started buying the same kinds of things they had earlier been given as presents, things they had put up on the top of the wardrobe unwrapped: inlaid trays, embroidered or netted tablecloths, ceramic items, crystal vases and the kind of colourful glass fish that other people had on the top of their TVs. Before long all these fancy goods had blocked the books on the bookshelves, had burrowed into the linen drawer and crowded out the clothes from the top section of the wardrobes. Meanwhile,myparents themselveshadchanged. If I turned up at their elbows unexpectedly, they looked at me as if I was up to no good, even though I wasn’t the one behaving like a member of an underground movement in some TV drama. When they argued, they shut themselves in their room and lowered their voices, so all that could be heard through the wall was a sinister hissing. Before, at least they had yelled comprehensible words to each other, flung a slipper or two or a bunch of keys to the floor, slammed the odd door and that was the end of it, like on the silent films on Sunday mornings. They had taken to locking their roomso I wouldn’t see their preparations. Only Áron was called in from time to time because he was an adult, and had been for a year. On such occasions, they would explain something to him, spelling it out in an even rhythm. When he came out, the skin of his forehead looked as if he had a catapult hidden underneath 238