TE19 Iberian Adventure

Three Stories

it. When, after the evening film, they sent him down to the garage to bring up another suitcase, he made no sound and didn’t even turn on the lights as he went down the stairs. He was now part of the conspiracy. First, he brought up the old suitcases; then came the new oneswhich scraped the floor if hewasn’t careful with them. When the last suitcase had made it up, the only sound all night long was the rustling of paper as my parents wrapped their fragile treasures. It was still dark outside when I woke up with a start. In the next room, the stifled voices were preparing to smash the windowpanes into smithereens and blow the walls to pieces. The voices trickled out into the hall, backed up against the front door, then, crashing here and there off the walls of the staircase, thundered down to the garages. The choking smell of the suitcases was still hanging in every room of the apartment when the Dacia’s engine started up. When Áron and I sat down at the kitchen table, it was as if we were following a plan we had agreed on before. He brought out bacon, tomatoes and bread from the pantry and started to slice them methodically. I took a big bite of the bread, then ate a little bacon, and a slice of the shapeless, overgrown tomato. Another cube of bacon, then bread, then tomato, then bacon again, then bread again. There was always too much of one thing or another, and I couldn’t seem to leave off, as if there was nothing more important at that moment than hitting on the perfect ratio. After a while, I gave up, stuffing handfuls of each into my mouth, and barely chewing. Áron, meanwhile was cutting precise little sandwiches for himself, lining them up and 239