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györgy spiró
with his father started to go
downhill.
He had always been the
precious boy, the only whole
person Joseph had managed
to sire. He was the favorite.
His father had been proud
that his son knew how to read
and write before other boys
his age; he had boasted about
him and had also started
instructing him in the logic of
business, as if he were already
an adult.
His father repeated the
experiment half a year later.
Uri confessed then that he
could not see how many
fingers his father was holding
up.
“Because you don’t want to
see!” Joseph had shouted
angrily.
That sentence had haunted
Uri ever since.
From that point on, his
father had avoided him. He
did not want to see that his
son could not see. Doctors
claimed that dried gum
from the balsam tree had a
beneficial effect on cataracts
and shortsightedness, and as
Joseph had once traded in,
among other things, balsam
and dates, and was at that
moment still receiving them
in shipments from Judaea,
he instructed Uri to place
over his eyes every evening
a poultice soaked in a watery
solution of powdered balsam
gum. Uri diligently applied
the compresses and was
nauseated by the smell of
the balsam, but his eyesight
did not improve. Another six
months, and Uri still could
not see how many fingers his
father was showing. Joseph
hinted that he should stop
with the poultices, since