Trafika Europe 6 - Arabesque

györgy spiró

count as a fully able-bodied man, let the community draw at least some use from him, and anyway teachers were paid, which was not a point to be sneezed at. His teacher, Eusebius, who was fond of Uri and rated his abilities highly, had also encouraged him, but in vain: Uri hated anything to do with the community. Others could see well, he couldn’t. Others did not have a head and feet and back that ached with pain. Others were able to chewwell, whereas he could only chew on the right side, because the teeth on the left side did not clenchandhad started tocome loose, which was a sign that he was going to lose them. It was terrible, on the other hand, that the permanent incisors projected so far forward that he could not close his mouth

properly, though admittedly they allowed him to whistle superbly through the gap that could be formed with his tongue, and sometimes people would greatly admire that, but he would rather have had normal teeth. Other boys the same age were not going bald, as he had been since sixteen. Others were not born freaks, as he was. It might not have been visible to everyone, but that is what he felt like, and that is what he became. It was not solely on account of his physical problems, however, that he shut himself away in his hovel. Around f ive years ago, when his eyesight had been better, not long after his bar mitzvah, or, in other words, his ceremonial initiation into manhood by the synagogue,

176