Forgotten Times

It is a big house with two floors where Leon Koves used to live. The owner of one of the biggest tailoring in Eger, a city near Budapest. He is a happily married man to Lucia, a young pretty lady with brown eyes, mid/fair skin tone and a long brown hair. In the first floor were the living room, the kitchen and the hall, where men talk politics and economy. Above were 3 bedrooms.

‘Are you ready yet? The guests are about to arrive’. Said Lucia to her husband, who was in the bathroom.

‘I just can’t find the correct tie for the suit, have you seen it? The red one I wore the other day.’

‘But sweetheart, you use that one too much. It was so dirty, that I had to wash it.’

‘Ah! What a bad luck… Okay don’t worry, I’m gonna use another one’.

Their bedroom was spacious, with a big window in one wall, some flowers and candles in littles table around, and a big bed.

Ding dong, bell rang.

 ‘Leon, the guests are here, hurry up!’

‘I’m on my way’. Said Leon coming down the stairs. First checking if everything is tidy, then ready to open the door.

‘Welcome, Antoniet and Bill. It’s a pleasure to have you here’. Says Leon while he leads them to the dining hall.

‘The pleasure is our Leon, thank you for the invitation to your nice house.’ Replies Bill. ‘Hello Lucia. Wow, I see that your baby is growing!’

‘Thank you Bill, it already has one month and a half. Time flies really fast.’

‘Lucia!’ Shouts very excited Antoniet, or maybe the echo of the vast house made it sound louder. 

‘Your belly has grown, have you planned any name for your baby yet?

‘Yes!’ Answers Lucia, eager to talk about it.

‘We will go get the wine.’ Says Leon inviting Bill and segregating the two couples.

‘I really like Jensi and Areska, Georg is pretty too.’ Answers Lucia to Antoniet. But in the kitchen Bill and Leon are talking about the future.

‘How is the cloth bussiness going?’

‘Better than ever, I haven’t stop expanding and recieveng positive numbers since six months ago.’

‘That great man, and what will you do once this city gets just too small for you.’ Says Bill while he uncorcks the wine.

‘Well Billy, that is an issue that really scares me. But thinking seriously, I think that I would have to move to the capital city.’ Says Leon a little nervous, not a usual thing on him.

Ding Dong, the bell rang again

‘Those should be the Joels!’ Shouts Lucia. Leon goes with Lucia to receive them at the door.

‘Good Evening Martin and Mariska, how you doin?’ Says warmly Leon

‘Hello Lucia and Leon, we are very glad to be here’ Answers Martin, giving them a small box.

‘Oh! Thank you for this present. Come on in, it is cold outside.’ Says Lucia inviting them to come in.

‘Open it Lucy, I can’t wait to see what is’

Lucia opens the ornate box and gets a menorah out of it. At the same time Bill and Antoniet enter the hall.

‘Hello Martin and Mariska.’ They greet kindly, and when Bill sees the menorah, he asks:

‘I’ve never understood what are those for.’

‘It’s very simple Billy.’ Answers him Martin’ At Christmas Eve, Jews place the Menorah, seven days before the twenty-five. Every day you turn on one candle. And today, twenty-three, we will turn on five candles.’

‘Oh, that’s nice’

‘Now that we are all here, lets go to eat.’ Says Leon.

They all go to the dining room and start talking. The women talk about their families, husbands and houses; and the men talk about politics and economy.

‘United States is worse than ever, I wonder if they are ever going to recover.’ Says Martin, who seems to be eating gladly the chicken.

‘I would never go with my tailoring to that country; I don’t like the people there. Its full of Puritans.’ Says Leon.

‘Yes it is.’ Confirms Martin.

Bill prefers to stay out of the conversation. And he changes the subject ‘You know something that is really worrying me?’

‘What is it Billy?’ Curiosly ask Martin.

‘It is the new politcal party raising up in Germany right now.’

‘The Nazis?’ Asks Leon

‘Yes Sr. Have you been aware of their ideology and their propaganda? Their idea is to get rid of the people they consider unuseful, like ills and mads.’

‘I didn’t know that. But I don’t think they are a problem. No one would support those proyects.’ Says Leon

‘Yes, I wouldn’t consider it dangerous at all.’ Replies Martin.

‘I can’t believe it, look how late it is. Time just flew by, its already eleven pm.’ Says Leon standing up.

‘Its true Leon, my daughter is waiting for us, I’ll have to go right now. Antoniet lets go. Thank you for everything Leon.’ Says Bill.

‘Goodbye Bill I hope you have enjoyed the evening.’ Says Leon.

‘Goodbye Leon, we had a wonderful time. Enjoy the menorah.’ Says Martin.

‘Goodbye Martin, see you tomorrow.’

Rationale

I chose to write a new beginning to Fatelessness. My idea is to show how jews lived in harmony with different religions and mostly with their neighbors. Something that is very hard to imagine now a days. The story is based on Leon Koves, the father of Georg, and it takes places before Georg was born. I wanted the characters to talk a lot and the narrator to talk just phew indications to lead the characters, so I chose a witness narrator that says what he sees in present tense.

The audience of this text is most likley to be the new generation of Jews. They just listen about the holocaust, and sometimes forget how it was before. My purpose is to show a happy world for them, so they have hope for the future.

As I wanted peace to reign, the language that I chose was informal, because characters have the enough confidence with eachother to talk how ever they feel comfortable.

The connection between the course and the story is in the chapter “Text and Context”. For people that don’t know well what happened in the IIWW, a good way to contextualize is by telling how it was before.

Finally, the title “Forgotten Times” is because, under my point of view, when Nazis attacked the Jews, every one by decades has judged them, until today. And I think that no one can imagine how it would be if everyone treat normal Jews. But the setting of my story shows that unimaginable world.