The Family In Front

The next day. 4.20. Jaro and I are sitting on the bank of the Danube. Talking about religion and watching the clouds bloom and filter across the sky. ‘Do you know about the Gnostics?’ he asks. We go deep.

One hour later. We’re sitting above Görög Club at Deak Ferenc Ter. It’s like hippy day or something. All the freaks are out, laying on the grass. Dry sex is prevalent. We’re just watching people for kicks. A family sitting directly in front of us naturally catches (and holds) our attention for the duration of our stay.

There’s the dad. He looks fifty, or somewhere around that age. He wears glasses and looks British. He reminds me of my old soccer coach Tom Armitage. Jeez, that was his name right? I think so. No. That was his son. Anyway, he looks just like him. And he’s playing with his kids. All four of ‘em.

There’s the eldest. She’s about 9 or 10. Freckles. Bored out of her fricking mind. Dad tries to play with her but she gives him that look and he shuffles off. Reminds me of Taryn, in her later years.

The second is probably 7. He’s having fun with a balloon. Kicking it about, running into people. At one point he barely makes it over a couple doing what they do best. He has to learn some time I suppose.

The next is 4. Has to be. Looks up to his brother with absolute stars in his eyes. Would walk off a cliff for him. Reminds me of someone. But he wants the balloon his older brother has. So he snatches it away and runs off, his brother in tow hollering after him.

The last, and youngest of the bunch, is this little girl about 3. Pigtails and the funniest out of all of them. She’s got her own balloon, and kicks it about sometimes, or just stares off into the distance thinking. What are you thinking about right now? Some other little girl, really young, maybe 2, grabs her balloon and stumbles off. She goes after her, explains to the younger one that its hers, but nope, she ain’t giving up that balloon. She found it, it’s hers. So 3 year old runs to Dad and now he’s dancing in front of us trying to make the eldest daughter laugh and she’s not even watching him.

‘Where’s the wife?’ we both ask at the same time.

Meanwhile, the little girl is getting really pissed at the girl who stole her balloon. She keeps running at her, and then stops, walks back, runs at her again, but can’t figure out if she should clobber her or not. She tries to talk to her, but this girl has the death grip on the prize balloon. So finally the girl figures it out, grabs a balloon (not inflated of course) and hands it to the girl, as a trade. She says ‘Blow on it’ (I think?), and the young one sticks it into her mouth and sucks on it. Like hard.

Jaro and I are laughing uproariously. The last 45 minutes we’ve been watching and making our own voice over for the play before us. Best fun I’ve had all week.

Mom finally shows up. Damn. Get me in touch with her trainer. She looks Scottish, or British. One of those. The 10 year old is already as tall as her mom. She looks to be in charge. Within 5 minutes of her showing up, they’re gone.

Jaro and I look around. No more families about that we can put words into their mouths. Damn. Well. Let’s go.

We get back to the flat, and tell Sam about our day.

‘What kind of creeps are you guys?’ she exclaims. She’s really disturbed.

Umm…the family watching kind?