A Broken Life

(Based on a true story)

Subotitsa – a small city on the northern border of Serbia (previously Yugoslavia), one hundred twenty miles north of Belgrade, capital of Serbia. The city is full of testimonials to the architecture of Eastern Europe.

Six months on an assignment from US govt. – divided my time equally into two halves – Belgrade and Subotitsa. The city mayor favored me with a small office in one corner of the city hall including a translator, Lisa – age about twenty-five or twenty-six. She fled from Hungary and was able to get the translator’s job. Together, Lisa and I needed to spend quite some time on the translation work. In addition to working as a translator, she used to take me to the various city offices. As a result, I got to know her in some depth.

Lisa was quite reserved in nature with a melancholy demeanor. But she did not hesitate to tell me the story of her life.

On a Friday, which is a half-day for work, Lisa asked me, “Have you seen our city?

Not much, really, I said.

If you like, I can take you around the city and to a nice lake.

I did not see any reason for her to offer me this tour.

I had nothing to do for the day except call my wife back home. Since Lisa did not own a car, I offered to drive for whatever she wanted me to show.

First, I drove her to her apartment which is not far from the city center where she works. She wanted to change to casual attire.

I will wait in the car while you get dressed, I said.

She objected, No, please come and see and I will show you my apartment.

I was surprised she wanted a stranger to get in her apartment. However, I heard Hungarian women are very brave, advanced, and free from any prejudice. She took me around. It was a nice place, although not too big, well decorated. Finally, she showed her bedroom. Getting an opportunity, I asked, “You don’t have a boyfriend?”

She paused for a moment. Yes, I used to, she said. I decided not to go further into it. We took off for our tour of the city.

Lisa was from Budapest, Hungary. She was the only child. Both her parents used to be school teachers, now retired. Lisa had a bachelor’s degree in Comparative Literature. During college days, she and David and their families were well acquainted. Lisa and David both were active in politics. On one occasion, they both were in a protest parade against the government’s actions. They both got injured in a clash with the police and were arrested. Lisa was freed with some little conditions, but David was incarcerated sine die.

Even though she was free, she could not get any work to support herself. Being desperate, she broke the law, and without her parents’ knowledge she crossed the Hungarian border in the middle of the night and ended up in Subotitsa. Because of her education, she had no trouble finding a job at the City Hall as a translator.

One year passed at the job. She did not travel to Hungary for fear of being caught. The telephone was the only means to communicate with her parents, but no contact with David. That drove her into melancholia day and night.

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At the end of our tour, Lisa asked, there is a beautiful lake; do you have time to visit the lake? It was a weekend, no work. So I agreed. She declined my proposal to go to a restaurant. Instead we sat on a bench on the lakeshore.

“It has been a year, I have no contact with David. My mother and David’s mother know each other. That helps me get information about David. Three months ago, my father died.” She kept quiet for a while. It seemed it was hard for her to talk. To make it easy I asked, “What had happened to your father?” “Heart attack; My mother is lonely.” I didn’t know what to say. I knew it was hard for her to go, still, I said,

Why not you go to see your mother?

They will throw me in jail, I don’t have the courage to accept that.

After a short pause, she said, “It is getting dark. Let me go. I will walk,”

Even though it was not too far, it was not that close for walking. I insisted that I wanted to drop her off. She did not object. When leaving, I told her, “I will not see you next week. I am going to Belgrade for a week.”

I went back to Subotitsa after a week. Did not have time to see Lisa for two days; did not need a translator either. But I needed her on the third day. But from the City Mayor’s office, I was told, Lisa was sick, she was on leave. I managed my work with a substitute translator.

At the end of the day, I went to visit Lisa. At that time she had a friend with her. I am not a physician, still, it seemed to me, her sickness was mental. I asked, but I could not find anything from her about her illness. After a brief pause she said, “If you don’t mind, I want to request you for a favor.”

I was ready to help her anyway. Lisa started:

“I don’t receive any direct information from David. I heard David is sick; admitted to a hospital; I have not heard from him or anyone else after my father died. I hesitate to ask my mother. I also hesitate to ask you. Then she continued, “You are an American citizen. You will have no problem going to Hungary. Will you mind meeting my mother in Budapest? You may also find out about David.” Tears rolled down from Lisa’s eyes.

I comforted her, “I have a long-time desire to visit Budapest. I will leave on Friday afternoon after work and I will meet with your mother on Saturday morning.”

Not finding Lisa’s mother in her house on the morning of Saturday, I went to the hospital to visit David. I saw his parents and Lisa’s mother sitting at the reception with a worried face: David was in a critical condition; survival chances are slim. Seeing me, David’s mother burst into tears.

I dropped off Lisa’s mother at her house. On my way back to Subotitsa I was agonizing – how can I give Lisa this terrible news!

It was the end of the day. With great sadness, I went to Lisa’s apartment. The door was locked. I knocked on the next–door friend’s apartment. She told me she had not seen Lisa for the whole day. I tried Lisa’s mobile phone; phone kept on ringing; after some time, there was an unclear sound of cry and stopped. I thought of trying again. Just at that moment, my mobile phone rang twice and went silent.

With a heavy heart, I went back to the hotel. The receptionist handed me a letter without any sender’s name. I returned to my room and read the letter.

“Mr. Neal, today I got news about David. Suddenly a strong storm broke all my doors forever. I don’t know what do I do with my broken life…..

Lisa “

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