Reshot finally the 7th notebook of my old diary, covering july-november 1971, as source material for Byo. Took me three days of quasi sneaking upstairs, under pretense of extended smoke breaks, to complete the task, which I managed to do, but this time she finally asked why did I take the camera upstairs, when she already returned it downstairs. So I told her, I'm reshooting my old diaries, so I can remember things, as my memory goes rather hazy in some areas. For one, I couldn't remember whether that Status Quo concert was in january 1971 or 1972. Well no, it was in september 1971. And a few other things. To which she said something like "and this is so important to know". "Yes, nothing I do is of any importance anymore, I listen to all the wrong music, read all the wrong books, it's all a scam, they screwed us all the way, so yeah, decided that I don't care." "One can't even talk to you anymore, just one word and you're insulted at once" "One word? We really never talked about any of this? C'mon. Anyway, since it's all wrong and irrelevant, and I have nothing important to do, I'll do what I want. So, this."
We sat in silence for a couple of minutes, nobody bothered to change the subject, and this one was exhausted. Then I mentioned how I have very few sources for the eighties and nineties, almost nothing survived. Mostly stopped using paper, yet there was never enough on disks, and never enough space on disks. Actually the eighties went in combined paper-tape-floppy world, none of which survived in any format readable now. Few papers maybe. For the nineties there is sezam, but the archive is spotty too.
In the afternoon Magi appeared on skype again. Her mom's childhood neighbor Slupek reappeared, actually started coming regularly, but wanted a contract on her mom - we keep her well and alive, and when she dies we inherit the apartment. Yeah right... that's the sure way to have a grudgily pampered six months of life, when the retainers become impatient and the old person somehow dies naturally soon after. This went a bit further, there was 60000 rsd missing, which were there two days ago. Old mom fainted after some meal the Slupeks brought yesterday while they were there, and they laid her on bed and let her sleep it off, and allegedly rummaged through the boxes, taking away all the food and medicines (we did recommend to drop the chromazepam or whatever sleeping pilss she was taking, we had such with both dad and Oma, and it's just too much of a drug, does a lot of other damage)... so okay, we went to see her, and Magi came on on skype when we got there. I had to do a detailed search of the whole regal to check whether she just mislaid the envelope with the cash. Found two other envelopes where she had about 1000€, but not this one. Then she called these guys, to ask whether they know anything about the money, whether they saw her mom move it somewhere then can't remember neither moving it nor where to. Then she went to get her a fresh bag of adult diapers - this being the end of town (beyond are only the 2nd Lidl and that jewish shopping mall and industrial zone west), despite it being high rise and high density, the nearest pharmacy is more than a kilometer inwards. The diapers can be found in Lidl, just across, but that's unreliable, they often run out of exactly the size you need, happened a lot as the twins grew, so she prefers to walk a bit and buy them in a pharmacy, and she did, at the same discount as last week.
Now while she was out I stayed to amuse both Magi and her mom, and found out that these Slupeks, "childhood friends from the village", are friends to neither of them, just neighbors, being generationally midway between them. And they have the only wedding gown boutique in town, and their surname is kind of famous around town, there was a big doctor, ward head at the hospital, a famous lawyer, and they always managed to be rich and have big houses near downtown. And they got their sights on the apartment, so even the food that they brought was suspect - she did faint and puke (now whether it was the food, or just exhaustion, or switching from hospital food and meds to what she had at home, who knows) and before she came to, they have "shuffled all the boxes" etc, and she later discovered the money was gone. They already had plans to take her to live with them and meanwhile remodel the apartment, they need the apartment, they'd rent it out to cover their expenses... while Magi would remain the nominal owner and pay taxes on it. Yeah, right. She went off the connection and called them, to ask whether they knew anything, then called back via skype. We spoke for another dozen minutes, when the land phone rang, and aunt got the headset... but as she was in the wheelchair and I guessed the helical cable was too strong, I brought the phone nearer, and held it in my hand all the time. For some reason, it was on speaker, so I heard everything, and so did Magi via skype, in her little village in Normandy. It was the hopeful apartment owner lady, and the expensive boutique owner, crying out loud over the thanks she got for all the hard work she did (they were paid for this), for washing the shit and puke (nope, my lady washed those), for changing the diapers (nope, girls from Caritas do that). A very good act, though I've heard the exact style many times, sounds the same in hungarian, though it has a special shade of outrage in that language.
Eventually she got off the phone, and we discussed the possible outcomes. Magi said six times that she was very careful to cast no accusations, was only asking if they knew anything, but no, these guys recognized the accusations through and through... guilty conscience? And, ah, they mentioned bringing in the police to do a search of the place - the guy was once a cop of some rank, as they all were. Yeah, right, they first need a warrant and two witnesses (cops once asked my lady to be one when they wanted to search Faik's place, she refused), and even then they'd have trouble getting in. These retired cops always tend to threaten with bringing the police, though in reality they probably don't know anyone there anymore, and dare not show up more than once a year, to get drunk on Security day. Same gang as them crazymen in 1973.
Just in case, she begged me to do a customs-style search of the whole regal, just in case the money was somewhere else. Found nothing.
Then she came finally, with scraped knees - she was looking at the door, and stumbled upon the bottom step, which is a tad higher. We got to stash the 1080€ she had in two envelopes and take them home. Until further, there should be between 5 and 9000 rsd at hand, no more. So she'd have enough to pay the regular costs, and be not attractive enough for theft.
On the way home, it occurred to me that the money may still be hidden somewhere - we didn't search much except the visible drawers and the regal - and that the whole thing could be just a ruse to get rid of these apartment hunters. Well, if so, kudos to the aunt, it's a very elegant solution to her problem, she wants those sharks off her case, and this will remove them efficiently (though one can't be sure until the new lock they put is replaced with an even newer one). OTOH, it's also possible that at some point we may end up being asked to return the 3000€, when only the four of us know there was exactly 1080€. The thought did cross our minds of the way home (not at the same time)... well, if so, I'd give the 1080, add a 500 and consider it a cheap way to get rid of the whole story. Magi may have been all cute and sexy when she was young (and the idea of having hit the wrong sister did pass into my skull once upon a time), but over the last 36 years she found us exactly when she needed us but otherwise we were never in the same universe, and the few times we needed her she did help reluctantly and then said we shouldn't do that anymore (so ok it was in her official line at the bank, but if so, the language was badly chosen, rather haughty and careless, not a word of blaming it upstairs).
14-IV-2021 - 6-VI-2026