The New Hungarian Quarterly, 1974 (15. évfolyam, 54. szám)

Ambrus Bor: A Precise Description of a Moment of Danger (short story)

A PRECISE DESCRIPTION OF A MOMENT OF DANGER Short story by AMBRUS BOR E xtreme peril can be lasting, it can be immediate. There is an instant in which he, who is threatened by danger, recognizes it. This instant can precede the moment of jeopardy, or it can ensue after the peril has lasted awhile. What’s significant is the instant. There are precursory events, there are also chance circumstances. Pre­cursory events pertain to a precise description, because these assist or impede the recognition, as the irradicable early ailments or early health state in a patient’s medical history determines the lethalness or innocuousness of an illness. Saturday afternoon, 1:4c). The motorist pulls into a gas station. He charges up 5 gallons of premium gas, that costs 88 forints, around 90 with tip. Thanks, says the gas attendant, and wishes him a good trip. So long, says the motorist, he starts up the engine, but then asks if just on Sunday there’s one-way traffic on the M 7 Road to Lake Balaton or on Saturdays too. The gas attendant doesn’t know definitely, but he thinks there’s one-way traffic also on Saturday afternoon. The motorist doesn't like heavy or fast traffic. He’s 52 years old, 5 feet 7, weighs 126 pounds, neurasthenic build, no physicalhandicaps, his periodic heart complaints are groundless, blood sugar normal, his reading glasses with a one diopter correction should be changed to two, he received his driver’s license two years ago, since then he has driven approximately 16,000 miles. In his work situation he is meticulous, partic­ular, bellicose in an argument, responds with anger to insults, silently harbors imagined affronts for a long time, left to himself he in anxious, overconscientious, acutely sensitive to noise, he avoids crowds, doesn’t like heavy or fast traffic. His pleasantest motoring memory was a summer trip, in the afternoon and toward dusk on the Tapolca, Szigliget, Tördemic- Nemesgulács-Mindszentkálló-Köveskál-Zánka-Lake Balaton route. 7

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