Révfülöp | THE CASE OF THE BURIED FRISBEE

Lake Balaton was one of the important places of my childhood. Szárszó, the company holiday resort, socialist summers, socialist New Year’s Eves – it was paradise on Earth. The sun oil-scented world of the free public beaches, the exits to the lake cut into the reeds, the never-deepening lake bottom, gave these holidays a framework that I took completely for granted. „My dear child,” said the Great Lake, „may you have the most Edenic place in the world, enjoy it!” I was a dutiful child, I obeyed her.
I was once in Bulgaria at the Black Sea, I saw the endless water and I was overwhelmed, but I never loved it as much as I loved the Great Lake. She wouldn’t give herself up, she was defensive, bitter and agitated. There’s nothing like the peaceful water of Lake Balaton. I have never been a let’s-wade-into-the-water type, I have always given my body time to get fully used to the Lake. However, once they aligned, they didn’t want to be separated anymore. I was not a child, who could make friends easily, but I was fine on my own indefinitely. At times like those I was an explorer tickling the jungle of the reeds, a diver exploring the world of the lake bed, an assault ship riding the waves. I used to have a nice yellow frisbee. It flew really well, it sweeped through the air like hell and it floated on the water, so it was fun to play with while splashing around. I decided to conduct a scientific experiment with it and see how much sand I had to put on top of it to stop it from coming up to the surface. In other words, I buried it. I waited for a while with great satisfaction, but it didn’t come up. After I felt completely satisfied, I thought I would free it, but to my utter dismay, I couldn’t find it. It was gone forever. An unsolved mystery, I have never recovered from it: the Great Lake had taken my favourite toy. Of course, I couldn’t stay mad at her, neither back then, nor eversince. The toy deserved it. I lost my frisbee, but I still have the Great Lake. There are fewer reed jungles to explore, the socialist company resorts have been replaced by luxury hotels and apartment complexes, and you can hardly see any free public beaches anymore. But the Lake will remain, it will still be here a hundred years from now for divers to explore the world of the lake bed, for assault ships to ride the waves and maybe one day my frisbee will emerge from under the sludge, wondering what happened to it