TE19 Iberian Adventure

Three Stories

jingle. I was aware that this could easily get me caught, but I couldn’t stop, myownmomentumpropelledmeonwards. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that there were a great number of children on the streets. They were all looking at me contemptuously fromunder their hoods. Then they set off after me. At that point I was already running as fast as I possibly could. I didn’t want to waste time looking back, but I knew I had many hundreds of mauve-coated children breathing down my neck I tried to maintain a rhythm, but my breath was coming faster and faster. After a while I was only breathing in through my mouth, but this meant I couldn’t swallow and there were dry splinters sticking in my throat. My heart was now beating in my skull, as if it wanted to break out of there at any cost. I began to feel dizzy and nausea was spreading through my stomach. I tried to switch direction as unpredictably as I could in order to shake off my pursuers. For a moment, everything went dark and with my last ounce of strength, I flung myself into one of the stairwells. Forehead pressed to the wall, I waited for them to catch me. There was hot glass wool pulsing behind my forehead. It was only when the stabbing between my ribs became bearable and I could take in air with my mouth closed that I dared look around. I couldn’t see anyone. I waited a little bit longer, for my legs to stop trembling so much, and only then did I move towards the exit. I crept along next to the wall of the building as far as the corner, then ran across to the boxwood bushes, so that I couldn’t be seen from the path. Every movement I made, every breath I took bounced back off the walls, amplified. Though if I 231