TE19 Iberian Adventure

Three Stories

wanted to swap her earrings for flour and sugar. She told me I wasn’t to leave the apartment. I waited until the sound of her footsteps had died away before I went out onto the stairs. A group of neighbours had gathered there, like they tended to when there was a power cut. By candlelight, even the most unforgiving of neighbours would become friendly. Some were saying that the borders were open, that there were no checks on those leaving the country. People who thought this too good an opportunity to miss were already setting about stuffing all kinds of belongings into their clapped-out cars. Others thought that at times like this, it was better to lie low. The Leader and his wife might not, in fact, be dead. This whole thing was like the military exercises, except that instructions hadn’t been issued beforehand. Meanwhile, the noises from the street were getting louder and louder. I stole out onto the balcony and saw that the streets were swarming with people waving flags with holes cut in them and shouting hoarsely. A couple of minutes later I was there too, walking along and breathing in time with the others. If I happened to get out of step, I felt the breath of the person marching behind me on the nape of my neck. The words that were being yelled in chorus had a rhythm very similar to that of the words we had to recite at official Party occasions. What’s more, most of them also referred totheLeader, so I didn’tgraspthedifferenceatfirst. For this reason, I wasn’t really shouting, just pretending to, and when we got to a bit I didn’t understand, I mouthed something or other uncertainly. A few blocks on, however, I too had had so much practice with the new chants that I 235