TE19 Iberian Adventure

Gabi Csutak

as possible and to have their say. Others settled for lining up behind the speakers, grim expressions on their faces and indicating with their posture and their gestures that they literally stood by what the people in the middle were saying. Most of them, for all that, glanced about them, flushed and breathless, like people just awoken from a dream and with no idea of how they had got there. A voice behind the camera called the undisciplined company to order, then pressed some sheets of paper into the hands of the person who happened to be talking at that moment, so that he could read out the latest news on howmany had died. From time to time, they brought out one of the guilty, so that theworld could see them too. The Leader’s son, whom they mocked as the heir to the throne, was shoved into the studio, bleeding from the head. An animal terror quivered in his eyes, thatof ananimal that knew it could be killed any minute. The next moment, hewas hidden fromview by the increasinglyexcited revolutionaries as they had yet another go at composing the perfect group photograph. They kept on coming, stepping on each other’s toes, sticking their elbows in each other’s ribs. Those who had been squeezed out climbed up onto the backs of the others, one by one, and pressed their chins into the others’ collar bones. If there wasn’t space anywhere else, they pushed their heads under their companions’ arms. Therewere several hundred people crowded onto the screen when suddenly everyone fell silent and looked at the camera. One after the other, in obedience to an invisible conductor, came the sound of hoarse intakes of breath. Rhythmical hiccups were 246