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fused even us; excited by the arms, the movement of the commanders, the loudspeakers and the lights, we’d forgotten that we were dealing with two conspirators of little importance, almost unknown, and that we were acting and waiting with an ardour and tension as if, hiding inside the house, were the longed-for leaders of the movement who had never been seen. Inside the house, among the dusty furniture, the earthenware vases, and the beds, because they sleep like us, they eat, they nourish themselves, they feel the cold and they sit at the table, which is very curious. With the preparations, the army’s arrival, the cars with sirens, we had all become rather excited and we were going crazy feeling the urge to let some bullets fly. Even I, as a result of the spectacle, seemed to have forgotten who the ones inside the house were, as if I didn’t know. Finally, someone spoke over the loudspeakers. Some commander, I couldn’t find out who he was, surely one from the army, because for some time now we have been handing over the important things to them. That’s how things are. We do the job, they give the speeches. It had to be one of the army officers who spoke, otherwise I would have recognized the voice. All the spotlights were facing the front of the house, but they were illuminating much more than the house itself, they were illuminating other houses, those of the frightened neighbours behind the locked doors and shut windows. The house we all had our sight fixed on had a window, and nothing was moving there, as if all of them were dead, or as if they had gone to a party or for a stroll, like people do on their days off. We don’t because we don’t have days off. The president called us and told us all that, for the good of the country, we wouldn’t have days off or leaves. That service to our country was not only a sacrifice, but also an honour. They must not have days off either. In that regard we are alike; who can imagine one of them walking through the park with his son on a Sunday, buying him peanuts and taking him for a boat ride? They have children, like everyone else, but they can’t take them for a stroll. All the spotlights were lighting up the front of the building, a grey house like all the houses in the area, with humidity stains, even though it wasn’t nighttime yet, but it wasn’t a matter of doing the operation in the dark. The night falls like an apartment building collapses on the sidewalk, flattening the trees and the people. The voice warned those present not to get close to the surrounded area, and cautioned the neighbours of the house occupied by the delinquents not to stick their heads out at all and to stay away from doors and windows. To those inside the house, he said nothing. We were all aiming our weapons in the direction of the wooden door that remained closed. Mine is an M-1 recently brought from North America; the government got them by selling meat that we weren’t eating, because they banned the internal supply for six months; with the meat, the gov- —— 85 —— ernment bought the arms they gave us in order to fight better, and to satisfy the daily complaints of the commanders; the weapon has an inscription on the bottom that I don’t know how to read, because I don’t understand English, but I don’t need to read it, anyway, because the weapon is so good that it fires by itself. We didn’t all get an M-1, because it’s said that from the three hundred boxes the Unites States’ government sent, only two hundred arrived; the other hundred were kept by the commanders, in order to sell them at a higher price in foreign countries, not bad considering that they got them at no cost. So, just as many didn’t eat meat, neither were there enough arms for everybody. When the voice was no longer heard there was something like a tremor; we were all waiting orders, but they didn’t come right away. That’s a psychological blow, as the commanders say. They really like those kinds of blows; they go specifically to the United States to...

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