In the clutches of evil

From behind the barred window he looked out and watched the snowflakes falling. One by one, they came down, silently falling on the prison yard, which was slowly being dressed in a cold, white coat. At first glance, one might have seemed like the other, but when he looked more closely, each one behaved a little differently. Each had a life of its own, and all of them together were racing to see which one would hit the ground first. As if maybe something good was waiting for them there. "They're actually like humans," he thought, and the idea intrigued him. Just as humans are always rushing somewhere and have no time to take in the beauty of life around them, these same ones can fall from the heights to the ground, the hard ground. "Just like me," he whispered half-quietly into the gloom of the prison cell. It has been more than a year since he himself fell from the heights of heaven to the ground, to where no one is voluntarily. Where even the toughest men sometimes cry in the dark so that others cannot see their weakness.

It was February 1956 and David realized that it had been almost a year since the day he was sentenced. Fifteen years of hard labor for stealing and subverting a socialist republic. Fifteen years of waiting for freedom, when a day is like a month and a month is like a year. "I can't give that up", he said to himself as he fought an internal battle between his own desire to live and the sad reality. It was hard not to think of something nice out there that others took for granted. It was only here that it slowly and surely dawned on him that the best things in the world were free. Lost in his thoughts, he didn't even realize that the footsteps of two people were approaching his cell. One of them was a convict, according to the typical clinking of chains. The other must have been a guard. They were not to be trifled with here. Some of them could be incomprehensibly cruel and heartless. It was better to keep your opinions to yourself. After all, he was now just an ordinary MUKL - a man destined for liquidation. All this was going through David's mind now until he suddenly became alert, the footsteps in the corridor stopping right in front of his cell door. The keys rattled in the lock and a guard entered the room. David immediately stood at attention and announced, "Prisoner number 14585." The fat guard looked at him uneasily and then his eyes were drawn to the scattered blanket on the bunk. "Shit, Vrážek, are you kidding me?!", he yelled at the whole room so that if there was a tree, all the leaves would fall off. He punches poor David in the face with his fist and he immediately collapses to the ground. "Clean up!" There was no point in fighting back. There would be a cruel retribution that he might not survive. Bachar still wipes his boots on him to let him know who's boss and leave him alone. He walks back out into the hallway, nudges the newly arrived convict into the cell, and then slams the door behind him. The prisoner remains standing like a pillar of salt, staring at David lying on the floor with bulging eyes. Then he sets his things down on the vacant couch and bends down to help him up. "Come on, get up, you can't lie here like this, you'll be sick," he encourages him as if he were his older brother. "Don't touch me!!!", David retorts angrily, pushing his hand away and getting up. He goes straight to the barred window. Only now does he notice that he is bleeding, which he wipes off casually on his sleeve and continues to pay attention only to himself.

As he stands at the window, with the snow still falling heavily outside, he thinks. But not as he did a moment ago. He's thinking about revenge. He imagines paying the guards back with interest. How the poor bastards are suddenly in a different role, they are not the guards, but he is the guard and they are the torturers. What a delightful thought for his disgraced soul. And now what about the new one here? I've been locked up for a year and kept in solitary all that time. Suddenly they throw someone in here I know nothing about. "You want some?", comes a soft voice behind his back, and when he turns around he sees his new roommate holding a piece of bread in his outstretched hand. "I'm not hungry", David replies in a more friendly tone and continues to look out the window. "I'm Martin", says the new roommate, shaking his hand. It's the first time David gets a good look at him. He is about forty years old, athletically built, with sharp features on his face. "David", he introduces himself briefly, and they shake hands in a sign of perhaps budding friendship. "None of your business", he replies in a raised voice to let him know that they are not old friends and that he will not gain his trust easily.

So he went on with them day after day, and the months went by. In the almost year they had been in the cell together they had managed to find their way to each other and it was safe to say that David had no one closer in his life now. He gradually began to trust Martin as he gradually opened up to him and let him in on the secrets of his life. Even David himself felt the need to confide in someone. In the back of his mind, he thanked God for having Martin as his cellmate. Martin seemed like a fair man who didn't play games and wasn't afraid of anything. They stuck together and helped each other as much as possible in these difficult moments of life. And so it happened that one evening David couldn't stand it and started confiding in Martin. It was the summer of 1957, it was beautifully warm outside, the reds from the west were saying goodbye to another day on earth and the last chirping birds were preparing to go to sleep in the treetops. "Martin", David says half-quietly into the living room. "What is it?", comes from the other cavalier. "Martin, you know how you wanted to know why I was here and I never told you? It's because I didn't trust you. Now I think I can trust you and I just...", David pauses for a second. It was as if what he wanted to confide in Martin was so secret, so personal, that it was extremely difficult for him to confide in anyone. He still wasn't sure if he could, if he should, if he would make another mistake in life? Martin just looked at him silently, not pressing. He understands what must be going through David's mind right now. It's a struggle between wanting to ease his conscience and the fact that if he says something, it could hurt him in the future in life. "Look, if you don't want to say it, don't say it, I don't want you to say anything," Martin says after a few minutes of silence. David turns to him and just looks at him. "I know, thanks mate", he replies and doesn't pursue it any further. From that moment on, however, it boils inside David all the more. It seems that his inner struggle will eventually win heart over mind. He convinces himself that this is a good move and that he will eventually confide in Martin. For he has a plan, and it will take at least two. Who else should he trust more here and now than Martin?

It had been two weeks since that conversation when David came back to him out of the blue. Now he knows he just has to try. He'll trust Martin and confide in him about his secret plan. When it's dinner time again and the guard has made his last rounds of the curfew room, he sits down on his prison couch and says, "Come here," looking at Martin and tapping the seat next to him with his hand for Martin to sit down. He gets up and sits down next to him, and now listens with his eyes fixed on what David has to say. He searches hard for each word, but it gradually creeps out of him. "Martin, we can't go on like this. We have to do something about it." David looks at him uncomprehendingly and doesn't understand what and with what should they do? "Well, with our life here!" David answers in a slightly raised voice, only to realize immediately that he must be quiet, and so he continues in a half-voice: "This is not livable, do you want to rot here for the rest of your life?"' He looks into Martin's face. You can see him wondering what David is really up to. He can't be thinking they're going to run away together or something, it's all nonsense. They don't stand a chance. "You want to run away?", he then asks David incredulously. "Exactly", David doesn't even bat an eyelid, still watching Martin's face. It's obvious that the thought has scared him more than it has pleased him. He has the last four years left to serve, escape makes no sense to him. "Leaving aside the fact that we would never be able to escape from here in our lifetime, the only question then is what would we do in freedom? How would we make a living, how would we hide, after all, it's all nonsense. Either we'll be shot while escaping, and if not, maybe we'll be shot afterwards. And if we're lucky enough not to be shot, then they'll put us in such galleys that we'll die in those chains, you bet!", Martin had his own view of the whole affair. But David was not discouraged. "Martin, I understand you, but I have it all worked out, don't doubt it. I'll explain everything to you. I don't have an escape plan yet, but I'm working on it. And if we manage to escape, then leave it to me. We'll run for the hills and we'll have the money. A lot of money, believe me." Martin looks at him with a smirk, as if he thinks he's crazy. This provokes David to be even more forthcoming. Time has moved on and it is completely dark outside.
"Look Martin, you may laugh at this, you may even think I'm crazy, but I believe it. You know there's this thing that got me thrown in jail. A few years after the end of the war, a friend of mine contacted me and said she needed help on a delicate matter. It was that she had, through some middleman unknown to me, connected with a wealthy German family who perhaps had aristocracy in their blood, or so they said at the time. Well, the thing was that they were fleeing from the Soviets in 1945. They loaded up what they could and went west. But they kept most of their valuables in their castle. They were afraid to take them with them, lest someone robbed them on the way and killed them. They wanted to come back for it when things calmed down after the war, but then everything turned upside down and they couldn't get their hands on the property anymore. So it was me who was supposed to pick it up and take it to an apartment in Liberec. I managed to do that in the end. Unfortunately for me, the state security was already waiting in that apartment and then things went downhill for me. I probably don't need to tell you the details, you can imagine it yourself. So they gave me 15 years. What they don't know is that there were three hiding places. I only picked the first one when they locked me up. If we can escape, we'll have money to escape and live decently to start with. But we must go west, everywhere else the ground will burn under our feet." David finished his story and sighed deeply, as if a stone had perhaps fallen from his heart. He stared absently at the ground. Martin could see him thinking hard about how to handle the information. He is silent, looking into the pitch black darkness of their cell and smiling slightly, but David can't see that. "Then I'm not going in, my friend, it's certain death", he finally replies and goes to lie down on his bunk in silence. There he turns his back on David and tries to fall asleep. "Well, that's fucked up", David thinks to himself, reproaching himself for ever confiding anything to Martin. He swallows the bitter pill and lies down on the couch too, what else is there to do. But he doesn't let his dream take him away. "Then I'll do it all by myself", he encourages himself, and as he plots in his head the other possibilities of his escape, he falls asleep.