The Unseen (10 page)

the interplay of battle formations starts all over again we all thrust ourselves forward once more and the little group of would-be electors rushes back after having taken a bit of shoving and spitting a bit later the head boy turns up he's in the FGCI
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he turns up along with a dozen other nicely dressed kids with nice clean faces just like his obviously all militants in their phantom organization for a bit they make a point of stopping the few students that turn up to persuade them not to go away then they have some hushed words with the policemen and some hushed words with the little group of Catholics Valeriana's the first one to yell out there it is the historic compromise
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then the slogans start united we agree but against the DC

the police make a surprise dash forward they gain a few yards the outlines of the two groupings get frayed in the scramble kicks and punches get delivered by both sides a few students manage to pass through taking advantage of the mêlée hardly anyone is unscathed Cocco gets the purple lining ripped out of his coat Gelso gets a little finger broken I get hit on the arm I feel a shooting pain I look round but there's such confusion that I can't tell who did it the police are pissed off because we have the banners and they know that we'll start using them meanwhile the PCI
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militants turn up in droves more and more of them all the time and they get behind the police and egg them on to clear us off

one of the PCI people a big tall guy with a bully's face comes up and grabs Pepe by the collar and shouts fascist at him Pepe wriggles and manages to land him a kick on the shins a really hard kick with the tip of his heavy boot hard enough to break his leg but the guy doesn't budge and he doesn't loosen hold of his collar then Ortica who's there beside him raises the banner and with both hands brings it down on the brute's arm a howl of pain and he lets go it's chaos blows lashed out from all directions by now it's a free-for-all the banners shoot into the air screaming swearing insults I feel someone grabbing me by the hair but then it's let go of at once I see Scilla hitting out like a madman with the banner as a cudgel against the police who are trying to pick up the banners dropped on the ground so that they can use them too

ambulances arrive with sirens going the brawl suddenly peters out and we split once more into the two groupings going back to the initial positions suddenly I hear shouting that they've got Canforo and I'm just in time to see Canforo with his arm held being pushed into the lockup van by four police we all rush at the lockup van and surround it more shoving more punching between us and the police but the lockup van can't leave because it would flatten somebody then we start shaking the lockup van rocking it with all of us pushing together that's when the police promise to release Canforo in exchange for handing over the banners we accept we leave the poles there on the ground and Canforo is let out of the lockup van

it's midday we've been there for four hours the polling stations close in the evening and we don't want to leave but we can't keep on fighting it out until the evening this is what we decide to have a reduced picket until the afternoon anyway by now we've achieved our aim traffic to the polling booths has been next to nothing we decide to call a truce with the police and I go with Canforo to talk with the NCO who's there across the road leaning on a squad car talking to a plain-clothes man in a cream double-breasted raincoat the tension has slackened completely someone is sitting on the pavement eating rolls a young policeman is taking out his pocket transistor to listen to the football match and he speaks to us what's all this then it's Sunday why aren't you out in the country with some girls instead of hanging round here creating all this bother

15

The time they arrested me we'd just got in on the train from the village I was walking with China and two other comrades along the road from the station towards the centre there was a meeting at the centre about the radio station we were setting up it was Gelso and Ortica doing it and the broadcasts were to cover the whole province one of their fucking local squad cars goes past we often saw them lately parked outside the centre but we don't take that much notice just snooping as usual we think but then they skid to a stop right alongside the pavement just yards ahead of us they skid to a stop and suddenly get out they rush out towards us with guns in their hands towards me it takes me by surprise for these guys knew us all right and there was no way they needed to put on this act to check our papers as they'd already done a load of times before

the three plain-clothes guys don't bother much with the comrades who're with me but they surround me they point their guns right at me and they tell me to keep still don't move they shout and who's moving I say they close in and one of them puts the comrades against the wall and China too with their hands up then they search them a bit but halfheartedly while the others take me by the arms and push me towards the car they push me inside the car and I wind up squashed in between two guys holding guns that they stick into my sides they were quite edgy and they didn't say a word and so nor did I say a word only by turning my head a little can I glimpse China on the pavement running towards the car which speeds off just at that moment

all this happened all very fast once he saw I'd got into the car the one that was left outside released the comrades he was holding against the wall at gun-point he ran to the car and got into the front seat and he took off with the tyres zigzagging then he looked in the rear-view mirror and said did you search him no goes the one on my left still shoving the gun in my ribs the one who's driving gets mad how come you didn't search him then bloody idiots you were supposed to search him and he brakes and makes to draw up by the kerb but the same one on my left says don't stop now the one driving accelerates again and says at least put the handcuffs on him then eh and then he asks me menacingly are you armed

no I say the one on the right brings out the handcuffs and the one driving tells him put them on with his hands behind his back then the one on my left takes hold of my hair with one hand and says lean forward put your hands behind you I obey but I move very slowly because I can feel the butt of the gun pressing into my side the one on the left pulls me by the hair again until my face is resting on the front seat while the other one puts the handcuffs round my wrists but he makes slow work of it because there's so little room and like this finally I'm handcuffed the one on the left lets go of my hair now I'm handcuffed and very uncomfortable with my arms pinioned behind my back and the two beside me who are still pressing the guns between my ribs but I choose to keep my mouth shut and ask no questions

the road to the police station is a short one but I have time to think a thousand thoughts I think that these guys are going in for some serious intimidation I don't understand why but they're serious about it for sure and seeing the way these things go as soon as we get to the station they'll beat me up and I think of how I'm handcuffed and that that makes it easy to hit me without me even being able to defend myself and so I get really scared about being beaten up I can't even give any thought to why they can have detained me I can only think about the beating they're going to give me and when we get to the main entrance they shove me out still with the guns in their hands they shove me up the stairs and keep shoving me even when there's no need they shove me if I go slowly and if I hurry they say where do you think you're going and pull me back by the handcuffs

well we go up two flights like this with these guys shoving me and pulling me all the time then they take me into a room and make me sit down on a chair the moment I sit down still with the handcuffs behind me I think this is it they'll start now and instead the one who'd handcuffed me brings a tiny key out of his pocket and takes them off I breathed a sigh because I thought that if they were going to hit me it would have been easier to do it when I was handcuffed I rub my wrists a bit for they're red and they hurt then the one who was driving tells me brusquely strip come on be quick about it I don't raise any objections I take off my jacket my scarf then I take off my sweater my shirt and vest come on be quick about it the trousers too I take off my shoes slip out of my trousers and then I look at them

but he still keeps on at me bad temperedly I said the lot you have to strip right off the lot have you got it and he flicks my back with the tip of his taut outstretched fingers and with contempt on his face I see this contemptuous expression of his and my immediate reaction is to look straight at him and I see this contemptuous expression in his eyes and I feel a surging burst of hatred and rage you're a piece of shit I tell him with my eyes I'm not brave enough to say it to him because I can see him there all poised and ready to let me have it if I make the slightest move and so I take off my socks and underpants and I stand there naked I'm cold but I don't move it's like a revelation for me and I think to myself this is the way they are this is what they're like but why do I find it so staggering how many times have we told ourselves that this is how they are

the three of them start searching the clothes they turn out the pockets of the jacket the pockets of the trousers they empty out their contents onto the table then one by one they finger all these things the usual sort of things the cigarettes the lighter the coins pieces of paper the keys the usual things there always are in pockets they look at them and look again they shift them from hand to hand two or three times they turn them round fingering them then they pass them on to one another the lighter the keys the pieces of paper they read them studiously they look at them against the light they put them delicately down again then they take the cigarettes out of the packet they take out the silver foil as well they study it carefully on one side and the other but what are they looking for I ask myself what do they think they'll find

then they hand round the clothes they feel the collar of the jacket the seams they pull away the lining and each of them feels inside it they feel the collar of the shirt they turn it back they inspect the seams they turn the trousers and the sweater inside out they inspect every inch with the same measured calm you can tell that for them these are routine mechanical actions then they pick up the underpants they feel these too then they get to the shoes slip their hands inside they lift the tongue they hold them in the light to look edgeways inside them they inspect the sole they bend it back then throw them on the ground finally the red scarf and the socks their hands never relaxing they lift them they feel them they turn them over and over about three or four times they hand them back and forth then when they've finished one of them leaves the room

I gather up my things scattered all over the floor I do it all so slowly I still don't understand what they're after I think that now they could at least tell me something but I avoid asking questions I take my time getting dressed again and then I sit down on a chair I look out of the window even though there was nothing to see because it was the second floor and there was just a grey sky outside the window I was looking out into the grey sky so as not to look at those guys who appeared relaxed now too and weren't bothering much with me any more one had sat down on the desk and was dangling his legs backwards and forwards while he fiddled with the things that had been in my pockets and now formed a little heap on the desk

I had the shit behind me I couldn't see him but I was sure he'd placed himself there deliberately to make me insecure for I couldn't take my mind off the thought that I was about to be struck until a few minutes later the one who'd gone out reappears and they ask him if the chief's arrived just imagine I think to myself they really do call him the chief and the guy answers he's on his way in I know who he is this chief I've already seen him every time we've had a demonstration he was always there in the cream double-breasted raincoat behind the window of an unmarked car holding the radio transmitter up to his mouth and giving orders to his boys because that's just what he calls them my boys and they call him the chief what kind of people are these cops they really do act and talk like the cops you see in the movies

16

There was a long long moment of silence after these guys stopped throwing bombs down from the roof until they began climbing down the spiral staircase climbing down the spiral staircase from the roof to the second floor rotunda crossing the length of the corridor and entering this dormitory cell where we all were is ordinarily a matter of seconds but they took a full minute to do it and get there because they were coming down very cautiously they were coming down all kitted out in their bullet-proof vests in their all-in-one helmets and when they finally got down into the rotunda first thing they started spraying sub-machine gun fire randomly into the corridors they were firing like madmen pointing the sub-machine guns round in every direction and all of us were shouting we surrender we surrender don't fire

the scene I saw was that I saw one of these guys all kitted out coming in but in no hurry he stepped inside the dormitory cell he saw everyone at the back crouched on the ground and the first thing he did was blast a volley from his sub-machine gun at the ceiling then he threw a grenade inside inside the dormitory a non-explosive grenade a grenade of the type meant to blind you the type used by those commandos what the hell are they called and the fact is it stuns you because it produces an incredible blaze of light a tremendous bang that deafens you and at the same time a blaze I mean a blaze that really does blind you and what happens is that you close your eyes but then afterwards you've got this light still in your eyes it's still there even if you close your eyes it stays for several seconds and you're dazed you're left utterly stunned

they hurled one of these grenades into the dormitory where we were and then the sensation I felt was that one of the guards had got himself under my legs and was gripping me tightly as he clung to me because by now we'd all lost control of our reactions we were all sitting with our backs against the wall and then these guys at the door started firing submachine-gun volleys less than two feet above our heads then of course everyone's instinct was to lie flat on the ground as low as possible because these guys were firing and screaming abuse bastards we'll murder the lot of you and that kind of thing and they went on firing just above people's heads then they started making us all turn over kicking us down with our faces flat against the ground