The Unseen (3 page)

the procession has come to a halt up on the stairs they're all crowding up the whole length of the stairs you can hear Mastino below screaming something but it's unclear it's hard to make out what he's saying there's an incredible din then we lean out and see Mastino down on the ground floor in the centre of the stairwell tearing his hair desperation on his face all you can hear is him screaming the stairs the stairs paper pellets are raining from above and landing on Mastino's head then from the first and second floors come a hail of biros erasers pencils then exercise books and textbooks too they're all throwing things down at Mastino who is down there alone in the centre of the stairwell he's not even trying to shield himself his hands are thrust in his hair but not as a shield and he keeps on screaming the stairs the stairs

the teachers are nowhere in sight the janitors have vanished some teachers have run into the empty classrooms and locked themselves in in one classroom after another the glass door panels cave in and the teachers can be seen standing scared stiff with their backs to the wall down below Mastino delivers one last desperate shout that succeeds in being audible the stair's giving way the shouts quieten down less because of Mastino's words than because people have now let rip enough Gelso looks at me from behind his little round glasses he asks me what the fuck's the shit shouting and Cocco says he's bluffing he's got nothing else left beneath us Mastino lifts his outstretched arms imploring boys and girls boys and girls stop the stair can't hold all that weight calm down and walk down the stairs at an orderly pace no running no noise

but these are orders don't you hear him he's still giving orders shouts Cocco now you can take back all your threats take it all back in front of everybody no more suspensions and mass meetings whenever we want them there's a great rumbling roar mass meeting mass meeting everyone's shouting below Mastino holds out his arms and then lets them drop and when he manages to speak he pants out yes yes all you want but come down here at once I entreat you I'm saying it for your own good come down here come down quietly don't run I beg you there won't be suspensions you can have your own meetings but come down I beg you everyone's shouting victory victory but no one's going down nobody believes all that about the stairs collapsing nobody takes the least bit of notice

Gelso is cleaning his glasses contentedly Malva and I hug in delight and you can still hear Cocco's great hoarse voice yelling so that's the end of your big-talk now eh and then he adds Mastino you're suspended permanently go to the headmaster's room when we send for you Valeriana's voice can be heard saying we ought to go down to the yard now to hold the meeting because it's the only place where there's room for us all together and everyone shouts in agreement everyone shouts mass meeting mass meeting yard yard and they start coming down the stairs and instead of coming down at an orderly rate as Mastino wanted they all run down and what's more thudding along with leaps and bounds to spite him and all shoving Mastino is still there motionless with his arms raised and his head down shouting no no quietly quietly and then everyone knows how it ended

3

In town the youth groups have organized a festival in the cathedral square China and I take the train on our own we get there earlier than we've arranged with the rest of our comrades and there's already loads of people the police are turned out in force all around there's graffiti being done on the walls and the ground free space is a right or make society a festival or let's reclaim life the police begin to hassle us to move on there are a few scuffles a couple of CS rockets go off that don't frighten anyone but they get hold of one comrade and beat him up a bit we leave the square but in the side streets we start to smash up cobblestones and fill our bags with them meanwhile large groups mainly from the outlying ghetto districts make their way to the meeting place

we try to link arms and manage to form into a long snake that's not bad at all we can see the others from our collective they've all come they're in small groups mixed up with the rest the front of the march is heading straight for the cathedral square holding up a banner that says the time for rebellion has come it's a carnival you can see from the confetti and the paper streamers on the ground families have brought children for the outing dressed up as Zorro and Sandokan or the black pirate we go right round the cathedral square and that's when all hell breaks loose because the
carabinieri
attack the back of the march they let off teargas at once the air is impossible to breathe everyone has weeping eyes the families are seized with panic they're chasing after their Zorros and Sandokans and black pirates scattering in the stampede

China and I stay with a group that's throwing broken cobblestones and next to us we find Cotogno Valeriana and Nocciola we see the
carabinieri
starting out at a run to charge then some comrades move a few cars into the middle of the road a couple of petrol bombs on the cars and the
carabinieri
are lost behind the flames and the clouds of black smoke a hundred yards ahead there's a group that's got it in for a Rolls Royce the bodywork battered with sticks and crowbars stones hailed on the windows and a petrol bomb there too and the boss's car makes a nice bonfire we play hide and seek a little while longer with the
carabinieri
through the streets of the centre finally we scatter and we all meet again at the station

all our eyes are stinging and we keep rubbing them even though it makes it worse and there's also the stinking smell of teargas in our nostrils we wash our eyes at the water fountain Malva turns up she's had a fall she'd come in high heels she hit her nose and it's all grazed Gelso's glasses fell off as usual and in the melee someone smashed them and and he can hardly see now Verbena breathed in a lot of gas she feels sick and she's going to throw up Ortica arrives lifting the skirt of his raincoat to show us a big black truncheon we very nearly brought back something else didn't we Cocco Cocco found a rifle on the ground they'd even lost one of their rifles you should have seen Cocco running along like an ostrich with the rifle in his hand everyone was laughing and clapping but then we threw it away what were we going to do with a rifle

another time one evening in mid-April on television there's the news of a comrade's murder a fascist shot him he was seventeen and there's an immediate spontaneous reaction in the morning we all meet on the train for the city the same faces the same tennis shoes the jackets the shoulder bags the scarves the kerchiefs the gloves the berets the carriages are packed people are standing in the corridors nobody's talking and at each station more get on on the walls of the villages we pass through you can see the fresh graffiti the same words that can be read on the silent faces of the comrades at the last stations in the suburbs a tide of people gets on pressing on the platforms they've got plastic bags with helmets in them and under their jackets spanners bars iron rods in their pockets slings ball-bearings bolts

when we arrive there's a long procession filling the platform and it's moving up the stairs of the metro no one's bothering with tickets and in the carriages there are flags and the long poles for the banners someone has a go at singing but the mood is grim threatening we reach the university in the square in front of the university there's a tide of people but not just students not just young people all ages are there old people too there are workers in overalls with red kerchiefs round their necks the demonstration is already there drawn up ready to go the stewards in front kerchiefs masking half their faces and the heavy sticks with small red flags tied on there's a dull rumbling sound then a shout and a slogan launched murdered comrade you'll be avenged everyone together a roar and the demonstration sets off

in front of the law courts in front of the steps there are ranks of riot police poised for battle with teargas canisters stuck onto the muzzles of their guns and helmet visors down the demonstration comes to a sudden halt and slogans are launched against the police the tension mounts seriously the demonstration moves on again and then stops once more in a square hoisted up on the base of the obelisk that's in the middle of the square I see an old man with a red kerchief at his neck lifting a bugle to his lips and sounding the call for silence and at once there's a fearful silence you can only hear the bugle's high notes when the bugle stops there's a roar a great roar all around thousands of fists are raised all armed with bars and spanners

in the streets we cross all the shops are closed the shutters are all rolled down and then suddenly all the helmets go on I can see row after row an expanse of coloured helmets like a sea of billiard balls coloured red white blue green black the demonstration stops in the avenue at a crossroads there ahead just a few yards past the crossroads is a roadblock cars jeeps super-jeeps lock up vans of the police and
carabinieri
protecting the fascists' headquarters that's a few yards behind the roadblock the front of the march with the stewards is at a halt a few yards away from the roadblock the spanners and the bars are raised threateningly police and
carabinieri
close ranks and take cover behind the shields stones are thrown in a hail that seems never-ending you can hear the thud of the stones as they hit the shields and the policemen's helmets

dozens of petrol bombs fly through the air then come the blasts loud as can be yellow red blue they make a high wall of flames ahead of us some jeeps have caught fire the police break ranks they all turn and run tripping and stumbling in their flight one more volley of petrol bombs and other cars are catching fire a cloud of black smoke you can't see a thing any more then you hear the dull thumps of the teargas canisters that hail down on us by the dozen a downpour of teargas that rains on us from all sides in a single moment the air becomes impossible to breathe the stewards' lines move back and get to the road junction they stop at the junction behind in the avenue the march has crumbled and suddenly from the end of the avenue we hear the piercing sirens of a column of super-jeeps

the sirens get closer louder and louder I hear shouting all around then suddenly everyone's running towards the sides of the avenue towards the pavement and all at once as the crowd parts there appears a huge grey-green super-jeep driven at top speed brushing right past us I'm running on the pavement as well more super-jeeps arrive from the column the sirens really close ear splitting stones and a few petrol bombs are thrown at the super-jeeps whose windows are guarded by iron grilles flames rise up from the side of one so many of them that they seem never-ending from the pavements the comrades are still throwing stones and petrol bombs they're shooting ball-bearings and screw bolts with slings I see a super-jeep zigzagging in the middle of the avenue and then aiming straight for the pavement

people fling themselves against the walls of the houses they scramble up the grilles the shutters of the shops onto the first-floor windowsills the super-jeeps mount the pavement they graze the walls they brush against us I scramble up the grille of a shutter everyone is trying to scramble up but there isn't room for everyone people hang on to one another the super-jeeps come on to the pavement scraping against the walls of the houses brushing against us one two three I hold my breath and close my eyes someone near me is screaming in terror I keep holding on to the grille even when the column has gone by and I can see the last super-jeep that has brushed against us and then kind of jolts and suddenly turns towards the middle of the road I can hear a lot of screaming all coming from the place where the super-jeep turned round

very loud screaming shouting I see a lot of comrades running in that direction I can't see a thing there's smoke and confusion they all have red eyes crying with the teargas I get down from the shutter and head over there running with others we collide with others coming from the opposite direction anguished faces staring eyes some lower their kerchiefs one's running his hands through his hair I can't see what's happened there's a group of comrades standing in a semi-circle some are weeping it's not with the teargas some are sobbing one girl shouts something I don't understand then further on I see the bloody body on the ground I see the long trail of dark blood and further on I see the reddish mass of brains the wheels of the super-jeep have spattered out of it out of the head spattered out

4

Then suddenly a puzzling still image that I couldn't quite make sense of it wasn't a photograph because inside the frame were hints of movement there was the intense glare of a floodlight it must have been filmed at night something shot very close up so close that you could make out nothing in any detail there was no commentary there was only that mute puzzling image I could hear only the rustle of China's fingers rolling the joint then the camera lens zoomed back to focus on a head a man's head the head lay on a stain a broad red stain and there was a red stripe coming out of one ear and running down along the cheek as far as the white collar of the shirt

the camera zoomed back again to show the body of the
carabiniere
shot down beside the yellow column of a petrol pump beside the body you could see a pistol I don't know whether it belonged to him or the person who'd killed him I turned up the volume on the television which was down low the newsreader was saying someone had waited for the
carabiniere
outside his house and killed him with two shots in the head from a nine calibre no one had claimed responsibility yet then there was a review of casualties in the security forces since the beginning of the year pictures of
carabinieri
and policemen killed in the street or through the windows of cars a long list of names and dates

the images of the casualties were intercut with other images there was commentary on mug-shots of fugitives scenes of terrorists being arrested of gun battles with terrorists of killings of terrorists scenes of terrorists on trial lined up in the cages with fists in the air and threatening faces the tone of the commentary was like a war dispatch China who had by now lit the joint passed it to me and took the remote control and cut out the sound now you can see two
carabinieri
in full dress uniform stiff young men carrying a vast wreath of flowers with a big purple ribbon across it with The Government in big gold lettering on it then China changed channels she started changing backwards and forwards from one channel to another