The Rumor

A hero or a traitor?

Some others put a price on my head. The tyrant’s supporters still wielded a lot of power in the shadows. For them, I was dead meat.

–

Now, I am no more than a shadow. A seemingly calm guy who never turns his back on a stranger, who never turns his back at the door of a restaurant, who makes no friends, nor have intimate contact with people for more than ten minutes. A lonely man condemned to eternal solitude.

–

I have read what has been written about me, and none of that is even close to what really happened nor to what I felt or thought at the time. Because the important question here is not: why did he do it? But, when did he know he was going to do it? And the answer is: I don’t know.

–

Much has been written about me. About what happened, why it happened, and what became of me afterwards. If I stayed mysterious, as I said, it was not a conscious or deliberate decision; it was the result of fear. After landing in the destination country, with the pilots forced at gunpoint, I had to send an e-mail to an address on the deep web, without any certainty of getting a response.

–

No one can control a country of rich people, the president reflected, before a small audience made up of several of his ministers, devotees of His Excellency, and attended only by a few security members so discreet that we blended in with the furniture.

I have seen a video that is still half forgotten on YouTube of the scene of the police raiding the furniture storage facility. The camera’s view, located in the helmet of an officer, conveys a disturbing feeling. The rays of light emitted by the spotlights installed in the helmets and long weapons of the policemen illuminate just enough to show the dirtiness of the place, the dust that envelops the scene in a nightmare haze. The officers approached the van, carefully opened it, and then the lights focused on a bundle lying in the trunk, wrapped in blankets and plastic.

–

“I look at you before me and I shudder. I would have to have a heart of stone not to tremble before your massive presence. Today, you, my people, are making history. Today, my people can allow themselves to dream as they have never dreamed before. Because today we begin the path of the Revolution of the Good. Today, you are all history. You are changing history to make our country the most ambitious and supportive in the world”.

I saw the flags waving, the crowd, as a whole, vibrating. The gentle breeze that reached us made the human tide wave like a field of wheat when you gently pass your hand through the ears of wheat. Gentleness, life, the joy of living. That was what we all felt. Our hearts beat in unison. We were one. And the promises seemed to be already reality. Such was his majesty on the platform.

“We have regained the ability to dream. It had been stolen from us.