Daniel B?awat was a pre-war Communist, a veteran of the Civil War in Spain.

  Amazingly, he survived the post-war reconsolidation, arriving at the moment when all his friends and comrades in arms were becoming ministers and members of the Central Committee.

  Which is when he decided the whole Communist project was nothing but one grand swindle.

  So he took up employ as a coat check attendant at the most elegant café in town.

  The most relevant thing right now was that B?awat was an old monastic, a Jew.

  At the time, Jews desperately sought out departure from this place by any means possible.

  Legal travel outside the country, of course, was practically impossible.

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  The most important thing right now was that I could trust B?awat one hundred percent.

  I told him I had to leave the country.

  -You have to think long and hard about this, brother, he responded to me. You don’t have a family to leave as deposit or your own highly-placed party sponsors. We have, in a certain sense, mitigating circumstances, that we may be going as if to build our state in Israel.

  -And then, he continued, we can go build this purported state in the USA, Canada, Western Europe, South America, or even Australia. I’ve seen all those places, he added. You, anyway, don’t have such mitigating circumstances. They’d have your ass under three thin pretexts: for treachery to the socialist state, for the illegal attempt to cross the border, and, of course, for desertion.

  -Your idea sucks, B?awat finished, but at least you came to me. This country’s become full of snitches, informants and confidence men.

  He wasn’t too impressed with my idea.

  He asked me if I’d told anyone else about it.

  -No, I cam straight to you, I responded.

  -Good, and don’t tell a soul. All snitches. Just wait. Let me see what comes up. Come back in three days, he told me.

  -I’ll see you tomorrow.

  They would be a long three days.