Later in my room I turn on the computer again; this time I wrap myself up in a blanket.
C:> eyesof ben
This time I choose my friend Yussuf. We are great friends, although we lead such different lives; Gudrun, on the contrary, she is my friend as well, but the fact is, we do not understand each other that much.
When the connection is established, Yussuf is in the open, but he is hiding behind a low wall, and looks along the road.
-What are you doing, Yussuf? It is me, Ben.
-Shut up! Quiet! Don't you see I am hiding?
He makes me laugh: Yussuf is so excited by what he is doing, that he does not realize he is the only one who can hear me. Anyway I do not want him to hear me laugh, and I tell him I will be quiet, if he allows me to look. Yussuf stays hidden, together with some friends of his, and they wait.
After a few minutes, along the road comes a jeep with some soldiers. Then Yussuf and his friends pick up some stones, and crouch down right behind the wall bordering the road, the jeep will pass at a few meters distance.
-Yussuf! what do you think you are doing? It is dangerous to throw stones at the soldiers...
-Shut up, I told you, or I will cut the connection.
When the soldiers are very close, and they have not yet been seen, Yussuf stands up and throws a stone, then another one. The jeep brakes, the soldiers get down, one of them is bleeding. Yussuf flees with his friends along a narrow street closed on both sides by the walls of houses made with concrete blocks. The soldiers pursue them; Yussuf parts with his friends; his running affects in a strange way the shooting by the camera, sometimes the images seem to hesitate, then they move by fits and starts: it is all too fast, even for Eyesof. Yussuf runs, I feel him pant, he turns in a narrow lane between the houses, but there are heavy steps behind him. All of a sudden, at the center of the screen, a big red message appears:
WARNING: POWER FAILURE
I try to see all the same what is going on, because Yussuf runs and pants more and more, now I feel he is very tired.
WARNING: BATTERY LOW - EXIT NOW
Now the red writing fills up half of the screen; then it starts to blink, but I do not want to exit, I want to know what is going to happen with my friend Yussuf...
FATAL: BATTERY FAILURE
The screen turns off all of a sudden, and it goes all black like it was at the beginning. Now my room is completely dark, and is even colder. I stand up in anger, I go and ask my parents.
-Why are we in the dark?
-You know that at this time of the day there is always a power cut -my sister answers; my parents do not even raise their heads, and anyway with the candlelight I cannot see their expression.
-Let us all go to bed, it is better. And tomorrow is the Sabbath, let us try and honour it as we should... as an example, you should not use the computer on Saturday.
-Mammy! Where do you live? -as soon as I finish the sentence I would like to bite my lips, not to have said something like that. She does not react at all, she sighs and keeps on saying we should go to bed. As a matter of fact, there is nothing else we can do. However I do not remove the micro-camera, so that Yussuf could call me during the night, as soon as the power comes back. I am worried for him.