Song: "Svalorna" with Laleh

Season: Pre-expedition


The Swallows

The teacher was furious. He was furious almost every day. And as usual Radek had no idea what he had done wrong. He had just solved the mathematical problem on the blackboard like the teacher had told him to. But now he stood shivering under the raging man's piercing gaze, realizing that he apparently had not been supposed to solve it.

"Don't you lie to me!" the teacher said, spitting out each word, showering Radek with his saliva.

"I'm… I'm not lying, sir," Radek stuttered, his voice thin and quivering.

The teacher bent down and shoved his face closer to Radek's. "How dare you?" he hissed. "This mathematical problem is unsolvable!"

"But I… I just solved it, sir," Radek whispered.

The teacher slapped his face. Radek had known he was going to hit him, but still it came as a surprise. His vision blackened for a few moments and he could feel his cheek become numb and then warm.

"You did not!" the teacher shouted. "You filled the blackboard with nonsense, thinking it would make you look smart. I will not be taken for a fool, boy!"

"I'm sorry…" Radek whispered, stealing a little glance at his classmates. All the other children were sitting silently at their desks, watching the scene in front of them with wide and timid eyes. But some were hiding smirks behind their hands. It was the way it always was.

"I've had it with you," the teacher snarled. He turned and went over to the closet in the corner, retrieving the cane. Radek heard the other children gasp, and he swallowed hard and obediently reached out his hand.

"Hopefully this will teach you," the teacher said and slammed the cane down on the palm of Radek's hand.

The shooting pain made Radek twitch, and tears welled up in his eyes. But he blinked hard and bit his lip. He was not going to cry. Not here in front of the class.

The teacher hit him again, and just then the classroom door opened. "That will be quite enough, Mister Sitenský," a voice said, and made the teacher and everybody else turn around to face it.

A man was standing in the doorway. He wore a suit, his shoes were newly polished and very shiny, and he crossed the floor and approached the teacher, putting a hand on his arm. "Don't punish the child because he knows more than you," he said.

The teacher looked like he wanted to say something, like for example how this stranger knew his name, but suddenly he dropped his gaze and looked down at his feet and said nothing. The suit-clad man patted his arm in a condescending manner, then turned towards Radek. "Hello, Radek," he said with a smile.

The man knew his name too, even though Radek had never seen him before. He glanced at his teacher, then his classmates and then he tried to meet the stranger's gaze. The eyes were mild, still Radek had to look away.

"Come with me," the stranger said.

Radek looked at the teacher again, waiting for him to protest, but he just nodded curtly and stepped aside. And then Radek realized that the stranger was one of them. The ones you never should meet the eyes of or answer back to, because if you did, terrible things happened to you. He put his hand on Radek's shoulder and led him out of the classroom and down the corridor.

"Are you alright, boy?" he asked. "Did he hurt you?"

"It's fine, sir," Radek replied.

"Good."

They went to the headmaster's office on the top floor, and Radek again wondered what he had done wrong. What he had done to make them come. He glanced a little at the man leading him, but didn't dare to open his mouth.

They stopped in the hall outside the office. The door was open, and Radek could see that both his parents were there, along with the headmaster. He met his mother's eyes and she smiled mildly at him, but there were tears in her eyes and Radek swallowed hard once again. He must have done something really terrible this time.

"Wait here," the stranger said. "I will just talk to your parents first."

He entered the office, but didn't close the door completely and Radek could still hear everything that was being said on the inside.

"I am taking him with me today," the stranger said.

"He's just a child," his mother wept.

He was twelve. Small for his age. And now the stranger called him a prodigy.

"He is special. He has great potential. We are taking him to give him the opportunities to live up to that potential."

Radek listened to the rest of the conversation, slowly realizing what this meant. They were taking him away. To the big city. To Prague. To attend another school. A school for children like him.

"He will serve the Party well," the stranger said. And Radek knew right there and then that his parents would do as the man told them to. They would never disobey the Party.

It didn't matter. After all, he wanted to go. Because why would he stay here? His teacher hated him, his classmates didn't understand him. But Prague wanted him. The Party wanted him.

A sound made him look out through the window. There were birds outside. Swallows. He recognized them by their scissor-shaped tails. It made him think about the pigeons at his grandfather's house. Whenever he opened the window in the attic, they would come to him and eat out of his hands. Maybe the swallows would come too?

His hand still ached as he silently pushed the window wide open. The birds flew away. Obviously swallows were not like homing pigeons, Radek thought. Just like he was not like other children.

He stood there watching the birds as they flew above the rooftops of his hometown and out of sight, and then his gaze shifted and he looked at the sky and wondered where his future would take him now. Beyond the clouds like the swallows, perhaps. Maybe even beyond the stars.