Václav Stieber

"I was in a warehouse and suddenly a green sedan, a Skoda, arrived. For a long time, I didn't like green sedans. Two gentlemen stepped out saying that they needed me, that I should go with them. I said I had to be there. They said: 'It's prepared.' I found myself in that Škoda and we went to Kladno, which is 15 kilometres from Strašecí. There, for the first time, I felt the stress when one walked, they open the door and the bars fall behind you. The first is still manageable, but when the third falls, you realize, damn, I cannot call for help from here. I found myself in a room, it was dark. That's where the "mixer" started. One was the "nicer one", as in the detective stories, the other harsher. They said that the only thing they wanted from me was that they knew people believed me. They wanted me to tell him, what do people think, because mistakes are being made. That they understand and want to change it. That they would always just want me to tell them something so they could fix it. I was older already, I had heard something about it. We arrived there at 10 am and I left at 9 pm. Before they started, they introduced me there, lights were on, and there were papers in rows on the table. They said: "Look, you can choose." And there were applications for all the possible schools that were available. To high school, the current grammar school, but because I painted, also to art schools, only maybe drama school wasn't there. Wide selection. They said:"Just to let you know, we are serious, you can choose, what you want." We started with the debates but were unable to come to a resolution. One of them, as they shone a torch into my eyes, his hand always reached out and he kept hitting me in the nose. It got me on the nerves."

"I remember a wonderful experience when [Mom] said, 'We're going to see Daddy.' She picked us up and we took a train to Prague, to Pankrác, that we were going to visit. Of course, we were not allowed inside as children. Mom said she would like to talk to someone, about how long [Father] would be there, that she was alone with the children, that she needs to arrange herself accordingly. Old lady, who was sitting there, said, 'Noone here could... only...there goes Comrade Prosecutor, ask him." Mother must have subconsciously taught about that, we formed such "sculpture composition", as in grandmother's valley in Ratiborice. She pushed us in front of herself, she stood in the back and said:"Mr. Prosecutor, if I could ask you." He stopped by the window, in the backlight, and I recall only one thing, he had such a triangle head, two small teeth in the front, protruding ears with veins visible in the backlight. My impression was - he's a bat. I didn't say it. The debate did not last for long, they dissolved our "sculpture composition" sooner than we could have asked. I don't know what he told my mother, I don 't remember it, but when we got outside, we were in Stromovka, it was our ritual, family ritual when we went to Prague. We got a bun with salami. And we were without father again."