“The escape... If you would plan to run away, you would say something like: 'Well, I will check this other department, I need to buy this toy.' So I went to the toy department to buy something for Petr. They came out through the exit, we were just pouring out, towards the car. So I took my satchel and I just run away. I was in Trelleborg, Sweden, there was a ship going to East Germany in three hours and in four hours there was a ship to West Germany, to Travemünde. So I thought: 'Okay, I have to go to Travemünde.'. So I went to buy a ticket. I was lucky that I still had some money, that I didn't spend all of it. So I thought that I had to hide somewhere as I couldn't stand our boys any longer. As I couldn't stand it, I knew that they would try to talk me out of it, and in the end, they could even break me. There were two houses in the harbor, the first one, the smaller one, for Eastern Germany, the second one for the West. So I went there and I hid my satchel into this luggage locker. And I wanted to just sit there. I was thinking that I succeeded. But that building was closed already, as I mannaged to get there late so they just threw me out, stating that they had to do the cleaning. So they threw me out and told me that they would open one hour before the ship would depart. I didn't have my satchel, I had nothing, just my passport. And I was back in the harbor. And I knew that after just a moment the boys would be coming back to the car, as that ship of theirs was the first to depart. And you could see very well everything that was going on around. So I got myself organized, I thought that I would hide somewhere and then I would rush into the town and in the town – Trelleborg is a very nice town, a former fishing town with right angled streets. West-East or South-North. And I should hide somewhere so they wouldn't find me, I kept telling myself. And I kept checking the time, as they would drive into that ship at a given time. So I – the first thing was that I thought I would hide somewhere. But there was no place I could hide. So I got this idea to go to a barber's shop. So I found this barber shop somewhere. But the boys were already – as I found later as we would discuss this issue - they were looking for me, trying to find out what could happen to me. They couldn't understand that I, Pepek... They thought that something had happened to me, that I got mugged or something. That they were supposed to find me and help me. And I didn't need their help but they didn't know. So I went to the barber's shop, telling myself that maybe they would leave without me. So as I was sitting there I could see in the mirror that the young guys were walking down the street just behind the shop window. And I thought, 'Jesus, they are probably looking for me.' And they were looking for me indeed, they were walking down the main avenues, looking into every shop. I was sitting there with this white cloth around my neck and they didn't think of taking a look inside. So they passed and I thought – 'They are looking for me.' And I had one more hour and a half to spend. There was a movie theatre on the other side of the street. So I thought that from the barber's shop I would go to a movie theatre. So I rushed inside and bought myself a ticket. To a back row, it was quite dark there and it was a non-stop performance. They were looking for me even in the cinema, as I found out later while we were talking. But based on what they knew about me, they thought that I wouldn't spend so much money for a ticket. As everything was just filthy expensive there. After the movie was over, they ushered us outside, through the entrance to the main street where they were still going around! Looking for me. Franta told them to check even houses and backyards in case I would be at some of these places.”
