My Own Revolution Read Online Free PDF Page B

the big door of our building slam. Danika is inside at last.
    I go out and race down the stairs.
    Coming up, she’s a little breathless, her short hair ruffled. I want to toss aside her books and tell her everything.
    But she speaks first, her cheeks flushing. “I saw you take a picture of us, Patrik. Can you develop that photo tonight? I want to show my friends.”
    I stare at her. And stare some more. How could she ask such a thing? How could she
dream
of asking?
    “You don’t have to blow it up big,” she goes on. “Small is fine.”
    “Not tonight,” I tell her. “There’s too much film left on the roll.”
    I turn up the stairs, away from her. I fly up the stairs and into our apartment.
    Mami has put on the burgundy cloth and the lace place mats under the plates. Bela is already sitting at the round table, eating applesauce alone instead of with her pork chop. She spoons it in, and it runs down the sides of her mouth.
    Danika is probably at the door to her apartment. She is fitting the key into the lock since no one is home. I should go on up. I should apologize.
    Mami goes to the window and looks out at the path that Bozek just walked down. Bozek, going away. She’s waiting to see Tati walk up it.
    I take a pork chop and dollop on some applesauce. I fork a pile of sauerkraut onto my plate, and then Mami cries out and hurries to the front door.
    Instead of using my knife and fork, I pick up the pork chop and take a bite.
    “Patrik!”
Bela says, and I stick out my tongue at her.
    “Yuck,” she says, “your mouth has chewed-up pork chop inside.”
    I laugh, teasing her.
    Tati comes up the stairs. He comes inside but doesn’t greet any of us. He sits and rubs the back of his neck with one hand. “Jakub Machovik has joined the party,” he says.
    Mami’s eyes grow wide. “No!” she exclaims.
    “Yes,” Tati says simply.
    “I can’t believe it.”
    I too think Tati must be joking. How could our family doctor have done such a thing? Not long ago, we were all together at his vacation house in the pines. And Tati was even telling him about Mr. Bagin. . . . My mind flits away from that terrible thought. Instead I wonder if now Mr. Machovik will report all his vegetables and honey and give half to the government.
    He won’t. All party guys get rotten to the core. Even I know that. The party is like a worm working its way into a crisp red apple. It gets at your soul. I wonder what’s become of the newborn bunnies.
    “How did you learn this news?” asks Mami.
    “It’s official. He’s closed his office and moved downtown.” Tati glances at Bela, who is scraping up the last of her applesauce, then goes on: “He’s evidently in a position of power. Probably because they snared a doctor they did that for him right away. Word has it that he’s demoted Dr. Csider. For the way he joked about how the building materials for the new post office got carted away and sold on the black market.”
    “What’s happened to Dr. Csider?” I ask, Mami’s food now funny in my stomach.
    Tati spears a pork chop and lands it on his plate with a little thud. “Dr. Csider,” he says, “is no longer working as a doctor. He’s been sent to do roadwork way up by Prikra.”
    Mami gasps, and Bela looks at her sharply.
    Everyone is getting demoted these days. Lawyers become window washers. Teachers go to factories. And Adam Uherco, a kid just like me, is locked up.
    But I can hardly imagine Dr. Machovik making skinny old Dr. Csider work with asphalt. Just for cracking a joke.
    Will something now happen to
Tati
?
    Will something happen to all of us?
    “Why would Dr. Machovik join up?” I ask.
    Tati shrugs. “For the money.”
    “But he’s a doctor,” Mami says. “Surely he’s got a decent income.”
    “For the power, then. For even more income.”
    A cold shadow falls across us.
    “But a little while ago, he was on our side,” I say. “He was bragging about how he cheats the government.”
    “Becoming a party