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MARCHING POWDER

Neither of us said anything for a long time and I was lost in my own thoughts until the drinks waiter came over and poured the remaining wine.

'Anything more?' he asked.

I shook my head, and five minutes later the head waiter presented me with the bill. The hotel guests had begun to drift into the restaurant for dinner and it seemed that they wanted us to leave. I drank the remaining wine, paid the cashier and we made our way shakily out of the restaurant, quite drunk. It was still light outside and far too early to go to a bar, but there was another thing I missed doing in prison: going to the movies.

I was about to get in a taxi, but Jaime told me the cinemas were within walking distance. It was further than he made it sound but I was glad that we went on foot – just being free in the streets was a pleasure I hadn't experienced in a long time. The thing I liked most was that no one really paid me any attention. The 'Prisoner' sign on my forehead had obviously disappeared completely, because most of the people on the street didn't look at me twice. They seemed to be just doing their own thing. It may sound strange, but being completely ignored made me feel more like a normal member of society.

When we reached the cinema strip, I thought the area looked familiar. Then I remembered that I had seen it from Colonel Lanza's four-wheel drive on the way to his house. We were on the main road called the Prado, just up from the large roundabout intersection that marks the Plaza del Estudiante.

I looked at all the posters and decided on an American action film that was about to start. There were two types of tickets you could buy, depending on whether you wanted to sit upstairs or downstairs. I couldn't believe how cheap it was, even for the first-class galeria tickets, but I understood why when we sat down and the movie started. It was impossible to get comfortable on the hard wooden seats, and the sound was so bad that I could hardly understand what was being said, even though it was supposed to be in English. The Bolivians obviously didn't mind, since they were reading the subtitles.

After a while I managed to get settled and gradually, with the alcohol still in my system, I got sucked into the plot. It wasn't the most amazing movie I have ever seen, but I eventually became so absorbed in it that it didn't matter. For two hours I was so completely taken in