📸 Photo

TORMENTA

The others were at their doors too, wondering what was going on. They had discovered similar presents hidden in their cells. The loud hissing of a beer can being opened and shaken everywhere could be heard.

‘Cheers, my friends,’ laughed Samir, spraying beer out into the corridor. ‘Let’s celebrate. It’s my last night in prison.’ He clinked his can against the metal door.

There was more thunder, this time very loud and very close. The type of thunder that cracks all around you and then comes up through the floor and shakes the whole building. The storm had begun in earnest. It was the perfect night for an escape.

After the next thunderclap, it began raining properly. La Paz was built in a valley with its main road running over the top of a river. For most of the year, the river was dry. However, when there was a tormenta – a big storm – it could last for days and water in the streets sometimes built up to flood levels, washing away everything in its path, including people and cars. It seemed that this was going to be one of those storms. The flashes of lightning outside were so bright that they lit up the corridor inside our cell block. Water began pouring in streams from the roof, filling the exercise yard and sending a small trickle into the building.

And as the rain poured down, we began to party again. We had to party. We couldn’t call the guards claiming that we all desperately needed to use the toilet. Besides, it would have been impossible for even one of us to hide ten full beer cans under his clothing. Our only hope of not getting caught was to empty the cans, crush them and pray that we could get them past the guards again in the morning. We couldn’t tip the beer into our urine buckets because they would smell of beer. So, there was no other choice: we had to drink the evidence.

None of us were in the same room, except for the Velascos. We had a series of individual parties going on, with each person standing at his door, drinking on his own, and yelling into the darkness in order to be heard above the howling wind and the sound of the rain pounding on the metal roof. It was a crazy night from the very beginning, but it got crazier with the storm. And Samir got crazier with it.

Samir was like a caged animal, strong and proud and full of energy.