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TORMENTA

chanting like a child at the top of his voice, ‘Cocaína, cocaína. Yo quiero cocaína.’

Then suddenly, his tantrum stopped. I sat up in bed and listened intently. All I could hear was the sound of the storm raging outside. There was also a leak somewhere in my roof that was dripping water onto the floor. I hoped that Samir had gone away, but I doubted it. He was up to something.

I went to my door to have a look. The corridor was empty, but I knew Samir – he didn’t give up like that. Suddenly, I heard a scraping sound and looked down. Samir’s fingers were poking under the door, trying to get a grip around it.

‘What are you doing?’
‘You’re my brother, Thomas. You’re coming with me,’ he declared, his voice straining as he tried to bend the door back.

‘No. It’s too dangerous.’ I struggled to slide his fingers off, but they were locked on. ‘Quick, Samir,’ I hissed. ‘The guards are coming.’ But it didn’t work.

‘I don’t care about the guards!’ he yelled back. ‘We’re leaving.’

Finally, I managed to unhook his fingers, but then they reappeared further along the door. I prised them off again and then blocked the gap with my feet. That didn’t stop him, however, because I could only cover part of it.

We struggled like that for a few minutes; me pushing his fingers off, then him sneaking them under again. It would have been comical, if it wasn’t so serious, two grown men on either side of a locked door, finger wrestling through the gap underneath. But the guards could come at any moment, and when they found Samir trying to rip my door open, not only would they find the beers, but we would also both be busted for trying to escape.

‘Aaargh!’ Samir cried out, as I trod down on his fingers and kept my weight on them.

‘Do you promise to stop?’ I hissed through the flap.
‘Get off me. Aaargh!’
‘Promise?’

‘OK, OK, I promise.’ But as soon as I released him, Samir flew into a rage again, and started kicking my door, over and over. The metal reinforcements held strong, but the sound reverberated down the corridor. The guards must have been able to hear it, even above the