by Gy
Feri was up ahead, and although at first I could hear him gasping and sometimes hitting his knee or the tip of his shoe against the wall of the shaft, he must have crawled really far ahead because before long I couldn't hear him anymore, all I could hear was the drumming and shouting from out in the main theater.
Meanwhile the shaft got so narrow that I could feel its wall brushing against my shoulder on both sides, which made me worried I'd get stuck any second, like the time I crawled into that concrete drainpipe to get the Prodán brothers' leather ball, and as I now crept ahead on all fours my back started rubbing against the top of the shaft, and I knew that even if I wanted to, I couldn't turn around anymore, and so I thrust myself forward as hard as I could, and I wished like hell I hadn't won the bet that morning.
Feri and I had made our bet right after Comrade Principal came to our classroom and announced that the first three periods were canceled so the whole school could go to the cinema and watch the documentary A Nation Being Built, about the five-year plan, which is when Feri said to me, "Let's make a bet about whether or not they'll cut the power during the screening," and Feri said they wouldn't because that would be sabotage, cutting the electricity during a film like that is sabotage against the state, but I said it would be sabotage not to cut the power because managing the nation's electric power supply was a big responsibility, and industrial production was much more important than even patriotic films, so Feri then said, "Okay, let's bet on it," and we did bet, and I promised that if he won, I'd give him my rock-shooting slingshot, which I had made by using strips of genuine upholsterer's rubber I'd got my hands on, and he promised that if he lost he'd show me where the entrance was to that secret projectionist's room in the cinema, the room his grandfather told him about, where they stored the reels of banned movies that never got into cinemas, the room that had every movie we'd only heard about but could never see, all six parts of Spider-Man and all the Tarzan and Zorro films and a whole bunch of cowboy and Indian movies.
Feri and I asked Janika to seal our bet by chopping down his hand on our clasped hands as we shook on it, though we weren't about to tell Janika what we were betting on, and Feri then told me that if they really did cut the power, we could even try crawling right into the projectionist's room, it was pure luck that he happened to have one of his dad's monkey wrenches with him, he'd brought it to school for fighting, but it would be just right for this too, we could use it to take the screws off the grating. I asked him right away, "What grating?" but Feri didn't tell me, all he said was that I'd find out if they cut the lights, but I'd do better to say goodbye to my slingshot because he had a feeling that by afternoon it would be his slingshot.
The Flame of the Revolution Cinema was the biggest one in town, and I used to go there all the time a while back, but by the day we went there with our school I hadn't been in more than a year, seeing as how the people's economy was in trouble and the energy industry was in special trouble, and you never knew in advance when they'd cut the power, and when that happened you had to sit there in the dark because the generators weren't working in a single cinema anymore, no, at most places even the reserve diesel oil had been stolen long before, and during power cuts you had to wait a long time in the pitch-black theater either until they didn't turn the power back on or until the security people or firefighters didn't get there to let you out, and I didn't really like it when that happened, so instead I didn't go to the movies at all. True, since they took Father away I didn't exactly have money either, but I could have sneaked in without money, it wasn't hard slipping in, you just had to know how to kick and shove a bit and also where to stand in the crowd, yes, back then I sneaked in a bunch of times when I couldn't get tickets for The Colossus of Rhodes, Spider-Man, The Sheriff and the Space Kid, and Hercules Conquers Atlantis, but the movies they were playing these days weren't even worth stealing in for, they were nothing but rehashed war movies and cheap films about partisans, like The Seventh Comrade, Shod in Iron, and Long Winter in the City of Tears.
Other times we used to sit more toward the back, in the last row or the second to last, but this time Feri said we should sit up front and by the aisle so we wouldn't have to go crawling around for long in the dark if by chance I was right and they did cut the lights, and so we sat in the fourth row, really low in our seats to keep from getting hit on the head from behind with chalk or spitballs.
Before the film began, Comrade Principal stepped out in front of the screen and waved an arm for everyone to stand up and sing the national anthem, but not even when it was over could we sit down, no, we had to wait for Comrade Principal to give his speech about what a great thing motion picture presentations were, how they were one of the biggest technological achievements of our progressive age, and then he called upon us to display disciplined and devoted attention, and he wished us all a good time.
At first the film was mainly about integrated industrial works and wheat fields, it showed tractors plowing and combines harvesting and then the great railroad being built, the one that would cut right across the mountains, and next the film showed the subway being built in the capital city, at first this four-eyed comrade showed the viewer a map of where all the stations would be, and then you saw the tunnel being built right there under the ground, with this huge revolving disc boring into the earth and workers already laying concrete in its wake, and then the camera zoomed in on the revolving disc, right up to its middle, and then all of a sudden the theater went dark and everyone began whistling and shouting, and from his seat next to mine Feri said, "You won, goddamn it, let's get going fast," and he told me to hold his ankle because in the dark I wouldn't see which way he was going, and I said, "Let's wait, maybe the film just ripped," but Feri replied that if that was so, at least the exit sign would be lit, it wouldn't be so dark, and I knew he was right, but by then we were already crawling, edging forward down the aisle and then up front right across the wood floor, which smelled of the petroleum they cleaned it with, and we crept right behind Comrade Principal to the middle of the screen, and then Feri went straight into the vent between the floor and the screen, and he hissed at me not to shit around but to climb in too, and once I was lying there beside him, he whispered that he'd get out his monkey wrench right away, that all we had to do was unscrew the rat-proof security grating, and we'd be in the shaft in no time.
By now the shaft was so tight around me that I couldn't even move, I wanted to shout to Feri to come back and help except that the pitch-black was squeezing my lungs, I couldn't get any air, but then I remembered what Mother had said after the firefighters took me out of the concrete pipe and then every night afterward I was afraid of suffocating under my blanket, she told me not to think about being smothered but instead imagine I was on top of a mountain and that fresh alpine air was streaming into my nose and mouth, so there in the shaft I tried imagining that, but it did no good shutting my eyes, even then I saw nothing but darkness, and it crossed my mind that if I stayed here stuck in this shaft, no one would ever find me, I'd die right here, yes, I'd stay here forever, and that scared me so much that somehow I managed to edge forward again. As I turned to my side the wall chafed my shoulders even through my school uniform, but what did I care, I just kept crawling on, it was slow going but I could tell I'd gotten a little bit ahead, and then all of a sudden I heard Feri say from somewhere in front of me to come on already because there was another grating up ahead to detach, and not to worry, the shaft was about to widen, and he was right, after slithering just a little more I was able to get up on all fours, and I didn't even have to crawl much farther before I was right there next to Feri, and Feri said that this was where the shaft ended and that the grating was right above our heads, and he told me to reach up, I'd feel it right away, he'd already tapped it all around and figured it wasn't screwed on, and although it was pretty heavy, the two of us could handle it, so we should try lifting it up nice and easy, and then we grabbed it on both sides and pushed it up at the same time, and while at fir
st the grating didn't budge, then it did lift up after all, and I told Feri we shouldn't knock it down because it would make a loud bang, instead we should slide it to the side nice and easy, and Feri said okay, and he said that we didn't even have to move it all the way, but just enough so we could squeeze out.
I was the first to climb out, it was dark, all I could see was this really faint red light, and as I headed in its direction I accidentally kicked the grating, and from the echo it was obvious we were in a pretty big room. By now Feri had also climbed out, I could hear him approaching, and when he got up next to me he whispered that he really didn't think we'd get this far, he hadn't even believed that this secret screening room existed, he'd figured it was just a legend like that tunnel that supposedly leads from the old fortress completely under the city all the way to the forest and the clay pit, and I then told him to shut up, or if he wanted to say something, then to whisper and not shout, and Feri whispered that he wasn't even shouting, and meanwhile we reached the red light, it was a rectangular red button lit up in the middle of this big control panel that had buttons all over it, and on the middle of the red button it said, in black letters, EMERGENCY GENERATOR TO BE USED ONLY IN JUSTIFIED CIRCUMSTANCES, and Feri said that as he saw it, this was a justified circumstance, and before I could grab his hand, he'd reached up and pressed the button.
The red light went out right away, it was all dark and I got so frightened I couldn't even breathe, and Feri must have been scared shitless too because he didn't even swear, he just stood there next to me in the dark. After about a minute we suddenly heard this loud rumble from somewhere beyond the walls, at first it was a really deep, bubbling sound, even the floor shook, and then it kept getting higher pitched and softer, and finally it was almost like a whistle, and then came a bang, and all at once the lights went on.
I looked over at Feri and saw that he was blinking just like I was, but then we sighed at the same time and I told him he was plain nuts, and he just shrugged and turned and went to look around, and I also began exploring the place, and then Feri gave a whistle, and what I saw almost made me let out a whistle too.
There we were standing in a proper big movie theater, except that instead of being full of regular seats, it had these huge leather armchairs, two of them next to each other in the middle of the theater and another ten or so in a semicircle on two sides behind us, and a colossal red curtain covered the wall across from the armchairs. A projector stood on a little cabinet behind the two main armchairs, and Feri went right over and told me to come over too, "Get a load of this," he said, "this is incredible," and he was right, the projector even had a film reel on it, and by the time I got there Feri had opened the door of the little cabinet, which was full of flat round metal boxes, and right away Feri said we sure hit gold, all those secret banned movies really were right here, and that I should be careful because these film reels were extra heavy, we should pick them up together and I shouldn't try removing even one on my own, and I told him not to worry, I wasn't about to touch those reels, and he said good, but I could give him a hand, we should start by taking out the one on top, nice and easy, but I said I wasn't about to help, I didn't want to take those reels out at all, and I wasn't curious about the movies either. We should climb back in the shaft instead because if someone caught us in here we'd be done for, secret places like this all count as military establishments, and sneaking into one of them was treason for sure, but Feri just gave a big laugh and said there wouldn't be any trouble, why was I being such a chickenshit, if we'd already gotten this far it would be crazy not even to take a peek at these movies, imagine how cool it would be to tell the others what happens in the sequel to Zorro, but even then I just said I didn't care, we should climb back in, I didn't want to get in trouble, and then Feri asked if I was really such a chickenshit that I wasn't even curious about what movies were here, and he said, "At least let's look at the titles, so we'll have something to tell the others," but I told him to cut the crap, it wasn't like we could tell anyone about this anyway unless we wanted them to report us, but by then Feri had already pulled a reel halfway out, and he told me to help him already because he was about to drop it on his foot, and I told him not to shit around, it couldn't be that heavy, but then I took hold of the reel all the same, and together we set it down on one of the armchairs and turned the reel all around because, according to Feri, the bottom or the side would say what movie it was and what number reel, because most movies had more than one reel, but there was nothing written on this one, and so we took out the next, but there wasn't anything on that one either, and we looked at around three more, and on one of them we could at least see a mark where the label had been, but the label was almost completely torn off, only the very end remained, and all it said was 84, but Feri said that couldn't be, because not a single movie could be eighty-four reels long, and then I said again that I didn't care, we should go back because if they turned the lights back on we'd stay here forever, and then Feri said, "All right, we'll be going in a minute, but first we should at least see what's on the projector," and he began turning the lower reel by hand, and the film rolled slowly from the upper reel onto the lower one, and as Feri was busy turning the reel I leaned closer and saw the images begin moving, I could see the film like normal, except that I couldn't read the title and the director and all the other words because they were all backward, in a mirror image, plus they were also moving, but then I saw an empty room, its door slowly opened and in came this lady, she walked around and sat down on a bed and got up again, and then she went over to an armchair and sat down, but then she got right back up from there too and went over to the window and opened it, and she picked up a newspaper from a little table and fanned herself with it like she was really hot. And then Feri asked what was happening on the film, and I said, "Nothing, it's really boring, some lady is traipsing about this big room," and then Feri asked if she was alone, and I said, "Yeah," and now Feri also leaned closer to the film and went on turning the lower reel, and then the lady on the film took off her costume jacket and then her skirt, and there she stood in a blouse and a half-slip and high-heeled shoes, but I could tell she was still hot because she kept fanning herself with the newspaper, and in no time she also took off her blouse, but she was still really hot, and Feri asked why I'd said this was boring when it was actually really interesting because this must be one of those movies with totally naked women and men, he'd heard of movies like this, and if we kept reeling the film, we'd see in no time that this lady would take her clothes off all the way, even her bra and her panties, and so we leaned even closer, and Feri kept reeling, and then the lady really did remove something else, her half-slip, so there was nothing on her anymore except pantyhose, a bra, and panties, but the pantyhose weren't real pantyhose, from what I could tell they reached only as far as the middle of her thighs, and from there they were held up with ribbons of some sort, and those ribbons were tied to a belt around her waist, like Indians' leather leggings, and then Feri tried reeling the film even faster, which made the lady's movements speed up but in a jerky sort of way, but she didn't want to hear about taking off her pantyhose or whatever it was, no, she just kept traipsing around that room, she dropped her paper and leaned down to pick it up and lit up a cigarette, and she puffed on that cigarette a long time. I could see her face really close up, her lips were smeared with lipstick, but right then the lights in the room flickered, and I told Feri we'd better watch out because the generator was jamming, and sure enough, I looked at the control panel and saw that the big switch in the middle was flickering red, so I told Feri we should stop this right now and climb back in the shaft because there would be trouble, the generator was about to stop or else they'd turn the lights back on, and Feri said all right, but he hadn't paid any attention to what I said, he just kept reeling, and then the red light started flickering really fast, so I told him again that we'd better get going already, but Feri told me to shut up and get a load of the film because the lady was now unfastening h
er bra. "Bet you've never seen anything like this," he said, but I said I didn't care, even though I really did care a whole lot, but with my eyes on that flickering red light all I could think of was what would happen if they caught us in here, no doubt we'd end up in reform school, so this time I flat out begged Feri to get going, but by then he was pulling the film itself by hand, and he said he didn't care, he wanted to know what was under the lady's panties, and I saw him reach into his pocket and take out a razor, and I asked him if he'd gone nuts, what was he thinking to do, and Feri said that the lady was about to take off all her clothes, and he didn't give a shit, he was going to cut out for himself that couple of yards of film, and I told him not to touch it, that it wasn't allowed, plus it would be evidence that we'd been here, but by then Feri had already flicked open his razor and he'd just about sliced into the film when I grabbed his arm and asked him what the hell was the matter with him, was he bored with life, did he really want to end up in reform school that bad? All he said was to leave him alone, and he gave me a shove, but not even then did I let go of his arm, no, I shoved him right back and told him I didn't care, I was climbing back in because I didn't want them catching me, and then Feri pushed me again, but so hard this time that I fell against one of the armchairs, the one with switches built into its arm, and my hand came down right on one of the switches and I could feel it click under my palm, and then a motor began droning and the big red curtain on the wall in front of us began opening up slowly, and meanwhile Feri shouted was I nuts, what had I done, and I said he was the one who was nuts, he was the one who'd done it, and as I tried standing up, I accidentally pressed another switch, and then all the lights went out in the room, but the projector light turned on and the reels began spinning on their own, and I could see the picture on the screen. Although it was out of focus, I could make out the lady leaning forward and taking off her bra, but I saw that only while running because by then I was hurrying back to the shaft and Feri was running right behind me, and then the lady flung away her bra, and I could see both of her boobs and her nipples too, and the camera zoomed in so close that her two boobs filled the whole screen, and the lady then sat down in the armchair and leaned back and held her outstretched legs up high and began slipping off her panties even though the pantyhose were still on her, and then Feri and I just stood there by the shaft, and I knew we should climb in, but I didn't climb in and Feri didn't either, we just stood there and watched the lady slowly, slowly pull the panties off her rear end and her thighs, and then the camera zoomed in completely on her hand and showed her scrunchedup black panties and began gliding down all along her thighs, and it went right up between her legs, and all of a sudden that lady in the armchair spread her legs wide open, and at that instant the generator turned off and everything went dark, and all I could hear was one of the reels still turning on the projector, and then Feri and I made our move exactly at the same time, yes, both of us lunged for the hole at once, it was just like we were wrestling, we both wanted to get in there first so we could crawl to the main part of the shaft. Feri was holding my arm and pulling me back really hard and telling me to let him go, but I didn't, instead I raised my knee and kicked him with it right in the belly, so then he let me go, and in no time I was in the main part of the shaft, and I began crawling forward, and I could hear Feri creeping right behind me, and the shaft narrowed exactly like before, but this time instead of getting scared I turned onto my side and kept moving as fast as I could, the wall of the shaft chafed the skin off my palms, but what did I care, and while crawling ahead I suddenly heard the whole school singing really loud out in the theater, singing about heroic coal miners thrusting their pickaxes deeper and deeper, and I slowed down because I knew they hadn't turned the lights back on yet, and I knew that if we did it right, we'd get back to our seats before the end of the song, and then we too could sing along with everyone else, just as if we'd never sneaked away at all.