LETTER TO MY FRIEND T.

Dear Friend! Have you also decided to leave us alone? You know: I may even agree with your decision, your opinion; with two small children, one can rarely choose between more favourable job offers. When's the last time we've been so goddamn visceral about things? We ate our grandmother's double-chocolate cake like two naughty brats, until our whole faces were Othello brown.

We've had it for twenty years! Even then you had a firm, unalterable opinion and, true to it, you stuck to it: "Dear N! You'd better hang up your pants, because you'll soon be fired too!" you said in a catfish voice, and the next day the Director's order came: "We'll stop you with immediate effect! Get out of here, quickly!"

We were given small food parcels by a small, waddling angel with flaxen hair, who always asked us how we lived. "You'll be all right, sweetheart! You know, there are evil people who are happy when they hurt other people," we told her, and the little angel even asked us back, "So the world is evil?"

Since then, the little angel has become a real lady, and her life has been going on and on; and although she always promises to meet in person, she is always the inevitable, credible guarantee of the future. If you are visiting home from the far world, it would be good if you would drop in for a friendly word or two! You know, I never liked to be present in the role of a squawking alarm-bird, nor as a bearer of bad news, but there are often times in the week when one feels totally fed up and the glass is getting full faster and faster!