Free The Unseen by Nanni Balestrini Page B

confused movements groups of people in uniform shifting about here and there in the shadows around the prison lit up by the searchlights
    nobody slept that night because there was massive tension over what had happened I remember there was this to-ing and fro-ing of people inside the cells the corridors a great procession of people there was an indescribable racket with the radios and televisions on all the time at top volume there were very heated discussions not everyone was in agreement there were comrades who maintained that this revolt would spell disaster for the prisoners’ movement but there was nothing they could do but accept the situation like everyone else because they were inside there was nothing for it they were inside in this situation too even if they made no bones that being in it went sorely against the grain and while the others maintained instead that it amounted to a great victory
    but it turned out that while they were taking the guards hostage there was one who’d gone and got injured I mean this lance-corporal the only non-commissioned officer who was in the cell-wings who was a lance-corporal and who’d been injured stabbed with a skewer and this injured lance-corporal provoked a lot of anxieties he was kind of the flaw in the whole affair the only flaw everybody was aware that a death in those circumstances would change everything what had happened was that as they took the guards hostage this lance-corporal tried to resist and a comrade who was involved in the kidnap stuck a skewer in his side a skewer made out of the usual metal fittings of a camping-gas stove
    this lance-corporal was clearly pretending to be worse than he really was well the comrades running the revolt had tried several times to release this wounded hostage two or three times they’d taken him down to the gates that were the start of the no-man’s-land that was in fact the ground floor rotunda to let him go saying we’ll open the gates and we’ll let him out to you but nobody caught on the fact was they didn’t want him they’d say no no keep him because all you want is to take the ground floor you want to open the gates to get the ground floor too this was the reason they gave nobody realized that it was a clue to what was going to happen
    there were even others who suggested sawing the bars off a window and lowering down this lance-corporal in a sling because nobody wanted him there nobody wanted to run the risk of him dying there because it would have ruined the whole thing because everything up to then had really gone smoothly for instance it hadn’t occurred to anybody to wreck the prison nothing had been touched nothing had been destroyed whereas in the revolt there’d been a short time before in that other special prison the prison had been completely wrecked there they’d literally demolished the lot they’d destroyed the electrics they’d destroyed the plumbing they’d pulled down the walls they’d made the prison totally inoperable
    later on I went back to my cell there was no one there there was a heap of sweaters shirts trousers scattered on the bunk the little wardrobe had gone I flung the lot on the floor and I flung myself down on the bunk the television was turned on but the transmission had finished there was a blizzard of dots there was this guy playing the violin in the next cell he always played the same tune I thought of China and that I certainly wouldn’t see her tomorrow with all this crazy business I must write to her tomorrow as soon as I can I must my cell-mate looked in what are you doing there what’s wrong are you sick have you heard the news there’s news about the negotiations and maybe we’ve won maybe now we’ll win here
    but look I told him I don’t know why but I sounded annoyed but you know I really can’t stand any more I really mean it that we’re still stuck here with this bullshit still with this