After an hour I open the drapes and doors and am amazed by the scenes of ordinary life I see from my balcony. A man and a woman sit at a table in a garden. Two children play with a football. A few houses away someone is painting a shed. On a nearby balcony a girl hangs the laundry. She takes washcloths from a plastic basket and pins them up on a taut line. The sun shines on her face. She blinks her eyes and wrinkles her nose. I watch her unabashedly. The girl has short curling hair and looks like an ostrich. She has a long neck, big eyes and a small, protruding head. I follow her movements. I feel tension growing while I look at her. The girl only has to look to the right and she will see me standing against the balcony wall. I breathe restlessly. My legs get weak. I wait until the girl goes...

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