My house, my castle

Marie sat at the living room table, her heart heavy with the weight of the words left unwritten in her letter to Eva. The crash of the phone jolted her from her thoughts, and later she was poked by Petr signaling for silence, his right index finger pressed against his lips. Confusion clouded her expression until Petr revealed the electronic bug hidden within the handset of the phone.

Marie's heart was gripped by fear as she realized the extent of the surveillance they were under. But she refused to let it paralyze her. With a determined glint in her eyes, she gestured towards the black and white TV in the living room, then pointed to the power sockets, indicating that they could be potential hiding spots for more bugs. She mimed the shape of a house with her hands, followed by a circular motion, signaling the need to search in the whole interior. Finally, she made a gesture of listening, urging Petr to not do any suspicious noise.

Petr nodded in understanding and set to work, beginning with closing the handset. Next task was with the shared black and white TV. With dexterous hands, he opened the back panel, his eyes scanning the circuitry for any signs of tampering. Satisfied that it was clean, he closed it and moved on to their radio tape recorders. Then he left the room to move on electronic radio alarm clocks in their bedroom, checking each device meticulously.

He inspected the power sockets throughout the house including a cellar and even in the garage, which was also his workshop and appropriate storage. The feeling of unease gnawed at him. The very thought of their private conversations being monitored sent a chill down his spine and he admitted that the fear dictates his actions. Petr looked in electronic ringers connected to the doorbell — one inside the house and the other in the garage. 

Petr lastly went into the attic, where he and Marie had a secret space behind removable back of an old wardrobe. Stacked neatly in boxes were banned books, their titles a provocation of the oppressive regime that sought to control every aspect of their lives. Among them were works by George Orwell, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and Milan Kundera — literature deemed dangerous by the Communist Party for its subversive ideas and themes.

But it wasn't just banned books that Petr found still stored secretly. Tucked away alongside them were dissident documents, handwritten manifestos and pamphlets detailing the injustices of the regime, the voices of those who dared to speak out against oppression and tyranny.

As he examined the space named "Literal Narnia" by him, Petr felt a surge of pride and defiance well up within him. Despite the ever-present threat of surveillance and persecution, there were writings of those who refused to be silenced, who continued to fight for freedom and justice, even in the darkest of times.

And as he descended from the attic, his mind filled with thoughts of resistance and rebellion, Petr knew that their struggle was far from over. But with Marie by his side, and their daughter Radka nestled safely in her crib, he felt a glimmer of hope ignite within him — a hope that one day, they would be free from the shackles of communism, and able to live their lives without fear or oppression.