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Show -186- ments, mostly bells and stars surrounding three bearded figures with staffs, each leading a camel, their faces raised to the most prominant star. Except for its newness, the room was a replica of many such rooms the Professor remembered from his childhood. He could imagine the children busily engaged in cutting and pasting these symbols of an event they only dimly understood. He closed the door and retreated to the vestibule. He saw a stairway leading to an upper floor and wondered if there might be another meeting hall on that level. As he was about halfway up this flight of stairs, he heard a heavy clanking coming from farther up. He paused, half-alarmed at so obtrusive a noise, breaking the hushed silence. Then he noticed the final two treads of an iron spiral staircase, visible just beyond the top of his own flight of stairs. He saw the first pair of heavy boots, then the khaki fatigue legs stuffed into the boots, then the military jacket,, then the bearded face below the canvas cap. Behind were two more persons, similarly dressed. They might have been three Fidel Castros. One of the persons the Professor recognized as a Mexican- American student he had once met at a meeting where a group of Third World students were attempting to set up a writing program for Spanish speaking students. In his uniform he looked much larger than he had in blue jeans and sportshirt. His eyes met the Professor's briefly as the three men passed him, but with no sign of recognition. Play soldiers, the |
