Why is this night different from all other nights? High up in the sky, the day endures for a little longer, but the houses below have gone dark and the lights are already coming on, more and more of them now, they keep coming on, only a few windows are still dark, time passes, here is one that came on late, and that’s about it now, there will be no more, time passes and then once again, one by one, they will go out, they came on for only a few hours, now it’s time for them to turn off, just a few will stay on, sparse, forgotten, and the people will lower their eyelids and turn to sleep. But, no, tonight they all stay lit, and if you come near the window, you will see that the large table has been set, the candles are burning and will drip forth all the light they have been keeping inside them. And as the night advances, all things will light up, no house tonight will stay in the dark, the light pierces and shines forth through everything, even through walls and the fog and smoke that loom over the city, and, tonight, not even he who closes his eyes, not even he will find darkness. Because tonight, this night is different from all other nights, and it has only come to bring light, to bring along with a different kind of sleep inside of which everyone awakens and remembers, they remember that night, that night from another world, when they had wrapped up their sleep along with the rest and had taken it with them, and now they remember how they had left at that time. It was at that time, that night that had opened the door for them, and they left, led by this flashlight that showed them the way from above and brought them here, where the city is now, this city whose doors kept opening and closing, tonight, and all the people went from house to house, and doors kept opening and closing like thousands of wings. Because they had come here all together and they never forgot that, they remembered and they rejoiced, how it came to be that they left at that time, how during that night, the door was drawn open, the one that had never been opened before. That’s why they were seated around this table, this is what they were celebrating tonight. And they kept talking about that house, which was always in their minds, which they knew was expecting them somewhere, and they talked about he who had come to take them with him, who beckoned them and they all went out in the street, and that’s how they left at that time, and now they were here and every year they kept recounting the story, they rose to speak in turns while the others listened, and the children listened so that they would come to learn how the blood dripped on their doorstep and unlocked the door, how they packed their things in the dead of night and left, how they ate in haste, stealthily, in the dark, and when the day broke, they were all on the road, and a plangent cry was heard everywhere as they left, the loudest and the most mournful that had ever been heard, and nothing like this would be heard ever again, but they did not look back, that was the hour when day broke, the sun was opposite them, the sun was in their eyes and mud was on their feet, a salty kind of mud, the mud, reeds, and mosquitoes, and then the dust, they were unable to see because of the wind and the dust, and no water at all, not even under the stones, nothing, nowhere, not even a drop, only the animals that quenched their thirst with blood, and from the blood of one to the blood of the next they kept going, and went on eating their animals one after the other, but still their thirst kept stalking them. But in the end, they found this river that, as soon as they set foot upon it, stood still as if its water had turned to ice, and let them pass. And they passed. And today the city is standing around them and it has no limit, they said, no place exists outside of us any longer, we have been free ever since and you are hearing the story tonight, so that you can tell it, later, when we are gone, and keep telling it and we shall keep coming home to this great feast.
