The ministry shook with the news that a coup d’etat had taken place early that morning: the employees all gathered before the television to catch the first official bulletin. One of the older men said that he’d heard the same announcement early in his youth.
Meanwhile, I discovered that the coup’s leader was one of my closest friends. After broadcasting the fact excitedly, I relaxed with joy, convinced that life would now be laughing with me.
But my aged colleague recalled that the world had laughed for him, once, too—when he’d found himself condemned without a trial.