REVELATION-final1

DAY TWO(Sunday, 20 April 2014)sala stampa ON EASTER SUNDAYI awake to the ringing of the doorbell shortly after 6 AM. Tom misunderstood me and instead ofcoming at 6 PM to drive me to the airport to pick up Nick, he came twelve hours earlier. Weclear the confusion but that leaves me without a ride in the evening and Nick is counting on me,as he has tons of equipment that he brought along.Money is so tight, however, that I cannot permit myself to take a cab. The little money I have isalready spoken for. The worst part is that I have no way of contacting Nick to let him know thathe will have to hire a cab at the airport as I will not be there to pick him up. Hoping that Nickhas not yet left his home in Sweden I send him an email but I get no response. I reckon that hewill call Tom as soon as he sees no one welcoming him at the terminal.Instead of agonizing about things I cannot change I get an early start and get on with what I haveto do. My first thing on the agenda is to write a letter to Pope Francis and hand deliver it at theVatican’s gate to inform the authorities that I am in Rome and my hunger strike has started onthe 19 th . Getting access to any of the Vatican’s administrative offices, however, provesimpossible. The place is a prison and walled like a prison. At every gate I get the same answerfrom the Papal Swiss Guards, who are dressed like circus clowns and wield medieval weapons,‘put it in the yellow mail box’. But since I find the answer unsatisfactory I decide to give it tothe Vatican Press Office, the so-called Sala Stampa, which is the only official building outsidethe city walls and therefore accessible to the public. It is, however, Easter Weekend and the Viadella Conciliazione is teeming with people and the crowd is so thick that it is nearly impossibleto get from one side of the avenue to the other. Nevertheless I succeed after some thirty minutesof pushing and shoving and mostly going with the flow at a snail’s pace.There must be half a million people in St. Peter’s square and vicinity and all I can think of is howto get away from the crowd. I am puzzled as to why people would want to gather in such largenumbers for any event, let alone a spiritual one. There can be no God in such a strangling crowd.I am grateful to make it home in one piece.For the rest of the day, I wait for and worry about Nick, who does not show up until shortly aftermidnight. We spend half the night unpacking his gear and getting to know each other, since wehave never met. He is a jovial and lively fellow and I like him instantly and thank my lucky starsto have good company and a photographer in Rome. He is as thrilled to be in Rome and with theapartment as I am, and happy to have his own bedroom, which is a luxury he did not expect.With the team assembled and the letter delivered, everything is on track.19