Nine hundred and ninety-nine will abandon you, Unable to bear the ridicule and anger. And the thousandth, loving endlessly, Will be there at the scaffold - and after. The words spoken long ago, on the last day of the boarding school, flashed through Jonas's head again and again. They were the ones that most accurately reflected all the shit that was happening now. "If I have to die one day, it will be a shame," the healer reasoned out loud after another hospital shift with a lit cigarette between his fingers, "I don't feel sorry for myself. I only feel sorry for Lou and the others." Life was dangerously balanced on the edge of the scaffold and the chance to survive in an atmosphere of complete chaos and poverty. People are now oppressed by the government: to say something without thinking is a crime. Crap..