We didn’t expect them to come at all. They turned up in the middle of the night and wanted to see my brother. Luckily, nobody was in bed, so they didn’t wake anybody up, but still…

My brother came down. He was frowning. His friends had never come to our house so late at night, and so he knew there was a problem.

He stepped out into the night and talked to his friends quietly so that nobody could hear what they were saying. I was dying to know what they were talking about, but they were standing on the lawn and there was nowhere to hide, so I couldn’t come closer.

I didn’t know what was going on, but it seemed to be important enough for my brother to go back to the house to ask father to join them.

They were all standing there in silence when father came out of the house. Then they talked all together again. Our father was asking them questions and the guys were explaining something to him waving their hands. They were all very excited.

After a while, our father stopped asking questions. He was just standing there and thinking. Few seconds later he turned to my brother and said something to him. Then he said something to my brother’s friends and they both went back to the house.

Five minutes later they came out. Both of them were carrying rifles in their hands.

‘What’s going on?’ I asked as they were passing by. ‘Where are you going?’

‘Get back to the house!’ my father said and pushed me to the door.

‘No. I want to go with you!’ I answered back.

‘I said: get back inside!’ my father said again. This time, he looked at me angrily and I knew that he wouldn’t change his mind.

‘And turn the lights off. And lock the door,’ he added as I was going back to the house.

I did as I was told. I locked the door and turned all the lights off. Everything went dark.

Dark and quiet.

turn up – prísť, zjaviť sa

but still… – ale aj tak…

frown /fraʊn/ – mračiť sa

I was dying to know… – umieral som od zvedavosti zistiť…

wave /weɪv/ – mávať