The Meeting

We never heard that phrase from him again until after the cyclone when he proclaimed a new amnesty for political prisoners and approved the return of all those who had been exiled, except for intellectuals, of course, that would never happen, he said, they have fire in their canons like fine cocks do when they are preening - they're not good for anything but when they're good for something they’re worse than politicians, worse than priests, if you can imagine, but let everyone else return, regardless of color, so that the reconstruction of the country be a joint enterprise…

The Autumn of the Patriarch