Scene 2

Just as he had realised during the course of the year, there were others who had come to the same conclusion – which was that Tierra del Fuego would turn inevitably into a hopelessly overpopulated land tract in the event of a global atomic war. The idea had niggled at his mind, even during the nights, which were usually dedicated to other fantasies. He remembered one dream in which a chunk of the southern tip of America broke away from the rest of the continent because of the population pressure and flipped like a huge plate into the ocean, southwards, over the edge of the world, into the nothingness of nothing. Maille had stood at the edge of the railing, with his father beside him.
«I always imagined Cape Horn to be entirely different», Papa had said, lighting a cigarette. He was definitely the only gym teacher in Santa Lemusa who smoked.
«It's always something else when one is actually there», Maille would have told his father in reply today. At that time, though, he had merely stared into the fatherly smoke, in which the world seemed to gradually disintegrate.

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