Así en la paz como en la guerra, cap. 8

And the wire cutters slipped and clipped the copper wire and the explosion lifted him and before crushing him against the wall it had already blown him open and other explosions followed the first and the deaf murmur went from the room and rolled through the house outside to the end of the street and when the firemen arrived it was necessary to chop down the door with an ax because it had been locked from within and in a cloud of smoke and dust they saw the bodies in pieces and the furniture in pieces and the clothing blown to shreds. Outside the clouds loomed dark and low, lightning flashed in the dark pink clouds, the pink clouds were a black darkness and they loomed low a dark portent, and smoke and dust billowed from the splintered door, the entire room was covered in blood, there was a silence and he remembered the kiss at center court in the rain in the park between their houses. He was 15 and she was 14 and they loved each other deeply and they kissed in the rain at center court a night the sky was overcast and pink and thunderheads boiled upward from the stratocumulus and it rained and they kissed, and his body ached, his body ached so powerfully and he ached .