📖 Memorable excerpts and Notable Passages 📖

I can’t take a photograph of that inoffensive little monkey?” 

“No, Aunt, you can’t . . .” 

“And why not?” 

“I don’t know if you’ll understand. . . .” 

“Well, tell me,” she said, her voice serious. 

“You can’t take photographs of that monkey. . . . for reasons of state security, Aunt,” I said, my voice serious.

“Your ration card. You have a ration card, right?” I asked her this figuring she was going to tell me the truth. 

“I don’t have any sort of ration card. In Portugal we make our purchases without a card.” 

“Without a card? But how do they keep track of people? How do they keep track, for example, of the fish you take home?”

“But why does this beach belong to the Soviets?” Now she seemed really startled. 

“I don’t know, I really don’t know . . . It could be that we have a beach there in the Soviet Union that’s only for Angolans!”