I was at School 45 which was on Calea Dorobantilor. It was Ceausescu?s way and consequently, the street was full of Securitate agents, of ? blue eyed boys?. At a certain point we had become friends with the one who stayed at the corner of Brazilia street. We greeted each other, smiled and exchanged a few words, never too many. After the revolution, when he disappeared we were very disappointed. (160)

Many times we used to get down at Piata Victoriei underground station where we saw the ? blue eyed boys?, the Securitate agents. They stayed in front of our block, to. You knew them. Their jacket was always creased. The well known trench, also creased. Because they slept in their cars. They stayed like that in their cars and watched the route.

At a certain point, there was a murder at the basement of our block. A militia man had been shot. It was real mess. They interrogated everybody. Who? What? About the mechanics? And when they had found a scapegoat, one Stefanescu, who was a mechanic, they came wanting us to give a statement that this person was not serious; my husband said: ? Look, comrades, I am going to tell you something, I don?t like this chap, Stefanescu, he?s an obnoxious mechanic. He is not likeable. He drinks. We don?t get along very well with him. But I am not going to give a false statement because he is suspected of murder, this is an aberration. Only because he?s obnoxious doesn?t mean that he?s a murderer too?? Those two who had come to us said: let?s go, they don?t cooperate. This was the system. They finally found the murderer. It was a colleague of the militia officer, they had played cards, they had begun to fight and he had killed him there in the basement. (A. S., 130)

Who was not afraid of them? Although some of them did not believe in what they were doing, but they were paid to do their duty. There were some overzealous people who were not agents. I was more afraid of these overzealous people, than of agents; one could talk to the agents, some of them were Ok. The others informed for reasons they invented or because they were envious of you or they wanted a promotion. Most of the time they blamed you for something unknown, they kept their old position, but they were promised that the next ? good deed? (for the good of the party) would be rewarded; they were taken advantaged of and the only thing promoted was envy and advancement at the expense of others; there were some who did all this without any promise. (M. C. J., 21)