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MARCHING POWDER

‘Do it now!’ barked the major. I lifted my right foot nervously and lowered it back to the floor, although slightly to the left of where it had previously been, so it was now touching my other foot. This made them more suspicious.

‘And the other one,’ he demanded. I lifted that foot also.

‘Move back one step,’ said the lieutenant, thinking I must have still been hiding something. I did as they ordered and once more they were confused and disappointed not to have found anything.

‘We’re finished here,’ declared the major, trying to recover his authority. He turned to the lieutenant. ‘Take this prisoner to the courtyard and search him with all the others.’

It was a very lucky escape and I was angry with Roberto, especially since I had told him exactly what he should do during a search. He came around the next night to apologise, bringing a bottle of rum as a peace offering. After a few glasses, I forgave him. He was still new and it was his very first requisa.

When I told him what I’d done with the drugs, Roberto couldn’t stop laughing.

‘No. I no believe, Thomas. No is the true,’ he declared, raising his voice and throwing his hands dramatically into the air. After a few more drinks and with no cocaine in his system, he had started acting like a proper Italian. ‘I think you invent this story, yes?’

‘I promise. On your mother’s grave.’

‘But my mother she is Católica.’ He sat forward suddenly and shook his finger at me, pretending to be offended. ‘You no talk about my mother like this way, please, Thomas.’

We did two more quick shots of rum and I also began to see the funny side. As we got more drunk, we began speculating on what might have happened after the Devil Major had left with packets of cocaine and marijuana in his pocket. Roberto was convinced that the sniffer dogs would have detected them and then the major would have had a lot of explaining to do in front of his men. I didn’t agree.

‘No way, man. There weren’t any dogs.’ But once Roberto got on to a subject, he couldn’t let it go.

‘Then perhaps his wife she will find the drugs when she is cleaning the jacket?’ he suggested, leaning back in his chair and going into