Of course, it was my bag. So how did 200,000 US dollars get into my bag?
‘You cannot bring US dollars into this country,’ the fat policeman said. He
had very short grey hair and little black eyes. He didn’t smile once. ‘But I
didn’t bring them,’ I said quickly. ‘They’re not my dollars. I never saw
them before in my life, and – ‘ There was a lot of noise in the station. I
looked out of the window and saw my train. Slowly, it began to move. ‘Hey!’
I shouted. ‘That’s my train – ’
The tall policeman laughed. It was a great day for him. Oh, no,’ he
said. ‘You’re not getting back to the train. You’re staying here with us,
in our beautiful country.’ He smiled, happily. So I never got to Sofia on
Saturday. I was very unhappy about that. I wanted to have a little talk with
Melanie and Carol, ask them one or two questions, you know. You’re
a nice guy, Tom. See you in Sofia, OK? Take you to the best restaurant in town. Eah. Great.
And I never got down to Cyprus
or North Africa that winter. Oh well, I live and learn. It’s not an easy life,
in prison. But it’s warm in winter and the food is not bad. And I’m meeting
some interesting people. There’s a man from Georgia, USSR – Boris, his name
is. He comes from a place by the Black Sea. He’s a great guy. When we get out
of here, he and I are going down to Australia … Brisbane perhaps, or Sidney.
Get a job on a ship, start a new life. Yeah, next year’s going to be OK.
