by C.V.Rajan

Created on: August 13, 2010   Last Updated: September 06, 2010

Security Officer’s job at the Interstate check-post situated at the edge of the town was more or less a routine one for Edward. Except on rare occasions when some vehicles dare to drive past without undergoing a routine check  or when policemen gather in large numbers in times of major robbery, work at the edge of the town in the check post was fairly mundane for Edward.

One had to inspect the trucks on what they carry, check whether commercial-tax-paid particulars are in order in the bills and collect the toll fees wherever applicable. Unless there were problematic cases, these works would be handled mostly by junior officers and Edward would not have much of need to move from his seat.

‘It’s getting increasingly boring, every day’ thought Edward. Hardly one year was left for his retirement. His time-pass at the gate office was with very old copies of ‘Reader’s Digest’ that he would buy at roadside old-book stalls. It was a habit thrust upon him by his father. “No knowledge gained reading it will go waste” he would say.

A humorous flash fiction in the ‘Digest’ caught Edward's attention that day. It was about a security officer at an interstate border. A truck driver used to regularly cross the border and the truck used to be invariably empty. It was going on for years. After retirement, the officer would have a chance meeting with the truck driver. He would inquire with curiosity, “I knew something was fishy in your activities; but I never found out what you smuggled. Can you tell me now, as I am retired?” The reply from the driver was “I was smuggling the trucks”.

As Edward brooded over the story, his eyesight fell on an empty truck that was being inspected by his junior officers. Edward had seen the driver on many occasions. He felt disturbed. He rose up from his seat to personally intervene.

-

Edward had a chance meeting with the driver in a restaurant 10 years later.

“Do you remember me?”

“How can I forget you? You are the only officer whom I had paid the maximum amount of bribe just in one year,  in my entire lifetime!” replied the driver, who had thrived by selling stolen vehicles across the border.

Learn more about this author, C.V.Rajan.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.