IT was widely known that Mister
The Lieutenant took bribes from the passengers. He was certainly friendlier when greeting
the merchants. He’d been posted to the airport about six months ago, and he already
had a big motorcycle that he liked to show off by veering left and right on the road. He
smoked the most expensive cigarettes, ate out at restaurants, and got drunk almost every
night.
The third flight of the day was canceled because
of engine trouble. All travel plans had to be postponed till tomorrow. Disappointed,
Thongsy returned home once again.
The next day, Thongsy entered the office of Mister
The Lieutenant and begged for his compassion. She asked if he could please put her on the
plane as a special favor, then she pulled out five hundred kip and offered it to Mister
The Lieutenant. He refused the money and told Thongsy that he would do his best for her.
No doubt, the amount offered was "peanuts," and simply not worth his trouble.
At eight o’clock that morning, Thongsy and
her children were the last passengers boarding the plane. She was overjoyed that she was
finally going to see her husband. All the passengers were in their seats. They were just
waiting for the pilot. At that moment, Thongsy saw a jeep drive up and stop next to the
plane. Three men got out and went to speak to Mister The Lieutenant. The three men looked
as if they were big shots of some kind, and one of them greeted Mister The
Lieutenant casually: "Hi, mate! How are
things?"
A long discussion followed. Then Mister The
Lieutenant boarded the plane, removed Thongsy, her children, and another unlucky
passenger, and replaced them with those three men.
"You have too many children. You must wait
for the next flight. The bosses have important business to attend to," Mister The
Lieutenant explained briefly, in a matter-of-fact way.
That day, Thongsy waited until late afternoon, and
she noticed that the plane had not returned. Maybe it would never return.
She was furious with Mister The Lieutenant for the
way he had treated her. But her anger suddenly dissipated when she heard that the plane
she’d hoped to take to Muong Sui had had engine trouble. It had crashed and exploded
in the middle of a jungle. |
