Saving Fish from Drowning - Heal Burma

AMY TAN
Boxes containing foodstuffs were opened. Some soldiers poked at a
foam sofa that had been compressed and covered in plastic tarp, then
wound in string, and strapped atop a station wagon. A flick of a
knife, and the strings were cut, the tarp sliced through. The sofa was
excised like a tumor, and freed from its confines, it expanded until
it seemed impossible that it had ever been in such a small package.
The passengers—three men and a woman—looked nervous and un­
happy. An old woman approached the station wagon, offering eggs
as snacks for sale. The occupants did not look at her. The sofa cush­
ions were unzipped, and hands shot in and brushed back and forth.
The soldiers ordered the people out of the car. As they scrambled to
obey, one soldier barked that they were to stay with the car, not move
away. The soldiers leaned into the car and patted the seats, the floor
pads. They lifted out the backseats and ran their hands up the back
cushion. They violently pried open the side panels on the doors. The
passengers looked as though they were on the verge of either break­
ing down or running for their lives.
And then, all at once, they were told to get back in. One of the sol­
diers grunted, and the driver hurried to start the engine. In a few sec­
onds, the car was gone, heading toward China. Now my friends
could see a sign posted on the side of the checkpoint, written in Chi­
nese, Burmese, Thai, and English: “The penalty for smuggling drugs
is death.”
This made some of my friends wonder whether they had inadver­
tently brought in any illegal substances. The polar fleece vest, Wyatt
remembered, and sat up. Had he searched all the pockets, the secret
ones as well? Was there a forgotten marijuana joint in one of them?
Bennie thought of a bottle into which he had thrown prescription
pills of all kinds, in case of emergencies; some of the pills were Dar­
vocet. Was that related to heroin? Did that count as drug smuggling,
a reason to line him up against a dusty wall and fill him with bullets?
176