The Six Escapes - Finding Lost Civilizations

dinars.” I then offered at half its rate, whichshe accepted. We proceeded on a dirt roadtoward the town of Leibnitz some 25kilometers ahead. After half an hour ofwalking, we spotted a policeman with abicycle standing under a tree. Wedisappeared into a cornfield that was waisthigh, laid down, and waited for him todisappear. But he came toward us, got offthe bike, pulled out his pistol, and shouted,"Come out with your hands up!"We thought about running, but decidedto talk to him instead. I explained that wehad visited our cousin, but live in Graz.Because we had forgotten to take alongour I.D.s we were trying to avoid the police.He said, "Ah so," then slapped handcuffson us and told us to walk ahead of him tothe next village as he directed us into thepolice station. There, another policemantook everything out of our pockets andlocked us in a small cell.Some 40 years later, in 200I, I wasinvited by my good cousin in Slovenia to aparty to celebrate the meeting of all ourcousins on Mother's side. The partyincluded both the cousins from Leutchachand Graz, whom I'd visited and whoignored me. During the party bothpersonally apologized to me for theirunfriendliness and arrogance.They soon made phone calls, and laterwe were escorted into the office and leftalone with the door closed. We heard twomen talking in the next room, so I said tomy brother, "Let's make a run," He agreed,so I opened the door. There was nobodyaround, so we quietly tiptoed through the