That evening Tom decided to go and try out a Kebab and Falafel fast food place, which somebody in the hostel had recommended to him; he had been thinking about checking it out for a few days now. The place was about seven or eight blocks from the hostel, going up the 4th avenue; a walking distance from the hostel. Walking down the streets of Bogotá was no fun at all; pedestrian crossings generally don’t exist, and even when they do, drivers just ignore them. When people talked about the dangers of traveling in South America, they would generally refer to either crime or diseases, but Tom thought that crossing the street was the number one danger in South America. Tom was almost hit by a car crossing the 3rd avenue, the car came from the opposite direction, and made a sharp right turn without signaling, completely ignoring Tom who was crossing the street at that time. Tom wondered if he had just turned invisible; he seemed to be invisible to the car drivers. He continued his path, and he reached the 4th avenue and turned left. Cars generally went quite fast up the fourth avenue, probably wanted to pick up some momentum for the climb, which might be crucial at such altitudes where car engines get strapped for air. Tom walked up the 4th avenue, and when he almost reached the intersection with the 10th street, he heard some police sirens in the distance. The sirens were followed by the high pitch engine sound of an approaching car, it sounded to Tom like a fast car is coming from behind, going up the 4th avenue, and still accelerating. Tom flinched and moved away from the edge of the road, then turned around to look at the car. He saw a green Porsche Boxter about 30 meters down the street. As the Porsche approached the intersection it suddenly slowed down, which allowed Tom to take a look at the occupants of the car: A young white guy with long black hair, who looked Colombian was driving the car, setting beside him at the passenger seat was a blond woman. Her hair seemed fake to Tom, but he couldn’t be sure; he could only get a quick glimpse at the pair. The woman was also seemed to be holding something and looking very tense. The car then made a sharp turn to the right, into the 10th street and sped away. But just before the car accelerated again, Tom heard a rustling sound, coming from the some plants in a flower bed on the right side of the road, and he thought he saw the plants get raffled. He didn’t pay much attention to that as the sound of the sirens, getting louder and closer, distracted him. He looked back down the 4th avenue, and saw a police jeep approaching. The jeep also slowed down at the intersection and took the same turn as the Porsche, then sped away. Tranquility was then restored, and he looked around and saw a few more people who stopped to see the action. Some of them exchanged comments. A few seconds later thought, everybody just continued walking. Tom also continued his walk to the Kebab place, which was only two more blocks up the road.
At the Kebab place Tom realized that the Kebab was not Kebab, it was actually Shawarma, and it was not even a good Shawarma. He was disappointed with his Kebab sandwich, but then his mind turned its attention to the incident he witnessed, what had happened there? The woman was holding something in the car, and now he also remembered a detail, he had seen before, but did not give it much attention during the incident; He remembered seeing a hand come out of the car, just after the car made the right turn, as if someone was throwing something out of the car. Did the woman throw what ever she was holding in the car? Then there was that raffle of the plants. That must have been what happened; she threw something out of the cars, now he was sure. Considering the car was chased by the police, it must have been something they did not want to be caught with; Tom would bet his money that it was drugs, most likely cocaine; this is Colombia after all, the world coke capital.
After his disappointing snack Tom went back to the hostel, found the hammock in the patio free, and threw himself in it to relax. An Australian guy, Tim, was playing the guitar, in the living room, and Tom could hear the music well from where he was lying. Troy liked to play his own music, generally sad music, but very beautiful never the less. The tunes of the classical guitar added to the relaxing effect of the hammock, and Tom closed his eyes and enjoyed it. His meditation was interrupted when heard a voice calling him: “Hay Tom”. The voiced landed him back in the real world, and he opened his eyes to see Jim standing beside him.
“Hey mate, what have you been up to today?” Jim asked him, while taking an empty seat beside the hammock. “Well actually, I witnessed something interesting this evening”, then told Jim about the incident. First he hesitated about telling him the part about the object he thought was thrown out of the car, but then he decided to go ahead and tell it. “I think I saw them throw something out of the car, I think it was drugs, it fell between some plants in a flower bed on the side of the road” Tom said, talking quick. “Do you think it is still there?” Jim asked him, “Assuming that there was something thrown out of the car…” Tom was now feeling less confident about it, and started to doubt himself. “I think it would still be there, I don’t think any of the other people at the street noticed it. There were only a few of them anyway and I didn’t notice anyone looking towards the flower bed”, now doubting himself even more, if no body noticed it, maybe it is because there was nothing to notice. “I think we should go check it out” Jim suggested. “Look, I am not even sure there was something thrown out of the car, I might be just imagining things” Tom replied in a defensive tone. “Well then let’s go check it out, it is not far away from here, and if it’s nothing then it’s nothing, what we got to loose” Jim reasoned. “OK why not, let’s go and check it out” Tom replied, convinced by Jim’s argument.
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