Bending the Rules. Rafique Gangat

in my hand and, not knowing what else to do, I said, “Busted!”

      We were commanded to put our hands on the back of our heads and lie down on the grass, while they searched the place upside down. Before they left, they told us that military intelligence had been monitoring the surrounding areas and, having noticed the shells being loaded and taken up the mountainside on the very day the president of the country was attending the opening of the Royal Agricultural Show in Pietermaritzburg, they had been obliged to act. They’d thought communists were about to launch mortars on the agricultural show grounds, endangering the life of the head of state.

      The joint was the least of their concerns and, when they finally left, we smoked another. Having had a double dose of military intelligence – as retold and then experienced – we understood the real meaning of the term oxymoron.