Men in Blue

Two men dressed in blue were sitting in the front cab of a Mazda dyna, parked along the Boroko Drive. The truck was painted white, and on the bonnet in front was printed a six-lettered word in dark blue. Dusk was falling and the men were chatting away, and chewing some buai they had just obtained from some street vendors. It was one of those Sunday’s where buai was relatively scarce.

   A few meters away, four boys walked along the footpath. What could be seen in their hands were white cans, with a drawing of the Bird of Paradise on it. They were drinking from it, and walking with unsteady gaits. What could not be noticed, however, was a brown bottle of the same content, placed in the back pockets of two of them, and a short Tramontina bush knife tucked into the belt of one of the boys. As the men in blue watched, these hidden items became visible.

   Walking towards the group of boys was a young man, Leo. He was on his way to the store to buy Ox & Palm canned meat, for him to have with rice at home. Unsuspectingly he walked up to the boys, only to be surprisingly greeted with a boot-kick to his right leg. He staggered, and almost lost his balance, but managed to steady his gait as he noticed the Tramontina being pulled out of the belt. As the glittery blade came swinging towards him, he dodged. It was a successful move.

   Instantly, he spotted the white dyna with the two men in blue inside. There was a flicker of hope in his heart, as he looked to them with pleading eyes. But the flame of hope disappeared when he felt a sharp pain at the back of head, and heard the sound of glass breaking on the concrete path near his leg. He could feel that something wet was dripping down the back of his neck. He wiped it off with his hand, but it continued dripping. In no time, the collar of his shirt was soaked in blood mixed with sweat and beer.

   All the while, the two men in blue just sat and watched, with no inclination to intervene to protect the poor victim. When the attackers finally left, the men in blue got out and summoned Leo over to them, and offered to help him locate the attackers. If that is the intervention they had been trained to provide, it was rubbish to Leo, fit to be fed to the pigs. Rejecting the offer, he went home, and notified his family who took him to hospital for medical attention.

   A year passed, and Leo lived on. Apart from the visible scar at the back of his head, there was one hidden deep in his heart. He immediately remembered that scar one Sabbath afternoon as he was returning from church. A bus half-filled with passengers was driving slowly down from Tokarara to Waigani, and went passed him as he was walking up. Behind it was a smaller bus, painted white with a six-lettered word printed in dark blue on the bonnet. In the bus, he counted three men, in civilian clothing. He ignored them and continued walking.

   Then he heard a shout. He turned around just in time to see three men, armed with home-made rifles and bush knifes, forcing the driver of the PMV to pull over. They then went inside the bus, held the passengers up and forcefully search them.

   As Leo watched in horror, he witnessed another pathetic scene. The smaller white bus, with the six-lettered dark blue print on its bonnet and trailing behind the held-up bus, quickly put on the brakes and speedily reversed. It was a fight-or-flight response, and the three men chose the latter. Running away from the thieves will get them to safety, they must have thought. But they were wrong.

   Waiting behind them was Leo, with a stone firmly held in his grasp, and ready to be hurled at the bus. Had it continued reversing, it would have met its fate: a shattered glass or a bent side metal panel. But fortune met the men when they stopped, turned into another feeder road and disappeared!

   His attention turned back to the victimized bus. There was nothing he could do as he watched the three men escaped into a feeder road. Helpless and frustrated, the passengers also watched as the thieves disappeared, with all their valuables in their bags.

   Leo walked home exasperated. If only I had stoned that Police vehicle, He thought, I’d be satisfied. Instead of preventing crime, they watched it happen. What a shame!