Adam sat in his car waiting for what seemed like hours waiting for the man at the border patrol to make his way to the car and ask the usual questions.
Do you have anything to declare?
Are you carrying any fruit across the border?
Any fruit?? What the hell kind-of question is that? Did he have any fruit!?! Like that was the biggest issue the they faced the Canada US Border. Adam imagined a man sneaking through under cover of darkness with a gigantic bag of illegal produce only to get shot down steps away from freedom.
Finally the man came over and asked Adam if he had any fruit. Adam stifled the urge not to say that the trunk was filled with kiwis. He did not look like he had much of a sense of humour.
Adam handed his identification ever to the man and waited as the man went back into his booth.
The man picked up the phone and was talking on it, glancing up occasionally at Adam.
Adam began to wonder what the holdup was just as the man came back and asked Adam to step out of the car. Adam felt a wave of nervousness pass over him as he followed the guard into what looked like an interrogation room.
He was told to have a seat and there he sat, waiting for another guard to some into the room.
"We have a problem sir." The man said after introducing himself to Adam. "When we ran your name we came up with a hit. You have criminal charges pending from your time you were stationed in the army?"
Adam felt the tightness in his chest loosen slightly. "Oh that!"
When he had been in Latvia he had been a lot younger and more reckless than he was now that he was married with two children and had been known to drink a little too much.
This one time he had been fooling around, trying to impress some young Latvian girls and had made a drunken fool of himself and fallen into the the longest river in Latvia, the Gauja river, while in full dress uniform no less and had been charged with conduct unbecoming an officer.
"Yes that!" The man across the table almost spat the words at him as in enraged. Adam began to wonder why the man was so mad at him? Surely he had some youthful indiscretions of his own.
"I was young. Foolish. Boys will be boys and all that." Adam wondered why the man seemed ready to spring across the table and tear his throat out.
"BOYS WILL BE BOYS!?!" The man's eyes were wild as if he couldn't bear to hear the words that were coming out of Adam's mouth.
"A minor youthful indiscretion?" Adam said hesitantly. "It seemed like a good idea at the time."
"Sir!" The man said rising to his full height. "Genocide is NEVER a good idea."
Genocide? What the hell was this man talking about? Adam tried to clear his head before continuing.
"I have never committed genocide!" Adam protested.
"Do you deny that you have a criminal record from your time stationed in Latvia?”
"No. But Genocide -" Adam started but was cut off again by the enraged man.
"Do you deny that you were brought up o charges on the night of January 19, 1989?"
"No." Adam said feebly.
"Do you deny that you were arrested under code 1117 article 92 subsection A?"
"Code 1117 article 42 Subsection A actually."
"Excuse me?"
The man peered at the print out for a mometn before settign it aside.
"Oh that is a four. You may go sir." The man said, after clearing his throat and giving Adam a dismissive wave of his hand.
Adam, shaken, rose and walked from the room, stifling the urge to tell that guard to get his eyes tested.
