The package

I had my eyes fixed on the screen, I looked at the ticket and crossed my fingers wishing me luck, today was the big day...

The announcer turned the wheel and loudly announced the first number: six. I couldn't believe it, it matched the one I had on my ticket. One by one he announced the next numbers, and one by one they matched mine. After the last announcement I jumped for joy, I had won the prize: a week with expenses paid in a place in the Caribbean coast...

After two days of negotiations I boarded the plane, during the whole trip I was imagining what I would do that week, I had never been to the Caribbean before, I only knew it from photos and documentaries I saw in National Geographic. I still could not believe it, for a week I would escape from the cold of my city to swim in those warm and intense blue beaches.

I arrived at a nice hotel very well located, close to an area with all the services and only three blocks from the beach. During the mornings I spent my time visiting the city and getting to know what I could about the culture of the place, the language difference always created some difficulty because my Spanish, which was the language of the area, was quite deficient. At three o'clock I would go to the sea and there I would stay almost until seven P.M. when the last lights of a sky that every day offered new orange tones would go out.

The days passed quickly amidst visits to historical sites, dazzling sunsets and exquisite dinners. I was having the perfect getaway...

The day before returning I went out to buy some souvenirs, small wood carvings, sculptures made with crustacean shells, tiny tapestries made with coconut fibers, a truly exquisite handicraft.

On the way back to the hotel I thought my mother would love some of the local coffee, so I stopped for a few minutes at a supermarket and bought two large packs of coffee, one ground and one in beans...

While I was packing my things I turned on the TV, it was time for the local news, which was always subtitled in English, my mother tongue...

Something in the narrator's voice caught my attention and I stared at the screen, the news I read did not please me at all...

The text referred to a recent discovery made by the DEA police, they had discovered that the local cartels were using coffee packaging to distribute drugs...

When I finished reading that I had a completely irrational behavior, I felt a slight shudder and the imminent sensation that I was in danger...

I immediately ran to the bed where the suitcases were, I quickly emptied them looking for the coffee packages. I opened the one with the whole beans and the terror invaded me, the small tip of a plastic bag did not announce anything good...

I finished opening the package and what I feared the most came true, the package contained a bag of white powder...

I lay down on the bed, I cried for an hour while I imagined that I would spend the rest of my life in some prison in that country...

After a while I began to evaluate my options. Going to the police was out of the question, no one would believe a young tourist like me that I had found a packet of drugs in the coffee container, maybe they would think that I was using the same information they had broadcast on TV to my advantage...

I calmed down and came up with a plan. In my walks I had discovered an area of the beach with high dunes and that was quite lonely at sunset, it was a good place to get rid of the drug...

As the time came I took a handkerchief and plugged my nose, then filled my two coolers halfway with water and emptied all the contents of the drug. In a paper bag I poured the contents of the two packs of coffee, and I tore the two packs into small pieces, I did not want any trace of me left...

A little before sunset I walked towards the beach trying to get away from the people, every time I saw a dog I started to tremble, I have heard that the smell of drugs alters them...

I dived into the sea and swam a few meters with the coolers strapped to my waist, and at the bottom I emptied them completely and filled them many times with sea water...

I returned to the shore and went to the dunes, I dug many holes in which I deposited all the coffee, beans and ground coffee... Then I dug another bigger hole and made a small fire where I burned all the pieces of the packaging, at the end I covered the ashes with sand...

The next day I took my plane. As I was returning home I imagined the fishes hallucinating in the warm waters of the Caribbean...

Thank you for your time.