Exchange of prisoners

The memory came to me when I was standing at the station and stupidly studied the schedule of buses to Chicago.

There was a noise of some swearing aside.

"Where is he? Where is the tenth? There were ten of you on the list!" a hefty sergeant was yelling in front of bunch of ragamuffins.

"It was a drunk convoy man, he was accidentally counted," there were pathetic excuses in response.

"Don't lie to me you bastards! He ran away to get drunk somewhere!" the hefty sergeant turned and pointed at me. "Here he is!"

I was pushed into the line. The line breathed a sigh of relief.