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SNOWING IN BALI

It turned to exultant relief. Foolishly, neither he nor Barbara masked their sheer delight; their emotional reactions so far over the top for a bag of clothes, that the officer suddenly got suspicious. Now, he wanted to search both bags.

Before, he was smiling and nice, and then this guy gets really angry. His evil eyes look at me and look at her, asking, 'Why did you take this bag?' He wants to search everything. I was like, shit... I was thinking I'm gonna run, leave Barbara, leave the bag and run. But I looked at the door, then I think, fuck, where am I gonna run?

- Rafael

He searched the bag of men's clothes first, then took the other from underneath the table. Barbara had lost the key to the padlock. Rifling in her pockets and purse, she couldn't find it, so it had to be X-rayed. Rafael was panicking, but kept telling himself that Barbara had made it all the way to Bali because it was X-ray-proof. But nothing was guaranteed and this customs guy was being overly pedantic, clearly sensing they were up to something shifty. Rafael was trembling. This wasn't part of his deal as boss.

My heart tum tum tum, my leg started shake a little bit, and then I take a breath, breathing exercises, try to calm down. We go together to the X-ray machine. I run quick to the screen and look, it was perfect. Nothing. 'Okay, thank you very much. Bye-bye.' And then we go, so happy.

- Rafael

As usual after a big goal they celebrated, ordering French champagne on room service and giving Barbara, on top of her $10,000 fee, two nights at the stunning cliff-top hotel.

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