The journey had been rather pleasant, and because he had made this very trip several times before, the Good Samaritan had easy passage through the first two roadblocks, greeting the policemen and soldiers he knew by name. The problem arose when they arrived at the third roadblock, and found it manned by a newly dispatched group of young RF soldiers eager to prove just how thoroughly they had been trained. They stopped every vehicle, inspected the contents of its boot, and interrogated its occupants.

It was here, at the third roadblock, that things fell apart. Upon interrogation the two school-leavers, their knees knocking, broke down and admitted they were making their way to join the guerrillas. All of this was news to the Good Samaritan, but the something-to-prove soldiers manning the roadblock chose not to believe in his innocence and forwarded his name to his employer – who then had no choice but to overlook his twenty years of loyal service and hard work, fire him, and place his name on the national blacklist register.

Prior to the hitchhiking incident, the Good Samaritan’s employment in the best shoe factory in the City of Kings had made him the well-off older brother who had, over the years, managed to secure his place as a member of the petite bourgeoisie. Having started as a teaboy, he had worked his way up until he was a foreman, which had enabled him to build a brick house on his homestead and buy a second-hand jalopy of which he was very proud – and which, coincidentally, was the very car that would prove to be his undoing.

Having pulled himself up by his bootstraps, the Good Samaritan had expected his siblings, to whom life had handed the same opportunities, to follow his example and do likewise. However, because he was the eldest brother in the family, traditionally much was expected of him and, as a result, his modern and rather cavalier attitude towards the upkeep of his siblings was much discussed and frowned upon in family circles. When his siblings struggled, he was expected to sacrifice what little he had to make their lives more comfortable; when he did not, he was said to be decidedly hard-hearted, which, of course, was not the only way to read the situation.