the school or the sport activities . I spent this time as if it were the last days of my life and they almost were . Afterwards , I became another person . At three o ' clock in the morning we saw the route 114 Yutong bus , manufactured in China . The driver was kind enough to stop . We boarded while saying that the last one to step in must pay . Who would have thought that such an expression was going to cause so much impact to the man behind the steering wheel , his conductor — with a bag tied around his waist for collecting pesetas ( twenty cent coins ) and one-peso ( CUP ) coins — and the policeman appointed to enforce law and order on that bus ? My brother took three convertible Cuban pesos ( CUC ) out of his pocket . This bothered them more and then began the nuts and bolts . One of the group finally paid with a five-peso bill , but the conductor asked us for another . Why , if the bus fare was only 40 cents ? Another argument broke out and I will never forget the words of officer Bandera : " Jabao *, I ' m going to give you what you deserve . Be quiet ." The conductor gave the change back , but required us to step off at the next stop . It is full dawn and there is a good stretch from Aldabó to Martí . As we refused , the driver grabbed a piece of pipe and the conductor , a machete . The policeman realized that his uniform will not stop our desire to be fairly treated and ran to the back . He didn ’ t give a chance even to touch his hair . I looked forward and saw my brother biting the driver ' s hand to force him to drop the pipe and one of my friends threatening with a bottle to keep away the man with the machete .
The black wasps were already on us . " Three apiece ." The blows weren ’ t enough . They sprayed our eyes and handcuffed us . We were thrown on the street and they kicked us until a voice said , " Enough !" It was more than enough ; I could barely see with my left eye , though it was better not to see that scene . My brother had to pay the driver an extremely ridiculous amount of a few cents a month for the slight injury he caused by biting the driver ’ s finger . After hearing it , the driver laughed and immediately became annoyed . He claimed that he had found out we were excellent students and workers with good social behavior and no criminal records . We weren ’ t carrying cutting weapons ; instead , he and his conductor were carrying them and they argued it was so for protecting themselves from the violence prevailing on the streets . The driver even stated that we had been subjected to enough punishment with three months of pre-trail detention at Valle Grande Penitentiary . When his turn came , the conductor said something similar . However , the presiding judge made deaf ears and menacingly lectured all the presents with mechanical words to secure the intended purpose . The sentences were five years for my brother , three for me and two for our friend who had wielded a bottle . The City of Havana ’ s TV channel ( CHTV ) partially broadcasted the trial with its typical manipulation on the day after the sentences . The Yutong buses were ready to ride and to render their bad service to the people . The message was quite clear : our trial had been exemplary .
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