Top Dollar {By Sami Khalil}
(Cuba’s classic cars, American made) Secret plots…
It
was stranger than fiction. One by one, Cuba’s classic cars, American made, that
were purchased during friendlier times, and before political tides made them
pawns in the grudge between two nations, started disappearing from the island.
Their numbers, which were in the upwards of 60.000 cars or more, dwindled to a handful,
to be counted on fingers.
In a nutshell, these vintage cars dotted the streets
of a city adorned with grand Spanish colonial buildings, turned into symbols of
a bygone era and work horses for tourists that flocked the island (Taxis).
Underneath
the hoods, the ingenuity of Cuba’s mechanics kept the cars maintained, running
gleamingly underneath blue skies, making them look like a living museum to
behold.
Of
Cuba, it always held an eerie insight into the sentimental; of double entendre.
It possessed a candour so refreshing to memories along an unsurpassed beauty,
travailing time and place leisurely. Its quiet mornings often fade into the
cascading sounds of cars, casting shadows across winding streets dotted with
palms. Whoever basks into her afterglow of sunsets, engild pleasantness and
charm to themselves.
Of cars, they added an immeasurable value to the island
and livelihoods, too. With them vanishing little by little, it puzzled the
communists. Lost without a trace, they vanished into thin air, becoming a
fodder for prosaic gossip locally and internationally. Word spread that a renowned
museum in Detroit, was paying upwards of 100, 000 for each car to be brought
back to the States.
A
mafia, made up of Cuban exiles, had hatched a clever plan. Pay the Cuban drivers’
handsome amounts of money to be taken apart as if in parts, send them by boats
to Miami in the dark of night, reassemble those one by one, then proceed to
make handsome profits by selling to the museum which showcased them to
attendees of grand, ornate showrooms. Taxi drivers, with the money made, could
retire and buy farms to live on and raise cattle. The island had become a case
of shadowy, unscrupulous plots.
Panic
set in on the island, driving the economy to the brink of collapse. Tourism stopped
in its tracks. It sparked the outrage of the communists, piquing the interests
of conspiracy theorists. It was theorized that the CIA has pulled off a
masterful plan! Who knows…?
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