Lost Horizons

Tooled up for the school run?

Waiting for my bus each morning, I mingle with the children on their way to one of Hong Kong’s better learning establishments. I will let other commentators talk about people driving their children three hundred yards to school, or maids carrying the chidrens school bags, but something of interest caught my eye this morning.
A very tatty looking BMW 3 series with two men in the front draws up near the bus stop, and the front passenger gets out of the car. He is short and stocky, wearing a loose black jacket that could conceal any kind of armament, and he has a good look around him before he opens the rear passenger door. Out of the back of the car climbs a child, probably about twelve years old, and visibly, no different from any other child going to school this morning.
Whilst the child walks past the bus queue and the ten yards to the entrance of the school, the man is casting a wary eye on all the people around him. When his eyes reach mine, they hold a menace in them that says “what are you looking at?”. I hold his stare.
Once the child is safely inside the school, the man gets back into the car, and it drives off, mingling with all the other traffic.
So, who is this child, that merits this special attention, and who was this body guard, some kind of plain clothes policeman or someone more sinister?

posted by Luke @ 10:28 AM