The sun created an aura around her head as she leaned over him for a kiss. Her laughter was like the blackbirds singing in spring. He was confused. He felt no joy but instead a feeling of discomfort was throbbing in his head. The taste of blood filled his mouth instead of the soft feeling from her kiss. Her image swept away by a dark cloud and a thundering sound. Yet not irregular like thunder but more a rhythmic pounding. He came to when a bucket of ice cold water was thrown in his face. He found himself laying on his back on a steel deck. And instead of his betrothed, two rough coast guard officers leaned over him.

How did he end up here? In his hazed mind he slowly remembered, through the coast guards shouting, how he and his brother crashed into the coast guards steamboat in the thick fog. The coast guard vessel made good speed so his brothers small wooden boat was crushed by impact. They ended up in the ice cold water. He saw his brothers head sticking up over the surface just before he lost consciousness. Now he realized that the rhythmic pounding came from the steam engine.

A slap in the face face from one of the officers pulled him away from his thoughts. Over the engine noise, the ringing in his ears and the throbbing headache he tried to understand what the coast guard officers was shouting. Only with quite some effort he could make out that they spoke Norwegian. The tongue failed him when he tried to speak. All swollen and bloody as his lips. He tried to tell the officers that he was Swedish hoping they would treat him less violently. One of the officers kicked him before they went out slamming the heavy iron door shut behind them.

He was laying there on the floor all wet, in the noise and heat from the steam engine wondering if his brother made it. He cursed him for the idea of running contraband booze to Norway. Would he ever see his beloved again or rot away in a Norwegian prison cell?

This is the second part of the story contraband. Click here to read the first. Stay tuned for the continued story. Ambition is the connect it all to a novel in the future. Ha de Gött!