No trespassing (I): ALPENGLÜHEN (Alpine Glow) Part 8
“What!? Alfred do not start over again!”
The rush from the market was over. The police had gone. Alfred and Madeline were alone again, naked, still strapped on a cross, quarreling.
“If you had listened to me!”
“Couldn’t your Herr Scheiber have informed you? Then I had done it!”
“Herr Scheiber is a humble and God-fearing man! He never should have instigated someone to cheat on that!”
“I don’t want to talk about it Alfred! It does not matter anymore! Stop arguing and save your forces. You will need them!”
Once more, a deep silence engulfed the valley .
It was late afternoon. The events came back in reversed order. The Angelus bell sounded again, the cattle came back, hung around for a while and went on.
“Alfred?”
“Mhhh?”
“Did they say anything about releasing us?”
“Not that I recall.”
“I hope they will come soon, or we will be too late for diner!”
The answer came soon. Villagers brought them simple food and water. They ignored Alfred and Madeline’s questions, and put next to each cross, two lanterns, with a big candle in it.
“I am afraid they are going to need us tomorrow too!” Alfred said. “As far as I recall, there is a ‘Treff’, this weekend, a meeting, for old timers. Some will arrive already tomorrow. And when cars are on the move, there are always who will try a short-cut through the valley.”
Madeline could imagine : after another night they would probably look tired and exhausted, filthy, soiled and completely worn out. That would make even more impression as a warning.
“Oh Alfred? How did we get here?”
“That is simple! We decided to drive on a forbidden road. We got caught. We pay our debt!”
“We should not have done this! We lost our car! And our honor. What are we going to tell at home? We will be already on the internet! All these photographs taken!”
“We could have avoided this, you know!”
“I know! We should have turned back when the road was blocked by that cattle, as I suggested!”
“That would have been too late! That Porsche of the police must have been around already!”
“I should have listened to you and bought that crucifix.”
“I should not have suggested it. We were not entitled to use it.”
“Perhaps you are right!”
On the roof of the Scheiber farm, a bell sounded. Shortly thereafter, the cattle on the meadows were driven to their stables. The sun went down.
It would be dark soon. Naked, but no spa, food and drink but not the delicious diner and the wine list of Gasthof Kreuzspitze. And naked but no…
“Alfred!”
“Mhhh!”
“I am afraid we will have no good sex this evening.”
“Well, look from another side. Seeing you hanging there. We have not tried this before.”
“Alfred?”
“Yes dear?”
“Stop staring at me like that, please.”
“I cannot help it, you look so …”
“But don’t I look terribly fat?”
“Madeline, dear, I told you already a thousand times : you have a body that many eighteen year old girls would envy you!”
“Really?” (That was what she wanted to hear, considering she was almost two and a half times eighteen).
“Alfred stop it, do not make me giggle, that hurts. And contain yourself! We are in a public place! Come on!”
“I can’t, it is stronger than me! The simple sight of you there turns me on!”
“Oh, Alfred, now you make me…, ough, aah, that hurts! See what you do, naughty boy. Jump from that cross, come here and take me!”
Both silently agreed : once they would be down from their crosses, the first thing they will do is having good sex!
“Oh Alfred, look! Beautiful!”
Alpine glow occurs when the sun is already under the horizon, but its red rays still illuminate billions of ice crystals high in the sky. The crystals reflect the light on the mountains. Madeline had always wanted to see Alpenglühen. Now it happened in a spectacular way. The skies seemed to be on fire, the mountains were glowing. The glacier was gleaming red. Even their naked bodies turned glowing red. Once more, the impressive nature silenced everything.
“Heavenly!” Madeline could not keep her eyes of it.
In front of their crosses stood six hikers. Each of them carried a long stick, with on top of it a triangular flag and a small crucifix with a chainlet.
“Pilgrims!” Alfred said, “on their way to Rome!”
The pilgrims crossed themselves and said a short prayer. As they went on, farmer Scheiber and his wife came to meet them and welcomed them warmly. They would accommodate the pilgrims for the night.
Herr Scheiber, the hotel keeper, was a humble and God-fearing man, who would help his guests with their problem of trespassing the valley, as far as his conscience allowed him to do. Ronny and Lisa had been told one should buy a crucifix on the pass and hang it by the chainlet over the rear view mirror in the car. Follow the crucifix, it will bring you safely to Rome! According to ancient laws, anyone who could identify as a pilgrim on the way to Rome was allowed to trespass the pass and the valley, on the condition of paying a modest toll. The proof of identity was the crucifix, the toll was the money to purchase it. Of course, considering the distance to Rome, one should not return within at least eighty-four hours, as he would proof to be a cheater.
Pilgrims driving through by car, would pay twenty euro, and were only allowed to cross the valley between 9 and 10 a.m., exactly the time window in which Alfred and Madeline had arrived that morning. Pilgrims by foot paid only five euro, and were then entitled to free food and shelter in the entire autonomous settlement. Control on this passage was much more strict than it appeared. Like many others, Alfred and Madeline had underestimated the efficiency of the authorities in the settlement. Despite the absence of modern communication tools, messages spread quickly, by means of coded bell signals, using a network of farms and churches and chapels. From the bell in the tower with the onion shaped spire on the Kreuzspitzepass, it took no longer than five minutes to carry a message to the other side of the valley. Alfred and Madeline had just started their descent from the pass near milestone twenty, as farmer Scheiber at milestone one was already informed that an illegal motorized trespasser was on his way. There was just some delay in the deployment of the police, as a patrol was on its way to another assignment, and they did not hear the bells in their old noisy vehicles. The men from the Porsche had to scramble from their farm, but finally they stopped Alfred and Madeline where they wanted them to have : at milestone one.
The heart and soul of the pilgrim are pure. And neither Herr Scheiber of the hotel, nor the man on the pass, would permit themselves to reveal the trick with the crucifix straightforwardly to anyone who clearly had only the intention to cheat the interdiction to trespass the valley by car, by pretending to be a pilgrim on the way to Rome. If Madeline had known about it, she would certainly have bought a crucifix on the pass, not for going to Rome, but only to be in time at the market in the nearby town. By any means, either by dodging the toll or by abusing the right to trespass, she was a cheater, and cheaters deserve nothing else than being publically strapped naked to a cross, and to hang there for an undetermined time.
Madeline knew that Alpenglühen, in the meantime slowly fading away, forecasted rain. Although she obviously did not look forward to it, if her naked body, her hair, her face, would soon be harassed by a merciless stream of droplets, as an addition to her torment, then so let it be.
The son of farmer Scheiber came to light the candles in the lanterns. They would illuminate Alfred and Madeline during the night. The police intended to set up controls to intercept sneakers who would try to cross the valley under cover of darkness. Young Scheiber could not resist groping Madeline. Alfred tried to protest, but he was too tired to raise his voice, as young Scheiber ordered him to shut up :
“Maul halten!”
Then he left, after having sarcastically wished her a good night :
“Gute Nacht, schöne Maid!”
Madeline, too tired and confused to resist it all, facing the prospect of spending at least an exhausting night of struggling on that cross, naked in the dark, in uncertain weather, had neither the force to resist the humiliation. She instinctively replied :
“Gute Nacht!”
The Alpine glow had gone. The last twilight was obscured by clouds. Near the Scheiber farm stood two crosses, in the flickering light of the candles, illuminating Alfred and Madeline’s writhing naked bodies. A warning that law enforcement is taken seriously in the valley.
“Alfred?”
“Yes, dear?”
“That man, selling crucifixes on the pass!”
“What’s about him?”
“I bet his name is Scheiber too!”
Important warning : if you ever are in the mountains, and you see a sign ‘Road prohibited for motor vehicles without permission. Trespassers will be crucified!’, do not ignore it!
THE END