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No Trespassing!

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No trespassing (I): ALPENGLÜHEN (Alpine Glow) Part 5
At milestone one, just before some farmsteads, the grey Porsche that had overtaken them a minute ago, was parked along the road. Its occupants stood waving with a red baton. Two policemen.
“All right, then! This trip will cost us some money, I am afraid!” Alfred said, when he had admitted to the police officer he had no permit. He knew they had gambled and lost. He accepted it. Madeline too felt that it would not make sense to object. Both were hoping they could get the best out of it. But they realized that this could cost them a big fine. Probably the amount of the fine would exceed the normal cost of the two hundred sixty kilometer round trip along the next pass, including road toll.
“Bitte aussteigen! Can you both step out the car please?”
Alfred and Madeline obeyed. They expected to be brought to a police station, where they even expected to have to stay for hours to settle things. Alfred feared confiscation of their car. Madeline had another worry. About something she had noticed earlier.
Two police officers escorted them to the edge of the meadow along the road.
“Warten sie hier, bitte. Wait here!”
While the policemen did their paperwork, Madeline stood confused on the edge of the meadow, her arms crossed in front, as if they would protect her against the harm she feared that was to come. She felt ashamed and embarrassed for standing there as a caught trespasser. Especially in front of the onlookers who were gathering on the road. Meanwhile, the police Beetle and the van had arrived on the spot too.
Three police officers stepped to them. One of them presented himself as ‘Kommissar Scheiber’. He showed them the documents related to their offence. The police had established that they had trespassed a forbidden road. As they were two in the car, the passenger was supposed to take profit too from the driver’s breaking of the law, hence they were both considered equally accountable. To make things ‘easy’ the police would use its authority to execute swift justice.
Alfred tried to protest, by requesting a lawyer, but Kommissar Scheiber pointed out that, as they had been caught in the act, the police documents establishing the facts were considered ‘ex officio’ as a proof of guilt. No lawyer or court had the power to overrule that.
A sail from the roof rack of the van was removed. Police officers took some heavy things from the roof rack. Four wooden beams. A local farmer, named Scheiber, and his son, were already digging two holes next to the road. At that moment, Madeline understood what they intended to do.
“Damn, Alfred, it is true!”
“Are they going to put us at the pillory here or what? Don’t we go to the police station?”
“No stocks, Alfred, worse! Remember!”
“No, I told you, that was definitely a joke!”
Kommissar Scheiber pointed out the sense of the sanction they would be given. This was a community of hospitable people, who would welcome every tourist. But the local population also adhered to the safeguarding of their way of life and of their environment. So they could absolutely not tolerate that tourists would deliberately violate their laws. They would be punished by being fully exposed forcedly to the environment they had polluted, in order to undergo its beauty and particularly its tranquility. Meanwhile, they would serve as a warning and an example for bypassers, and as a guarantee to the local population that law is enforced in their community. It was the perfect day for doing that, as the market day in the town would have put many people on the move.
“While we set up things, can you both already take off all your clothes, please?”
“What? Here? In public” Madeline asked.
“Jawohl!” the police officer said “Ausziehen bitte! Alles!”
“Alfred I don’t want to… Can’t they just punish us with our clothes on? Or put us in a cell for a few hours. Do something! Tell them I am ready to spend a whole night in a cell!”
But the police did not want to argue about it. Madeline turned her back away from the road. She took a deep breath and pulled her dress over her head. Trembling, she took off her underwear and kicked out her shoes. Behind her, keeping her as good as possible out of the view of the onlookers, Alfred took off his clothes. But Alfred’s protection could not shield her from the greedy eyes of the farmer and his son, still digging holes.
“Umdrehen! Turn around!”
Alfred and Madeline sheltered against each other. They would face the road.
“Hands in the neck! The verdict will be read!”
Loudly, Kommissar Scheiber proclaimed their verdict, reciting laws from the twelfth and thirteenth century. Severe laws! Unlawful trespassers were to be taken of all their possession, their freedom, their rights! Only the interdiction to use the road by private motorized traffic was of recent age. At the end, they heard him say something like “zum Anschauen” and “öffentlich am Kreuz gehangen zu werden”. Crucified, just as she had feared, crucified in public. The sentence would be carried out on the spot, along the road just right where they had been stopped by the police. When Kommissar Scheiber had finished, two wooden posts, about two meter high, stood upright, and two beams were lying in the grass.
“Du! Mitkommen! Follow me!” Alfred was summoned to his cross.
“Und du! Hier warten! Wait!” While she waited, she saw her naked husband being brought away and prepared for execution.
To her relief, her worst fear would not come true. They would use straps, no nails. Nailing would have meant a death sentence, something the police is not mandated to carry out by swift justice. She stood alone at the edge of the meadow, facing the small crowd of onlookers. She had gradually overcome her feelings of shame and anticipated her sentence, naked, afraid, but also with a growing acceptance of what was going to happen. Minutes ago, she had been about to burst in tears, but she had pulled herself together and tried to maintain a stoic pride. After all, she still had Alfred to rely on.
“Du! Mitkommen!” They led her away. But not to the cross…
“Every corner in the mountain may hide an unexpected surprise!” she kept thinking all the time.
(to be continued)
 
I don't often read stories on CF that make me side with the crucifiers,
but in this one I can see their point of view,
living in a community a little bit like that...
(bloody trespassers! :devil:)

but what's around the corner.... :confused: :devil:
 
No trespassing (I): ALPENGLÜHEN (Alpine Glow) Part 6
Along the road, at milestone one, stood two crosses of dark green painted wood, decorated with typical Alpine flower and heart motifs. The crosses carried the naked Alfred and Madeline. Their wrists had been firmly strapped to the horizontal beam. Their ankles were attached sideward to the vertical beam, causing their knees to be pointing outward. Their only foot support was provided by two steel rods, just ten centimeter long and one centimeter across, pointing out on each side of the vertical beam. As a measure of mercy, before they had been tied up, their bodies had been rubbed with cow fat by farmer Scheiber, in order to protect their skin against the sun. Then, they had been tied to the crosses, Alfred first.
In front of them stood a sign, indicating their offence, in the local language (‘Kraftwagendurchfahrtverbotsverbrecher’) and in English : ‘illegal motorized trespassers’. Another sign said ‘Freilassen der Verurteilten verboten’ – ‘Forbidden to liberate the condemned’.
After the execution, the police had left the spot, taking Alfred and Madeline’s confiscated car with them. No guards were needed. People here had a deep respect for law and order, and no one would even think about liberating Alfred and Madeline. Their clothes, which had been left abandoned in front of the crosses had soon been inspected and collected by local farmer’s wives. Only Madeline’s panties, her bra and her shoes were still there, lying in the grass, at her feet. Apparently they did not fit in the traditional way of living of the local community.
The crosses stood close enough to allow them talking to each other. But they did not. It took Madeline some time recover from the ordeal, by far the most radical experience in her life yet. Stripping naked in public for punishment. The experience of her naked body being rubbed and grabbed by strangers’ hands and getting strapped to a cross. Her arms getting spread, her body being raised up on the cross and getting stretched out by her own weight. The realization of being publically punished and exposed, naked and restrained. She and Alfred! With disbelieve, she watched her stretched out arms, held to the wood by a leather strap.
Resting her feet on the rods proved painful for the soles after a while. It became real foot torture. She had to move her feet regularly, and sometimes the pressure on her soles became so unbearable, that she had to step off. It made her hanging by her arms, trampling with her feet in empty air, desperately seeking support on the ankle cuffs, unable to use her hands. She had to struggle soon with the fatigue in her arms, as they carried most of her body weight. In that position, breathing became much heavier too. Stepping back on the rods was a frustrating, exhausting effort. When she finally had made it, she found out each time that the rods had warmed up in the sun. Heavily sweating by the effort, she found one or two minutes of relief, before she got haunted again by the pain in her soles. Madeline was continuously writhing to ease the strain on her body. She had strongly underestimated the physical efforts of just being strapped to a cross. Alfred clearly had the same difficulties.
“Alfred?”
“Mhhh?”
“What is the matter? I need you now. Talk to me?”
“Why should I? Everything is said!”
“But… Oh no, do not tell me it is that?”
By ‘that’, she meant an extra procedure she had to have endure before being strapped to the cross. Farmer Scheiber, on whose meadow they were crucified, and who had assisted together with his son by digging a hole for the crosses, and who had provided the cow fat, that farmer was entitled to a compensation. As a compensation, he wanted some private moments for himself and his son, with Madeline, whose naked body he just had rubbed in with fat. Madeline had no right to object. The police, referring to a law from the year 1223 A.D., summoned her to do what the farmer requested, and they allowed them to use their van. In the van, Madeline had discovered that peasant life in the mountains can breed healthy, very healthy people.
“You enjoyed it, Madeline! You were singing when you came out!”
“Come on, I was stiffening my courage. I had heard your moaning when they crucified you. It would be my turn now! And by the way, you had a hard one when I came out of the van. You enjoyed the idea of me being taken!”
“It was not about that! It was uncontrolled! It was the adrenaline that did it! It was excitement by stress, not by arousal”
“So you enjoyed being strung up naked there in front of all these people, while I was raped!”
“You did not sound at all like being raped. And you were singing ‘Climb every mountain’ when you came out!”
“I just love The Sound of Music, Alfred! And this is an appropriate environment to live it!”
“You never told me you liked The Sound of Music!”
“Yes I do! Just listen” (she sings) “Doe, a deer, a female deer…!”
“OK, and?”
“And what?”
“What is ‘re’?, Mrs. Von Trapp?”
“Mmph, well, ‘re’ is, well, … well I forgot!”
“I rest my case, Mrs. Von Trapp!”
So, a silence fell between them. A surreal silence. The silence of a world without motorized traffic. This was not just silence, this was the nearly complete absence of any kind of sound. There was just a breeze of wind from time to time, an incidental noise from the nearby houses, the soft murmur of the rippling mountain stream in the distance, a shriek of an eagle circling around high above them in the sky, … The silence was so overwhelming, that Madeline and Alfred felt embarrassed to make even the slightest noise. They almost did not dare moaning from their terrible discomfort. Even hearing their own breath sounded too loud. And all this silence hung over a majestic landscape of mountains and a magnificent glacier, glittering bright white in the sunlight, hanging over the valley as if it was about to avalanche into it. The only way to pay respects to this landscape was an engulfing silence. It impressed a sense of guilt to everyone who would dare to disrespect it – by arrogantly driving through the valley with a car for instance. And that’s what it did to Alfred and Madeline. Feeling very small, naked and crucified, they lived a seemingly eternal time of submission to the overwhelming nature surrounding them. As if they had always been hanging to their crosses, as if they would be part of the valley forever.
Then, a typical sound of the mountains approached. Cow bells. A grazing herd of cattle slowly approached. They surrounded the crosses. Under the supervision of a huge bull, the cows scrutinized Madeline and Alfred. Some of the cows sniffed their legs with their wet noses and licked their feet with their raw tongues. Madeline had trouble resisting the tickling and the raw surface, but she could not push them away. She had to be careful with her reactions, as sudden moves caused pain and cramp in all her muscles.
Finally, the herd moved on further and after some time, silence had returned.
A church bell struck three times three strikes and the sound of the Angelus Bell filled the valley. Its heavenly, peaceful singing echoing all around, seemed to last eternally. It made Madeline forget her pain, humiliation and discomfort for a short while. When the sound of the Angelus bell had faded away, the silence in the valley seemed even deeper than before, as if the whole nature was taking a moment of contemplation.
From time to time, bikers past along, with their fanciful speedsuits, helmets and sunglasses. They waved or rung their bells. Alfred and Madeline tried to ignore them. They could not wave back anyway. They could not even move their fingers any more. Their hands had become numb. Sometimes, bypassers stopped for a while, commenting the scene, taking photographs. They were occasionally joined by some locals. Then they all went on, leaving Alfred and Madeline once more alone in their suffering and struggling.
A group of five bikers arrived. They stopped. They read the titulus and laughed. They clearly had fun about the ‘arrogant car maniacs who got theirs’. They approached the crosses, taunted them and touched Madeline. To show their disapproval, they urinated against the crosses, against their feet. Finally they left, but not after having taken away Madeline’s panties and bra. As they departed, they waved goodbye, using Madeline’s undergarments as flags. Madeline now only had her shoes left to dress on. She never had felt so naked in her whole life.
(to be continued)
 
No trespassing (I): ALPENGLÜHEN (Alpine Glow) Part 7
In the early afternoon, Alfred and Madeline became hungry, and, after hours of forcedly bathing in the sun, even more thirsty. Suddenly the police arrived. But Alfred and Madeline’s little bit of hope they would be released, was in vain. The police gave them water to drink and some simple food, but they let them hang, and installed a checkpoint on the road. It was the time of the day people returned from the market Madeline had wanted to visit. Four cars and two motorcycles, trying to trespass without permit, were stopped. They got a big fine and were ordered to return. But not before the occupants had to step out to get confronted by the police with what could have happened to them : getting crucified naked like Alfred and Madeline. A few buses arrived. They had permission to cross the valley, but nevertheless, they were also stopped, and the passengers were asked to step out for a minute, allowing the police to explain the sense of the punishment they witnessed.
Judging from the traditional dresses they wore, the passengers on the buses were mostly locals, and they looked very satisfied about the way Madeline and Alfred had been treated. Some of the habitants of the nearby farms also showed up, among which farmer Scheiber and his son. Madeline noticed that they were clearly talking about her. She had no doubts about what!
This traffic rush happened at an unfortunate moment, as Alfred and Madeline, after hours of hanging, could no longer hold up their body fluids any more. She had hoped to relieve her bladder when there would be no onlookers. But just then, it was a come and go of people passing by and stopping. Gradually, both suffered growing, almost painful pressure. But due to the nervous writhing it caused, she slipped from her foot support, and while hanging and struggling to rise upon them again, she could hold not up her bladder anymore, in front of the amused onlookers. Soon Alfred, followed. Another humiliating moment.
Once more a bus stopped. This time, the passengers were tourists. To Madeline’s annoyance, at least one third of the about thirty passengers were guests from Gasthof Kreuzspitze, their hotel. That would give some embarrassment during diner that evening! She tried to ignore them.
Some tourists looked terrified, others confused, other amused. On one hand, they were curious, but nevertheless, they kept a distance from the crosses, reluctant to make contact. As if they were afraid it would happen to them too. Only, Ronny and Lisa, a couple Alfred and Madeline had met in the spa of the hotel, came closer.
“Oh dear, what have they done to you?” Lisa said.
“It is just…the legally imposed sentence for driving through the valley without permission. That’s what we did. And these are the consequences for us. You see!” Alfred said.
“Are you all right?” Ronny asked.
“Thanks for your concern” Alfred replied, “All things considered, it is hard time, but we can cope with it. They give us food and water. Anyway, we have to go through it. That’s just the way it is.”
“It is harsh by moments ”, Madeline added, “but we gambled and we lost, and now we have to sweat it out.”
“There was already a rumor in town that a couple had been caught and crucified in the valley for trespassing. Oh, man! Bad luck it is both of you, off all people!”
“We almost made I through. But then right here, they got us!” Alfred said.
“We could not say we were not warned”, Madeline added. “When we left, they just had put up a new sign post to warn trespassers. But we ignored it. We clearly had no excuses or extenuating circumstances to plead for.”
“We heard in town”, Ronny continued, “that the police would indeed get less tolerant to illegal motorized trespassers in the valley. They would do more effort to catch them! And they would inflict more severe punishments. As far as it concerns both of you, it seems to be true!”
“We noticed! They even used a Porsche to catch us.”
“That Porsche, or another fast vehicle, seems to be leased from time to time they said. When the chance for trespassers will be bigger!”
“It is embarrassing, all these people from the hotel watching us.” Madeline said. “I cannot show up there anymore, certainly not in the dining room, with all these guests having seen us here!”
“Do not worry, Madeline”, Ronny said, “we will take care of both of you when you come back. We will make arrangements with some other guests to support you when you show up in public at the hotel. And first we go together to the spa! We will be all naked there. In the sauna, you can tell us about this unique travel experience! I bet some of them would try it just for the kick of hanging here like both of you!”
“Ronny!” said his wife.
“Thanks for doing that!” Madeline answered.
“How long are you here already?” Lisa asked.
“Since about 10 a.m.”
“That’s more than four hours already!? That’s outrageous! We must do something!”
“Thanks, but you better be careful. They could put charges against you.” Alfred replied.
“Still, is there anything we can do? Do you need help” Ronny asked.
“My main concern is, that they also confiscated our car!” Alfred said.
“Too bad! But we are leaving also on Friday. If the car problem is not solved by then, you can go home with us. We have space enough in our own car.”
“Thanks!”
“O yes, Ronny!”, Lisa said. “someone in town told us he had heard, but he was not sure, that there was a way to get through. Why didn’t you try that?”
“Which was that?”
Then, the bus honked. Ronny and Lisa had to get back.
(to be continued)
 
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
 
and it's always wise to carry a crucifix, just in case.... ;)
a fine story Loxuru, a new and different take on our favourite theme,
and very enjoyably told.
It certainly deserves to go into the archive - have you got it in WordDoc or pdf already?
Otherwise, maybe Madiosi could be persuaded... ;)
 
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

Extremely sound advice from Loxuru! I shall bear that in mind!

Brilliant story, thank you!
 
Good story, of the kind that gives us a lungful of fresh, healthy Alpine air, instead of the dark weight of death and night and blood. The humorous view onto the figures, and their unheroic normalcy is no obstacle to enjoying their tale ;)
"We have not tried this before.”...
I guess that Alfred and Madeline will take home not only the message about trespassing... they also will learn to tread new ground for themselves as it seems...

The role that the natural environment plays, as almost a part of the crucifiers, is also a good point. In fact, I do like traveling to remote corners in Europe (islands, mountain regions) that often still retain very rich treasures of local stories and fairy-tales. These places usually had many unwritten but inescapable rules that enabled a small community to survive, where all depended on the responsibilities of each other. No matter if dealing with the vagaries of high mountain life, or wrestling sustenance from the sea, or other hard existences. And so many of the stories have a returning topic of the punishments that result when individuals (out of greed, pride, or such) break this network of mutual responsibilities, and often the punishment is carried out only in part by the society, but in other part by nature. Which at the same time as delivering its punishment also reveals its beauty and grandeur. So that the tale will explain, why a certain place is now covered by glacier, when previously, it was lush meadow, etc. This story carries traces reminding of that.
 
While working on a new story, I finished some pics about the 'non trespassing' theme. The setting is 16th century Europe, in the Thirty Years War. A county has changed sides. This is of course unacceptable, and an example must be set. The county and its cities are sacked, and its population is punished, in order to discourage others to defect. (The background in the lower half is from a painting of the Dutch painter Willem Roelofs (1822-1897).

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Three noble women try to negociate and bribe their way out to safety. But the Captain is firm!


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"I am sorry, Ladies, no trespassing! I have strickt orders! No one gets away, rich or poor! No exceptions! Could you now hand me over your gold! Thank you! We will soon bring some timber to crucify you on like all the rest of you traitors! Yes, Ladies, strip naked, like these peasant girls. On the cross, everybody is equal! So take off these clothes now!"

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While working on a new story, I finished some pics about the 'non trespassing' theme. The setting is 16th century Europe, in the Thirty Years War. A county has changed sides. This is of course unacceptable, and an example must be set. The county and its cities are sacked, and its population is punished, in order to discourage others to defect. (The background in the lower half is from a painting of the Dutch painter Willem Roelofs (1822-1897).

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Three noble women try to negociate and bribe their way out to safety. But the Captain is firm!


View attachment 283744


"I am sorry, Ladies, no trespassing! I have strickt orders! No one gets away, rich or poor! No exceptions! Could you now hand me over your gold! Thank you! We will soon bring some timber to crucify you on like all the rest of you traitors! Yes, Ladies, strip naked, like these peasant girls. On the cross, everybody is equal! So take off these clothes now!"

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Oh S o Lovely, it`s giving me an early morning tingle between my legs
where do i have to trespass t o be "punished" like that
 
Oh S o Lovely, it`s giving me an early morning tingle between my legs
where do i have to trespass t o be "punished" like that
Sources of inspration : the Sack of Magdeburg (20/5/1631), the Spanish Fury in Antwerp (4-7/11/1576), and the siege of Jerusalem (70 AD) by the future emperor Titus, during which inhabitants, trying to esacpe from the city, were crucified by the besiegers.
 
Three noble women try to negociate and bribe their way out to safety. But the Captain is firm!
"I am sorry, Ladies, no trespassing! I have strickt orders! No one gets away, rich or poor! No exceptions! Could you now hand me over your gold! Thank you! We will soon bring some timber to crucify you on like all the rest of you traitors! Yes, Ladies, strip naked, like these peasant girls. On the cross, everybody is equal! So take off these clothes now!"
For so many years the war has raged, villages burned, hovels razed... yet we, noble, remained untouched. Not thanks to any quality but inherited wealth that so far has always sufficed to bribe.

But didn't we all know this day would come? We've grown up with this war, peace is a distant childhood memory. Didn't we always know, deep inside, the war would outlive us?

Now I'm standing here, exposed. Seeing my future around me. Timber, they say... it will take some time to fetch. The wait will be unbearable. Around me, the suffering, the cries, the helplessness... oh what shall I do with myself?

Captain! Sir! A plea!

Can you at least have me bound?

I don't know how otherwise to maintain any pretense of my... nobility...
 
For so many years the war has raged, villages burned, hovels razed... yet we, noble, remained untouched. Not thanks to any quality but inherited wealth that so far has always sufficed to bribe.

But didn't we all know this day would come? We've grown up with this war, peace is a distant childhood memory. Didn't we always know, deep inside, the war would outlive us?

Now I'm standing here, exposed. Seeing my future around me. Timber, they say... it will take some time to fetch. The wait will be unbearable. Around me, the suffering, the cries, the helplessness... oh what shall I do with myself?

Captain! Sir! A plea!

Can you at least have me bound?

I don't know how otherwise to maintain any pretense of my... nobility...

Yes, those feelings of anticipation.... The terror of waiting... just for a terrible ordeal.
The Captain assures the Ladies that it will not take a long time. There is plenty of timber in the roofs of a nearby farmstead. Forced by the soldiers, its male inhabitants are tearing down the rafters and sawing them to an appropriate size.

They already did for their wives, daughters and mothers, soon the Ladies will be served, and finally, they will prepare their own crosses.
 
The merciless warriors forcing the defeated people to crucify each other... does this fate not seem familiar from a previous life? It's just like my other crucifixion! :D
I can't fault the men from the farmstead for fashioning our crosses. Did we ever do aything for them; all we did was look down on them. For a while we will continue... from our crosses. I might have expected these men to die in a last outburst of defiance, rather than preparing the instruments of torment for their own womenfolk. It seems their will is entirely crushed. A war like this will do that. Many have gone like lambs.
 
Announcing a short story :

A cloud of orange-brown dust is thrown up…
It settles, it dissolves. It becomes pale brown, then grey brown and, as the sky appears again, grey blue.
And once more, out of the settling cloud, they merge again. These black dots. Hundreds! Thousands, it looks like!
It’s a horror!
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COMING SOON! : AFTER THE STORM

The next ‘No Trespassing’ story.
 
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