Border Crossing

Dan watched the stars fade as the sky brightened; day was breaking and that meant that one by one the stars disappeared like candles being blown out by an asthmatic pensioner. The train had been standing still for about 20 minutes, allowing Dan to study the stars from the narrow couchette bed that he was lying in. He could feel his phone and wallet through the thin pillow and hear the gentle snoring of his travelling companion, a young woman of incredible beauty. She’d ignored him of course, as all beautiful women did, until she’d ordered him out of the compartment so she could change for bed using stern foreign words and unsympathetic body language.

As the last of the stars disappeared there was a clear single knock on the door waking the woman up with a start. Dan looked at her unsure if he should open the door but she ignored him sat up and slid the door open. Her beautiful but thus far stern face softened to reveal a huge smile to welcome the guests - two ferocious looking border guards who had more in common with bulldogs than humans.

The guards smiled back at her and checked her passport exchanging words in the local lingo that meant nothing to Dan. Both sides laughed and looked at him briefly before going back to their flirtatious exchanges.

The guards then turned their attention to Daniel, holding out their hands for his passport and waiting impatiently for his offering before devouring it with suspicious eyes.

‘Come’ one of the guards barked and motioned that Dan should follow them.

Dan was almost shaking with fear as he followed the guards out of the couchette and down the train corridor, what the hell was wrong? His visa was good and his passport valid.

They walked to the end of the carriage and went into the attendant’s compartment and motioned that he entered.

‘You have drugs?’ The other guard spoke.

‘No’ Dan managed to reply.

‘Any contraband?’

Dan would have been amused by this old fashioned word being used by a burly guard had it not been for his current predicament. He shook his head. They looked at him again and reopened his passport.

‘What is this?’ The guard pointed to the badge on Dan’s football shirt.

‘Wales.’ Said Dan not sure if the officers would have heard of his tiny country.

‘Wales? Wales? Ah, Gareth Bale.’ The guards exchanged words in their tongue before turning back to Dan giving him his passport and with a slap on the back sending him back to his couchette with the word Tottenham ringing in his ears.

To his relief his phone and wallet were still under his pillow where he had left them but the girl was gone. He sat done on his bunk letting his heart get back to normal and nearly jumped out of his skin when the girl slid the door open convinced it was the guards coming back because one of them was an Arsenal fan.

‘Sorry’ she said as she smiled at him briefly. ‘I could have stopped them. They said they like to scare foreigners.’

And with that she was silent again for the rest of the journey.