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Eighth installment

At 0645 I was woken by the receptionist telephoneing my room telling me that I had to come downstairs as police officers were waiting for me"what no breakfast even a condemed man had a last meal"I said to her but of course no reply. Back to the police station and the same room as I had been in the day before, my bergan was there and all the items they had taken from me were neatly arranged on the table as if they had searched them throuthaly and I waited for what was to come next. After what seemed like ages the same men as the day before and also another whom I had not seen before. They all sat either behind or around the table which was in the far corner of the room,
"where is the bright light, thumb screws, the gestapo has arrived" I thought to myself,
They to talk amongst themselves and while they were talking I came up with a plan and decided to play it safe and not to tell them the truth, not to tell them that I was going to Vukovar but to Greece so in my head I made up a story and decided to stick with it, it would get me out of here sooner than later, they looked at me and then at the items on the table in front of them. They then started to speak in English,
"what are you doing in Yugoslavia and why have you got all this milatery items with you"
"okay here goes let's see how convincing I can be" I thought to myself,
Now I started to lie, by telling them that I had got off the bus at the border because the bus didn't go into Yugoslavia and as my parents had visited Belgrade and said how beautiful it was I wanted to see for myself now that will impress them I hoped, then they started asking questions, 
"what were you going to do after that"
"go to Greece"
"why Greece?"
I thought that now was the time to start my fairy tale off, I told them that I didn't have a job in Great Britain and had decided to go to Greece to find work so that I would have enough money to buy presents for my children for Christmas, I was going to the islands where I knew that I could find work picking orange's, lemon's or grapes, I would save most of the money by sleeping rough and return home a couple of weeks before Christmas.
"but what about all these milatery clothes"
"they were great clothes for working in and if it got cold at night to keep me warm" I replyed, I told them that I needed my sleeping bag so that I didn't have to stay in hotels, as for the compass, knives, survival kit and torches I also needed if I was sleeping outside, I asked them if I was going to be charged with any crime and they told me not at the moment but I had to stay for further questioning,
"could I call my embassy" I asked,
"yes, we will get you the number" they replied. It looked like my lie had worked and perhaps I was going to get away with it. The number they gave me was a Belgrade and they dialed it and handed me the phone, someone answered and I told them the same story as I had told the gestapo, the voice on the other end of the line told me that there was nothing to worry about, that was easy for them to say I was stuck here in the police station and they were in a cosy embassy probably drinking a cup of tea, so I handed the phone back and he spoke for about five 5 minutes and then took me outside and told to sit down and wait. They kept me waiting for about an hour before they took me back in, had my lie worked or not, one of the men seemed different from the others and proceeded to inform me that he was from the Ministery of the Interior, what ever that was. They started to ask the same questions as before hoping to catch me out but I stuck with my lie, the same fairy tale, again I was led outside, sat down and waited, I looked around wondering what was happening, in the end I dropped off to sleep and was woken abruptly and taken back to the hotel where they told me I had to stay another night, great, money running out, stuck in a country that was supposed to be my enemy, just questions, sitting and house arrest so I just lay on my bed and went to sleep wondering what tomorrow would bring

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