Chapter 1 – Kim's Arrest

Kimberly Lee and her two friends from high school, Susan Taylor and Tiffany Walker, had been touring Western Europe for nearly a month when they decided to expand their explorations into Eastern Europe. They looked through their tour book, finally settling on visiting Prague and Budapest. Almost as an after-thought Tiffany suggested a side trip to another small country called the Grand Duchy of Upper Danubia.

The three girls knew nothing about Upper Danubia, except for what they were able to learn from their tourbook. Apparently the country had a lot of architecture from the 19th Century and had not been heavily damaged during World War II. The local citizens were relatively friendly, and there were plenty of nature trails, parks, and very cheap restaurants. Best of all, the guidebook pointed out that Upper Danubia was known for having the world's lowest crime rate due to its unique justice system. Kim and the other two decided to go there for sure; it sounded like a really great place. They would visit the capitol Danúbikt Mostk, and later spend a couple of days hiking at the Rika Chorna Reservoir before continuing on to Prague.

As they waited for the train to take them from Amsterdam to Danúbikt Mostk (or Danube City in English), Tiffany decided to buy some extra marijuana from her lover in Amsterdam. The three girls had taken full advantage of Europe's lax drug laws to smoke marijuana to their hearts' content. Amsterdam was so cool, to sit in cafes and get high!

Kim, especially, had taken to smoking weed while in Amsterdam. She determined to have as much fun now before heading to college in the fall. Tiffany had turned Kim onto marijuana while they were still in high school, but now Kim was smoking it more than either of her two friends. Kim didn't realize it, but she was becoming addicted.

Tiffany casually stuffed the bag of marijuana in Kim's backpack and the three boarded the train. "Don't smoke all of it, Kim" she joked, "we gotta make this last until we get to Prague."

Fourteen hours later, the train arrived at the southern border of the Grand Duchy of Upper Danubia. It was obvious that Upper Danubia was not a particularly wealthy country, but everything seemed very clean and in good order. The train stopped as the border guards casually checked everyone's passports and pieces of luggage at random. The girls had a brief scare when a border guard checked Tiffany's backpack, but fortunately he skipped Kim's.

As the train pulled to the Danubian side of the border crossing, Susan gasped and pointed out the window. "Check it out! That guy's got no clothes on!"

Sure enough, at the other end of the platform there was a naked young man selling ice cream out of a push-cart. The three girls were amazed that no one around him seemed to think there was anything strange about a naked guy selling ice cream. A few passers-by casually glanced at him, but that was about it. Kim tried to get a closer look at him. He seemed to have something around his neck, like a dark-colored collar, but he was too far from the train for her to have a good look at him.

The three girls now had something to discuss as the train completed the final part of the trip into Danube City, the capital of Upper Danubia. Kim remembered that Upper Danubia had a reputation of being a traditionalist and conservative country, but obviously that wasn't true if guys could run around selling ice cream in the nude.

Danube City was very different from the bustling European capitals Kim and her friends had visited previously. All of the architecture in the downtown area was at least 100 years old, and the buildings were very clean. There was no trash in the streets nor graffiti whatsoever. There were no private cars on the streets; only trolleys, trolleybuses, and bicycles. Kim remembered from the guidebook that only farmers and merchants were permitted to own vehicles, since the Grand Duchy's territory was small and its government didn't want it filled up with cars and parking lots. As a result of the restriction, the smoke and constant beeping of the other European capitals was totally absent from Danube City. The traffic moved very silently and orderly.

Most of the citizens of Danube City were dressed in typical western clothing, except for a few women wearing traditional Danubian dresses. One detail they noticed immediately was that all of the city's women, old ones and young ones alike, had their hair carefully done up in tight braids wrapped around their heads. Children were dressed in standard school uniforms. Then there were the naked people. As the three Americans walked around, they noticed the occasional young man or young woman, working in a store or a restaurant, or riding a bicycle; moving about completely in the nude. All of the nude people looked like they were in their teens or 20's, and all of them were wearing metal collars.

When they stopped at a cafe, their waiter was nude. The young man seemed very shy and nervous. He didn't seem like the sort who would be at ease being in public with nothing on, and in fact appeared quite depressed. Like all the other nude people Kim had seen in Danube City, he was wearing a metal collar. While her two friends admired the waiter's body and made jokes about him, Kim began to worry. There's something going on here with these nude people that we need to know about, she thought to herself. She badly wanted to ask the waiter what was up with his collar, but he didn't speak English and she did not speak any Danubian. At the end of the meal Tiffany got a bit drunk and slapped the waiter hard on the ass. He gave her a sad look, but otherwise did not react.

By the end of their meal Kim wanted to smoke a joint. The urge was building up very quickly and soon the trio were looking for a place they could enjoy a good smoke in peace. They settled on the nature park behind Danube City's Temple of the Ancients. They found what seemed like a good spot, near a park bench in a picturesque spot that overlooked the East Danube River.

Tiffany rolled a joint and passed it to Kim, then lit the end and held it until Kim was smoking. Kim sat back and relaxed, as she felt the mellow sensation slip through her body. Tiffany and Susan decided to run behind the bushes and pee, then they would take a few drags off Kim's joint before rolling another. It was a routine the three had gotten used to, and today would be another lazy, mellow afternoon…

Suddenly Kim heard an angry woman's voice shouting in Danubian. She looked around and saw a young female Danubian cop standing only a few meters away from her. The cop was quite pretty, but had a very angry expression on her face. She was holding a service revolver in one hand and a radio transmitter in the other. Kim realized with horror what was happening, she was about to be arrested.

When Kim tried to stand up the cop screamed in barely understandable English:

"You…maragana girl! You no move!"

The cop punctuated her command by pulling the hammer back on her revolver and pointing it at Kim's head. At that moment the cop's partner showed up, holding a rifle. He pointed it directly at Kim.

Tiffany and Susan came back a few seconds later, chattering in English. The male cop immediately pointed his rifle at them and started shouting at them in Danubian. They squealed with fright. The female cop, in her broken English, was the one who addressed them.

"You tourist?"

"Y…yes, w…were tourists. F…from America."

"You with girl?" The young cop pointed at Kim, who had her hands up and was shaking.

Tiffany nodded in terror.

The female cop then pointed at the ground about five meters away from the park bench. "You lay…lie! On tummy lie!" When Tiffany hesitated the cop pointed the revolver in her face. The three Americans scrambled to lie on the ground on their stomachs. Each in turn felt her hands being grabbed by the male cop and handcuffed.

By this time several local residents were standing around watching the arrest. The two police officers chatted with the bystanders in Danubian, explaining that these tourists had been caught smoking marijuana, on this Sacred ground behind the Temple of the Ancients, no less. The male then reached in Kim's pocket and pulled out her passport. He thumbed through it and found what he was looking for. "Amsterdam", he read aloud.

Two more police officers arrived, a man and a woman. The first female cop ordered the Americans to stand up and pointed at each of their three backpacks. "This one…who?"

"It's mine," mumbled Susan.

"…and this one…who?"

"Mine," responded Tiffany.

"…and this…you?" The cop looked at Kim. Kim sadly nodded her head.

The two new cops pulled out three large plastic bags to put the backpacks in, while the two arresting officers emptied the contents of the girls' pockets into smaller evidence bags. One of the newcomers filled out labels for the bags while the female cop snapped a picture of the spot where the crime had taken place. As an afterthought she picked up Kim's joint from the ground to put in a separate evidence bag.

With that the four cops loaded the three Americans and their backpacks into a van. Kim, Tiffany, and Susan were too stunned to be able to react at all to what was happening to them.

After a very short ride to the Central Police Station the van pulled to a stop in a courtyard. The police unloaded the backpacks and then pulled the Americans out of the van. Next to where the van was parked was a slightly raised circular cement platform. The police ordered Tiffany to stand in the middle of the platform, and Kim and Susan to kneel next to the platform, facing away from its center. The cop with the rifle pointed it at Tiffany while the young female officer took off her handcuffs. She pointed at the ground.

"Costumes here…all!"

Tiffany looked dumbfounded, not understanding the order.

"YOU DO!!!" The officer once again pointed her revolver at Tiffany's head.

Tiffany screamed, but then an older man in a dark suit put his hand on the cop's arm and forced her to lower the weapon. He spoke to Tiffany in an educated-sounding accent.

"Young lady, you must undress, right away. You are now a prisoner of the Duchy, and you are not permitted clothing."

Tiffany started to cry. "No…please."

"It is our law, and you will obey. Take everything off and put it over here. If you do not, we shall punish you for insurrection."

Kim was facing away from her friend, but she listened with horror to Tiffany's crying and the sound of clothing sliding off her body and falling to the ground. Then she heard the rustling of plastic as a guard picked up everything from the platform and stuffed it in a bag. Then she heard the click of handcuffs as Tiffany's hands were once again secured behind her back. Tiffany was guided to kneel next to Kim. Kim glanced over at her friend's bare body and teary face.

Kim felt a hand grip her upper arm. The hand pulled her upward and helped the prisoner get on her feet. She could not bear to look at the officer helping her stand up. Kim felt the key enter her handcuffs and slide them off. With that the older man addressed her.

"You, place your clothes on the cement. Remove your jewelry as well."

Kim felt numb as she slowly worked to get her clothing off. She kicked off her shoes and slid her jeans over her feet. She dropped them on the cement with a dull clump. Next were her earrings and her necklace. A guard handed her a plastic bag to put them in. Kim then hesitated as she held her hands at the waist of her blouse. She held her breath as she pulled it up over her head, exposing her shoulders and breasts to the hot courtyard sun. The final item remaining was her panties. Slowly she slid them over her bottom and legs. She held onto them for just a second, hoping against hope that all this was somehow a nightmare and she would be waking up at any moment.

A guard yanked Kim's panties out of her hand and pulled her arms behind her back. Kim found herself handcuffed and kneeling next to Tiffany, the hot sun shining on her breasts and thighs. The rustling of her items being placed in a plastic bag signaled the final loss of her clothing and of her status as a free American tourist.

Kim knelt in numb horror as Susan undressed. Once Susan's clothes were off her body and bagged as well, the educated man shouted at his subordinates to get three carts to wheel the backpacks and other personal items to the examination rooms.

Three male guards led the three young women across the courtyard into the identification room. The police uncuffed them one-by-one, and then fingerprinted and photographed them. Kim thought to herself in terror, my God, they're going to take pictures of us naked.

Sure enough, Kim found herself standing in front of the camera with nothing on. The first shots were of her face; one from the front, one from the back, one from above her head looking down, one from each side, and two taken from different angles.

Next came the full-body shots: hands at her side…facing the camera, facing away from the camera, facing left, facing right. Then another series of shots, this time with her hands behind her head and her legs spread: front, back, left, right.

Kim watched intently at Tiffany and Susan were subjected to the same series of identification photos. In spite of her fear and depression, Kim was somewhat fascinated seeing her two friends forced to pose with their bodies fully exposed to both the camera and the cops standing around in the room.

The police then handcuffed the three girls and separated Kim from the others. A guard led Kim to an interrogation room. Once in the room the guard locked the door and unlatched Kim's handcuffs. He led her to face a table where three very stern-looking officials, two men and an older woman, were sitting. Kim's backpack was placed on the floor in front of her, along with the plastic bags of her clothing and jewelry.

The guard snapped at Kim in Danubian and tapped her body to force her to spread her legs and place her hands behind her head. Words could not describe the humiliation sweeping through the prisoner as she stood completely exposed, her arms and legs spread, in front of those three well-dressed officials and all those cops standing in the back of the room.

It was apparent that only the woman spoke any English, since during the interrogation only she directly addressed Kim and translated for her two companions.

"You are the American, Kimberly Lee?"

"Y…yes ma'am."

"And you were detained behind the Temple of the Ancients about two hours ago with two other Americans?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Is this backpack your property, an item that you brought with you earlier today from Amsterdam?"

"Yes…ma'am."

"You shall understand that under our laws, you are solely responsible for the contents of the backpack you brought from Amsterdam. We shall now search your backpack."

With that one of the male officials raised his hand. A guard opened up the backpack. The very first item he pulled out was a full sandwich bag of marijuana. He handed it to the three officials, who examined it and placed it on a scale. Kim nearly fainted. She had forgotten the group's entire stash of marijuana was being kept in her backpack. The three officials took notes as the guard emptied out the rest of the backpack. He found Tiffany's rolling paper and her marijuana pipe. He placed both items on the table in front of the officials. He found a colorful t-shirt with a marijuana emblem on it. Finally he pulled out Kim's traveling cash and placed it next to the bag of marijuana and the other items on the table.

The panel looked over the items the cop had placed on the table, and talked quietly among themselves. One of the men talked to the woman, apparently giving her some instructions. Finally she addressed Kim:

"Young lady, according to your passport you entered our country at 9:00 this morning. Unless you are able to present evidence to the contrary, this panel is convinced that you entered our territory with 432 grams of marijuana. This panel is also persuaded that the cash in your possession was raised from the sale of marijuana, either in this country or in the country from which you departed to come here."

Kim felt like she was about to throw up. The spokeswoman continued.

"At 13:30 hours this afternoon, two uniformed officers of the law and three common citizens witnessed you smoking marijuana in the Sacred Grounds behind the Temple of the Ancients. Do you deny smoking marijuana in that location at that time?"

"No, ma'am, I don't deny that."

"Are you aware that the Grand Duchy of Upper Danubia's legal system is separate and sovereign from that of the Netherlands and that all mind-altering substances are illegal here?"

"Yes, ma'am, I understand that."

"But you made a conscious decision to violate our laws by bringing marijuana into our country and smoking it. Is that true?"

Kim sobbed. "Yes, ma'am, it's true."

"And that you intended to raise income by selling and distributing marijuana in this country?"

"No…please! That part isn't right! We just wanted to have enough in case we couldn't get any in Prague! Please! We weren't trying to sell it!"

The woman picked up the bag of tightly packed marijuana and waved it up and down slightly. Her voice took on a very cold tone of skepticism.

"400 grams? For personal use? This panel finds that hard to believe."

"Ma'am! Please! We…"

"That is quite enough from you! You can give your side of the story at your trial tomorrow. This panel will recommend that you face charges of importing marijuana into our territory, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute for illicit gain, use of marijuana in a public location, and violation of the Sanctity of the Ancients."

With that leader of the arraignment panel stood up and drew his fist across his chest, which was the Danubian way of saying "this meeting is concluded". One of the guards took Kim's wrists and handcuffed them together while another photographed the spread-out contents of her backpack.

With that Kim was led down a long corridor to a medical examination room. The hallway was quite busy with cops, public officials, and ordinary citizens running back and forth. Most of the people in the hallway had never seen an Asian girl close-up before, so they carefully looked over Kim's body and face as they passed her. A group of schoolboys shouted something rude to Kim in Danubian, only to have the guard escorting the prisoner yell at them and make them scatter. Kim never felt so vulnerable in all her life, completely exposed in front of dozens of strangers and her hands cuffed behind her back.

Far up ahead Kim thought she saw Tiffany and Susan being escorted together, but she only caught a brief glimpse of them.

Kim was taken into a large medical exam room in the basement where an older doctor and a group of medical students were waiting for her. By this time she badly needed to pee, given she had not had the chance to go to the bathroom since before she was arrested. To make sure she had to pee, the doctor ordered her to drink a large glass of water. Then, in front of 20 medical students, he positioned Kim over a bedpan and ordered her to squat. It was obvious that he expected her to fill the bedpan in front of the students, all of whom were looking at her intently.

Kim, in spite of the intense pressure in her bladder, simply could not open up in front of the class. The doctor shouted at her, but still she couldn't go. Kim started to cry. The doctor gave the prisoner a look of disgust. Finally he walked over to his desk and picked up a leather switch. He slashed it across her shoulder blades mercilessly. Kim screamed and lost her balance. She righted herself and shook with terror and utter humiliation as her bladder finally released its contents into the bedpan.

While Kim silently stood in front of the medical students with tears running down her cheeks, the doctor conducted a series of tests on her urine, showing the results to the group. He put the test samples on an overhead projector, and repeated the word "maragana" over and over, which of course was Danubian for "marijuana". Apparently he was teaching the students how to test for drugs. He then ordered a student to divide up the contents of the bedpan into 20 lab dishes and passed out drug testing strips. 20 students dipped 20 testing strips into 20 samples of urine. All 20 strips tested positive.

Kim's humiliation in front of the medical students was not over. The doctor ordered her to sit on an examination table. He drew four large needles of blood from Kim's arm and passed them to four of his students. The students then split up the blood among themselves to run tests on it. Over and over Kim heard the word "maragana" around the classroom. The students finally turned in their test kits and crowded around the examination table.

For the next hour the students took turns measuring Kim's pulse and heartbeat, turning up her eyelids and shining lights into her eyes, shoving fingers and swabs into her mouth, and worst of all, forcing her to submit to several pap smears and rectal exams. Kim was a real-life drug user, something very rare in Upper Danubia. The doctor was not about to pass up this chance to give his class hands-on experience with examining and testing a subject for drug use.

Finally the horror of Kim's medical demonstration passed. The doctor ordered her to shower in the bathroom adjacent to the examination room. There was no shower curtain, but it didn't matter. By now Kim was so broken emotionally that she didn't bother to object to showering in full view of 20 medical students. Kim left the shower and quietly allowed the guard to cuff her hands behind her back yet again, for yet another walk down the crowded police station corridor.

With that the most horrible day of Kim's life came to an end. The guard opened the door of a tiny holding cell that contained nothing but a mattress with a medical bed sheet on top and a chamber-pot. Kim crawled onto the mattress and cried herself to sleep. Just 24 hours ago she had been sleeping on a train with her friends, and now here she was, naked and alone in a Danubian holding cell, cut off from everyone and everything she had ever known.

Kim realized she was in a lot of trouble. Why…why did she go along with coming to this horrible country, not knowing anything about it? Why didn't she pay more attention to that voice inside her that was telling her something was very wrong about this place when she saw naked young people wearing collars on their necks? And what about Tiffany and Susan? What was happening to them?

As she lay crying, trying to force herself to get to sleep, Kim would have been even more horrified to know that even as she was wondering about them, Tiffany and Susan already had left Danube City on a train headed for Prague. They had been released and expelled from Upper Danubia, partly because of extremely good luck, partly because of Danubian law, and also partly because of Tiffany's betrayal of her friend Kim.

While Kim was standing before the arraignment panel, Tiffany and Susan had the good fortune to be placed in a holding cell together. It was only for a few minutes, but that gave Tiffany enough time to think of a strategy to get herself and Susan out of trouble at the expense of Kim.

In a quiet panicky whisper she spoke to Susan.

"Quick question…do you have anything in your backpack?"

"Uh…no. I think I put it all in the bag that Kim took."

"You don't have your pipe anymore?"

"No, I lost it last week. Don't you remember?"

"No paper?"

"No, I gave it to you…"

"…and I put it in Kim's bag. So you don't have anything…nothing…"

"No, but what difference does that make? They got Kim…"

"It makes a lot of difference, Susan…don't you get it? Now you listen to me and you listen good. No matter what they say or ask you, tell them you don't know what's in Kim's backpack…get it? You don't know. You didn't know she was smoking pot…"

"But we all were smoking pot…"

"No we weren't. Kim was smoking, you and I were taking a piss. We didn't know about the pot. You don't know shit about it."

"But…what about Kim?"

"Kim's fucked. There's nothing we can do about it. But if your backpack is clean and you stick to not knowing about Kim's stash, I think you and I can get out of this. My backpack is clean. I know that for a fact."

"Mine is too, but we can't do that to Kim."

"Oh we can't? I sure as hell can. Look, you saw how they treated us…you want to stay here in Nudie Prison?"

Susan sobbed, "No."

"Then you do what I tell you. You don't know shit. You're totally surprised. Never realized that Kim was capable of hauling pot. And one more thing. Don't mention anything about pot or Kim until they ask you. Don't bring it up yourself or they'll nail us."

"But…"

"Look…do you want to stay here or not?"

"No."

"Then…"

The cell door opened and Susan was pulled out to appear before the arraignment panel. Tiffany prayed that her friend wouldn't screw it up.

In the end the prosecutor decided not to file any charges against Tiffany and Susan. He didn't believe they were innocent, but there was no evidence nor any witnesses to refute their claim that they knew nothing about the marijuana Kim had with her. Their stories matched, so in the end the prosecutor simply decided to order them out of Upper Danubia and prohibit them from ever returning. Instead he would concentrate on charging Kim and try to get a maximum sentence for her.

Tiffany and Susan felt hugely relieved as they got dressed and were taken to the train station in the police van. When they got their passports back they opened them up to the latest stamp. In English, German, and Danubian it read:

"Bearer of this passport is strictly prohibited from entering the territory of The Grand Duchy of Upper Danubia under any circumstances during this lifetime."

No problem with that for either Tiffany or Susan. Neither had any intention of ever coming back.

Chapter 2