Susan in Sweden II

Continuing my tale. I still have not used all the words:
Rivers
Heavy
Shell
Mischief
Searchlight
Yell
      And / or
Arm
East
Fruit
Languages
Voice
Thought

She crossed the long, narrow square leading down to the city hall and was on her way to the book-store. On the way, she passed a fruit seller with his cart. He looked tired and hungry, Susan thought. He shouted hoarsely "2 bananas for 50 øre, Two apples here 25 øre". It was actually cheap, and Susan would like something more in her stomach than an ice cream. "Two bananas, thank you." she said to the man by the fruit cart. He put them in a brown paper bag, and was about to hand them to her, when a boy came out of the alley opposite, grabbed a bunch of bananas and ran down towards the town hall. Susan looked amazed. But it was Helge! What the beep was he doing in Helsingborg, and why was he stealing bananas? She had to find out. She placed a big coin on the fruit cart, rudely snatched the bag out of the hand of the angry fruit seller and ran down the street shouting: "Helge, Helge! What are you doing here!" The fruit-seller shouted, "Well, you're in league with that thief. I'll get you both!" He ran after them while shouting: "Police! Thieves, Robbers! Help me!" Susan rushed after Helge, and managed to see him turning left at the bottom of the square. She reached him seconds later, and there he stood, gasping and red in the face. The light were red, of course. They heard a police whistle and two seconds later Susan heard the bell telling that a a train was coming. Susan grabbed Helge's bananas and put them in the basket with her own. Then she took his hand. "Come on!" she said, pulling him toward the pedestrian crossing. "But, but we can't cross, the lights are red," Helge protested.
  "Yes. They are red for everyone right now. There's a train coming. Come on! "She pulled Helge with her, and when he realized what she was up to, he ran with him.
  Helge and Susan crossed the track seconds before the train arrived. It was a freight train with many, many carriages, slow-moving too. Now the police officer would have to go all the way around the train. "Come on, the ferry is about to leave. We're going home to my place." Susan and Helge darted up the stairs and were the last ones to board the ferry before the landing was taken. "Phew, we made it. Now mom's not going to give us a scolding." Susan said aloud. "Let's go upstairs and get some fresh air."
  When they stood on the deck, and had caught their breath, Susan asked: "What are you doing in Helsingborg? I thought you lived in Stockholm. And why are you stealing bananas?"
  "I ran away from home," Helge said weakly. "My father became ill, and my mother said we could not afford me going to the wizarding school any more ..." Helge wiped his nose. "Only my father is magical. My mother has never really liked it. I do not know if she's just thinking it's nonsense or if she's afraid of magic. When I protested, she grounded me. I tried to sneak out to go over to Harald and the others, but you know how clumsy I am. I overturned a glass and she discovered me." Helge wiped his eyes on his shirt sleeve and sniffed again. "She locked me in. And then ... then she broke my wand." Helge struggled not to cry. Susan almost trembled with anger. "What a beast she is! What do we do now?"
  "The police are probably alerting colleagues in Elsinore," Helge said. "We have to disguise ourselves. "
  "My basket," Susan said, "it's all too easily recognizable. I'll probably have to leave it here on the ferry."
  "Throw it overboard?" suggested Helge.
  "No, it's too dangerous. What if someone sees it and thinks it's a man overboard. I'll hide it in one of the toilets. Those down on the car deck are rarely used. Now you go into the men's toilet up here and wash up as best you can, then I go down and buy cigarettes for my mother - and a carrier bag. Stay up here until I return. We'll probably find out something. I do not think they'll stop all the ferry traffic for a bunch of bananas." Helge smiled a crooked smile, snatched a few bananas and slipped into the men's toilet. Susan went down to the kiosk and bought a new carton r of cigarettes with her mother's money, and a bag of 'Black Boats' and a carrier bag for her own.
  "Well you didn't get enough with one ice cream," the lady smiled at her.
  "No," Susan said, "I want something to take home and share with my sister, I still have money left over."
  "Have a nice trip," the friendly kiosk lady said, and hurriedly turned to the next in the long queue.
  Susan went down the steep stairs down to the car deck. She was about to go to the toilet when she saw that one of the doors of a freight train carriage was ajar. "Fine," she thought, "this is a perfect diversionary manoeuvre." Quickly, she placed the contents of the basket in the carrier bag, tied the scarf around her neck, and peeled one of the bananas. Then she put the banana peel in the basket and slipped it in through the door, pushing it in as far as she could reach. 'Århus East' was written on the large boxes inside the wagon. At the bottom of the basket she also found one of her hair bands. "Fine, then I can make a ponytail," Susan thought. Then she went to the toilet while gnawing the banana. Inside the toilet, she thought it over. Her skirt had a very distinctive green colour. She had agonized a lot over that colour-changing spell. But now it could do some good. Blue. She was quite sure of what was called in Icelandic. She took off her skirt and spread it out over the toilet. The wand almost by itself performed the right movement and the words flowed out of her mouth. The skirt had a nice, inconspicuous blue colour. Perfect.
  Then she washed her hands and face in the cold water and put the skirt back on. Without a basket, with a ponytail and a different coloured skirt, she was probably a little harder to recognize. Now it was Helge's turn. She meandered up the stairs to the sun deck. The wind had begun blowing some more. Helge sat on a bench and looked longingly back at Sweden. "Hello again." Susan said. "Now we have to do something about your clothes too!" Due to the rising wind, they were alone on the sun deck and Helge took off his trousers and shirt and spread them on the floor in front of Susan. One, two, three, the shirt had become a darker green and the trousers were grey instead of white. Helge dressed again. "How good that you have made your homework. I did not get that far," he said sadly.
  "Listen," Susan said. "Now you get a ticket from me, and then we go ashore separately. They are probably looking for two children together. And then we quickly get into the first shuttle bus. And a little later out again through the back door. There is always so many who want to go with the first one, that the driver will not wonder. He'll just think we wee about to get squished. Then we go over to Kronborg. It is not very far." Susan and Helge fought bravely not to look at each other in the crowd at the gangway, There were no officers standing there, and they were about to breathe a sigh of relief. Then Helge looked through the windows of the building and saw the three officers outside.
  The officers looked at the disembarking passengers, but just cast a cursory glance at the two children. Once they got on the bus, they found one another, and quickly agreed to stay on the bus. It filled up and drove off. Susan could see through the door of the bus, and saw the officers standing and talking to an elderly couple who had also been on board.
  "When we get dropped off, you just follow me," Susan said. "We have to get up to the portal as fast as possible. But I have to go home and hand over the cigarettes first."

Part 3