Without knowing it, they created a whole kingdom of surrealistic unreality which disappeared as soon as they woke up.

The vast majority sat at home and looked at TV. However, shouts of joy could sometimes be heard from a nearby sports ground where there was a bandy match. Tage never thought of going there as he was from Skåne in the extreme south of Sweden where nobody played bandy. He felt it was a mistake to live in a big city like Stockholm. He was used to living near farms and geese. Furthermore, Copenhagen now seemed as far away as Vladivostok. But Stockholm was right in one way because it was here he met Anni.

Tage was now so drunk that the whole of his flat begun to spin, and next day Anni was coming to visit him. She was visiting her parents and would arrive by train at Stockholm's central station.

They were so much in love. The only annoying part about it all was that it had begun and grown in Stockholm, a strange and absurd city. He hiccuped in his drunkenness and then fell into his canopied bed nearly knocking down the whole canopy. But before long he slept and snored like a pig in a pigsty.

A new day dawned and he woke with a splitting headache, but it felt better after many glasses of cherry beer, which he found in the fridge.

Then he got a shock. Anni's train was due in one hour. He wondered what would happen, if she discovered he not only smelt of alcohol but was also drunk.

"Damn that cherry beer," he muttered.