A flash of lightning crossed the black horizon followed by a loud bang of thunder. Everbody in the Southern districts of Cologne, a city in Western Germany, was frightened. Suddenly, it started to rain cats and dogs. Probably more dogs - due to the intensiveness of the fat raindrops kept falling on Bruno's head. Bruno, a young man in his thirties, ran as soon as possible to his apartment. But there was no chance to arrive without becoming completely wet. A hot bath helped to get rid of the cold shower still sitting deep in his body.

What a day! he thought. The hot water gave him back the thoughts being conservated in the long floors of his mind: "These mysterious words!", the words of an old ugly woman, knocking with a dark stick on his leg when he had wandered around the autumn fair of Cologne. "What did she tell me once more?

You will find and you will lose, the right thing you will choose, even blind through the rays, you will see the happy days.

Take care of yourself, my son."

When he had thought about that poetic words, she had already been gone. Gone as sudden as the thunderstrom. Watching through the window of his warm apartment, Bruno recognized that the power of nature had broken many trees. In the radio, they said that even a lot of houses had been heavily damaged, and the river Rhine floated through Cologne very fast. It would be very dangerous to use the paths for pedestrians along the borders of the river.

Early in the next morning, after waking up, Bruno first listened to the radio, being curious if his path for inline-skating on the left border of the Rhine would still be dangerous. Luckily not! Although it was still very cold he went out of the house, direction river Rhine.

The majestic river Rhine, content of many tales, the so called saga of the Nibelungen, taking place in the Middle Ages. The sunshine actually was reflected through the water of the river very intensively. The reflection of light was so intensive that Bruno was astonished: He could not see anything. But was it really the sunshine which was so intensive? No, there was a bottle in the river blinking, just a few yards away from the border. The bottle looked very interesting to Bruno, because it had an old fashioned mechanism, probably a nice item to sell at the next flea-market in Cologne. With a stick torn from the bushes he succeeded in getting the bottle.

It seemed like a tale of The Thousand and One Nights, he thought. "If I open the bottle, an angry ghost will probably get outside, having nothing else to do than doing pain to me." Therefore Bruno kept the bottle closed, put it in his rucksack and began to skate. Arriving at home, he looked at the bottle more carefully. What might be inside the brown bottle? He fought with himself, to open the bottle, to bring it to the cellar or to throw it back in the river. But his curiosity won. The bottle opened with a plopp. Examining the content of the bottle, he saw a piece of paper inside. He read:

"To the finder of this bottle. I would like to introduce myself at first. My name is Brian O' Donnell, painter from Ireland. A few days ago, my mother asked me to go to Cologne in order to sell some of my paintings, otherwise our family has nothing more to eat. She recognized my painting talent and hoped that the international fair of art in Cologne will help us to survive. With the last money of our poor family, I travelled to this place. I was really surprised that my pictures were sold within a short time, and even for more money than I ever expected. As soon as possible the major part of my new income was sent to my family. Last year I read in a book to give others part of your unexpected wealth. I decided to accept this recommendation and do so. The bottle with its content you found should help you to enjoy life. Wishing you the very best, yours sincerely Brian O'Donnell."

"O'Donnell? I had already heard that name. Let me remember: When I was ten years old, I travelled from Freiburg to Cologne to visit my aunt. In the same compartment - just opposite to me - I spoke to a man with such a name. We had an interesting discussion about paintings, of course I had same own paintings with me, paintings like children paint in such age. He smiled and told me about the hours and hours he used to spend on each of his pictures. I don't remember so clearly. Yes, it was Brian O'Donnell. The life of Brian, a film I had seen recently in the cinema. The Brian of this film was an artist as well, but in another subject: an artist of faith. Due to the same name, my imagination concerning this situation is so vivid. And now this bottle with the golden coin inside. Brian was really intelligent, thinking in advance, that money out of paper may loose its value, but such a coin, made of gold, will preserve its value through the ages. The coin is very heavy, on one side the portrait of Wilhelm II, King of Prussia, on the other side the eagle of Prussia.
The coin is dated to the year 1901. Certainly a numismatic treasure! Really unbelievable!"

So happy about that, Bruno wanted to thank Mr. O'Donnell for his valuable gift. Perhaps the world wide web could offer some information about this painter. Typing in the name of Brian in the searching box of different internet searching engines, Bruno recognized on a special web side that there would be a meeting on Achill Island in Ireland for friends and family of Brian O'Donnell, taking place on 5th February 2001.

Bruno hurried to get the next underground to Cologne main train station in order to buy a ticket for his journey to Ireland.

- to be continued -