Free Shadows in the Twilight by Henning Mankell Page B

husband for Gertrud? That doing so was to be
his good deed in return for shaking off the Miracle that
he had experienced?
    No, he couldn't do that, of course.
    Rolf would think that he had a screw loose.
    Joel crept though the hole in the Pharmacy fence that
he had once made himself, using an old pair of secateurs.
Then he followed the row of currant bushes facing the
courtyard in front of the furniture shop. There was a little
shed there, and if he climbed onto its roof he would be
able to see the house behind the Highways Department
workshops where Rolf lived with his mother. He crept
cautiously along the row of currant bushes. The furniture
dealer had quite a temper, and Joel had learnt to avoid
annoying him. He listened carefully in the darkness. Then
he heaved himself up onto the roof. He had worked out
that Rolf must live on the ground floor, and there was a
retired schoolmistress in the flat upstairs. Those were the
only two flats in the building.
    He peered at the ground floor windows. It was getting
exciting now.
    He slowly raised his head and saw the fires glowing
in the distance. General Custer in person had given him
this mission. He couldn't return until he had reconnoitred
all aspects of the Red Indian camp. He was well
aware that if he was captured, there would be no going
back. He would die.
    He could see right in through the windows. The
curtains were not drawn. A woman was sitting in a chair,
knitting. A kitten was playing with the ball of wool at
her feet. Joel was close enough to see that she was
making a pair of gloves. A pair of red gloves.
    But where was Rolf? Joel shifted his gaze to the next
window.
    There he was!
    He was in the kitchen, doing the washing up. Wearing
an apron.
    Joel pulled a face.
    A man standing at the sink and doing the washing up
was not what he'd had in mind for Gertrud. He might
just as well.
    The enemy is weak, he thought. Just now the Red
Indian camp contains nothing but old ladies. He could
go back to the General and advise him to attack
immediately, before the men had returned from their
hunting expedition on the distant prairie.
    He stayed on the roof for a while longer. But nothing
happened. The woman on the chair knitted. The kitten
played. And Rolf washed up. When he'd finished, he
served his mother a cup of coffee. Then he lay down on
the sofa to read the newspaper. The same paper that
Samuel used to read. Nothing exciting. Not a magazine
about motor cars, or sport. Just the local newspaper that
was full of pictures of people waving or holding hands.
    Joel started to feel cold, so he jumped down from the
shed roof.
    Rolf was not the man. Joel was tempted to send Rolf
a secret message, telling him he was not up to scratch. A
message Joel would sign with his own blood.
    He made his way slowly back to the street, and
trudged back home.
    What would he do if David, the Caviar Man, turned
out to be equally boring?
    What would he need to do then, in order to find a man
for Gertrud.
    He had no idea.
     
    When he woke up next morning, the ground was white
with frost.
    Joel glared crossly out of the window. Perhaps it
wasn't real snow, nor was it real winter yet; but it was
too early even so.
    Earlier in the year Joel had really looked forward to
the first snow. There was something special about the
morning when he raised the blind and saw the first snow
of the winter. But not when it was this early. Not when
it was still only September.
    Samuel also heaved a sigh.
    'Ah well,' he said. 'Before long we'll have to start
plodding through the snow.'
    Joel wondered if he ought to say what he was
thinking – that if Samuel hadn't been stupid enough to
stop being a sailor, he could have been standing on a
swaying deck under a Caribbean sky. Not just Samuel,
but Joel as well.
    But he didn't say it. Not when he needed to ask for
money to pay for the bicycle repairs.
    Samuel produced his purse and handed him a five-kronor
note.
    'I don't think that'll be enough,' said Joel. 'It'll cost
ten