Oskar put his jacket on again, walked out into the yard. It was starting to get dark even though it was only four o"clock. Too late to go out into the forest.
Tommy walked by outside the building, stopped when he saw Oskar.
"Hi."
"Hi."
"Anything going on?"
"I don"t know . .. Delivering flyers, and stuff."
"Any money in that kind of thing?"
"Some. Seventy, eighty kronor. Each time."
Tommy nodded.
"You want to buy a Walkman?"
"Don"t know. What kind?"
"Sony Walkman. Fifty."
"New?"
"Yup. In the box. With ear phones. An even fifty."
"I have no money on me. Right now."
"I thought you said you made seventy or eighty doing that stuff."
"Yeah, but I"m paid by the month. One more week."
"OK. You can have it now and then I"ll get the money from you later."
"Yeah.. ."
"OK. Go and wait over there and I"ll get it."
Tommy gestured to the playground and Oskar walked over and sat down on a bench. Got up and walked over to the jungle gym. No girl. He quickly walked back to the bench and sat down, as if he had done something forbidden. After a while Tommy came back and handed over the box.
"Fifty in a week-OK?"
"Mm."
"What are you listening to?"
"KISS.".
"What do you have by them?"
"Alive."
"You don"t have Destroyer? Destroyer? You can borrow it from me if you like. Tape it." You can borrow it from me if you like. Tape it."
"Great."
Oskar had the double alb.u.m Alive Alive by KISS, had bought it a few months ago but never listened to it. Mostly looked at the pictures from their concerts. Their made-up faces were cool. Like live horror figures. And by KISS, had bought it a few months ago but never listened to it. Mostly looked at the pictures from their concerts. Their made-up faces were cool. Like live horror figures. And "Beth," the one where Peter Criss sang, he actually liked, but all the other songs were too ... there was no melody or anything. Maybe De- De- stroyer stroyer was better. was better.
Tommy got up to leave. Oskar squeezed the box.
"Tommy?"
"Yeah?"
"That guy. Who was killed. Do you know . .. how how he was murdered?" he was murdered?"
"Yeah. He was strung up from a tree and had his throat slit."
"He wasn"t. . . stabbed? Like the guy had stabbed him. In the chest, I mean."
"No, only his throat- phhhhhssst." phhhhhssst."
"OK.".
"Anything else?"
"No." "See you."
"Yeah."
Oskar stayed put on the bench, thinking. The sky was dark purple, the first star-or was it Venus?-was already clearly visible. He got up and went in to hide the Walkman before his mom got back.
Tonight he would see the girl, get his Cube back. The blinds were still drawn. Did she really live there? What did they do in there all day? Did she have any friends?
Probably not.
Tonight-"
"What have you been doing?" "I took a shower." "You don"t normally."
"Hakan, tonight you have to ..." "No, I told you."
"Please?"
"This isn"t about... I"ll do anything except that. Say the word. I"ll do it. Take some of mine, for G.o.d"s sake. Here. Here"s a knife. No? OK, then I"ll have to-"
"Stop it!"
"Why? I"d rather do this. Why did you take a shower? You smell like ... soap."
"What do you want me to do?"
"I can"t!"
"No."
"What are you going to do?"
"Do it myself."
"And you need to shower for that?"
"Hakan..."
"I would help you if it was anything else. Anything else, I.. ."
"Yeah, OK. Fine."
"I"m sorry."
"Yeah."
"Be careful. I-was careful."
Kuala Lumpur, Phnom Penh, Mekong, Rangoon, Chungking...
Oskar looked at the photocopied map he had just filled out, weekend homework. The names told him nothing, were simply collections of letters. It gave him a certain feeling of satisfaction to sit and look them up in the geography book, to see that there actually were cities and rivers in just that place where they were marked on the photocopy.
Yes, he was going to memorize them and then his mom could test him. He would point to the dots and say the foreign names. Chungking, Phnom Penh. His mom would be impressed. And sure, it was kind of fun with all these strange names for places that were far away, but... Why? Why?
In fourth grade they had been given photocopies of Swedish geography. He had memorized everything back then too. He was good at that. But now?
He tried to recall the name of even one Swedish river.
Askan, Vaskan, Piskan .. .
Something along those lines. Atran, maybe. Yes. But where was it? No idea. And it would be the same thing with Chungking and Rangoon in a few years.
It"s meaningless.
These places didn"t even exist. exist. And even if they did ... he would never see them in person. Chungking? What would he do in Chungking? It was just a big white area and a little dot. And even if they did ... he would never see them in person. Chungking? What would he do in Chungking? It was just a big white area and a little dot.
He looked at the straight lines that his scrawled letters were balancing on. It was school. That"s all. This was school. They told you to do a lot of things and you did them. The whole thing had been invented so the teachers would be able to hand out photocopies. It didn"t mean anything. He could just as well be writing Tjippiflax, Bubbelibang Tjippiflax, Bubbelibang and and Spitt Spitt on these lines. It would be equally meaningful. on these lines. It would be equally meaningful.
The only difference actually would be that his teacher would say it was wrong. wrong. That it wasn"t the correct name. Then she would point to the map and say "Look, here it says Chungking, not Tjippiflax." Pretty weak argument, since someone had made up the names in the geography book. Nothing spoke for it being true. And maybe the Earth really was flat, but this was being kept secret for some reason. That it wasn"t the correct name. Then she would point to the map and say "Look, here it says Chungking, not Tjippiflax." Pretty weak argument, since someone had made up the names in the geography book. Nothing spoke for it being true. And maybe the Earth really was flat, but this was being kept secret for some reason.
Ships falling over the edge. Dragons.
Oskar got up from the table. The photocopy was done, filled with letters that his teacher would accept. That was all.
It was past seven, maybe the girl had gone outside? He moved his face to the window and cupped his hands around it so he could see better in the dark. Wasn"t there something moving down by the playground?
He went out into the hall. His mom was knitting or maybe crocheting out in the living room.
"Going out for a while."
"You"re going out again? I thought I was supposed to test you."
"We can do that in a while."
"Wasn"t it Asia this time?"
"What?"
"The worksheet you had. Isn"t it Asia?"
"Yes, I think so. Chungking."
"Where is that? China?"
"I don"t know."
"You don"t know"? know"? But-" But-"
"I"ll be back."
"Alright. Be careful. Are you wearing your hat?"
"Sure."
Oskar put the hat in his coat pocket and went out. Halfway to the playground his eyes had grown accustomed enough to the dark that he spotted the girl in her usual place on the jungle gym. He walked up and stood below her, his hands in his pockets.
She looked different today. Still the pink top-did she not have any other?-but her hair didn"t look so matted. It lay smooth, black, slick against her head.
"Hey there."
"Hi."
"Hi."
He was never in his life going to say "hey there" to someone ever again. It sounded incredibly stupid. The girl stood up.
"Come up here."