I Refuse by Per Petterson

Author:Per Petterson [Petterson, Per]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Norway
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2014-10-22T13:00:00+00:00

II

JONSEN ⋅ DECEMBER 1964

IT WAS LATE in the evening. He pulled on his cap and went out on to the doorstep and stood for a moment looking up at the sky before he closed the door behind him and walked from his house down the road to the Berggrens’ house. It was cold, the snow lay hip-high on both sides. Most of it had fallen in the last few days, and the air had been confusingly dense and white on both sides of the house, No exit, a sign above the door to the front path might have said, just forget it, it might have said, and when the blizzard had waned, it was everyone out to clear the footpath from the doorsteps to the bins by the road, and they all came, every single one of them. In front of every little house stood a man bent over, shovelling snow, groaning to the rhythm, as though there were someone standing there hitting his stomach with a solid object to keep the beat. In the end just the blue cap could be seen bobbing up and down, and for every shovelful he took, the snow came flying spray-like over the bank, and now and then you could get a glimpse of a glowing face and the knitted mittens clutching the shovel, but the road too was covered in snow, the whole neighbourhood was under siege. No cars could get out, no cars could get in, and for the many who did not own a car, but instead got a lift on the school bus when they needed one, then even the bus couldn’t get through the snow, and nor could the dustcart. And that was not good.

It wasn’t snowing now, but moving around was difficult. It was dark, only Jonsen was outside. The snowplough wouldn’t come all the way out here until the next morning to make a corridor wide enough so at least the school bus with the children on board could reach the main road, but right now Jonsen couldn’t see how that would be possible. From years back he could remember the six sturdy horses spread out in a fan before the snowplough pulling it along the road through the deep snow with five men standing on the plough to keep it down. After the plough came all the neighbours in two lines, one either side of the road, the shovels in their hands, and every winter they did the the same, the heavy work, the heavy horses, no boss required, everyone just came, everyone knew what to do. They looked out of the window in the early morning and realised the neighbourhood was so deep under snow that it had to be dealt with, and they all turned out. One time the snow banks were so high the men shovelling on top could hold a hand around the electricity cables between the tall posts without stretching an arm. Jonsen was only a boy then, he saw

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