Shadows in the twilight by Henning Mankell & Laurie Thompson

Author:Henning Mankell & Laurie Thompson [Henning Mankell & Laurie Thompson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Jeunesse
ISBN: 9780385734967
Published: 2008-07-08T07:00:00+00:00

7

Afterwards, Joel felt a bit silly.

The Barefooted Man no doubt thought that Joel was a relative of Simon Windstorm. The Loonies.

'What the hell do you think you're doing?' the Barefooted Man had shouted. 'You're heading straight for the furnace.'

Then he'd grabbed Joel by the collar and lifted him to one side.

'If you fall into the furnace, you're a gonner,' said the Barefooted Man. 'Couldn't you see that the doors were open?'

Of course Joel had seen that the doors to the enormous furnace were open. Even so, it felt like standing in front of a hungry beast of prey that had opened its mouth wide and displayed thousands of burning tongues. And Joel had been lured towards them.

'What's the matter with you, lad?' said the Barefooted Man, looking worried. 'Has nobody told you that fire is dangerous?'

'Why do you go around in your bare feet?' asked Joel.

Sometimes it was best to answer a question by asking a new one.

'It's so hot here in the boiler room,' said the Barefooted Man. 'My feet swell up inside my shoes. So I prefer to be barefoot. What's your name by the way?'

'Samuel,' said Joel.

The Barefooted Man smiled.

'David and Samuel,' he said. 'That really does sound like two brothers.'

Joel looked round in the Underworld. The big furnace was in the middle of a gigantic room. Smoke and steam were hissing out of pipes and ventilators.

The beast of the underworld, Joel thought.

He was being held prisoner here.

'Where does all this heat go to?' he asked. He was forced to shout, in order to be heard. The Barefooted Man was busy throwing big lumps of firewood into the beast's mouth.

'To the hospital and the vicarage and the old people's home and the municipal offices, and lots of other buildings as well,' he yelled.

'What's it called?' Joel shouted.

The Barefooted Man straightened his back and wiped the sweat from his brow.

'Called?' he said. 'I'm called Nilson.'

'I meant the furnace,' said Joel.

'Furnaces don't have names,' said the Barefooted Man. Then he changed his mind.

'Perhaps you have a suggestion for what we should call it?'

Joel thought for a moment.

The furnace was a sort of dragon. A beast of prey spitting fire.

'Lord of the Fires,' he said.

The Barefooted Man nodded.

'A good name,' he said. 'Lord of the Fires.'

Then he threw in some more logs, and closed the big doors. He beckoned Joel to follow him. He led him along winding corridors that followed big pipes, and came to another steel door that he opened by rotating a thick iron handle. The door led into another long corridor, lit up by lamps hanging from the ceiling. It was raw and damp, and Joel wondered why the Barefooted Man's feet didn't seem to be cold.

He stopped.

'Do you know where we are now?' he asked.

Joel shook his head.

'We're underneath the church,' said the Barefooted Man. 'Right in the middle of the church.'

Joel stared up at the ceiling of the stone corridor.

Could that really be possible?

Was the whole church really over his head?

What if the roof fell in?

That would mean he wasn't buried in the churchyard, but in the church itself.

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