Stolen by Ann-Helén Laestadius

Author:Ann-Helén Laestadius
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scribner
Published: 2023-01-30T00:00:00+00:00

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IT WAS LONG PAST midnight when they pulled into the yard. Mom said they could leave the bins in the car. It was a starry night with a full moon. Elsa exhaled and rotated her sore wrists. Mom unlocked the door and vanished inside while Dad unhitched the trailer and drove the snowmobile down the ramp. Mattias had stayed at the corral, so his house was dark.

Dad began carrying the reindeer skins to the storage shed, but then he stopped suddenly and turned to look out at the lake. Elsa heard it too. Snowmobiles. They exchanged glances; he raised his eyebrows. Now they could see headlights coming closer. Two snowmobiles. She instinctively moved closer to the shed and to Dad.

They came up the slope from the lake, pulled up next to each other, and stopped with blinding lights. She raised her hand to shield her eyes. The men revved the engines but didn’t move.

“Get the hell out of here!” Dad shouted.

They stood still.

Mom came out on the steps but immediately went back inside. Elsa took out her phone and started taking video, stretching her arm out pointedly. That made one of the men hit the gas and come straight for her. The other followed. Dad grabbed Elsa and pulled her behind the trailer. The snowmobiles skidded by and drove back out onto the road, then cut into the ditch and out through the thickets and back to the lake.

Their engines echoed across the village for a long time before they vanished into the forest on the other side.

Dad slapped the trailer. She waited for him to say that this was all her fault.

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