Termush (Faber Editions): 'A classic—stunning, dangerous, darkly beautiful' (Jeff VanderMeer) by Sven Holm

Author:Sven Holm
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 2023-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

15

This morning the management invited the guests out for a trip by boat. The air was calm and there was no sign of a change in the weather. The boat was due to leave directly after breakfast; we were asked to go down the steps leading from the observation point to the beach. The security men had sluiced down and cleaned the rocks and cut away the nearest bushes and cactus plants.

I got up from the breakfast table and went into the sick bay to have a talk with the doctor. A number of nurses and security men were bustling about with instruments and bedlinen. None of them could tell me where the doctor had gone.

When I was standing in the front hall he came down the stairs.

“I have been busy,” he said at once.

“Are you in favour of the management’s boat trip?” I asked. “Or has it been arranged to silence the criticisms of the guests? There is no protection at sea, if there should be a depression in the atmosphere.”

“I am in favour of the management’s boat trip,” he said, looking me straight in the eye. “Believe me, I am wholeheartedly in favour of the management’s boat trip.”

He stood there for a moment and laid his hand on my arm.

I moved out of his way and he went into the sick bay.

I told Maria about my conversation. She slowly nodded her head. She thought the doctor’s reaction was a guarantee that the trip was not dangerous. I agreed to keep calm, as she put it, and go with her to the boat.

Just before we left one of the security men went round the corridors calling to the remaining guests. I asked whether there were many who were staying in their rooms. He said that everyone who was not on the sick list ought to go on the boat.

“You said that as if it was not a voluntary activity,” I said.

“Of course it is voluntary,” he replied.

*

The grounds were bathed in sunlight.

Our limbs are already out of practice at moving over large surfaces. It was difficult to follow the path across the grass, not because I walk uncertainly, but because our eyes have become accustomed to meeting walls, steps, landings and doors everywhere and the open, unfamiliar spaces affect our vision as if they were precipices.

The cactus plants stood like monuments made of interlocking glass; the trees and bushes were further away than ever at the edge of the lawns. Only the rock formations towered up as before, stripped of all vegetation, but having a recognizable shape.

The first time we went down to the observation platform I offered Maria my arm. Now I had to look for support from her because of a slight dizziness. I did not mention that I felt unwell because I did not want to cause her anxiety or to emphasize the feeling myself. Through my right arm I was aware of her calm balance and I did not need to strain my eyes to follow the twists of the path.

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