The Susan Effect by Peter Hoeg

Author:Peter Hoeg
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781910701294
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2017-08-03T04:00:00+00:00

32

LABAN IS SITTING on the bench. He has spread out a throw on which to sit, and made room for us both. I sit down beside him, he grabs another and we wrap ourselves up. We’ve done it so many times before.

He points up at the moon. It’s almost full, a shining disc edged by the opal-coloured rainbow phenomenon commonly referred to as the circle of the moon.

‘Susan, what do you see?’

‘Refraction. The supernumerary bow.’

He nods pensively. We’ve done this before, too. It’s an old game of ours, going back to the time we first got to know each other. Laban picks out some physical phenomenon and we describe to each other what we see.

We never saw anything the same way.

‘I see an emotion. A feeling of destiny. Inevitability. In that inevitability there is also harmony.’

I refrain from comment. What can I say? Correlating concepts of destiny and harmony with a refraction phenomenon is not the kind of procedure that would garner support at the Department of Experimental Physics.

‘Where was your father in what you were telling us, Susan?’

‘He went away when I was eight.’

‘And never came back?’

I nod. He gives himself time to take it in.

‘How come you never told us before?’

I try to gauge my feelings. I don’t think I’ve intentionally held anything back. I’ve just avoided having to be precise.

‘You wouldn’t understand.’

‘Try me.’

I search for an explanation, but none is forthcoming. What comes to mind is an image, a recollection.

‘The last time I saw him was one day in summer. He had a hunting lodge on the edge of the forest at Rude Skov. He loved hunting and had several cabins dotted about the country where he could go. There was a stream running through the property. I was playing about with rocks, building a channel so I could investigate the current. He came up to me. There was something he wanted to tell me. Somehow I knew it was the last time I’d see him. He sat down. I couldn’t make myself look at him, so I looked at the whirlpools in the stream instead. Then he said: “Susan. Make sure your bite is as hard as your bark.” I hugged him for the last time. I sensed his despair and embraced him the way a grown-up embraces a child. Then he stood up and went.’

Laban has closed his eyes while I’ve been speaking, the way he always does when listening intently. Now he opens them again. We look up at the forty-two-degree angle of deviation, the rainbow angle, of which he’s never heard, and Alexander’s band, the dark area within the incandescent circle. The phenomenon begins to fade, and in less than a minute it’s gone.

Rainbows are fleeting.

We’ve gone back inside. I’ve put some wood in the stove and we’re sitting at each end of the sofa.

Oskar is over by the Christmas tree, staring dreamily into his glass of beer. The bubbles that rise to the surface are tiny and ascend in little trains, like champagne.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.