Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist

Author:John Ajvide Lindqvist
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi, pdf
Tags: FIC000000, FIC015000, FIC024000
ISBN: 9781921776724
Publisher: The Text Publishing Company
Published: 2014-05-16T16:00:00+00:00

The village flew by. Snow that was kicked up by the wheels of the moped trailer was sprayed back and peppered Oskar’s cheeks. He gripped the towrope with both hands, shifted his weight to the side, swinging out of the snow cloud. There was a sharp scraping sound as the skis sliced through the loose snow. The outer ski nudged an orange reflector where the road split in two. He wobbled, then regained his balance.

The road down to Lågarö and the summerhouses wasn’t ploughed. The moped left three deep tracks in the untouched snow-cover, and five metres behind it came Oskar on skis, making two additional tracks. He drove zigzag over the moped tracks, stood on one ski like a trick skier, crouched down into a little ball of speed.

When his dad slowed down on the long hill heading down to the old steamship pier Oskar was going faster than the moped and he was forced to brake a little so he didn’t let too much slack into the line, which would mean a strong jerk when the hill levelled off and the moped picked up speed again.

The moped got all the way down to the pier and his dad switched down out of gear and stood on the brake. Oskar was still travelling at full throttle, and for a short moment he thought about dropping the rope and keeping going…Out over the end of the pier, down into the black water. But he angled the mini-skis out, braked a couple of metres from the edge.

He stood panting for a while, looked out over the water. Thin sections of ice had started to form, bobbed up and down in the small waves by the shores. Maybe there was a chance of real ice this year. So you could walk across to Vätö on the other side. Or did they keep a channel into Norrtälje open? Oskar couldn’t remember. It was several years since there had been ice like that.

When Oskar was out here in the summer he would fish for herring from this pier. Loose hooks on the line, a lure on the end. If he found a school he could end up with a couple of kilos if he had the patience, but mostly he ended up with ten to fifteen fish. That was enough for dinner for him and his dad, the smallest ones went to the cat.

Dad came up and stood behind him.

‘That went well, it did.’

‘Mmm. But I went all the way through the snow a couple of times.’

‘True, the snow is a little loose. If we could pack it tighter somehow. If we could…maybe take a particle-board and hitch it up, put some weight on it. You know, if you put the board and the weight down, then…’

‘Should we do it?’

‘No, it’d have to be tomorrow, at any rate. It’s getting dark now. We’ll have to get home and work on that bird a little if there’s going to be any dinner.’

‘OK.’

His dad looked out over the water, stood there quietly for a while.

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