The Eye of the Leopard by Henning Mankell

Author:Henning Mankell
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Mystery And Suspense Fiction, Mystery & Detective - General, Mystery & Detective, Agricultural laborers - Africa, Whites - Africa, Fiction - Mystery, Africa, Detective, Fiction, Coming of Age, Sweden, Suspense, Farmers - Africa, Farmers - Mental health - Africa, Thrillers, Mystery fiction, General, Swedish (Language) Contemporary Fiction
ISBN: 9780307385857
Publisher: Random House, Inc.
Published: 2009-04-07T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

Who whispers the password in his ear? Who reveals what his Goal will be? How does he find a direction in life that is not merely a point of the compass? This year too, 1959, springtime finally breaks through the obstinate barriers of cold, and Hans Olofson has decided that one more leave-taking is necessary. His decision is vague and hesitant, but he knows that he can't escape the admonition that he has given himself.

One Saturday evening in May, when Under comes roaring up in his Buick in a cloud of dust, Hans screws up his courage and goes out to meet him. At first the horse dealer doesn't understand what the boy is muttering about. He tries to brush him off, but Hans is stubborn and doesn't back down before he has delivered his message. When Under grasps that the boy is standing there stammering out his resignation, he flies into a rage. He raises his hand to deal a box on the ear, but the boy is quick to scamper away. The only thing left for Under is to dispense a symbolic humiliation, and he pulls out a wad of money and peels off one of the lowest value, a fiver, and tosses it in the gravel.

'You're being paid according to your services. But it's a damned shame that the authorities don't print notes worth even less. You're being overpaid ...'

Hans picks up the note and goes into the stable to say goodbye to the horses and the Holmström twins.

'What will you do now?' ask the brothers, who are washing themselves under the cold tap in preparation for Saturday night.

'I don't know,' he replies. 'Something will turn up.'

'We're going to move on next winter too,' the brothers tell him as they change their mucking-out boots for black dancing shoes.

They offer him aquavit.

'That damned horse dealer,' they say, passing around the bottle. 'If you see a Saab, it's us! Don't forget it.' He runs across the river bridge in the spring night to tell Janine of his decision. Because she hasn't yet returned from one of Hurrapelle's Joyous Spring Fellowships, he strolls about in her garden and thinks about the time he and Sture splashed varnish all over her currant bushes. He shudders at the memory, wishing he hadn't been reminded of that thoughtless act.

Is there anything that can be understood? Isn't life, which is so difficult to manage, nothing but a series of incomprehensible events lurking behind the corners as one passes? Who can ever deal with the dark impulses hidden inside? Secret rooms and wild horses, he thinks. That's what you have to carry around.

He sits down on the steps and wonders about Sture. He's out there somewhere. But is he in a distant hospital or on one of the furthest stars in the universe? Many times he thought of asking Nyman the courthouse caretaker, but it never came to anything. There are many reasons not to find out. He doesn't want to know for sure. He can see the horrifying images far too clearly in his mind.

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