A Bridge to the Stars by Henning Mankell

never stops and
turns round to look.
    Joel has always believed that people who are being
followed can sense it. But evidently not Gertrud. No-Nose. People either feel sorry for Gertrud, or dislike her.
But nearly everybody is frightened of her.
    You can feel sorry for her because she lost her nose
during an operation at the hospital. You can also dislike
her because she doesn't stay indoors but wanders around
in the street and doesn't cover up her deformed face.
    She must be brave, and everybody's frightened of
brave people.
    When Joel sees her in the street he thinks it's both
disgusting and exciting to see her face without a nose.
    She usually has a white handkerchief stuffed into the
hole where her nose should be.
    Every time he sees her he tells himself he's not going
to look, but he can't resist it.
    She goes to the Pentecostal chapel next to the
Community Centre. She patrols the streets every day,
selling religious magazines. Hardly anybody dares not
to stop and buy one off her.
    He knows she tried to drown herself in the river when
they'd cut off her nose at the hospital. But somebody
saw her jump in, and rowed out in the horse dealer's
boat and rescued her. She'd had a heavy iron in her
pocket and a thick chain wrapped round her neck. Then
Happy Harry, the Pentecostal minister, took her under
his wing, and now she sells magazines for him.
    She lives all alone, in a little house at Ulvkälla, on the
far side of the bridge. That seems to be where she's
heading for.
    They follow her as far as the bridge. Then it gets hard,
because there are so many lights on the bridge. They
watch her disappear into the shadows.
    Joel tells Ture what he knows about her. When he's
finished, Ture asks a peculiar question.
    'Do you know where there's an ants' nest?' he asks.
    An ants' nest?
    Joel knows where there are lots of ants' nests, but they
are all still covered in snow. The ants don't usually
emerge until May.
    'We'll pay her a visit tomorrow,' says Ture. 'I want to
go home now.'
    'You said you were going to show me something,'
says Joel.
    'I have done,' says Ture. 'How to trail a person.'
    Joel goes with Ture as far as his gate. He hopes Ture
will invite him to call round after school, but Ture says
nothing. He simply jumps over the gate and vanishes
into his vast house.
    Joel has the feeling that Ture is already beginning to
take over The Secret Society.
    That's a good thing but also a bad thing.
    What is good is that Joel no longer has sole
responsibility for it all. But what is bad is that
everything has happened so quickly.
    He hurries home. It's freezing, and he feels cold. He
can hear The Old Bricklayer's lorry somewhere in the
distance. When he enters the kitchen he has the same
feeling as the night before. There's something amiss.
This time it's even stronger.
    He feels scared. What has changed?
    He unlaces his boots and hangs up his jacket. Everything
is the same as usual, but at the same time, it's
different.
    Without really knowing why, he opens the door to his
father's room. He knows exactly how far he can open it
before it starts creaking.
    He listens for his dad's breathing. But he hears
nothing.
    Just for a moment he's so scared that he almost bursts
into tears. Has Samuel died?
    He gropes his way forward. It's pitch black, but even
so he closes his eyes.
    Breathe, he thinks. Breathe, breathe, breathe . . .
    He knocks against the side of the bed with his knee.
    He has to open his eyes now. He must face up to the
most difficult task he's ever been landed with.
    Face up to something he doesn't really dare face up
to.
    His eyes fail to respond.
    His eyelids are secured by heavy padlocks.
    Big dogs are running back and forth, preventing him
from opening his eyes.
    But in the end he forces his eyes open, as if he'd used
dynamite to set himself free.
    Despite the darkness he can see that the bed is empty.
    His father has abandoned him.

6
    What actually happened that night when Joel discovered
that his father was not in his