The yellow sign has already been taken down from the facade. Linnéa watches the empty windows and the dark rooms behind them.
The door has been left open. Now and then, people step outside to throw stuff, books and potted plants and bits of furniture, into a dumpster. Everything must go.
The center of Engelsfors has acquired yet another abandoned building, lonely and spooky. The movement it housed might never have existed now.
And that feels like a perfect metaphor for how the topic of PE is treated when people in Engelsfors talk to each other. Their chat has empty, ghostly gaps. They seem to share an intense wish to tidy up and remove all traces. After the ‘electrical accident’, the school was closed for a few days and, when it opened again, all the PE stickers had been scraped off the locker doors.
No one mentions the iron grip in which Helena and Krister held the town. You might well think that everyone has forgotten.
But Linnéa has been listening in, picking up thoughts now and then. Ashamed thoughts. Frightened thoughts.
Helena and Krister were buried yesterday. Apparently, a very small number of mourners turned up to honor them.
Nobody will ever find out the full truth about their crimes, theirs and Olivia’s.
Olivia’s parents have reported her as lost. Her photo is posted on the Internet. Linnéa, too, wonders where Olivia is. Has she been dispatched to some secret headquarters? Or is she being kept by Alexander and Viktor in the manor house? Is she still alive?
Linnéa has stopped blaming herself for not realizing that it actually was Olivia who the demons had blessed. But she can’t stop wondering if she might have been able to help Olivia at a much earlier stage. If only she’d listened more to her, taken her more seriously, then perhaps all this might not have happened.
Björn Wallin comes outside. He is carrying a tall stack of plain wooden chairs.
‘Hi,’ Linnéa says.
He looks at her, surprised. Puts the chairs down next to the dumpster and straightens his back.
‘Hi, Linnéa,’ he says.
She glances at him, looking for signs that he has started drinking again. In the very beginning, there are tiny signs, unnoticeable to anyone who isn’t Linnéa.
‘I’m still staying sober,’ he says.
She looks him in the eye, refusing to be embarrassed. She has every right to doubt him.
‘That’s good,’ she says.
He nods. Then looks at her simple black dress under the spring jacket, her black, opaque tights.
‘Are you going to that girl’s funeral?’ he asks.
‘Yes, I am.’
‘Were you close?’
‘You could say that,’ Linnéa says, thinks for a moment and then changes her mind. ‘Actually, yes. We were close.’
‘I’m so sorry. It was a terrible incident.’
Linnéa nods.
She wonders what her father makes of PE today. And if he ever heard the rumor that Linnéa had tried to blacken the names of Robin and Erik. And, if so, what he thought about it. Did he believe the rumor?
She observes him again. It would be so easy to read his mind. But, somehow, it goes against her instincts. Perhaps she doesn’t want to know. Or else perhaps because, if they are ever going to have any kind of relationship, she mustn’t take any short cuts.
‘What are you going to do now?’ she asks.
It is her way of asking if he is about to start drinking again, and she’s sure that he knows that.
‘I’ve got a job at the sawmill,’ he says. ‘A friend of mine in PE fixed me up. I start soon, just after Easter. After that, I don’t know.’
He looks earnestly at her.
‘I will not start drinking again. I realize now that the only way of convincing you is to carry on proving it, day after day, every day. When you feel ready, we’ll talk about everything that has happened. You get in touch, whenever you feel like it. I want to be your father again, but I know I have no right to demand it.’
Too many emotions well up inside Linnéa for her to reply. He has said exactly what she once stopped hoping ever to hear him say. And she knows that hope is dangerous.
‘We’re going to take some of the furniture away in the van soon,’ he says. ‘Would you like a lift to the church?’
‘No, but thanks,’ she says, a little too quickly. ‘I’d like the walk.’
‘All right,’ he says. ‘Take care, Linnéa.’
Linnéa nods, tries to smile and hurries away. After one block, her tears start flowing.
*
Anna-Karin sits down on the chair next to Grandpa’s bed, taking care not to crease her skirt. She has borrowed her mother’s funeral suit and put up her hair in the same style as Vanessa did for the trial.
Grandpa lowers his crossword magazine and peers at her over his reading glasses.
‘Has somebody died, sweetheart?’ he asks anxiously.
‘Yes, a friend of mine. Her funeral is today.’
She has already told him about Ida, but apparently he doesn’t remember.
‘How are you, Grandpa?’
He waves the question away with his thin hand and says something in Finnish.
‘Nothing new to report from this place,’ he continues. ‘Tell me about you instead.’
Anna-Karin has begun to investigate the forest again. Something inside her is urging her to go there. She has been drifting around with the fox at her side, searching for something without knowing what it is.
But she doesn’t tell Grandpa about that part. Instead, she talks about the signs of spring that she has noticed in the forest. And he smiles.
‘And how is Mia doing?’ he asks later on. ‘It’s been a long time since she came to see me last.’
Anna-Karin’s chest is constricting hard. She would rather not talk about her mom.
‘Everything’s just as usual with her,’ Anna-Karin says. ‘Somehow she never changes.’
‘Do you think she can?’
‘I don’t know. Maybe, sometimes. Most often when I’m not with her. If I’m walking in the forest, I tell myself that I ought to take her out for a walk to show her how lovely it is. But then I get back home and she’s just sitting there. And I realize it’s not even worth asking her,’ Anna-Karin says. ‘Do you think she can change?’
‘I’m not sure,’ Grandpa says. ‘The thing is, she’s got to want to, herself. And be brave enough to ask for help.’
Anna-Karin nods.
‘And now I’m asking myself if you’d be brave enough to,’ Grandpa says.
He takes his reading glasses off and looks intently at her.
‘What do you mean?’ Anna-Karin says.
‘Be brave enough to ask for help.’
‘I have you, Grandpa.’
‘That you have. For as long as I last. But I believe you’ll need more than that. Perhaps you can’t help your mother, but you can still help yourself. You don’t have to carry all these heavy burdens alone.’
‘Are you saying that … I should kind of talk to someone?’
Grandpa nods.
‘I love Mia. And I have often thought about what I might have done differently. How much I am to blame for who she is. But, Anna-Karin, you do not have to end up the same way. You are not the way she is. And you are not responsible for saving her.’
Suddenly, Anna-Karin sees that she has been thinking just like her mom. That this is simply who she is. That pain is something you have to drag along, always, something you can never get away from.
But perhaps that’s not how it has to be.
She looks at her grandpa.
Say goodbye when you can, Mona had said. There’s still time. Use it well.
‘I love you, Grandpa,’ she says.
‘And I love you, my sweetheart.’
Anna-Karin gets up.
‘I’ve got to go now. But I’ll be back to see you tomorrow.’
‘I hope your friend will be given a good funeral,’ Grandpa says. ‘I’ll be thinking about you all.’
Minoo hasn’t worn this black dress since Rebecka’s funeral. She hopes that she will never, ever have to wear it again.
She zips it up at the back. Sits down on the bed and pulls out the drawer in her bedside table. Takes out the Book of Patterns. Her finger glides over the leather binding, across the circles embossed on the front cover.
The guardians have started to speak to her again through the book. Only to her, not to any of the other Chosen Ones.
They have told her that Olivia’s magic murders made the apocalypse come closer than intended. Had she succeeded in sacrificing everyone in the gym, the end of the world would already have taken place.
Now, they have bought themselves some time. The question is, for how long?
And, of course, what have the demons got planned next?
Minoo opens the book and allows the black smoke to well out while she leafs through the pages.
She asks her question again. It will not leave her in peace; it keeps her awake at night.
If I had not gone to Adriana, could I have saved Ida?
The signs tremble on the pages, but the guardians stay silent.
Minoo closes the book.
Perhaps there is no answer.
Minoo walks downstairs to the kitchen. Mom and Dad look up when she comes in. They are sitting at the kitchen table, having coffee and reading a newspaper each. Everything is back to how it used to be. Except that Mom is returning to Stockholm in a few days’ time.
Mom gets up and hugs Minoo.
‘Are you sure you wouldn’t like us to come along?’ she asks.
Minoo nods. At least she won’t be alone at this funeral. The other Chosen Ones will be there. And Gustaf is on his way here to pick her up.
‘But I’m so glad that you’ll be here when I come back,’ Minoo says.
Mom strokes her hair.
She came as soon as she heard about the fire at the Engelsfors Herald office. Since then, she and Dad have been amazingly nice to each other. Sometimes they’ve even seemed in love, with the energy sparking between them that Gustaf had talked about last summer.
Of course, it’s helpful that Dad is taking it easier these days. The Herald has borrowed a room at the editorial office of the Fagersta Gazette and Dad’s articles about how PE took over the area have been given a lot of attention in the national press. Since then, the story has taken on a life of its own. The whole narrative about the rise and fall of Positive Engelsfors has everything one could ask of a juicy media story. Corruption, brainwashing, misguided teenagers, attacks against the local paper and, to cap it all, that strange accident that killed the leaders of the movement. Even last year’s ‘suicide pact’ has been added to the mix. Was what happened in the gym a botched attempt at inducing a mass suicide? Or even a mass murder? Why does everyone who was there claim to remember nothing at all?
Dad moans about all the over-the-top speculation, but it is obvious that he is, above all, pleased to be believed at last.
Minoo hopes that it might also be Mom’s presence that helps to calm him. Maybe they have both gained some insights since moving apart.
The doorbell sounds and Minoo goes to answer it.
Gustaf is taken aback when he sees the dress. He obviously recognizes it. And he is wearing the same suit as the day when Rebecka was buried.
‘Are you ready?’ he asks.
She nods, puts on her coat and picks up the bunch of roses from the hall table.
As she and Gustaf step out into the sunshine together, his hand happens to touch hers.
They both simultaneously move their hands away.
He is just a friend, she tells herself.
They walk along, silent at first. The birds are singing and she spots a blue tit flying past as she looks up at the sky.
‘I went to see Rickard yesterday,’ Gustaf says.
Rickard is the only one of the PE membership who has suffered any physical damage since the end of the movement. He was controlled by Olivia for so long, and so frequently, that his body, too, was beginning to break down. He has been hospitalized ever since. The doctors are baffled. They cannot diagnose what is wrong with him.
‘How’s he feeling?’ Minoo asks.
‘So-so,’ Gustaf says. ‘His body has begun to recover. But he’s depressed.’
Minoo nods. She feels sorry for Rickard. She wonders why he was the only one to be selected as Olivia’s tool.
They have reached the tree-lined avenue that leads to the church.
‘I’ve thought about what you said about Ida that night when I came to see you,’ Gustaf says. ‘You said that she was trying to become a better human being. I think you were right.’
A searing feeling runs through Minoo when she thinks of how Ida died in Gustaf’s arms while he was giving her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. She will never forget that moment. But she has seen to it that Gustaf has.
‘What are you thinking about?’ Gustaf asks.
‘Nothing special,’ she says.
But she knows that she cannot carry on lying to Gustaf like this. It is unfair to him.
At some point, she has to tell him the truth. She can’t think how, or when, but she must. He has every right to know what really happened when Rebecka died. He should be allowed to know that Ida is the hero of the story. He deserves to know how the world works and what is at stake.
Come to think of it, doesn’t everyone deserve to know?
The Council insists that the world of magic must remain secret from the rest of mankind. But why restrict the truth to just a select few?
The gravel crunches under their feet as they walk along the path leading to the church doors.
Linnéa, Anna-Karin and Vanessa are waiting at the steps.
Minoo goes to them and they all hug each other. She hands out the roses. Six white ones. Four from the Chosen Ones and one from Gustaf. The sixth is from Nicolaus. Minoo knows he would have wanted that.
She looks up and sees Viktor come strolling along with his hands in his coat pockets. He tries to catch her eye. She avoids him and he enters the church without saying a word as he passes them.
He phoned Minoo a few days after Ida’s death. He was parked outside their house and Minoo came out to sit in the car.
‘Adriana has been cleared,’ Viktor told her. ‘It all went through faster than I’d dared to hope.’
‘How is she?’ Minoo said.
‘Still confused. But our doctors have provided her with a diagnosis that explains her loss of memory. So she has something to hang on to. She’ll pull through.’
Hearing him say this was a slight relief. But at the same time, Minoo wondered how much the Council’s doctors could actually know in this situation.
‘Will she be staying here?’
‘For the time being, yes,’ Viktor said. ‘And so will we.’
She turned to look at him. He was fiddling with the turn signal switch. Avoiding meeting her eyes.
‘Why?’ she said. ‘I thought you’d made up your minds once and for all that everything you’d heard about Engelsfors was a bluff.’
Viktor didn’t reply.
‘What do you make of it?’ Minoo asked. ‘Do you believe that we are the Chosen Ones?’
‘What I do think is that you are very special, Minoo,’ he said and smiled.
Suddenly, it was as if the old Viktor sat next to her. The smart operator who tried to charm her.
‘Stop that,’ Minoo said.
His smile faded.
‘What have you done with Olivia?’ she said.
‘It’s a matter I cannot discuss with an outsider.’
‘So, what about everything you said about the Council?’ she said.
‘I stand by what I said. But if I am to change them, I have to play by their rules as much as I can.’
‘In other words, you’re obeying their orders again?’
Viktor looks sadly at her.
‘I don’t understand how someone as intelligent as you can be so naïve at the same time,’ he said. ‘To you, everything is straightforward. Right or wrong, good or bad. But it is the goal that matters, not the route you choose to get there.’
‘Are you saying that the ends justify the means?’ Minoo said.
‘If that’s how you prefer to put it. Yes, absolutely.’
‘You’re wrong.’
‘Am I? Consider what you did to Adriana. Would you truly call that intervention good? Removing her memories, and turning her into someone she’d rather not be?’
‘But I did it so that she would survive …’
‘Exactly,’ Viktor said.
Ever since, his words have pursued her. And if she is sure of one thing, ever, it is this: she will never trust Viktor Ehrenskiöld again.
‘Minoo,’ Linnéa says now and tugs at the sleeve of her coat.
Further down the path, Erik walks with his arm around Julia.
‘How does he dare show his face here?’ Vanessa mumbles. ‘How come he’s allowed to fucking exist?’
Because that’s how it all works, Minoo thinks. There is no cosmic justice. No ‘Let the punishment fit the crime’. People like Erik can and will forge on in life, regardless of what they’ve done. Maybe he sleeps badly at night. Or maybe he sleeps just fine.
The Chosen Ones watch him in silence. He notices, but refuses to look in their direction. Refuses, or does not dare to. The latter, Minoo hopes. And, although she knows this is not how the world is and although she knows that revenge solves nothing, she wants Erik to have to pay for what he has done.
Or, at least, not to be able to harm anybody again.
They wait until Erik and Julia have disappeared through the church doorway.
Then they look at each other.
Time to go inside.
Time to say goodbye.