The Circle (Hammer) - By Elfgren, Sara B.,Strandberg, Mats Page 0,129
up. With the biggest trans-dimensional war about to start, business should be brisk.’
‘Do you sell to those collaborating with demons, too?’ Vanessa asks.
Mona just smiles and releases a cloud of smoke from her nostrils. She looks like an old dragon in its lair.
‘Sorry, I forgot,’ Vanessa says contemptuously. ‘“Mona Moonbeam is no snitch.” The only thing that matters to you is business, yes? All customers are good customers.’
‘Well well well, I see you’re not as blonde as you look.’ Mona smirks.
Vanessa makes for the exit without a word.
‘You’ve still got nGéadal hanging over you. Don’t forget that,’ Mona calls after her.
It is only once Vanessa has made it out of the desolate City Mall that she realises exactly what Mona said. You should all shop here more often. She knows they’re more than one. Vanessa isn’t even surprised.
‘Nessa!’
It’s a voice she hasn’t heard for three months. Vanessa turns and sees her mother outside the Crystal Cave.
‘Hello,’ her mother says.
Her hair is bleached a few shades lighter. She’s wearing a jacket Vanessa doesn’t recognise. Signs that her life has continued without her daughter. ‘Hi,’ Vanessa answers.
An awkward silence settles between them. There are a thousand things to say, a thousand reasons to stay silent.
‘I’ve got to go,’ Vanessa says.
Her mother nods. ‘See you around,’ she says, as if they were casual acquaintances who had bumped into each other on the street. She opens the door to the Crystal Cave. A puff of incense and she’s gone.
Vanessa looks after her. What had she expected?
I miss you.
Sorry.
Come home.
47
ANNA-KARIN HEARS A laugh echo behind her and stops in the corridor leading to the school library. She stares at the floor until the girl gang has walked past. It’s an old habit that’s come back. Of course they weren’t laughing at her. No one does any more.
The first week after the fire she had refused to go to school or leave the farm. She had spent her days in front of the TV.
‘I would have thought you cared enough about your grandpa to visit him at least once,’ her mother snapped. The mood swings have gone. Her mother is back to her permanently disgruntled self.
On Sunday the doorbell had rung. Anna-Karin was sitting there with her plastered foot propped up, a bowl of crisps in her lap and no intention of going to see who it was. But the person outside didn’t give up and eventually let themselves in through the unlocked door.
Adriana Lopez’s elegant appearance made the living room look shabby. Anna-Karin was happy that her mother wasn’t in.
‘How are you?’ Adriana asked, and sat down in Grandpa’s armchair.
Anna-Karin said nothing. She wouldn’t answer any of the principal’s questions. She had decided never to tell anyone what had happened that night. How recklessly she had behaved. That the ‘accident’ hadn’t been an accident. And that she had very nearly caused Grandpa’s death. He will never be the same again, according to her mother.
Eventually the principal got tired of Anna-Karin’s silence, stood up and said that she expected to see her at school the following day.
Only when she was on her way out of the door did Anna-Karin say, ‘I’ve stopped using my powers. And I’ll never use them again. Ever. You can tell that to the Council and the others. I’m going to stay away from all of you. It’s best for everyone.’
‘But you have been Chosen.’
Anna-Karin didn’t respond to that either.
When she went back to school for the first time after the Christmas break, she lingered at the gates for a long time on her crutches. Would they hate her more than ever? Would they have worked out that the fat BO Ho, the manure-stinking peasant had been tricking them all along?
But then Julia and Felicia were walking towards her with Ida. Julia and Felicia didn’t even look in her direction. It wasn’t that they ignored her. They weren’t treating her like air. She was air. Not the slightest hint of recognition.
But Ida saw Anna-Karin and let her gaze linger on her for a few seconds. Then she pretended to laugh at something Felicia had said, and they disappeared in a cloud of blonde hair and a fresh blossom scent.
Two months have gone by since then and Anna-Karin has become the ghost of Engelsfors School. It’s as if all memory of her has been expunged. For better and for worse. Even her teachers forget about her sometimes, fail to see her raised hand or hesitate before reading out her name from the register.