The Circle (Hammer) - By Elfgren, Sara B.,Strandberg, Mats Page 0,40
plastic box. A bright yellow cube rises up from it. It hangs in the air, then moves slowly towards the top of the tower.
Halfway up, it bumps against a blue brick. The construction wobbles, then collapses. The bricks are strewn across the stage. Rebecka curses.
‘But you’re improving,’ says Minoo.
‘You’ve no idea how difficult it is,’ says Rebecka.
Minoo feels a twinge in her gut. No, she doesn’t. She still has no idea how it feels to have a super-power. And her brain hasn’t been much use either. She’s spent hours on the Net and in the library, but it’s hard, if not impossible, to sift through all the information. Most of what’s been written about supernatural phenomena is muddled, contradictory or gibberish.
Rebecka’s power seems to come under the heading ‘telekinesis’. But Minoo doesn’t know where to start looking for something that might give them a hint of the connection between herself, Rebecka and the others. How do you go about finding a mysterious prophecy? Where are the parchments and ancient books when you need them?
Nothing has happened since that night in the fairground. No mysterious nocturnal excursions, no strange dreams, no stench of smoke in the morning. Instead of putting Minoo’s mind at rest, it’s made her even more uneasy. She feels as though she’s walking around with a safe dangling over her head.
And their so-called guide seems unable to shed any light on anything.
A few days after the night with the blood-red moon, Minoo had gone to school early to talk to Nicolaus. He was sitting in his office, surrounded by slips of paper and documents, and sweating in his dark blue cardigan and bright red tie.
When Minoo shut the door behind her he jumped as if she’d set off a firework in the room.
He stood up and she saw that he was wearing a pair of maroon corduroy trousers that clashed with his tie. ‘Go away!’ he said, in a stage whisper. ‘We’re not protected here!’
‘Could we meet tonight, then? At the fairground? We’ve got a few things to talk about.’
Nicolaus looked troubled. ‘I can’t … I mean … I don’t know anything … I don’t even know who I am.’
Suddenly Minoo became aware of a dark shadow gliding along the floor. She looked down and saw a pitch-black cat staring at her. Where one eye should have been there was an empty socket with jagged edges. Minoo didn’t want to look at the animal. She felt as though she’d get scabies in her eyes from looking at its scruffy coat with the scattered patches of bare skin.
Nicolaus recoiled when the cat jumped on to his desk and strolled across his papers.
‘I don’t understand what’s wrong with this creature,’ he complained. ‘It follows me wherever I go.’
The cat, which had lain down next to the telephone, turned its head and looked straight at Minoo again with its one eye.
‘What did you mean, you don’t know who you are?’ Minoo asked, as the mangy cat started to lick its tangled fur.
Nicolaus sighed deeply. ‘My name is Nicolaus Elingius. That’s what it says on my employment contract, and on the deeds that prove I’ve owned my humble dwelling for a year.’ His voice trembled as he continued: ‘But I don’t remember buying it. I don’t remember anything of my life here as caretaker. I don’t remember my mother or father. I don’t remember who I’ve loved or hated, if I’ve had any sons or daughters … I don’t remember where I’ve lived … or why I came …’ With his head in his hands, he mumbled a few archaic phrases that Minoo barely understood.
‘Well, you do know one thing – that you’re supposed to guide us,’ she said cautiously.
Nicolaus raised his head and looked at her with profound sadness. ‘I’ve forfeited that privilege. I was here, at the school, when Elias was put to death yet I did not prevent the atrocity that took place.’
‘You didn’t know.’
‘Dear child,’ Nicolaus interjected, ‘would you ask a blind man to lead the blind?’
Since then Nicolaus has seemed more and more confused each time Minoo has seen him. Once he stood in a corridor staring into a lamp as if he were under hypnosis while the students laughed behind his back. Now nobody’s seen him for several days.
Rebecka comes to the edge of the stage and nimbly heaves herself on to it. Together they gather up the toy bricks and put them back into the plastic box.