The Circle (Hammer) - By Elfgren, Sara B.,Strandberg, Mats Page 0,43
from behind the counter. A dark red velvet curtain hangs between a cabinet filled with books on the occult and a copper dragon that comes up to Vanessa’s waist. Mona pulls it aside and goes in, waving for Vanessa to follow her.
The room is small and stuffy. Inside, more velvet curtains are nailed haphazardly on the white walls, but the peachcoloured linoleum flooring ruins any attempt at creating an atmosphere of mystique. In the middle of the room two chairs are upholstered in red plush, and a table is covered with a dark purple gold-fringed cloth. Mona gestures her over, and Vanessa takes that to mean she should sit down. A sharp metal spring inside the seat cushion cuts into her buttocks as she sinks into the chair.
‘What the fuck?’ Vanessa squirms to find a comfortable position. ‘This chair’s broken.’
‘You’re too bony,’ Mona mutters, and sits down opposite her.
Vanessa is about to respond with something about Mona’s well-padded rump, but bites her lip.
Mona’s bracelet rattles as she fumbles under the table. Then she rubs something into her hands. Vanessa has time to wonder if it’s magic oil, then sees the bottle of hand sanitiser.
Mona holds out her hands. ‘Let’s see your mitts,’ she says.
Warily Vanessa lays her hands in Mona’s. The moment their skin touches, Vanessa gets a strange feeling. It reminds her of how she feels when she’s about to become invisible. A bit like a wind gusting inside her.
Over the last few weeks she’s become increasingly adept at controlling her invisibility. She can feel it coming and stop it. She has also started to learn how to bring it on when she chooses. That’s considerably more difficult, and the first time she tried to do it her nose bled.
Mona examines her hands and Vanessa is suddenly nervous. After all, she doesn’t know anything about the woman. Her heart beats a little faster when she counts the weeks backwards in her head and realises that Mona must have arrived in the town just before Elias died.
This was a bad idea, Vanessa says to herself, a very bad idea, in fact.
‘I see that you’re an independent young woman who wants to go her own way,’ says Mona.
‘Really? Impressive guesswork,’ says Vanessa, as her pulse subsides.
‘I’m not in the business of guessing!’ Mona gives her an irritated look. ‘You want to go out into the big wide world and have a look around.’
‘Gosh! I must be so special.’ She’s got nothing to worry about. Everything Mona says would be true of any girl Vanessa’s age. Mona is a charlatan, just like the rest of her mother’s gurus. Now the charlatan scrunches up her mouth so that every nicotine wrinkle on her upper lip shows. Then she appears to make a decision.
‘All right. Let’s do this properly.’
She grabs Vanessa’s hands more tightly. A new feeling surges through Vanessa. She feels as she did when Ida levitated at the fairground: as if the air were charged with electricity. The hairs on her arms stand up. She holds her breath.
‘I see a man,’ says Mona. ‘You have a complicated relationship.’
‘Oh?’ says Vanessa, trying to sound indifferent.
‘It won’t last.’
‘You can’t just come out and say something like that!’
Mona smiles wryly. ‘Do you want me to stop? Can’t you handle the truth?’
Vanessa grits her teeth.
Mona peers intently into her right palm and follows a line with her index finger. It tickles. ‘See this? These two lines are intertwined all the way to the end. The love of your life isn’t the one you think, but it’s someone you’ve already met. Oh dear, oh dear … It’ll be no picnic, but you’re tied to each other.’ Mona laughs – no, that’s the wrong word. Mona chuckles.
‘What’s so funny?’ Vanessa asks.
‘You’ll see.’ Mona lets go of Vanessa’s right hand and grabs the left one. ‘You feel very let down by someone. I see a parent who …’ Suddenly Mona leans so far forward that the tip of her nose almost brushes against Vanessa’s palm. ‘Aha!’ she cries.
Vanessa’s mouth goes dry. Her tongue is glued to the roof of her mouth and she can’t speak.
Mona glances at her triumphantly. ‘I knew it,’ she says. ‘Wait a minute.’
Mona gets up and walks over to a black-painted chest of drawers. The top drawer gives such a shrill squeak when she pulls it open that Vanessa starts. Mona rummages around noisily until she finds what she’s looking for.
Vanessa catches a glimpse of a plastic bag containing yellowish-white stones before Mona disappears out