The Circle (Hammer) - By Elfgren, Sara B.,Strandberg, Mats Page 0,80

Anna-Karin has always felt it was directed at her.

Only two buses run past here on Saturdays, but the principal said she could pick her up. She hadn’t dared to refuse. The principal scares the shit out of her. She worries that Adriana Lopez will divine at a glance what she’s done to her mother.

She hasn’t slept a wink all night. As soon as she closed her eyes she saw the pot of boiling water and her mother’s hands. She certainly hadn’t meant her to get hurt. Of course not.

Most frightening of all, she’s not sure how her power influences her mother. In the beginning she used it so intensively that she lost control of it. It started to work on its own, like a snowball sent rolling down a slope. It’s the same with Julia, Felicia and the others at school, except Jari. She still has to use it actively on him.

An expensive-looking dark blue car is driving towards her. The principal is sitting behind the wheel. Anna-Karin’s insides twist, as if someone had grabbed them with a pair of pliers.

Pull yourself together, Anna-Karin.

The car pulls up to the kerb. Anna-Karin gets up and opens the passenger door.

‘Hello,’ the principal says, with a cool smile. ‘Sorry I’m late.’

‘That’s okay,’ Anna-Karin mumbles, and gets in.

‘I need to talk to you,’ the principal says, as she accelerates.

The pliers twist again. Anna-Karin can’t look at the principal so she stares out through the windscreen, at the grey sky, the black trees and the white road markers rushing past.

‘You are abusing your powers,’ the principal says, ‘as you’re well aware.’

‘I haven’t—’

‘It’s not a question. It’s a fact. There may be extenuating circumstances, since there was no one to guide you, but rules are rules. It’s my job to inform you that the Council has launched an investigation.’

‘An investigation?’

‘You’re committing a crime, Anna-Karin.’

Anna-Karin turns to her. She’s sitting there with her perfect profile, in her perfect winter coat, in her perfect car. She’s judging Anna-Karin.

‘You don’t understand anything, you and that Council.’

The principal lets out a long sigh. They drive in silence as they approach Engelsfors’s most exclusive area. The principal parks the car outside a big green house. ‘You haven’t been found guilty yet, but you have to stop immediately.’

‘I’ll do as I please.’ Part of Anna-Karin is fascinated by how rude she can be to someone who terrifies her.

The principal looks probingly at her. ‘Anna-Karin,’ she says. ‘Answer me honestly. Do you think you can stop?’

‘Of course. But I’m doing nothing wrong,’ she says stubbornly.

The principal scoffs. ‘We’ll talk more about this later,’ she says. ‘Here’s Ida.’

Anna-Karin sees a blonde figure hurrying towards them. She hunches in her seat and stares at her hands. She’s not going to let Ida see how frightened she is.

30

AT NINE THIRTY they hear a car approaching, the gravel crunching under its tyres. Minoo puts away her biology book and gets up as a dark blue Mercedes pulls into the fairground.

As soon as the car stops, Anna-Karin climbs out and marches angrily towards the dance pavilion. She stands at a distance from the others, arms folded.

‘Hi,’ Minoo says, but Anna-Karin just stares at the floor.

‘Good morning,’ says the principal, who is walking towards them with Ida in tow.

Ida is clenching her teeth, so hard that Minoo wonders if she can still open her mouth at will.

‘Must have been a pleasant drive,’ Linnéa says.

Vanessa giggles, but Minoo is irritated. Can’t they take this seriously?

Adriana Lopez walks to the middle of the dance floor, her ankle-length winter coat sweeping around her feet. She’s wearing leather gloves and an elegant fur hat. Minoo thinks admiringly that she looks like a character in some nineteenth-century Russian novel. She’s holding a black leather bag that she sets down beside her.

‘I’m sorry I’m late,’ she says. Then she says to Ida, who has stopped on the steps leading up to the dance floor, ‘Step inside the circle.’

Minoo wonders what circle the principal is talking about. When she works it out, she’s annoyed at her own stupidity. The round dance floor is itself a circle.

Ida walks on to it with evident reluctance.

‘Let’s turn up the heat, shall we?’ the principal says. She glances at Vanessa and Linnéa. ‘I suggest you get off the stage.’

Linnéa and Vanessa get up slowly. Minoo decides they’re just as curious as she is, even if they’re trying to hide it.

The principal takes a little black cylinder, like a tube of lipstick, from her pocket and pulls off the top. When