William runs through Beartown. Suddenly he realizes that he’s wearing his red tracksuit with the bull on the chest. Even he appreciates what a stupid provocation that is around here right now. He turns to run home and get changed but stops when he notices the smell. It catches in his nostrils.
* * *
Something’s burning.
* * *
The smoke doesn’t wake Ramona, she wakes up to find someone tugging at her. Ramona may have drunk one or two late-night snacks, so she reacts the way she always does when someone wakes her: she flails her arms, yells obscenities, and tries to find a solid object to use as a weapon.
But when she sees the flames licking the walls and hears the shouting from the street, she opens her eyes and finds herself staring into Elisabeth Zackell’s.
The hockey coach may be bad with feelings, but she’s still capable of getting nervous. She couldn’t sleep tonight, was thinking too much about the upcoming game against Hed, so she went out jogging. She saw some men running away from the Bearskin, saw the fire take hold. Most people would probably have called the fire department and waited out in the street. No one normal would have run into the burning building. But of course Zackell isn’t normal.
When she sinks down onto the street outside, coughing and gasping for breath, Ramona stands beside her in her nightdress muttering, “You’d do that for a few plates of potatoes, girl? What the hell would you have been prepared to do if I’d given you some meat?”
Zackell coughs and laughs. “I have to admit I’m starting to get a taste for beer. Vitamins are important.”
* * *
People come running from all directions, no one faster than Teemu. He throws himself into the snow and wraps his arms around Ramona.
“There, now, lad, calm yourself down. Everyone’s still alive. It’s just a few flames,” Ramona whispers, but he can feel her shaking.
“All your pictures of Holger!” Teemu exclaims, getting to his feet.
Ramona has to hold him back. That’s how much she loves the boy, that she’s prepared to hold him back to stop him rushing into the fire to rescue the photographs of her dead husband.
* * *
But she can’t hold Teemu hard enough to stop him from doing what happens next. No one can.
* * *
The whole of Beartown is awakened by the fire; cries spread through the town faster than drums, faster than sirens. Everyone’s phone rings, everyone’s door opens.
Benji and his sisters come racing down the street. His sisters run toward the Bearskin. People have started to form a chain to pass buckets, cars are bringing tanks of water and hoses.
But Benji stands still, because he realizes that this isn’t a coincidence. It never is. So Benji tries to find a perpetrator, and all he can see is the red tracksuit. William Lyt is standing a short distance behind everyone else, closer to the forest, alone and shocked with his hand over his mouth.
Benji rushes straight at him. For a moment William thinks he’s going to attack him, but Benji stops abruptly as if he’s realized something. People are running back and forth across the road, there are sirens in the distance now, on their way through the forest. Benji turns to William and snarls, “You and me. Now. For real. No friends, no weapons. Just you and me.”
William could have protested, could have tried to calm Benji down and explain that he had nothing to do with the fire. But Benji is too wound up now to believe that, and perhaps William still hates him too much to back down. So he merely whispers, “Where?”
Benji thinks for a moment. “The running track on the Heights. No people, even ground, lights.”
William nods stiffly. “So I won’t have any excuses afterward, you mean?”
Benji’s actions have always been worse than his words. For that reason, his reply is particularly loaded. “There won’t be an ‘afterward’ for you, William.”
* * *
They run to the jogging track. Through the whole town. They’ve done it a thousand times before; when they played hockey on the same team, they used to compete in every training session. Benji could never let William be best at anything—he used to take things from William that he didn’t even want. Now, as they run with snow up to their ankles, they’re those same boys again. They even run a few feet apart, as if Kevin were still running between them.
* * *
When they reach the running track on the Heights, they stop and catch their breath for a few seconds; thick clouds billow from their mouths. Then, still wearing his red tracksuit, William rushes straight at Benji, who’s standing there waiting in his green shirt with his fists clenched. No friends, no weapons, just the two of them. A bull against a bear.
* * *
Spider and Woody find Teemu outside the Bearskin. Their first instinct is to help put the fire out, to protect people. This pub is their home, more than their homes have ever been. But Spider whispers in Teemu’s ear, “We know who they are, those bastards from Hed. Woody’s girlfriend saw them through her kitchen window. They left their cars down by the supermarket. If we set off now, we can catch up with them!”
* * *
When the men in black jackets pull away from the crowd outside the Bearskin and run toward Teemu’s Saab to hunt the enemy through the forest, hardly anyone notices them. The only person watching is a teenage boy. Leo Andersson. He follows them.
* * *
William and Benji don’t pull their punches. Their blows are frenzied, they’re both so strong that their faces are bloody after just a few seconds. William lets out a yell every time he swings and lands a punch, from a mixture of exhaustion and fury. He’s taller than Benji, the only advantage Benji has never been able to take from him, and can punch downward while Benji has to punch up. It’s harder to punch upward. They swing wildly at each other for what seems an age, until lactic acid forces them both to back away, gasping for air, streaming with blood. Benji has lost a tooth, and William can hardly see with his right eye.
“Were you in love with him?” he suddenly snarls.
“WHAT?” Benji shouts, spitting blood onto the snow.
They’re standing a few feet apart, their lungs heaving. William puts his hands on his knees. One of his fingers is broken, and his nose is bleeding like a tap. He lowers his voice, as pain and exhaustion hit him. “Were you in love with Kevin?” he pants.
Benji says nothing for several minutes. He’s got blood in his hair and on his hands; it’s impossible to tell where he’s bleeding from and where he’s just wiped it off. “Yes.”
It’s the first time in his life that Benji has admitted that. William closes his eyes and feels his nose throb as he tries to breathe through it. “If I’d known that, I wouldn’t have hated you so much,” he whispers.
“I know,” Benji says.
William straightens up. Stands with his hands by his sides, his tracksuit top torn and stained with sweat. “Do you remember that summer when we were little, when it rained nonstop for a whole month? When the ice rink flooded?”
Benji looks surprised but nods slowly. “Yes.”
William wipes his nose with the back of his hand.
“You and Kevin were always out in the forest in the summer, but when it rained you both used to come to my place and ask if we could play hockey in the basement. I don’t know why you didn’t go back to Kevin’s, but—”
“Kev’s parents were having their house renovated that summer,” Benji reminds him.
William nods in acknowledgment. “Oh, yeah. That was why. We played hockey in my basement every day that month. And we were friends then. You were okay. We didn’t mess with each other.”