The Circle (Hammer)

25



THE TREES ARE silhouetted against the grey-white sky. It is one of those non-weather days – neither wet nor sunny. A vast greyness sits like a lid over the town.

Minoo walks along the path to the door of the church, the gravel crunching under her feet. Her new dress feels tight around her chest, making it hard for her to breathe. A few old ladies in black coats are standing on the church steps, talking in low voices. Minoo stares at their grizzled hair and wrinkled faces: Rebecka will never look like that.

Her parents had offered to take time off work and go with her, but Minoo said no. Now she can hardly remember why. She regrets it.

She tortures herself with various nightmare scenarios. What if she does something wrong –cries too much, giggles hysterically, faints or trips? What if she ruins the funeral for Rebecka’s family? Does she have the right to be there? She had known Rebecka for such a short time.

Slowly she climbs the steps and passes the old ladies, entering through the open doors. People are already sitting in the pews. Everyone has their backs to her. No one would notice if she turned and left.

Then she sees the white coffin. Next to the altar there’s an enlarged photograph of Rebecka on an easel. It’s a nice picture. She’s sitting at Dammsjön Lake, squinting a little in the sunlight, smiling at the person taking the picture. And Minoo knows she has to stay.

She is the only one there who knows why Rebecka died. The only one who knows it wasn’t suicide. Somehow that makes it her duty to be present. At least one person at Rebecka’s funeral knows the truth.

As she walks up the aisle, she remembers that this is also how bridal couples and parents christening their children enter the church. Minoo’s parents aren’t religious, but suddenly she understands the point of church; here, birth, life and death occupy the same space.

Minoo sits somewhere in the middle and tries to make herself invisible.

The bells start to toll.

Several people are snivelling.

She looks at Rebecka’s picture again, at her smiling face, which looks so alive, and it’s as if she realises for the first time that Rebecka is never coming back. Never. It’s like staring into a bottomless pit. It’s impossible to get your head around. For ever. Eternity. Suddenly tears are streaming down her face. She becomes afraid of losing control completely. She hides her face in her hands and thinks about everything Rebecka was and everything she might have been, all the things she’ll never feel, see and hear, love, hate, yearn for and laugh at. An entire life. Gone.

Helena Malmgren, Elias’s mother, isn’t conducting the service. Of course not. How could she bear it, so close to Elias’s death? Instead it’s a young priest. He’s uncertain, stumbling and mumbling his way through the sermon. Minoo hears the words slip past: … so young … God has a purpose … after death … but none provide comfort. When the priest talks about Rebecka, he sounds as if he’s talking about someone else, and Minoo wants him to shut up. Leave them in peace. She hates him for being so ill-prepared. She hates the psalms about souls going to Paradise. How can anyone pretend there’s something beautiful and meaningful about Rebecka’s death?

The organ music plays. Cautious tones rise up through the church.

Rebecka’s parents stand and walk to the coffin. Rebecka’s father, a tall, broad-shouldered man whom Minoo has never met, is red-faced from crying. Now and then his sniffs echo through the church, penetrating through the organ music. Her mother has the closed-off expression of the deeply shocked. They are leaning on each other for support. Behind them come Rebecka’s two little brothers; they are so like their elder sister that it’s painful for Minoo to look at them. They’re wearing black suits and holding each other’s hands as they follow their parents towards the coffin. She wonders how much they understand of what’s going on. An older man is behind them, resting his hands on their shoulders.

The young priest nods respectfully to the family and there is genuine empathy in his face. Minoo’s anger towards him disappears. He tries to comfort them: an impossible task, but at least he’s trying.

When the people sitting in the pew in front of Minoo get up, she follows them. Her legs feel unsteady as she walks towards the coffin. The tears well up again as she gets closer and it feels right and proper. It’s fitting that she should cry with Rebecka’s family and everyone else who knew her. She cannot take away their grief, but she can share it.

Minoo catches sight of a big wreath of lilies with white ribbons on which is written: REST IN PEACE – YOUR FRIENDS. They had chosen the most generic inscription they could come up with so as not to arouse curiosity. But Minoo knows who the senders are and that gives her strength.

One by one the funeral guests go up and lay a flower on the coffin. Minoo doesn’t have a flower. She didn’t know she was supposed to bring one with her. When she reaches the coffin she instead lays her palm against it. She almost expects to feel something –a sign, an electric shock –but the wood is cool against her skin. It’s impossible to imagine that Rebecka is lying inside.

Rebecka, Minoo says to herself, I promise I’ll find the person who did this. And they will never have a chance to do it again. I promise you.



Following the ceremony coffee is served in the parish house but Minoo can’t bear to stay any longer. She can’t imagine what it must be like for Rebecka’s parents to cope with all the questions and guilt, the rage and sorrow. It’s awful not to be able to tell them that their daughter didn’t commit suicide.

She steps out on to the church steps and looks out across the new section of the cemetery, which extends to the other side of a long box hedge. Elias, the seventh Chosen One, lies somewhere over there.

She walks down the steps and continues along the gravel path. She thinks about the room in the principal’s house, the frightening things inside it. How can they defeat such an enemy?

‘Hi.’

She looks up. Gustaf is leaning against a tree. He seems a little lost in his black suit. Their eyes meet and Minoo quickens her pace. Gustaf is the last person she wants to talk to.

‘Minoo …’

She doesn’t answer, just walks faster. He follows her.

‘Please – can’t I just talk to you?’ he calls out.

‘No!’ she hisses.

‘It’s not how you think.’

Minoo stops so suddenly that Gustaf almost cannons into her. Seeing him close up causes some of her anger to dissipate. He’s no longer the golden boy who’s never faced any hardship. His eyes are red and his skin is ashen.

‘What’s not how I think?’

‘That interview. That’s why you don’t want to talk to me, right?’

‘What do you think?’

Gustaf looks at her, searching for words that don’t come.

‘You said she was better off dead!’ Minoo reminds him.

Gustaf shuts his eyes. When he opens them, they’re wet with tears. ‘I was standing at the front entrance waiting for her,’ he says, ‘I saw her fall and hit the ground. I couldn’t do anything—’ He chokes up. Tears run down his cheeks. Minoo is crying, too. A lone raven flies above their heads and lands on a tree.

‘Cissi came over to my house that night,’ Gustaf continues, more composed. ‘Of course she said she was a journalist, but it didn’t feel like that when we talked. She really seemed to care. And I said lots of things I shouldn’t have. I barely even remember what I said. My mother’s filed a complaint against the newspaper, but now it’s been printed …’

Minoo knows what Cissi can be like – she ought to have understood what had happened at the interview. And there’s no trace of deceit in Gustaf’s face. He’s speaking the truth, she’s sure.

The remnants of the anger she’s felt towards him evaporate, leaving just their grief. Minoo can hardly bear hers, and she can’t begin to conceive of the emptiness Rebecka must have left behind in Gustaf.

‘I just have to know,’ he says. ‘Did she say anything to you about being unhappy? Did you notice anything to suggest she didn’t want … to go on living?’

‘No,’ she answers. ‘But I do know one thing. You made her happy.’

Gustaf looks away. ‘Not happy enough.’

‘You can’t think like that.’

‘Sure I can. I knew something was wrong. Sometimes I sensed she wanted to talk about it. If only I’d asked her …’

‘She could just have told you,’ Minoo says gently.

‘But instead she jumped off the school roof.’

There’s nothing Minoo can say. She can’t tell him the truth.

‘Her parents must hate me,’ Gustaf continues. ‘I didn’t dare go to the funeral. I didn’t want to ruin things any more than I have already.’

‘Go and talk to them. Maybe they understand more than you think.’

Gustaf shakes his head. ‘I can’t.’ He looks at Minoo and his face breaks into a smile that is full of pain. ‘She was the best thing that ever happened to me. I’m so f*cking alone without her. I don’t recognise my own life any more.’

He sobs, and Minoo does the only thing she can: she puts her arms around him. From the corner of her eye, she sees the raven flap its wings and fly off into the grey-white sky.