Harbor by John Lindqvist (classic novels for teens txt) 📕

could see from a considerable distance what had happened. The magnificent houses that the residents of Domarö had built and paid for with their evil trade were gone. Their boats were gone and the jetties off which the boats had been moored were gone.

Not that they had disappeared into thin air, oh no. The foundations of the houses were still there, and the wreckage of the houses they had supported was strewn across the rocks. The odd log from a jetty was still sticking up out of the water. But there was not one single building left.

It was impossible to interpret this in any other way than to assume that God had been offended by the sight of Domarö. The island had been like a needle in his eye, and now he had allowed the sea to draw its rake across it in order to free the archipelago of this abomination.

During the whole of that summer and far into the autumn the mainland and surrounding islands were tormented by driftwood from Domarö. Timber from houses and jetties drifted up on to other shores, and were received with the same delight as clothes handed down from someone who had died of the plague. Fire was the only cure, and at irregular intervals bonfires flared up on the rocks as they burned what was left of the settlement of Domarö, down to the very last splinter.

So ends the first chapter in the story of Domarö.

Call-out

Simon was feeling ill at ease. Anna-Greta had not told her story as if it were some shaggy dog story from the past, but as if she were relaying a sacred text. Her expression had been distant and her voice husky, thick with the seriousness of what was coming out of her mouth. Simon didn’t recognise his Anna-Greta at all.

However, he couldn’t just dismiss it as a folk tale which for some reason had become gospel. His own experience got in the way. What had happened to him by the steamboat jetty fifty years ago fitted perfectly with the story Anna-Greta had just told.

There was silence in the hall. Simon closed his eyes. The narrative had gone on for a long time; it must be dark outside by now. When he listened he could hear the sea far away. The wind was getting up. A tickling sensation ran down Simon’s spine.

The sea. It hasn’t finished with Domarö.

When he opened his eyes he discovered that everyone was sitting looking at him. These were not anxious, enquiring looks, there was no sense of you do believe us, don’t you? Just a silent wait for what he might say. He decided to respond in the same vein; he cleared his throat and told them what had happened during his escape. When he had finished, Margareta Bergwall said, ‘Yes, Anna-Greta told us about that.’

Johan Lundvall snorted and wagged a finger at Simon, ‘So you did have a picklock after all. Just as I thought.’

So Anna-Greta had told the others his story, which she had simply dismissed when he told her.

‘So this is historical fact?’ Simon asked, turning to Anna-Greta.

‘Yes. There are records from the interrogations. And from the interviews before…Satan entered the picture.’

‘And you don’t think it’s him? Satan?’

A salutary wave of sniggers and giggles swept through the group. People smiled and shook their heads. Their reaction was answer enough.

To the right of Simon sat Tora Österberg, an elderly woman who was very active within the mission, and who lived in almost total isolation on the southern side of the island. She patted his knee and said, ‘The Devil exists, you can be sure of that. But he has nothing to do with this.’

For once Gustav Jansson had kept quiet until now. In his heyday he had been the leading accordion player in the village, a legendary toper and an inveterate joker. Now he just couldn’t stop himself. ‘Maybe he’s been to visit you, Tora?’

Tora’s eyes narrowed. ‘Yes, Gustav, he has, and he looked exactly like you. Although his nose wasn’t quite as red.’

Gustav laughed and looked around, as if he actually had the nerve to be pleased about being compared with the Evil One. Simon realised that a normal human mechanism was coming into play. This was a closed group where everyone had a set role. Now they had a new audience, and immediately began to overplay their roles. Or perhaps they were just trying to get away from the subject under discussion.

‘But why all this secrecy?’ asked Simon. ‘Why can’t everyone who lives here know about this?’

The more relaxed atmosphere that had been about to join the company stopped dead in the doorway. The heaviness returned like a physical force, making shoulders droop and bodies slump on their chairs. Anna-Greta said, ‘I think you’ve realised this is not somethingthat belongs to the past. That it’s something that’s going on right now.’

‘Yes, but—’

‘We no longer give people to the sea, but it takes them anyway. Perhaps not one per year anymore, but it takes many. Summer or winter.’

The objection that had been bubbling inside Simon throughout Anna-Greta’s narrative, making him so furious with the original population of Domarö, also applied to the group sitting here cowering in the mission house, and at last he could put it into words. ‘But all you have to do is move! They could have done it, and you…we can do it. If the sea really is taking people in a way that isn’t natural, if everyone is walking around in fear of becoming the next victim, why don’t we just move, and leave this island?’

‘Unfortunately it’s not that simple.’

‘Why not?’

Anna-Greta took a deep breath and was about to answer, when Karl-Erik straightened his back and said, ‘Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought we were meeting today to discuss this business of Sigrid and what it might mean, not to go over things we already know.’ He looked at his watch. ‘And I don’t know about you, but I’d like to get home