Shadows in the Twilight Read Online Free

his room and switched on the radio.
The evening news programme was on. Joel stood in the
doorway. Perhaps they would say something about the
miracle that had taken place.
    But there was no mention of it.
    No doubt the miracle was too small to report.
    *
    The next day he went to school as usual. He avoided
going past the bar and seeing the damaged lamppost. He
was also a little bit worried that the bus might come
back and run him over again.
    He must find a way of saying thank you for the
miracle.
    And he must do so quickly.
    When he got to school Miss Nederström gave him a
hug.
    That had never happened before.
    She squeezed him so hard that he had difficulty in
breathing.
    She used a very strong-smelling perfume and Joel
didn't like being hugged at all. His classmates looked
very solemn, and Joel had the feeling that they were
afraid of him, as if he were a ghost. A walking
phantom.
    It was both good and bad.
    It was good that everybody was paying attention to
him. But it was bad that he had to be a ghost for that to
happen.
    Things weren't made any better when Miss
Nederström told him that he should thank God for
having survived.
    I hope she doesn't ask me to do that here in the
classroom, Joel thought.
    I'm not going to do that.
    But she left him in peace. He could start breathing
again.
    It was hard to concentrate on the lessons. And in the
breaks it seemed as if his classmates were avoiding him.
Even Otto left him alone.
    Joel didn't like all this at all.
    If people thought he had a contagious disease just
because a miracle had happened to him, he'd rather it
hadn't done.
    It was all that confounded Eklund's fault, of course, the
man with the big red hands who hadn't been driving carefully.
If you were driving a bus you had to expect somebody
to run over the road because he was in a hurry to say
thank you for two packs of pastilles. Didn't they teach bus
drivers anything before giving them their driving licence?
    After school Joel trudged back home.
    He would have to find a good way of saying thank
you for the miracle.
    And he would have to be quick about it.
    No doubt there was an aura around him telling everybody
that he still hadn't said thank you to God.
    Feeling in a bad mood, he went down to the river and
sat down on his rock.
    He felt he had to talk to somebody about this miracle.
    Not Samuel. That wouldn't be any good. His father
didn't like people talking about God.
    Who should he talk to, then?
    The Old Bricklayer, Simon Windstorm?
    Or Gertrud, who lived on the other side of the river
and didn't have a nose?
    It occurred to him that he didn't have a real friend. A
best friend.
    That was something he'd have to get.
    That was the most important of all the things he'd
have to solve this autumn.
    You couldn't celebrate your twelfth birthday without
having a real friend.
    He made up his mind to pay a visit to Gertrud No-Nose that very same evening.
    He left his rock, went home and put the potatoes on
to boil.
    When Samuel had finished his dinner, it was time to
tell him that Joel was going out. He'd prepared for this
carefully.
    'I'm going to call on Eva-Lisa for a bit,' he said.
    Samuel put down the newspaper he'd been reading.
    'Who?' he said.
    'Eva-Lisa.'
    'Who's she?'
    'Come on, you must know. She's in my class. Her
mum's that nurse at the hospital. The one you met.'
    'Oh, her,' said Samuel. 'But shouldn't you stay at
home tonight?'
    'But I didn't have a single scratch!'
    Samuel nodded. Then he smiled.
    'Don't be late, then,' he said. 'And make sure you
stick to the pavements.'
    'I will, don't worry,' said Joel. 'I shan't be late. Just a
couple of hours.'
    A few minutes later he was hurrying over the river.
The arch of the bridge towered over his head.
    He remembered clinging on to the very top of it, when
Samuel had come to help him down. He ran over the
bridge as fast as he could.
    He was forced to pause outside Gertrud's gate and get
his breath back. The cold autumn wind was tearing at his
chest.
    But the