Winter's End Read Online Free Page A

one. The village on this hill belonged to the consolers, and it was no place for men unless they were very discreet. Like the man who comes to put wood in the stove, Helen had thought. He must be one of those shadowy men who were allowed to live on the hill. Other men didn’t feel at ease here; they lived in the town and seldom came up to the village.
    Most of the consolers were of considerable girth and made sure they stayed that way. How could you give someone a proper hug, how could you comfort people, if your bones were sticking out? Some of Helen’s friends didn’t agree; their consolers were slender and fragile, but they wouldn’t have exchanged them for the world. Catharina Pancek, for instance, said her consoler was like alittle mouse scurrying about, and she loved her like that. She wouldn’t have wanted to drown in a mass of soft flesh like Paula’s.
    Helen hadn’t chosen Paula for herself. The supervisor who took her up to the hill the first time, three years ago, had stopped outside Number 47 without asking her opinion and said in dry tones, “Her name is Paula. I’ll come back for you in two hours.”
    Helen had gone down the three steps and knocked at the door, and Paula had opened it and burst out laughing at the sight of her.
    “Oh, what a lost little kitten! Come in and have something to eat. Are you thirsty? How about a mug of hot chocolate? Yes, hot chocolate will warm you up.”
    Since that day, Helen had visited Paula only six times, just as often as the rules allowed. About fifteen hours in all, no more. And yet she felt she had known Paula forever. She occupied a huge place in Helen’s heart.
    Octavo put his school satchel away, and they set the table for supper. The baked potatoes were so fluffy and so delicious that Helen’s first few mouthfuls almost made her feel unwell.
    “Oh, this is so good!”
    She spared a fleeting thought for the other girls back at school having to put up with insipid soup. But their turn would come. She might as well forget them for the moment and enjoy the happiness here. Over supper they talked mostly about Octavo,his school, the practical jokes he played there. His teacher must be kept on her toes with a character like Octavo in her class. At eight o’clock he went upstairs to his room and came back down in pajamas to kiss Helen and his mother.
    “I like it when you come to see us,” he told Helen, “but not in the evening because then my mommy can’t cuddle me.”
    “I’ll come up and see you later,” Paula promised. “Go to bed now. Helen only has half an hour left. I’ve explained to you: it would be very serious for her to be late.”
    “Is it true they’d put another girl in a black hole instead of Helen?” asked Octavo.
    “Who told you that?”
    “Some of the kids at school say so.”
    “Well, it’s not true. Off with you now. Go to sleep.”
    The little boy slowly climbed the wooden staircase. His eyes were full of anxiety.
    There was a large and rather worn-out armchair against the left-hand wall. Paula dropped into it. “Well, my pretty one, what do you have to tell me today? Come over here.”
    Helen went to sit at Paula’s feet and put her head in her lap. The plump woman’s two warm hands stroked her head slowly from her forehead to the nape of her neck.
    “I don’t have anything to tell you, Paula. Nothing ever happens at the boarding school.”
    “Tell me about before you were there, then.”
    “I can’t. You know that.”
    For a moment they were both silent.
    “You talk to me,” Helen went on. “About when you were a little girl. I always like imagining you little. Were you already —”
    “Fat? Oh yes, I always have been. And one of my cousins made it very clear to me one day. I remember, my sister, Marguerite, and I had caught a hedgehog —”
    “You have a sister? I didn’t know.”
    “Yes, an elder sister. She’s ten years older than me and she lives in the capital city. Well, as you know, hedgehogs look