Samuel Blink and the Forbidden Forest Read Online Free PDF Page A

out of the forest, you can see why people worry. About the children. Your house is too close, Eda.
    AUNT EDA : Yes, it is close. Don’t you think I know that? But what do these worried people think I am going to do? Do they think I am going to send the children into the forest? Do they think I won’t tell them not to go there? Do they think I won’t tell them not to be outside after dark? Of course I will. What else can I do?
    OSKAR : You could…move. Maybe.
    AUNT EDA : Oh, and what would my dear Henrik say then?
    OSKAR : Henrik? Eda, Henrik has…gone. You must realize that.
    AUNT EDA : Yes. Of course. I know that. I know that just as well as I know that he is coming back.
    OSKAR : But it has been ten years, Eda. Ten years since he walked into that forest. You must know he isn’t coming back.
    AUNT EDA : If I knew that, I would have gone into the forest years ago, and finished myself off too.
    OSKAR : Eda, you don’t mean that. There are plenty of men out there, you know. Maybe some who need a little company too, from time to time.
    AUNT EDA : Well, yes, maybe. But now I’ve got Samuel and Martha to look after. And anyway, I know Henrik is still alive. Somewhere. Inside that forest. And I know he is going to come back.
    OSKAR : Yes. But now? After ten years? Wouldn’t it be easier if you—
    AUNT EDA : No. He is alive. And he is coming back. I can feel it in my heart. If you believed in love as much as you believed Old Tor, you would understand me.
    OSKAR : Oh, Eda, if only you realized how much I believed in true love.
    AUNT EDA : And what does that mean?
    OSKAR: (blushing) Nothing. It means nothing.
    AUNT EDA : Now, here is twenty krone for my groceries. You can keep the change. Morna, Oskar.
    OSKAR : Morna.

    And then, in a strange kind of English, Oskar said to the children: “Remember, do as your aunt does tell you so—stay away from the cheese.”
    The cheese? thought Samuel. What’s so dangerous about the cheese?
    (He didn’t realize that the shopkeeper had been talking about the forest, and meant to say “trees,” not “cheese.”)
    Aunt Eda, Samuel and Martha left the shop and walked back to the car. On the way, Samuel looked inside the window of the art shop run by Old Tor.
    He saw the chubby woman with the three cardigans who had been so rude. She was talking to a man with a very long beard and clothes specked with paint. Catching the old man’s stare, Samuel saw that one of his eyes was as white as milk. Samuel pretended to be interested in the canvases by the window. Most were of mountains and fjords, but then he saw another picture. It wasn’t in the window, but hanging on the wall behind the old man. It was a picture of a wild-looking creature, with two heads. It was so lifelike it made him jump, as if the creature could have leaped out of the painting.
    Samuel shook the picture out of his mind, like a dog shaking off water, and followed his aunt and sister to the car.
    â€œWhy is everybody so creepy around here?” he asked his aunt as they loaded the shopping into the trunk.
    â€œThey’re not creepy, really. Not when you get to know them. They are just a bit frightened, that’s all. And fear can make you act a bit strange.”
    â€œWhy are they frightened?” Samuel asked. “What is there to be scared of?”
    â€œNothing,” Aunt Eda said, too quickly to be believed. “That is, nothing if we all follow certain rules. Now, Samuel, I can see from your face that you don’t like the sound of that werry much. But they are not just for you, they are for me as well. If all three of us follow the rules, we will be fine. And we will not become strange like those scared old willagers.”
    Samuel curled his lip as he climbed into the backseat. All his life he’d had to listen to other people’s rules. Do your homework on time. Make your bed. Change out of your uniform after school. And