The Rabbit Back Literature Society Read Online Free PDF Page A

father about anything. Disease had nibbled Paavo Emil Milana’s memories to pieces.
    It was horrible, the swathe decay could cut through a person’s memory. Swallowing up even the present moment. It was absolutely unbearable.

    Paavo Emil Milana’s glasses were found in the end. The frames were broken into four pieces lying in different parts of the garden.The left lens was in the potato patch, the right one in the middle of the rose bushes. There were deep scratches on the left one.
    “Paavo, honey, do you know how expensive glasses are? And you break your only pair and toss them around like a little child.”
    Paavo Milana squinted at his wife.
    “I didn’t break anything. The damned gnomes ambushed me. They didn’t like me looking at them.”
    Marjatta Milana looked at her daughter.
    “Old age doesn’t always wait till you’re old,” she said, stroking her husband’s hair. “Your hair needs a cut. It’s as ratty as a forest troll’s. People would hardly know you were a person if I didn’t look after you.”

    When Ella Milana, substitute language and literature teacher, finished the last lesson of the day, one of the boys came up to her with a briefcase in his hand.
    “May I have my comic book back?” he asked. When he saw the expression on her face he thought it best to swear that he would never bring a comic book to school again.
    Ella dug through her bag and handed him the comic. He thanked her and started to leave, but then didn’t.
    “Well, what is it?” Ella asked impatiently. “It may be a little torn, since it’s been lying in my bag for two weeks, but nobody told you to read it during the lesson.”
    The boy shook his head. “Yeah, but… it’s not that. This isn’t my comic.”
    Ella raised her eyebrows.
    “Of course it is. I’m a literature teacher. I don’t carry comic books around in my bag. I have placed exactly one comic book in this bag in my entire life—the one I confiscated from you.”
    The boy flipped through the comic book’s pages with his brow furrowed, then tossed it on the desk and pushed his hair back. “Interesting comic, but it’s not mine.”
    Ella sighed.
    “Well then you’ve caught me. I admit it. That comic is part of the secret comics stash that I carry with me at all times. Forgive me. I’ll give back your comic as soon as I can find it among my comics collection.”
    She stared at the boy until he gave up and left the classroom. Once he had left, Ella put the comic back in her bag. As she turned her phone back on she noticed that she had two messages.
    The first was from Ingrid Katz. She said that Laura White had seen Ella’s short story in the
Rabbit Tracks
literary supplement and liked it. Ingrid also added, in a peculiar tone, that she needed to meet with Ella sometime soon to talk to her about an important matter.
    The other message was from Ella’s mother and was more howled than spoken.
    Ella’s father had been taken to the hospital in an ambulance after some sort of accident in the garden. “Call me as soon as you get this message,” her mother’s keening voice pleaded. Then, remembering her phone manners, she added, “Thanks. I’ll talk to you later.”

4
    P AAVO EMIL MILANA WAS IN Room 4 of the overnight ward.
    He was covered in cuts, scratches, scrapes and bruises. Ella and Marjatta Milana sat next to his bed. There were old people in the other three beds, staring at the ceiling, their mouths black holes.
    He’ll live, the doctor had assured them. He hadn’t lost as much blood as they’d thought when he arrived, and his abrasions looked worse than they were. The old fellow had been quite confused when they brought him in, there was no denying that. They still didn’t have a cure for Alzheimer’s, at least not here at the health clinic, heh, and whatever shock he’d had would pass sooner or later. He might eventually be able to tell them what happened, or then again he might not. That was how it was. Sometimes you just had to