The Son Read Online Free PDF Page A

Because I have this.’
    She kissed him on the top of his head. He could feel her lips right against his skin. Last night he had dreamed that he could give up his sight for her. And when he had woken up and not been able to see, he had – for a second before he realised that it was due to the eye mask he wore to block out the early-morning sun in summer – been a happy man.
    The doorbell rang.
    ‘That’ll be Edith,’ Else said. ‘I’ll go and change.’
    She opened the door to her sister and disappeared upstairs.
    ‘Hi, Uncle Simon!’
    ‘Well, look who it is,’ Simon said as he gazed at the boy’s beaming face.
    Edith came into the kitchen. ‘Sorry, Simon, he kept pestering me to get here early so he would have time to try on your cap.’
    ‘Of course,’ Simon said. ‘But why aren’t you at school today, Mats?’
    ‘Teacher-training day,’ Edith sighed. ‘Schools don’t know what a nightmare it is for single mums.’
    ‘Then it’s especially kind of you to offer to drive Else.’
    ‘Not at all. He’s only in Oslo today and tomorrow, as far as I understand.’
    ‘Who is?’ Mats asked as he pulled and tugged at his uncle’s arm to get him to move from his chair.
    ‘An American doctor who is brilliant at eye operations,’ Simon said, pretending to be even stiffer than he really was as he allowed himself be pulled to his feet. ‘Come on, let’s go and see if we can find that police cap. Help yourself to some coffee, Edith.’
    Simon and Mats went out into the hallway and the boy squealed with delight when he saw the black-and-white police cap which his uncle took down from the wardrobe shelf. But he grew silent and reverent when Simon placed the cap on his head. They stood in front of the mirror. The boy pointed to the reflection of his uncle and made shooting noises.
    ‘Who are you shooting at?’ his uncle asked him.
    ‘Villains,’ the boy spluttered. ‘Bang! Bang!’
    ‘Let’s call it target practice,’ Simon said. ‘Even the police can’t shoot villains without permission.’
    ‘Yes, you can! Bang! Bang!’
    ‘If we do that, Mats, we go to jail.’
    ‘We do?’ The boy stopped and gave his uncle a baffled look. ‘Why? We’re the police.’
    ‘Because if we shoot someone we could otherwise have arrested that makes us the bad guys.’
    ‘But . . . when we’ve caught them, then we can shoot them, can’t we?’
    Simon laughed. ‘No. Then it’s up to the judge to decide how long they’ll go to prison.’
    ‘I thought you decided that, Uncle Simon.’
    Simon could see the disappointment in the boy’s eyes. ‘Let me tell you something, Mats. I’m glad I don’t have to decide that. I’m glad that all I have to do is catch criminals. Because that’s the fun part of the job.’
    Mats narrowed one eye and the cap tipped backwards. ‘Uncle Simon . . .’
    ‘Yes?’
    ‘Why don’t you and Auntie Else have any kids?’
    Simon stepped behind Mats, placed his hands on the boy’s shoulders and smiled at him in the mirror.
    ‘We don’t need kids, we’ve got you. Haven’t we?’
    Mats looked pensively at his uncle for a couple of seconds. Then his face lit up. ‘Yeah!’
    Simon stuck his hand in his pocket to answer his mobile which had started to buzz.
    It was a colleague. Simon listened.
    ‘Where by Aker River?’ he asked.
    ‘Past Kuba, by the art college. There’s a pedestrian bridge—’
    ‘I know where it is. I’ll be there in thirty minutes.’
    He put on his shoes, tied the laces and pulled on his jacket.
    ‘Else!’ he called out.
    ‘Yes?’ Her face appeared at the top of the stairs. It struck him once again how beautiful she was. Her long hair flowing like a red river around her petite face. The freckles on and around her small nose. And it occurred to him that those freckles would almost certainly still be there when he was gone. His next thought, which he tried to suppress, followed swiftly: who would take care of her then? He knew that she was unlikely