Travelling Light Read Online Free PDF Page B

terrible burden on Tom with this summer child, but what could they do? They had their hands full with their daily chores and the kids pretty much had to look out for themselves.
    One day, Axel said, “Tom, forget about splitting that firewood, please, and go keep an eye on Elis.”
    “I’d rather split wood. But he’ll be around my neck in any case, so what difference does it make?” “Well, do what you want,” said Axel helplessly and started to walk away, then turned back and said, “I’m so sorry about all this.”
    You think you’re taking in an underprivileged child from the city, but no, you’re saddling yourselves with an implacably critical observer who never lets up about the wickedness and sorrows of the world. Do people in the city all raise their kids to view the world with suspicion? Do they all burden them with a conscience they’re too young to understand or manage? Axel discussed it with his wife and she thought maybe they did. The boy needed a change. Why not take him out on the water a bit, now the weather was so calm and beautiful? Hanna could use the time to visit some of her relatives in Lovisa, and Axel had to take some gas canisters out to the lighthouses in any case. The Coast Guard office had phoned that very morning to say the beacon at Västerbåda had gone out. Axel thought it was an excellent idea, so he went off to fuel the boat and stow the canisters, and Hanna started packing a lunch.
    Elis was very excited. He kept tapping the barometer for fear of storms and asking about the lighthouses on their islands – were they on real islands, tiny islands?
    “Real fly specks,” said Tom. “Why?”
    Elis answered solemnly that he’d once read a story called “The Isle of Bliss” where the island had been very small.
    “Yeah, yeah,” said Tom. “Hurry up; Dad’s waiting.”
    “Come on, jump in!” Axel cried. “We’re off on a holiday, leaving all of our troubles behind!”
    The children jumped aboard. Hanna stood on the dock and waved as the boat set off straight out to sea. It was a mild day, dazzlingly bright with high cumulus clouds mirrored in the sea and no horizon visible. Elis clung to the rail and watched for islands, occasionally turning to grin at Tom; he actually looked as if he was enjoying himself for once. So you’re on holiday, you little shit, Tom thought. For the moment you’ve forgotten that the world’s about to end, and you’re only thinking of yourself. A bitter sense of injustice welled up in him and he decided to be totally indifferent to Elis all the way out and back again.
    The first lighthouse had been built on a very low skerry with a windswept crest of low bushes in the middle. When they landed, gulls rose and circled, screaming. Axel heaved the fresh canisters ashore and dragged them up over the rocks to the lighthouse.
    At first Elis just stood and stared, stiff as a poker, then he dashed off, rushed up into the brushwood, and flung himself back down again. Eider hens flew up from their nests with a great roar, but Elis hardly noticed. He ran back and forth shouting at the top of his lungs and finally threw himself headlong into a crowberry bush.
    “I told you he’s crazy,” said Oswald scornfully. “And you let someone like that run after you all day and night. That’s a fine friend you’ve made!”
    Tom walked slowly up to where Elis was lying looking up at the sky, shamelessly contented.
    Elis said, “I’ve never been on a real island before, one that looks like an island. It’s so small it could be mine.”
    “You’re babbling,” Tom said. “Anyway, it belongs to the eiders too.” Then he walked away.
    When Axel came back ready to move on to the next lighthouse, Elis wouldn’t budge. “I want to stay here,” he said. “I like this island.”
    “But it could take a couple of hours,” Axel objected. “We have to get to some lights a long way out. Much more interesting places, high ground, all kinds of things you’d