That made six children. There was no sign of the seventh yet. Sofia Bergwall, the daughter of Lasse and Lina. She was late this morning.
Maria gazed up towards the road. Despite the fact that Sofia was a year younger, she was Maria's best friend, and they had been together since they went to day care together. Waiting for the boat was boring when Sofia wasn't here. Maria turned towards the sea, and saw the tender approaching just beyond the carpet of gulls. It would be a few minutes before it hove to, but Sofia was always there in plenty of time. Maria chewed on her lip and spotted Sofia, walking up from the shop.
Maria waved, but her best friend didn't seem to notice her. There was something stiff and odd about the way she was walking; she was dressed in thin clothes and seemed preoccupied by some difficult problem. Maria knew what had happened to her father, Lasse, the previous day, and thought it probably had something to do with that.
Sofia didn't even say hello when she reached the jetty, she simply went and stood at the far end and stared at the gulls, which had begun to take off in disorganised flocks as the boat came closer.
'Soffi, what is it?' Maria placed a hand on her friend's shoulder, but Sofia merely snorted and turned away. Maria inspected her clothes and shook her head. It didn't make any sense. Sofia's mother always made sure Sofia was suitably dressed, but today she had no hat, no gloves, and only a thin anorak that wouldn't provide much protection from the wind.
There was an ache in Maria's chest. Ever since she was very small she had been a sensitive soul, who felt pain when someone else had a problem. Therefore she took off her scarf and began to wind it around Sofia's neck.
'You must be frozen, I mean it's-'
The words 'really cold' froze on her lips as Sofia turned around. The expression in her eyes was so horrible that Maria whimpered and let go of the scarf.
'Don't touch me!' snapped Sofia, and Maria held up her hands to defend herself or to indicate that she had no intention of doing anything else, but before she had time to say a word, Sofia grabbed hold of her jacket.
Arvid was studying the graffiti in the shelter. He heard Maria scream and didn't take any notice, assuming the girls were just being silly. But then the tone of the scream altered, and shortly afterwards he heard a splash.
Arvid looked out of the shelter just in time to see Sofia running over to Marten and Emma. She grabbed their snowsuits by the chest and pulled them towards her. Emma managed to twist herself free, which gave Sofia two hands to hold on to Marten. The little boy screamed at the top of his voice as Sofia dragged him towards the edge of the jetty and threw him over. The scream continued as he went over the edge, then stopped abruptly.
The tender was perhaps fifty metres from the jetty and the gulls rose into the air, hauled up into the sky like a flapping, screaming curtain.
The whole thing was so far beyond rhyme and reason that it took a few seconds before Arvid's brain was able to accept that they were not playing tag or some other game, that Sofia really had thrown little Marten down into the ice-cold water.
And where's Maria?
Sofia bared her teeth and rushed towards the other children, who fled from the jetty with terrified squeals. It was like What's the time, Mr Wolf?-but this wolf really was dangerous, and tiptoeing gingerly forward wasn't going to help.
As Arvid ran over to the edge of the jetty he could see th.it t In- tender was still too far out for Roger to be able to help. He looked down into the water and saw Marten's pale blue snowsuit just below the surface.
He hesitated. He shouldn't be the one doing this sort of tiling. He was only thirteen and the temperature of the water was close to freezing and there must be some adult who-
Grandfather. Grandfather would-
He didn't get any further before his hands took the initiative, unzipping the leather jacket and dragging it off. The pale blue of Marten's snowsuit grew darker as he sank, and there was no one but
Arvid who could save him.
He had just managed to get the jacket off and was about to take a deep breath when a hard shove from behind sent him over the edge. He half turned and saw Sofia staring at him with madness in her eyes before he fell two metres and hit the water.
The cold knocked all the air out of him and his lungs contracted, preventing him from taking in more. He could see the sharp prow of the tender perhaps ten metres away. It was heading straight for him, and he could hear the engines roaring as Roger slammed it into reverse.
Purely by exerting his muscles Arvid managed to take in a tiny amount of air, held his breath, put his face in the water and swam downwards. His nose, mouth and eyes froze instantly, but right now there was only one thing on his mind, and that was to reach the blue shape directly below him.
He swam another stroke and the roaring of the engines filled his head as he felt his feet leave the surface. There was an immense pressure in his ears and he tried unsuccessfully to kick off his heavy boots, but he took another stroke, the last one before he ran out of air, stuck out his arm and managed to grab hold of the fabric on Marten's back.
Incredibly, he had the presence of mind to swerve to one side before he swam to the surface. He flapped his free arm, pushed as hard as he could with his legs and forced Marten up out of the water as if he were lifting a trophy before following on himself, gasping for air.
Their heads broke the surface just a metre from the metal hull of the tender. He could no longer hear anything, it was as if he were wearing earplugs made of ice. Above his head, the sky was swarming with silent gulls.
Marten's snowsuit was full of water and would have dragged them both down, but Arvid managed to grab hold of one of the tractor tyres fixed to the edge of the jetty, then pulled himself along and switched his grip to the next tyre. When he reached the corner of the jetty he heard someone shouting to him from far away, but took no notice. He kept Marten's head above the water and made his way towards the shore.
He edged around the corner and became vaguely aware of another figure crawling ashore a few metres away.
Maria…good…good…
His hands were no longer prepared to obey him. When he tried to get a grip on the last tractor tyre his fingers were frozen stiff, and slipped on the hard rubber surface.
Someone reached down from the jetty with a boat hook, but he couldn't manage to close his fingers around the pole. He thought he was going to sink, but the hook caught the neck of his pullover and he was pulled towards the shore with his burden.
After a couple of metres he noticed that his legs were moving oddly, and realised they were dragging along the bottom. The hook was detached from his pullover and water splashed in his face as Roger jumped in and hauled him ashore. He noticed that Maria was already lying there, staring at him with wide-open eyes and a face as white as paper.
Somebody was tugging at him.
'Arvid, Arvid. Let go. You need to let go.'
Roger was pulling at his left arm, the arm that was holding Marten. Arvid tried to let go, but couldn't; the arm was locked. The only place where there was any warmth left was inside his mouth, and he managed to part his lips and say, 'I can't.'
He looked at Marten and saw something wonderful. His mouth was moving, and he coughed up a little water over Arvid's face. He was alive. With gentle force Roger managed to move Arvid's arm and release Marten.