At the top of the ridge. he had a better view of the landscape. He could make out Litjønna in the distance. Another hour or two, perhaps, and he would be there. Tobias realized he was looking forward to it, but he also had a lurching feeling in his stomach. Everyone was talking about the Christians, but nobody knew anything about them. What if they were dangerous? Or not dangerous, but perhaps didn’t like visitors? On the other hand, what if they were really nice? Perhaps they would welcome him with open arms and give him chicken and fizzy drinks and he would make a lot of new friends, and maybe they would want him to stay there and perhaps Torben could come, too, and everything would be all right; just snap your fingers and all their problems would be solved in an instant?
It was probably best not to approach them immediately. After all, you never could tell. Perhaps he should set up camp some distance away, a place with a view. Lie on the ground with his binoculars, perhaps camouflage his body, so he could spy on them. Pick his moment.
He smiled to himself. That was a good plan. Set up camp where he had a view. Do some spying. He should have brought his book, he should definitely have done that, but it was too late to turn around now. He would have to be the Indian instead. Chief Tobias Bromden on a secret mission.
It had grown a little warmer, the sun was peeping out from behind a cloud, almost lighting up the path in front of him: that was a good sign. Tobias took off his jacket, put it in his rucksack and continued his hike through the forest.
He did not see the fence until he was just a short distance away from it. He must have been lost in a world of his own. His mind had been filled with camouflage and camping. He had visited this farm before and knew of a good location for watching it. He had heard that the council had sold the old farm and the land that belonged to it. The council had used the farm as a facility for drug addicts, where they could do farming jobs and go for walks in the forest and so on, because it was supposed to do them good. But then the council had run out of money, or decided to spend it on something else or something Tobias did not really understand, but the upshot was that the place for drug addicts had been closed down. The farm had been empty for a while. And now some Christians had bought it. Tobias had been there twice before, once when the junkies were staying there, and once when it had been uninhabited. He had been there with Jon-Marius, his best friend, who sadly had moved to Sweden with his mother in the middle of Year Six; anyway, they had found the perfect place from which to do their spying, a mound not far from the farm with a good view of most things that were going on.
But he didn’t remember this fence, and now he had almost walked right into it. A mesh fence, the kind which ought to have barbed wire running along the top. Tobias quickly stepped back and hid behind the trees while he took a good look at this unexpected obstacle. There was no barbed wire on the top, but it was high. Much taller than him, more than twice his height. The fence looked brand-new. As if it had just been put up. Tobias looked up at the top of the fence and sized it up. He could probably scale it, but not without being spotted. He could see it now, the farm far behind it. Strange things had happened there: the farm had changed almost beyond recognition; they had put up new buildings. Extended outwards and upwards so it no longer looked like a farmhouse but more like a small church. It had a spire, and was that a greenhouse next to it? He shielded his eyes with his hand, but he couldn’t see that far. The area between the fence and the building was open and offered few places to hide. The mound from which he was going to do his spying lay on the other side. In order to reach it, he would have to follow the new fence all the way round. It would be much quicker to climb it but, having reviewed his options, he decided it was not worth the risk. Not that he thought the people behind the fence would not be nice, but even so. What would he say if he was caught? And, after all, he had found a small girl in a dress hanging from a tree with a sign around her neck not so far from here, so perhaps it was best to err on the side of caution.
He could always walk home again; that was another option. He had seen something now. They had built a new house and put up a fence. A kind of Christian campsite. That would be worth telling people about. Tobias briefly considered turning back, but his curiosity was greater than his fear. It would be exciting to have more to tell. He might catch a glimpse of the people living there. He wandered back into the forest. Far enough that the trees would hide him, but so he could still see the fence. It looked as if the shortest distance would be going round to the left – he could make out the edge of the fence there; to his right, it simply carried on, he couldn’t estimate how far the walk would be in that direction. Tobias pulled up the hood of his hoodie and contemplated his next move. Hiding inside the hoodie felt good. It also added to the excitement. He was a secret agent on a mission. With a knife and a torch in his rucksack and a riddle to solve. He crouched, made himself as small as he could and followed the fence through the wood. Tobias moved as quietly as he could, in short sprints. He would lean forwards, half run through the forest for a few hundred metres before throwing himself on the ground and checking out the terrain. No one in sight. Someone had dug a hole inside the fenced-off area. He could see a vehicle now: a tractor was parked further away. He repeated his manoeuvre. Crouched down, half ran, found a suitable spot and threw himself on the heather. This time, he got a slightly better view. He had been right, it was a greenhouse: two, in fact, both fairly big. Tobias knew that the children who lived there didn’t go to school. Perhaps they didn’t go to the shops either? Perhaps they grew all their own food, so they never had to go anywhere? He eased out his binoculars from the rucksack. He could see the greenhouses very clearly now. And the tractor. An old, green Massey Ferguson.
Tobias’s heart started to pound as a person appeared in the viewfinder. A man. No, a woman. Wearing a grey dress, and something white on her head. She went inside one of the greenhouses. Then she was gone. He scanned the area with the binoculars again, trying to spot more people, but everything had gone quiet. He dropped the binoculars, let them dangle from the strap around his neck and got to his feet. Risked running a longer distance. This time, he couldn’t wait to get to a higher vantage point – his fear had completely evaporated; his curiosity had got the better of him now. He threw himself on the heather again as the door to the greenhouse opened and someone appeared, two people this time. The same woman and…? He adjusted the binoculars in order to see better. A man. A woman and a man. The man was also wearing grey clothes, but had nothing on his head. Perhaps only the women had to wear something on their heads? That would make a good story, wouldn’t it? All the women wear white hats while the men have nothing on their heads. No, maybe not. After all, what did it mean? He had to get closer. This was nothing.
Tobias had just sat up again, ready to run the next stretch, when he suddenly noticed the girl behind the fence. He was so surprised that he completely forget to throw himself on the ground; he just stood there, right in front of her, without moving. She was around his age, perhaps a little younger. She was dressed just like the woman by the greenhouse, in a thick, grey, woollen dress and with a white bonnet on her head. She was kneeling in a vegetable patch. It looked as if she was pulling up weeds. Perhaps they grew carrots in the vegetable beds, or lettuce or something; it was hard to tell. Tobias squatted down on his haunches and made himself a little more invisible. The girl sat up and straightened her back. Brushed dust off her knees. She looked weary. She was not far away from him, perhaps only ten metres. Tobias held his breath while the girl knelt down on the ground again and continued weeding. The girl touched her neck and wiped her forehead. Tobias completely forgot that he was a spy and that he had to remain unseen. The girl looked so tired and thirsty. What would be the harm in offering her a drink? After all, he had a big bottle of water in his rucksack.