‘Another time,’ he said. ‘I’ll give you a good thumping some other time. Because you ask too many questions.’
The rest of the day Joel had no time to think about what Otto had told him. Miss Nederström was in a bad mood, and Joel was no longer sure that his miracle would protect him from her wrath.
After school Joel went with some of his classmates to take a look at a new car that was on show in Krage’s Car Showrooms. It was a shiny black Pontiac, and they stood for ages gaping through the window, wondering who would be able to afford a car like that.
It was quite late by the time Joel got home and started peeling the potatoes.
Only then did he remember that today was the day he ought to have collected his bicycle that had been in for repairs.
How on earth could he have forgotten his bike?
He looked at the kitchen clock. If he ran he still had time to get to the cycle shop before it closed. But then he remembered that he’d forgotten to ask Samuel for some money that morning. And he knew that the owner of the cycle shop never allowed credit.
The bike would have to wait until tomorrow.
He sat down on the kitchen bench and thought about what Otto had said. But which one should he start with? Rolf or David? Before he could make up his mind which of them was best for Gertrud, he would have to spy on them.
He jumped down from the kitchen bench, went into the hall and started to search through Samuel’s pockets. He found a five-öre piece in one of them. He took it into the kitchen and decided that Rolf was heads, and David was tails. Then he spun the coin round on the kitchen table.
Heads. He would start with Rolf...
‘Are you going out again? You go running off every night nowadays!’ said Samuel after dinner, when Joel started pulling on his wellingtons.
‘I won’t be long,’ said Joel.
‘Where are you going?’
Joel thought quickly.
‘To Eva-Lisa’s,’ he said. It was the best answer he could come up with.
Samuel lowered his newspaper and peered at Joel over his reading glasses.
‘You’re spending a lot of time round at her place. Have you started getting interested in girls already?’
Joel blushed.
He turned his back on Samuel as he buttoned up his jacket.
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I’m probably going to marry her in a few years’ time.’
Then he left.
He could see from the corner of his eye how Samuel gaped in astonishment and his chin almost hit his neck.
Serves him right for asking an unnecessary question, Joel thought cheerfully.
It was cold outside. The sky was clear and the stars twinkling. Joel didn’t really know how he was going to go about spying on Rolf, to find out if he was a suitable man for Gertrud.
Should he ring the doorbell, introduce himself and explain how things were? That he was looking for a suitable husband for Gertrud? That doing so was to be his good deed in return for shaking off the Miracle that he had experienced?
No, he couldn’t do that, of course.
Rolf would think that he had a screw loose.
Joel crept though the hole in the Pharmacy fence that he had once made himself, using an old pair of secateurs. Then he followed the row of currant bushes facing the courtyard in front of the furniture shop. There was a little shed there, and if he climbed onto its roof he would be able to see the house behind the Highways Department workshops where Rolf lived with his mother. He crept cautiously along the row of currant bushes. The furniture dealer had quite a temper, and Joel had learnt to avoid annoying him. He listened carefully in the darkness. Then he heaved himself up onto the roof. He had worked out that Rolf must live on the ground floor, and there was a retired schoolmistress in the flat upstairs. Those were the only two flats in the building.
He peered at the ground floor windows. It was getting exciting now.
He slowly raised his head and saw the fires glowing in the distance. General Custer in person had given him this mission. He couldn’t return until he had reconnoitred all aspects of the Red Indian camp. He was well aware that if he was captured, there would be no going back. He would die.
He could see right in through the windows. The curtains were not drawn. A woman was sitting in a chair, knitting. A kitten was playing with the ball of wool at her feet. Joel was close enough to see that she was making a pair of gloves. A pair of red gloves.
But where was Rolf? Joel shifted his gaze to the next window.
There he was!
He was in the kitchen, doing the washing up. Wearing an apron.
Joel pulled a face.
A man standing at the sink and doing the washing up was not what he’d had in mind for Gertrud. He might just as well.
The enemy is weak, he thought. Just now the Red Indian camp contains nothing but old ladies. He could go back to the General and advise him to attack immediately, before the men had returned from their hunting expedition on the distant prairie.
He stayed on the roof for a while longer. But nothing happened. The woman on the chair knitted. The kitten played. And Rolf washed up. When he’d finished, he served his mother a cup of coffee. Then he lay down on the sofa to read the newspaper. The same paper that Samuel used to read. Nothing exciting. Not a magazine about motor cars, or sport. Just the local newspaper that was full of pictures of people waving or holding hands.
Joel started to feel cold, so he jumped down from the shed roof.
Rolf was not the man. Joel was tempted to send Rolf a secret message, telling him he was not up to scratch. A message Joel would sign with his own blood.
He made his way slowly back to the street, and trudged back home.
What would he do if David, the Caviar Man, turned out to be equally boring?
What would he need to do then, in order to find a man for Gertrud.
He had no idea.
When he woke up next morning, the ground was white with frost.
Joel glared crossly out of the window. Perhaps it wasn’t real snow, nor was it real winter yet; but it was too early even so.
Earlier in the year Joel had really looked forward to the first snow. There was something special about the morning when he raised the blind and saw the first snow of the winter. But not when it was this early. Not when it was still only September.
Samuel also heaved a sigh.
‘Ah well,’ he said. ‘Before long we’ll have to start plodding through the snow.’
Joel wondered if he ought to say what he was thinking — that if Samuel hadn’t been stupid enough to stop being a sailor, he could have been standing on a swaying deck under a Caribbean sky. Not just Samuel, but Joel as well.
But he didn’t say it. Not when he needed to ask for money to pay for the bicycle repairs.
Samuel produced his purse and handed him a five-kronor note.
‘I don’t think that’ll be enough,’ said Joel. ‘It’ll cost ten at least.’
Samuel sighed and gave him a tenner instead.
Samuel always sighed when Joel asked for money. Joel had resolved never to sigh when any children he might have eventually asked him for money.
Samuel set off downstairs, and Joel sat back with his mug of hot chocolate.
He thought about Rolf, doing the washing-up and wearing an apron.
Let’s hope the Caviar Man wasn’t as wet.
He looked at the clock, and jumped to his feet. He’d been wasting too much time again. Now he’d have to run as fast as he could in order to avoid being late for school.
He cursed as he put on his jacket.
Why could he never learn?
Even though he ran for all he was worth, he was late. The classroom door was shut, and he could hear the harmonium playing the morning hymn. He hung up his jacket and curled up on the window ledge of one of the corridor windows. He’d have to wait. There was no way he could enter the classroom during morning prayers. That was one way of ensuring that Miss Nederström would pull his hair.