"Yasmine isn't dead. She just went away."
"She wouldn't have left without me, so she's dead." The child continues. "We must close down the reading room. What made you open a reading room in the first place?"
"I did it for you. I thought it would help you make friends."
"I don't want friends. I never asked you for a reading room. In fact, I'm asking you to close it."
Lucas says, "I'll close it. I'll tell the children tomorrow evening that the weather is nice enough to read and draw outside."
The little blond boy returns the next day. Lucas doesn't look at him. He stares at the lines, the letters in a book.
Mathias says, "You don't dare look at him. But you're dying to, all the same. You've been reading that page for the last five minutes."
Lucas closes the book and buries his face in his hands.
Agnes comes into the library. Mathias runs to meet her, she gives him a kiss. Mathias asks, "Why did you stop coming?"
"I haven't had time. I've been on a teacher training course in the next town. I wasn't home very often."
"But now you'll stay here, in our town?"
"Yes."
"Will you come and eat pancakes with us this evening?"
"I'd love to, but I have to look after my brother. Our parents are at work."
Mathias says, "Bring him with you, your little brother. There will be enough pancakes to eat. I'll go and make the batter."
"And I'll tidy up the shop for you."
Mathias goes up to the apartment. Lucas says to the children, "You can take the books that are out on the tables. The sheets of paper as well, and a box of colored pencils each. You shouldn't be cooped up in here in this weather. Go and read and draw in your gardens or in the park. If you need anything you can come and see me."
The children leave. Finally only the little blond boy is left, sitting quietly at his desk. Lucas asks him softly, "What about you? Aren't you going home?"
The child doesn't answer. Lucas turns to Agnes.
"I didn't know he was your brother. I knew nothing about him." "He's shy. His name is Samuel. I suggested he come here, now that he's learning to read. He's the youngest. My brother Simon has been working at the factory for five years. He is a truck driver."
The blond child gets up and takes his sister's hand. "Are we going to eat pancakes with the man?"
Agnes says, "Yes, let's go up. Mathias will need some help."
They go up the stairs leading to the apartment. In the kitchen Mathias is mixing batter.
Agnes says, "Mathias, meet my little brother. He's called Samuel. I'm sure you'll be good friends. You're more or less the same age."
Mathias's eyes open wide, he drops the wooden spoon, he leaves the kitchen.
Agnes turns to Lucas. "What's wrong?"
Lucas says, "Mathias has probably gone to look for something in his room. Start cooking the pancakes, Agnes. I'll be back in a moment."
Lucas goes into Mathias's room. The child is lying on his eiderdown. He says, "Leave me alone. I want to sleep."
"You invited them, Mathias. It's bad manners."
"I invited Agnes. I didn't know he was her brother."
"I didn't know either. Make an effort for Agnes's sake, Mathias. You like Agnes, don't you?"
"And you like her brother. When I saw you all come into the kitchen I knew you were a real family. Beautiful, blond parents with their beautiful, blond child. I haven't got a family. I haven't got a mother or a father. I'm not blond. I'm ugly and crippled."
Lucas holds him tight. "Mathias, my little boy. You're my whole life."
Mathias smiles. "Fine. Let's eat."
In the kitchen the table is set, and there is a large pile of pancakes in the middle.
Agnes talks a lot, gets up frequently to serve the tea. She pays the same attention to her little brother as to Mathias.
"Jam? Cheese? Chocolate?"
Lucas watches Mathias. He eats little and never takes his eyes off the blond child. The blond child eats a lot. He smiles at Lucas when their eyes meet, he smiles at his sister when she hands him something; but when his blue eyes encounter Mathias's dark stare, he lowers his gaze.
Agnes washes up with Mathias. Lucas goes to his room.
Mathias calls him later. "Time to walk Agnes and her brother home."
Agnes says, "We're really not afraid to walk home on our own."
Mathias insists. "It's good manners. Walk them home."
Lucas walks them home. He bids them good night and goes to sit on the bench in the insomniac's park.
The insomniac says, "It's half past three. At eleven o'clock the child lit a fire in his room. I took the liberty of calling out to him, something I wouldn't normally do. I was worried that he might set fire to something. I asked the child what he was doing, but he told me not to worry, he was just burning the rough notes from his homework in a metal pail in front of the window. I asked him why he didn't use the stove to burn his papers. He said he didn't want to go to the kitchen to do it. The fire went out shortly after, and I didn't see the child or hear any sound after that."
Lucas goes up the stairs, enters his room, then the child's room. In front of the window there is a metal pail containing some burned paper. The child's bed is empty. On the pillow lies a blue notebook, closed. On the white label is written: MATHIAS'S NOTEBOOK. Lucas opens the notebook. There are only a few empty sheets and the edges of ripped-out pages. Lucas pulls open the dark red curtain. Alongside the skeleton of his mother and her baby hangs the little body of Mathias, already cold.
The insomniac hears a long scream. He goes down into the street, rings at Lucas's door. There is no reply. The old man goes up the stairs, enters Lucas's room, sees another door, opens it. Lucas is lying on the bed, clutching the child's body against his chest.
"Lucas?"
Lucas doesn't answer. His eyes stare wide open at the ceiling.
The insomniac goes back down into the street, he goes to call on Peter. Peter opens a window.
"What's going on, Michael?"
"Lucas needs you. Something terrible has happened. Come."
"Go home, Michael. I'll take care of everything."
He goes up to Lucas's apartment. He sees the metal pail, the two bodies stretched out on the bed. He pulls open the curtain, discovers the skeletons and, on the same hook, the end of a rope cut with a razor. He turns back to the bed, gently pushes the child's body away, and slaps Lucas on the face.
"Snap out of it!"
Lucas closes his eyes. Peter shakes him.
"Tell me what happened!"
Lucas says, "It's Yasmine. She's taken him from me."
Peter says firmly, "Don't ever say that again to anyone else but me, Lucas. Do you understand? Look at me!"
Lucas looks at Peter.
"Yes, I understand. What do I do now, Peter?" "Nothing. Stay where you are. I'll bring you some tranquilizers. I'll take care of the formalities."
Lucas hugs Mathias's body.
"Thank you, Peter. I don't need any tranquilizers."
"No? Well, try to cry at least. Where are your keys?"
"I don't know. Maybe I left them in the front door."
"I'll lock up. You mustn't go out in this state. I'll be back."
Peter finds a bag in the kitchen, unhooks the skeletons, slips them into the bag, and takes them away with him.
Lucas and Peter walk behind Joseph's wagon, which is carrying the child's coffin.
At the cemetery a gravedigger sits on a mound of earth eating some bacon with onions.
Mathias is buried in the grave of Lucas's grandmother and grandfather.
When the gravedigger has filled in the hole, Lucas himself plants the cross, on which is engraved MATHIAS and two dates. The child lived seven years and four months.