Henning Mankell
The Journey to the End of the World
To the memory of my parents
Foreword
This is the fourth and final book in the series about Joel.
The first part was A Bridge to the Stars. Then came Shadows in the Twilight, and When the Snow Fell.
In this book there are occasional references to characters who appeared in the earlier stories. I have not always bothered to describe them in detail again. What they look like, or why they do what they do.
Anybody who wants to can always check up by consulting previous volumes in the series of stories about Joel.
But it is not necessary, of course.
Most of what you need to know is to be found in these pages.
Henning Mankell
One night in March
The year when Joel would soon celebrate his fifteenth birthday, he wakes up out of a dream that has made him feel frightened. When he opens his eyes in the darkness, he doesn’t know where he is at first. But then he hears his dad’s snores rolling in through the half-open door.
That’s the moment when his dream comes back to him.
He’d been walking over the ice on the frozen river. He didn’t know why he was there. But he suddenly noticed that the ice was beginning to crack under his feet. He started running to the bank as fast as he could, but all the time more cracks opened out in front of him. He would never be able to get to the bank. Then, as if with the wave of a magic wand, all the winter ice vanished. Apart from the small floe he was standing on. Then he noticed there was something odd about the water. It wasn’t black and cold like it usually was. It was boiling. And all the time the floe he was standing on was getting smaller. In the end there was nothing left of it. Fierce, white crocodiles were snapping at him. And he was falling. Falling straight into their jaws...
When he wakes up he notices that he’s covered in sweat. The hands of his alarm clock gleam in the darkness. A quarter past four. He’s so relieved to have escaped from his dream. He pulls the covers up to his chin and turns to face the wall in the hope of going back to sleep. There are still a few hours to go before he needs to get up and go to school.
But he can’t sleep. He lies awake. Persistent thoughts fill his mind. Three more months and his school days will come to an end. He’ll get his final Report. Then what will he do? Where will he find a job? What would he really like to do? The thoughts won’t go away. Especially when he thinks about Samuel. For as long as Joel can remember, his dad has been talking about moving away from the little town they live in. As soon as Joel finishes school, Samuel will become a sailor again, and take Joel with him. But the years have gone by and Samuel talks less and less about the sea. And ships. And all the ports waiting for them out there in the wide world.
There’s a lot to think about. Joel sits up in bed and leans his back against the wall. It’s March already. Before long the snow will start to melt away. It will be his birthday next month. He’ll be fifteen. That means he’ll be allowed to ride a moped. And see adults-only films. His birthday will be the day he no longer needs to sneak into the cinema without being seen. He’ll be able to walk past the caretaker with a ticket in his hand.
Becoming fifteen is an important event.
But he feels worried. What will happen?
In the end he manages to go back to sleep.
Outside a solitary dog runs past the house. It’s on its way to somewhere only the dog knows about.
But Joel is asleep. In his dreams the spring thaw has arrived already.
And the ice is melting...
1
Joel was halfway down the hill just past the vicarage when his chain came off. He was so surprised that he swerved and lost control of his bike. He crashed into the hedge round the horse dealer’s garden and flew headfirst into some currant bushes. One cheek was badly scratched, and his left knee was bruised. But when he scrambled to his feet he was able to stand up and rescue his bike from the hedge. He’d made a big hole in it. As the horse dealer had a fiery temper, Joel rapidly wheeled his bike away and leaned it against the vicarage fence.
It was an afternoon in the middle of May. There were still patches of snow left in the shadow of house walls and on the verges. Spring had not yet brought any warm weather with it. But every afternoon after school Joel took his bike and rode through the streets of the little town. He felt worried and restless. What was going to happen shortly? When he left school?
A few days after he’d had that dream about the river with boiling water, he’d asked Samuel. He’d prepared himself carefully. They usually had pork and fried potatoes on a Sunday, but as it was Samuel’s favourite, Joel had made it for that night’s dinner even though it was a Tuesday. Joel knew that the best moment to take up an important matter with Samuel was when he had just finished eating and pushed his plate to one side.
And that moment had come. Samuel put down his fork, wiped his mouth and slid his plate away.
‘We have to make up our minds,’ Joel said.
Although his voice had broken now, it sometimes happened that things he said came out like a squeak or in falsetto. He spoke slowly and tried to make his voice as deep as possible.
Samuel was usually tired when he’d finished eating. Now he blinked and looked at Joel.
‘What do we have to make up our minds about?’ he asked.
Samuel seemed to be in a good mood, Joel thought. That wasn’t always the case. Samuel could sometimes be peevish, and in that case Joel knew there was hardly any point in trying to discuss something important.
‘What we’re going to do when I’ve left school.’
Samuel smiled.
‘What sort of a Report are you going to get?’
Joel didn’t like Samuel answering a question by asking another one himself. It was a bad habit that lots of grown-ups had.
But he had prepared himself thoroughly. Joel’s school marks were always important for Samuel.
‘I’ll get better marks than last autumn,’ he said. ‘I’ll be in the top three for geography.’
Samuel nodded.
‘When are we going to move?’ Joel asked. He must have asked Samuel that question at least a thousand times before. Nearly every day, year after year. The same question. ‘When are we going to move?’
Samuel looked down at the blue tablecloth on the kitchen table. Joel thought he might as well continue.
‘You’re not a lumberjack,’ he said. ‘You’re a sailor. When I’ve left school we won’t need to stay here any longer. We can go away. We can sign on for the same ship. I’m fifteen now. I can also be a sailor.’
Joel waited for an answer.
But Samuel continued staring down at the tablecloth. Then he stood up without a word and put on the coffee water. Joel wasn’t going to get an answer, that much was obvious.
He suddenly felt angry.
He’d made a big effort and prepared Sunday food even though it was only Tuesday, but still Samuel couldn’t give him a sensible answer.
He thought he ought to swear and tell his father a few home truths. Tell him he had an obligation to answer now. Joel had no intention of asking the same question another thousand times.
But he didn’t swear. He cleared away the plates, scraped the remains into the slop bucket and put the crockery in the sink.
‘I’m going out,’ he said.
‘Don’t you have any homework?’ asked Samuel, without looking up from the coffee water that was just coming to the boil.