The Key (23 page)

The restlessness inside her feels like an exploded ant heap. She longs for Linnéa. But Linnéa is in the school and Vanessa is stuck here. The clock dolphins move so unbelievably slowly.

Her mobile vibrates in her pocket. A text from Linnéa.

JUST SAW M IN SCHOOL. SHE SEEMS OK
.

That’s a relief. After yesterday, Vanessa has been worried about Minoo.

‘You’re not paid to stand around tapping away on your mobile,’ Mona says, and looks at Vanessa across the rim of her reading glasses.

She is perched on the high stool behind the cash register, with a gossip mag open on her crossed legs. Today’s outfit consists of denim-look leggings and a peach sweatshirt with Minnie Mouse printed on the chest.

‘I’ve finished dusting,’ Vanessa tells her.

‘No, you haven’t, you haven’t done the bookshelf,’ Mona says, noisily turning a page. ‘Oh my God, he looks crazy these days. It’s like his face has shrunk in the wash. If he isn’t Botoxed within an inch of his life, I’ll eat every scented candle in stock.’

And this is the woman who is our only source of independent information, Vanessa thinks. The only one that hasn’t got some connection to the Council or the demons or the guardians.

She takes a book from the shelf –
Find Your Inner Shaman
– and wipes it carefully with the duster. Trying to get Mona to talk will probably get her nowhere – but then, she has nothing to lose.

She replaces the book and takes out
Diet with Your Aura
instead.

‘Mona,’ she says. ‘How much do you know about the apocalypse?’

‘Quite enough to want nothing to do with it,’ Mona replies as she turns another page. ‘Wow, what the fuck does she think she looks like in that?’

Vanessa sighs. Whenever she has tried to take up the subject with Mona, she has got this far and no further. But she is not going to give up. Maybe she has never asked the right question. Maybe a roundabout approach would be better.

‘Are you a natural or a trained witch?’ she asks, and tries to look super-focused on the duster as she sweeps it over
Karma as a Weapon
.

‘That’s no question to ask a lady, surely you know that much?’ Mona cackles. ‘But since you ask, I’m a natural.’

‘How did you find out that you’re a witch?’

‘It wasn’t too hard for my parents to work that out,’ Mona replies. ‘Seeing that they were both witches too. And clairvoyants.’

Not exactly a complete autobiography, but this is more than Mona has ever said about her life. Vanessa tries to hide how eager she is for more. She knows showing it would make Mona shut up like a clam. If for no other reason than to piss her off.

‘Were they Council members?’

Mona looks up from the magazine.

‘What are you rabbiting on about?’ she snaps. ‘My parents were free witches – miles different from that crew of up-themselves suits. Fucking arse-lickers the lot of them. The Council always delude themselves that they can make witches do what they say, no questions asked. Sure, one doesn’t want to cross them if one can avoid it. But we don’t give a shit about whatever they’re up to.’

She tries to light up, and swears loudly when her lighter won’t work. Vanessa has never seen her so angry. Clearly, this is a sore spot. She should keep prodding at it.

‘I’m sorry,’ Vanessa says, trying to look innocent. ‘All I thought was … I’ve heard that the Council runs schools and thought maybe that’s where you learnt about magic.’

‘You think those fucking bureaucrats have anything to teach me?’ Mona inhales deeply and blows smoke through her nostrils. ‘We free witches teach each other.’

‘What about the
Book of Patterns
, then?’

‘
That thing
,’ Mona sneers. ‘Strictly for Council nerds to sit and stare at through their sad little spy-glasses.’

‘So you don’t have one yourself?’

‘In your dreams! I don’t even stock them, even though they’re selling like fucking hot cakes on the black market. That book has always given me a nasty sinking feeling. Bad vibes. Just like that very proper friend of yours.’

‘Minoo?’

‘That’s the one. Something’s not right with that magic.’

Vanessa wonders what Mona would say if she knew that the magic of the guardians doesn’t belong to this world at all.

‘You don’t think we should trust the
Book of Patterns
then?’ she says.

‘Now, you take the advice of an experienced woman,’ Mona says, fixing her with a steely eye. ‘Don’t trust
anything
. Or
anyone
.’

‘Not you, either, then?’

‘Especially not me, sweetie.’

Mona falls silent. Her gaze follows the column of smoke that rises from her cigarette and mixes with the sandalwood incense.

‘Things are gearing up,’ she says. ‘But you know that, too.’

‘Within the year, apparently,’ Vanessa agrees.

Again, Mona peers at her above the rim of her reading glasses.

‘Now, look, sweetie. I know you lot are all worked up into a froth about that portal. Yes, sure, it would be nice if you closed it. But the way I see it, everything will end sooner or later anyway. I try to catch the day when I can. And the night, for that matter. But, to be honest, I feel quite sorry for you and the other junior witches. I know you’re trying hard but, frankly, the odds against you are fucking terrible.’

Vanessa is amazed. Coming from Mona, all this sounds almost like a declaration of love.

‘You’d be very welcome to help us, you know that,’ Vanessa says.

‘What will be will be,’ Mona replies.

She stubs out her cigarette, starts studying the magazine again and points to a picture of a smartly dressed couple at a party.

‘Those two, what they’ve got going won’t last.’

‘So you can tell the fortunes of people in gossip mags as well?’

‘No need to be a psychic to spot that,’ Mona sniffs. ‘Just check her out. Eyes so wide apart she looks like a hammerhead shark in a wig. Now, look at him … now, him I wouldn’t kick out of bed.’

You wouldn’t have to, Vanessa thinks. He’d run a mile.

Mona turns another page and lights another fag.

‘Of course, you’ve kicked all males out of
your
bed. And hitched up with that little shoplifter. I don’t want to say “I told you so”, but I told you so.’

Vanessa looks at her, annoyed. Mona is back to her old self.

‘You should work for one of those magazines, Mona. Since you’re so brilliant at sticking your nose into what’s none of your business.’

Mona grins and sucks on her cigarette.

‘I suspect you’d like us to change the subject,’ she says. ‘Not everyone is as up with all the latest developments as I am.’

The bell on the door tinkles and Vanessa turns around. Her mum enters, carrying a dripping umbrella. Mona removes her reading glasses and puts the magazine away.

‘Hello, girls. What weather we’re having,’ Mum says. ‘But you’re all cosy in here.’

‘Oh, yes,’ Vanessa mumbles while Mona and Mum hug.

‘Your energy is in good shape today, Jannike,’ Mona says.

‘Do you really think so?’ Mum says happily. ‘I tried to meditate a little this morning.’

‘Yes, I can feel your chakras are becoming balanced,’ Mona says. ‘Have you tried keeping some crystals of rose quartz in your room?’

Mona witters on about Mum’s chakras. Now and then, she casts meaningful glances in Vanessa’s direction. Vanessa knows exactly why. By now, Mum is probably the only person alive in Engelsfors who doesn’t know that she and Linnéa are together.

Some people don’t understand. But, as Linnéa says, it’s a fail-safe idiot test.

Vanessa hopes that Mum will pass the test.

She notes that her mum buys a rose quartz crystal, and then can’t resist a small Buddha figurine and a vial of ethereal oil that Vanessa knows will make their flat stink.

‘I hardly dare to come here,’ Mum says, and laughs. ‘I always leave having bought more than I’d intended.’

She turns to Vanessa.

‘You’re not sleeping over with one of your mates tonight, are you?’

‘No,’ Vanessa says. She stands staring after her mother as she leaves the City Mall.

‘Who’s a little coward, then?’ Mona says.

‘Shut it,’ Vanessa says.

‘Only a week left before the summer holidays! And that’s why we are going to have an
especially
great time today!’ their gym teacher, Lollo, says, spreading her muscular arms in a wide gesture.

Anna-Karin stares at the obstacle course that runs the full length of the gym. Even the scheduled softball game would have been preferable, but it is raining too hard.

All the worst torture instruments have been hauled into place. The beam. The pommel horse. The ropes are dangling from the ceiling. One of the thick mattresses with sweat-stinking plastic covers has been placed across two low benches. Presumably they’re meant to crawl under it.

Anna-Karin’s mind feels just as switched-off as usual but her body responds instinctively. The palms of her hands are moist.

‘Jump to it, everyone!’ Lollo shouts and claps her hands. ‘Let’s start with a warm-up round!’

Anna-Karin reminds herself that Lollo is
not
a sadist. Her problem is that she can’t get into her head that not everyone loves exercise.

They start by jogging in a wide circle, following the walls of the hall. Kevin smacks Hanna H’s bottom as he passes her and she screams irritably. Only a few months have passed since they were all in this gym with gleaming amulets on chains around their necks.

Anna-Karin runs past the stands and thinks about the moment when Ida stepped forward and saved them all. She showed strengths that Anna-Karin had never expected in her. She was courageous. Loyal, unselfish. And then she died. It was so totally unfair, as Ida would have said. What would Ida have been like if she had survived? Would they ever have become friends?

Minoo sits in the stands. She told Lollo that she wasn’t well; after one look at her, Lollo asked if she should have come to school at all.

As she runs past Minoo, Anna-Karin looks up at her but Minoo just stares at the floor.

‘Now, let’s go!’ Lollo cries. ‘I’ll sort you into teams … and I’ll time you. It would be a shame not to have a bit of a competition!’

Anna-Karin is told to join Levan and two all-round athletes, Anchalee and Lina. Anna-Karin senses the eyes of the two girls drilling into her and almost wants to apologise. With her in the team they haven’t a chance of winning.

Lollo blows her whistle and the first team sets off towards the pommel horse, led by Hanna A. While they work their way round the obstacle course, Levan stands scanning the hall, hands on hips, looking as if he was calculating a physics formula that will get him into goal with minimum loss of time. Then he turns to Anna-Karin.

‘We’ll do great,’ he says and smiles encouragingly at her.

The lie feels almost as humiliating as Anchalee and Lina’s staring. Lollo blows her whistle again. It’s their turn. Levan, Anchalee and Lina all clear the pommel horse smoothly and continue on to the beam. Levan runs across it without having to look where he puts his feet. Anna-Karin hasn’t even got to the horse and then, just as she is about to jump, she hesitates for a microsecond too long. She lands on her knees on the worn leather and has to slide down the sides.

Lina snakes under the mattress and practically throws herself at the wooden bar frames. Anchalee and Levan are already climbing and all three are too busy to keep an eye on Anna-Karin. But she is very aware of the eyes of the others. At least she manages to get across the beam without falling off.

She gets down on her belly and starts wriggling into the dark space under the mattress. Her heart is beating far too hard. It feels as if something inside her is about to burst. A wave of panic almost makes her stand up and heave the mattress away. She tries to calm down.

‘Are you stuck?’ Kevin shouts.

This isn’t dangerous, she tells herself. Nothing bad can happen.

The stench of the mattress and the floor is nauseating. She keeps on crawling. And finally, she is out.

She gets up and jogs towards the frames. Her team is already waiting for her between a row of small plastic cones where they are to run a relay race.

‘Go, go,
go
, Anna-Karin!’ Anchalee calls out. Lina jumps impatiently up and down on the spot, making her bunches of blonde hair bounce.

Anna-Karin puts her foot on the lowermost bar of the frame. It still feels as if something is about to break inside her. Like what happened to her mum. After looking around on the web, Anna-Karin knows that a tendency to develop aortic aneurysms can be inherited.

But she starts climbing. It isn’t hard. It isn’t dangerous. What she is feeling is just her imagination. All she has to do is grab the top bar and then clamber along the wall-mounted frames to the other end of the hall. She reaches with her right hand, feeling the bar against her palm. She grips it and it breaks.

She falls and lands heavily on the floor.

‘Time for that diet!’ Kevin yells.

‘Don’t be so fucking horrible!’ someone else calls out. ‘Her mum just died!’

Anna-Karin sits up and sees Lollo and Minoo come running towards her.

‘Goodness, Anna-Karin! Are you all right?’ Lollo says.

‘Did you hit your head?’ Minoo asks.

‘No …’ Anna-Karin mumbles. ‘I’m fine.’

It’s a fact that she doesn’t hurt anywhere. She brushes the fragments of wood off her hand.

‘I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been nagging the school management about new equipment,’ Lollo says. ‘All the old things are death-traps.’

Anna-Karin looks up and sees the broken wooden bar. She begins to realise what has happened. Her team crowds worriedly around her.

‘Gosh, that looked awful,’ Lina says.

‘Are you sure you’re all right?’ Minoo says as she holds out her hand.

‘Yes, I’m fine,’ Anna-Karin says and gets up without taking the offered hand.

‘I think you should go and see the school nurse all the same,’ Lollo says.

‘I’ll go with her,’ Minoo says quickly.

Lollo blows her whistle and announces that she will take Anna-Karin’s place in the team.