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classmates grinning at him. So
long as you don't start blushing or crying when you're
sent out of the room, you are an important person.
    What is not so good is that Miss Nederström might
come and visit them once she discovers that the
Gustafsons don't have a telephone. If that happens, Joel
might have a lot of awkward questions to answer. His
father might start to suspect that Joel goes out at night.
He tries to think of a good way of solving the problem,
but he can't. There are only bad solutions. Like staying
behind after school and knocking on the staffroom door
and asking to speak to Miss Nederström, and then
apologising and explaining that he'd been awake all
night with toothache. It's a bad solution because it's a
cowardly way out.
    Joel keeps on thinking.
    Maybe he ought to take the cowardly way out after
all. The main thing is that his father shouldn't start
getting suspicious.
    When the bell rings and the lesson is over, Joel
decides to take the cowardly way out. He is responsible
for the secret society, and he doesn't want to run the risk
of not being able to find that solitary dog.
    When he knocks on the staffroom door after school,
Miss Nederström believes every word he tells her.
Instead of saying he had toothache, he says he had
stomach ache. If you have toothache there is a risk that
you might end up having to go to the dentist.
    'It's good that you have come to explain,' she says.
'Now we can forget all about it. But you do understand
that I was very cross when I noticed that you were
asleep, don't you?'
    'Yes, Miss,' says Joel.
    Slush is sloshing all round his boots as he walks
home.
    One day it snows, the next day it thaws.
    Joel hopes that spring will soon be here, but he knows
it could just as easily turn very wintry again. The first
year he started school, it snowed on the last day of term
at the beginning of June. He remembered having holes
in his shoes and snow melted inside them, and he burst
out sneezing when Miss Nederström asked him a
question.
    Joel is not sure whether or not he dares to walk past
the cycle shop. Maybe it will be obvious from looking at
him that he'd been out that night with The Flying Horse?
Or perhaps he might faint as he walks past?
    He's scared of fainting, even though he's never done
it. But he often imagines collapsing in a heap when he's
said something that isn't true, or done something he
ought not to do.
    What frightens him most of all, though, is that he
might give himself away. That he might stop outside the
shop and shout that he was the one who borrowed the
red bike one night when he discovered that the back
door was unlocked. There's nothing that scares Joel
more that him being unable to stop himself doing
something. Not being responsible for his own actions.
    He stops outside Leander Nilson's bakery and looks
at the window. It's not the cakes he's examining, but his
own reflection. In amongst all the buns and cakes is a
mirror, and he can see his face in it.
    Not that there's all that much to see. He has his
woolly hat pulled well down over his forehead, and his
scarf above his chin. But although he can only see his
eyes, his nose and his mouth, he feels he can see his
whole face even so.
    He's not pleased with what he sees.
    What is worst is that he thinks he looks like a girl.
    He can't make up his mind why. Besides, nobody has
ever told him he looks like a girl. He's the only one who
thinks he has a face like a girl's.
    The only bit he thinks is good is his nose. It's not too
big and not too small. It's straight, doesn't have any
lumps and it's not turned up. There's no chance of it
snowing into Joel Gustafson's nose.
    He'd prefer to exchange the rest of his face. Green
eyes are nothing worth having. His mouth is too thin and
his left ear juts out. His hair is black but it ought to have
been fair, or at least brown.
    He also has a crown over his forehead which makes
his hair stand up like a fan after it's been cut. His father
cuts his hair, and he always clips