Read A summer with Kim Novak for Free Online Page A

cunt,’ he said.
    I had mentioned him. Or Ewa Kaludis, rather, and so I’d probably said something about her being with Berra.
    ‘Like I said, a right cunt.’
    It was just a statement; I was so surprised I didn’t know how to respond and then we started to talk about something else and then Henry left for a Maranatha meeting in Killer.
    After he’d gone, I wondered why he’d even say something like that, and then I remembered that he’d interviewed Bertil Albertsson once for Kurren , when he’d moved to town in early May.
    Super-Berra: a cunt?
    I wrote it on a piece of paper and stuck it in Colonel Darkin and the Golden Lamb . The statement was so remarkable that I wanted to preserve it somehow.
    Later in the summer I’d have reason to reflect on this moment. A big reason. But I didn’t know that then, and the scrap of paper must have disappeared somehow, because I never saw it again.

5
     
    This year was our last real graduation ceremony of primary school.
    Some of the class would go on to eighth grade, as well; about half of us would transfer to KCJSS, the Kumla County Junior Secondary School, in the autumn. Those of us who hadn’t quit after sixth grade, that is. It was a milestone; among other things I would never again sit in the same classroom as Veikko and Sluggo and Gunborg and Balthazar Lindblom.
    It didn’t really matter, but I’d miss a few of them. Benny and Marie-Louise, for instance. Well, Benny I’d see in the culvert and around town, but I’d never again be able to sit and fantasize about Marie-Louise and her lovely dark locks and brown eyes. At least not at close range.
    But I’d get over it. I’d never really made any progress with Marie-Louise anyway. I was sure there would be new foxy chicks in the secondary school. And if you missed your chance with one, there’d be a thousand others to take her place. C’est la vie .
    But how would I live without Ewa Kaludis? This question suddenly—and unhappily—opened up like an abyss. It was as if her breast had stayed pressed against my shoulder since I told her that I was getting my period. Ewa visited our classroom on graduation day just as Brylle was opening the present that the girls had bought him: a large framed picture of a glum moose standing at the edge of a forest. Everyone knew that Brylle hunted moose for a week every autumn, and now he was standing there behind his desk staring at the picture, forcing a wide smile.
    ‘I just want to thank you all for the time we shared,’ said Ewa Kaludis. ‘It has been a pleasure to teach you. I hope you have a good summer break.’
    By light years, it was the most spiritual thing I’d heard in my fourteen-year-old life. Her hips swayed as she left the room and an ice-cold hand gripped my heart.
    Damn it, I thought. Is this how she’s going to leave me? Sitting at my desk, I was paralyzed by a sudden realization: This is what it’s like to lose something invaluable. This is how it must feel five seconds before you throw yourself in front of a train.
    As luck would have it, no train rolled through the classroom.
    ‘What’s with you?’ said Benny when we were basking in the sunshine on the playground. ‘You look bloody punch-drunk. Like Henry Cooper in the twelfth round.’
    ‘Oh,’ I said. ‘It’s just my stomach. When are you off?’
    ‘In two hours,’ said Benny. ‘I’ll get there tomorrow morning. It’s a long bloody way to Malmberget. I hope the thing with your mum gets better.’
    ‘I’m sure it will,’ I said.
    ‘I’m going down to Blidberg’s to buy a Bonanza shirt,’ Benny said. ‘And one of those red bloody ties—I’ve got to impress the cousins. See you in the autumn.’
    ‘Say hi to those Lapp-buggers and to the mosquitoes for me,’ I said.
    ‘You know I will,’ said Benny. ‘Write to me if it turns out to be a difficult summer.’
    My brother Henry had already installed himself at Gennesaret. As far as my father knew, Emmy Kaskel was with him, but of