Read My Struggle: Book 3 for Free Online

said.
    They turned and walked away, glancing from side to side. I wanted to go with them, I could feel myself drawn, but it wasn’t possible now. Instead I looked at the view. It was the best vantage point anywhere. You could see the bridge almost rising from the treetops, you could see the sound, where there were always boats crossing, and you could see the big, white gasometers on the other side. You could see the island of Gjerstadholmen, you could see the new road, the low concrete bridge it crossed, you could see Ubekilen Bay from the landward side. And you could see the estate. All the red and orange roofs among the trees. The road. Our garden, Gustavsen’s garden; the rest was hidden.
    The sky above the estate was almost completely blue now. The clouds toward the town, white. While on the other side, behind Ubekilen, they were still heavy and gray.
    I could see Dad down there. A tiny, tiny little figure, no bigger than an ant, on top of the ladder against the roof.
    Could he see me up here? I wondered.
    A gust of wind blew off the sea.
    I turned to watch the others. Two yellow dots and one light green one moving to and fro between the trees. The rocky plateau was dark gray, much like the sky beyond, with yellow and, in some places, whitish grass in the cracks. A branch lay there, all its weight resting on the many needle-thin side branches in such a way that the thick main stem didn’t touch the ground. It looked strange.
    I had hardly ever been in the forest that lay ahead. The furthest I had gone on the path was to a large, uprooted tree, perhaps thirty meters inside. From there you could see down a slope where nothing grew but heather. With the tall, slim pine trees on both sides and the denser-growing spruces like a wall beneath, it resembled a large room.
    Geir said he saw a fox there once. I didn’t believe him, but foxes were no laughing matter, so for safety’s sake we had taken with us a packed lunch and bottles of juice to the edge of the mountain, where the whole of the world as we knew it lay beneath us.
    “Here it is!” Leif Tore shouted. “Wow! The pot of gold!”
    “Wow!” Geir shouted.
    “You can’t fool me!” I shouted back.
    “Yippeeeee!” Leif Tore cried. “We’re rich!”
    “I don’t believe it!” Trond shouted.
    Then it all went quiet.
    Had they really found it?
    Of course not. They were trying to trick me.
    But the end of the rainbow had been on this precise spot.
    What if Leif Tore was right and the treasure hadn’t disappeared with the rainbow?
    I took a few steps forward and tried to see through the juniper bushes they were standing behind.
    “Ohhh, man! Look at this!” Leif Tore said.
    I made up my mind in a flash and hurried over, dashing between the trees and past the bushes, then stopped.
    They looked at me.
    “Gotcha! Ha ha ha! We gotcha!”
    “I knew all the time,” I said. “I was just coming to get you. The rainbow will be gone if we don’t hurry.”
    “Oh, yes,” said Leif Tore. “We really fooled you. Admit it.”
    “Come on, Geir,” I said. “Let’s go and look for the pot of gold down there.”
    Feeling uncomfortable, Geir looked at Leif Tore and Trond. But he was my best friend and joined me. Trond and Leif Tore ambled along after us.
    “I need a piss,” Leif Tore said. “Shall we see who can piss the furthest? Over the edge? It’ll be one great big long jet!”
    Piss outdoors when Dad was down there and might be able to see?
    Leif Tore was already out of his waterproof pants and fumbling with his fly. Geir and Trond had taken up positions on either side of him and were wriggling their hips and pulling down their trousers.
    “I can’t piss,” I said. “I’ve just had one.”
    “You haven’t,” Geir said, turning toward me with both his hands around his willy. “We’ve been together all day.”
    “I had a piss while you were looking for the treasure,” I said.
    The next second they were enveloped in a cloud of steam as they pissed. I