Read The Quiet Girl for Free Online

world of destruction where all sound had died.
    "He looked well."
    "Prednisone. A chemical veneer."
    "Does he know it himself?"
    They had passed the zoological garden and Solbjerg cemetery. He didn't know how they had reached Roskilde Road.
    "As a rule there's a part of oneself that knows. And a larger part that doesn't want to know."
    She turned toward Glostrup, took the ring road, turned off, and drove through the industrial section, parked behind the market square. She started to cry. Quietly, but unrestrained. She pointed to the glove compartment--he handed her a packet of tissues.
    He had been mistaken about the money. Her sorrow came from somewhere deep down, farther down than the safe deposit box with securities in it.
    She blew her nose.
    "Tell me something about him," she said. "From when you were little."
    He listened out over his childhood; he heard the sound of potatoes.
    "I was ten years old--we lived in Skodsborg. They were always nomads, even after he began to earn money. They never furnished more than one room each, plus my room, like in the trailers. All the other rooms were closed off to save heat. They moved once a year. Skodsborg was the record--we lived there almost four. They had three places to escape to there, the Sound, the Coastal Railway, and Strand. Road. I started to juggle there. I practiced with potatoes. I put quilts and blankets on the floor, but it still vibrated when I didn't grab correctly. One day he must have heard that, because suddenly he stood in the doorway."
    Kasper closed his eyes and saw the scene before him.
    "It was the early seventies, there was no real poverty anymore, but he had experienced it. As a boy he had been hungry--he sold carnations and sang in the streets. He never got over it, just like theartists who were in concentration camps during the war; it never goes away. So he left the circus; he saw only one way out: a higher education and a secure income. And now he stood in the doorway. My schoolbooks lay on the table--they hadn't been opened. He looked at me. It's more than thirty years ago. He could have sent me to the Herlufsholm boarding school, he could have sent me to learn to be a paint dealer, he could have wiped the floor with me. But he just stood there in the doorway, absolutely still. And then I could sense what was going on in him. We could both sense it. He understood that sometimes the longing is greater than you are. And if you choke it, you'll be destroyed. Finally he backed away without saying anything, and very quietly shut the door. We never spoke of it. But he never again came into my room without knocking."
    Her eyes were fixed on his lips. When one is sixty-five and falls in love it must be the same as when one was fifteen. If he had shown slides and related anecdotes about Maximillian she would have sat at his feet for three months.
    "Because of moments like those, I love him," he said.
    The situation was full-toned. It's important to exit at a high point. He got out of the car.
    She got out on her side, walked around the hood.
    "And aside from those moments," she said, "what was it like?"
    He was mistaken, apparently, about being in love. When one is sixty-five, one wants a more comprehensive picture.
    "They tried to chop each other's head off," he said. "Aside from those moments, it was like the Viking battle at Bravalla."
    He had started to walk; she came up beside him.
    "What about forgiveness?"
    "That was thirty years ago. I've forgiven everything."
    She took his arm.
    "You've forgiven a certain percent. If we can increase that percent, it's never too late to find a happy childhood."
    He tried to pull loose, without success; she had a grip like a paramedic.
    "It's too sensitive," he said. "He and I, we're both deeply traumatized."
    "You're a couple of hooligans. You've fought for forty years. Now you have three weeks, at the most, to make your peace."
    She walked back toward the car. He followed her.
    "Three weeks?"
    She got in.
    "He's strong