A Bridge to the Stars Read Free Page A

that he has to find out what happened.
    Every night before he goes to sleep he thinks up a
story with her in it, something he can lie and fantasise
about before he dozes off. The one he likes best is
when he imagines she is a figurehead on the bows of a
ship with three tall masts and lots of billowing sails.
    Sometimes he's the captain of the ship, sometimes
it's his father. They always very nearly capsize but
manage to make their way through the submerged
rocks and sandbanks in the end. It's a good dream
because he can think up lots of different endings.
    But sometimes when he's in a bad mood he allows
the ship to sink and the figurehead is buried two
thousand fathoms deep. The exhausted crew manage to
scramble onto a desert island, but he lets Jenny, his
mother, disappear for ever at the bottom of the sea.
    Samuel Island or Joel Island. The desert island they
eventually land on is never called Jenny Island.
    It's usually when he's been annoyed by Otto that he
lets the ship sink.
    Even if he's generally on his guard, always ready for
somebody in the school playground to start asking
awkward questions, Otto has a way of creeping up on
him on the sly and catching him out when he's
forgotten to have an answer ready.
    Otto is older than Joel and is repeating a year
because he has some illness or other and nobody
understands what it is. Sometimes he's off school for
months on end, and if he misses any more this year
he'll have to repeat the year yet again. Otto's father is
a fireman with the railway, and if you're lucky you can
go with Otto and see what goes on in the engine sheds.
    But Joel isn't one of those allowed to go along. He
and Otto are usually at each other's throats.
    'If I'd have been a mum and had a son like you, I'd
have run away as well,' says Otto out of the blue, loud
enough for everybody in the school yard to hear.
    Joel doesn't know what to say.
    'My mum's a figurehead,' he says. 'But I don't
suppose you know what that is.'
    The answer he hasn't prepared at all seems to be a
good one, because Otto doesn't respond.
    The next time I'll hold my tongue and just thump
him one, Joel thinks. I'm bound to get beaten up
because he's older and bigger than me. But maybe I'll
be able to bite him. . .
    The next class is geography. Miss Nederström
emerges from the staff room where she makes tea and
solves crossword puzzles during the lesson breaks. She
has a club foot and she's been Joel's teacher ever since
he started school.
    Once he put on an act to amuse the rest of the pupils
by walking behind her, imitating her limp.
    She suddenly turned round and smiled.
    'You're very good,' she said. 'That's exactly how I
walk.'
    If she hadn't had a club foot Joel could well imagine
having her as a mum. But Miss Nederström is in fact a
Mrs and has children of her own with the surveyor
she's married to.
    Geography is Joel's best subject. He never forgets
what his father tells him, and he has a diary with maps
of all the countries of the world in it. He knows where
Pamplemousse and Bogamaio are, although he's not at
all sure how to pronounce them.
    Nobody else in the class knows as much about the
world as Joel. Perhaps he doesn't know all that much
about Sweden, but he knows more than anybody else
about what lies beyond the dark forests and over the
sea.
    No sooner have they sat down than Otto puts his
hand up. Joel doesn't realise he's done so because Otto
sits in the row behind him.
    Miss Nederström nods at him.
    'Do you want to go home?' she asks. 'Don't you feel
well?'
    Otto rarely puts his hand up unless he's feeling ill.
But this time he has a question.
    'What is a figural head?' he asks.
    Joel gives a start and feels his heart beginning to
pound. He might have known. That bastard Otto! He's
going to be shown up now. Everybody heard what he
said about his mother being a figurehead.
    'Come again,' said Miss Nederström. 'What did you
say it was?'
    'A figural head,' said Otto again.
    'No, it's called a figurehead,' said Miss