58. Following the Van
In which NotAtMyAge comes in useful…
@Hedgehogforshort came out of the depot at a run. The Bluestocking patrons were standing where Gosie had left them, except for @JanesLittleGirl, who was leaning against a large grey estate car with the keys in her hand.
“Where did that come from?” asked Hedgehog.
“I picked it up at the airport,” said JanesLittleGirl. “Somebody always needs a car.”
“The crate is being collected now. Early. We need to follow it.”
“Then get in,” said JanesLittleGirl.
@EdithStourton was already opening the back for Brains and Batshit. Brains climbed in and sat down facing forwards. Batshit went in, came out over the back seat, went in again and stood on Brains.
@NotAtMyAge got into the front passenger seat without being asked. “I know the ways of the Serious Scandinavians,” she said.
Hedgehog, JanesLittleGirl and Edith all nodded.
The grey van came out of the depot gate and turned north. JanesLittleGirl waited for a lorry to pass them and pulled out after it.
“Not too close,” said Hedgehog.
“I have followed vans before,” said JanesLittleGirl.
Nobody asked when.
They left Umeå behind them. The road ran straight through a forest, then past fields and red barns, then more forest. JanesLittleGirl kept the lorry between them for twenty minutes, and when it turned off towards Sävar she dropped back until the van was a grey shape at the far end of the straight.
Batshit had her nose against the back window and was barking at every car that came the other way. Edith told her to stop. Batshit stopped, saw a grey van coming the other way, decided it was the same van, and barked at it as well.
“It isn’t that one,” said Edith.
Batshit barked at the next grey van too.
A yellow triangle went past with an elk on it. Batshit saw it and went rigid.
“Älg,” said NotAtMyAge. “Elk.”
“Are there elk?” asked Edith.
“There is a risk elk will wander into the road. That is why there is a sign.”
Batshit stared out of the back window at the sign until it was out of sight. Then she lay down on Brains and sulked.
After an hour the van slowed and signalled right. NotAtMyAge read the sign as they passed it. “Lövånger. Kyrkstad.”
“What is a kyrkstad?” asked Hedgehog.
“A church town. Farmers lived too far from the church to go home after the service, so each family built a little house beside it to sleep in on Sundays and feast days.” She looked out of the window. “Nobody lives in them. They are used for festivals and are let to visitors in summer.”
JanesLittleGirl drove straight past the turn without slowing and continued for another minute before turning around. She took the side road and as they rounded the bend, she could see the van passing a grey stone church next to a freestanding white bell tower.
Behind the church, in rows along narrow grass lanes, were dozens of small red wooden cottages, each with white window frames and a door painted a different colour. The van drove slowly down the second lane and stopped outside the last cottage in the row.
JanesLittleGirl drove slowly to the end of the lane and parked the car behind the church out of sight from the cottages.
They took their time getting out of the car and then Batshit shot off, ran in a full circle round the church and came back to Edith with a pinecone. Edith put both dogs on the lead.
They all walked behind the church and stopped at the end of the second row of houses. From there they could see the van.
The courier opened the back doors and slid the crate onto a sack barrow. The door of the last cottage opened before she reached it. A woman came out, grey hair pinned up, wearing a cardigan and a long skirt. She signed the clipboard, folded the sheet along its perforation and tore it in two. She handed one half back and put the other in her pocket. The courier wheeled the crate inside, then barely a minute later returned to the van, put the sack barrow in the back, and drove away.
“Well,” said Edith. “We’re not going to see anything from here.”
They walked round the back of the row in single file, JanesLittleGirl, then NotAtMyAge, then Edith holding Batshit’s and Brains’, then Hedgehog. They stood out of sight along the wall beside the cottage window and looked in.
They could see a large room with a long scrubbed table under the window and four chairs tucked into it. A stove stood against the far wall. The crate stood in the middle of the floor. The woman was removing the lid with a claw hammer.
She lifted out the first panel, unwrapped it from its packaging, and laid it on the table.
A small spot of light appeared on the floorboards beside the table. It was much brighter than the light around it, as sharp as a pin.
Batshit saw it and leaned forwards at full stretch, nearly hitting the outside wall of the cottage. Edith hauled her back. Brains sat down firmly on Batshit’s tail and stayed there.
Inside, the woman did not look up. She was looking at the spot of light on the floor. Then she looked at the panel. She ran one finger slowly across the glass, stopped midway, and ran it back again.
She unwrapped the second panel and laid it beside the first. A second spot of light appeared on the boards, a little to the left of the first one.
Batshit trembled from nose to tail. Brains leaned on her.
The woman unwrapped the third and fourth panels. Each one threw its own bright point onto the floor, none of them in the same place. She went along the table touching each panel in turn, the same way, tracing a small line on each window, and then she stood with both hands flat on the table and said something aloud to nobody.
“What did she say?” whispered Hedgehog.
NotAtMyAge did not take her eyes off the table.
“Alla fyra har en spricka,” she said. “All four of them have a crack.”
https://myrtlelion.substack.com/p/58-following-the-van