Read Online A Fairy Tale by Jonas Bengtsson - Free Book Online

gate grows smaller and smaller until I have to narrow my eyes in order to still be able to see its outline in the twilight. My dad takes my hand and helps me across a ditch as we leave the path. We walk through coarse grass, rotten branches snapping underneath our feet.
    â€œWe’ve forgotten the things we used to be able to do,” my dad says, as he helps me across a fallen tree trunk. “We’ve forgotten that we could do all the things that animals can.”
    We reach some trees; it’s difficult to see more than a few metres ahead.
    â€œAnimals always know exactly what to do. Have you ever seen a fox looking confused?” My dad chuckles in the darkness. “We’ve invented television, sent people to the moon. We can make gunpowder and bullets. But we’ve completely forgotten the things we used to be able to do. The things animals can do. I know you’ve seen birds fly in formation, several hundreds of them forming a large V in the sky. How do you think they do that? Do you think they sit on the ground and decide who’ll fly where? Issue numbers?”
    We keep walking until we reach a clearing. My dad stops; I bump my nose into his back and it hurts. He points: there’s a stag on the far side of the clearing. It turns its head and stands completely still while it looks at us, then it disappears between the trees.
    We carry on walking; the ground beneath us is uneven.
    â€œFishermen who’ve sailed for many years, the ones with the small boats who truly know the sea, they can look across the water and feel a storm coming even though the wind is calm. If you ask them how they do it, they can’t tell you.”
    My shoe sinks into a little hollow in the grass, a puddle. I struggle to pull up my foot, my shoe and sock are soaked.
    My dad has already moved on ahead of me, and I hurry to catch up with him.
    We continue through the trees on the other side of the clearing. I put my hands together and blow hot air into them. I can sense the outline of my dad’s back somewhere in front of me. I follow the sound of his voice.
    â€œAt some point we started believing in things we didn’t understand. It happened when people moved to the cities. The little hairs at the back of their necks fell out.”
    The branches grow denser, they scratch my face, grab my clothes. I dare not stop, scared that I will lose my dad.
    â€œIn the city they learned new ways to survive. You could trick people. You could con them and take their money. It was no longer necessary to get your hands dirty. That’s why we’re so clever today. Because some of us have learned to cheat. And everyone else spends their time trying not to get cheated.”
    We head deeper and deeper into the forest. I can hear the sounds of small animals, see their eyes shine before they disappear again. I cover my mouth with my sleeve. I don’t want the animals to hear me cry.
    Then we walk around a tree stump through some low bushes and suddenly we’re back on the path. I can see the red gate we came in through and the streetlights along the road outside.
    My dad picks me up, he carries me and he doesn’t put me down until we reach the vending machine at the small railway station. He puts money in the machine so I can have some hot chocolate. He smokes two cigarettes while I sip my drink. The train arrives.

M y eyes are right up close to the wood. The fifth woodworm hole must be perfect, it must be better than the woodworms themselves could make it. I was unhappy with the fourth one. I find the pencil dot with my drill. Suddenly the light disappears and I sense something behind me. Something big and dark like the monsters in the fairy tales my dad tells me before I go to sleep. So big that it can gobble up an entire town and clean its teeth with the church spire. So ugly that you can’t look at it without going blind.
    â€œWhat the hell is this?”
    The boss’s voice thunders.
    â€œI