us.
Once again I took my playing cards with me to the sawmill, this time the deck with the clowns on the reverse. And once again we drew lots.
This time it was Ursula-Marie, Jon-Johan, Richard, and Maiken who drew the highest cards and who therefore were going to help Holy Karl, regardless of Holy Karl maintaining that this was something we couldn’t and mustn’t do. He softened up some when Jon-Johan said that Karl had the code to the padlock and could come byand pray to his Jesus on the Cross anytime at the sawmill. And that we would of course be returning Jesus to the church as soon as we were done with him.
I wasn’t a part of it, but what Ursula-Marie without her six blue braids told me in a hushed voice on Monday morning during our music lesson, while the others were listening to Beethoven and nearly drowning her out, was that it hadn’t all worked out according to plan.
————
Holy Karl had hidden himself away in the church as agreed following the late Sunday service. And when the church had grown still and was locked up and everyone had gone, Ursula-Marie, Jon-Johan, Richard, and Maiken had come and given three short and three long knocks at the door, and Holy Karl had let them in. But then it all started going wrong.
First Holy Karl had started to cry.
It was when the others had crawled over the prie-dieu and gone behind the altar, and he sobbed and begged so much that they had to let him stay behind on the other side. And Maiken had to stay with him to make sure he didn’t run off. And it didn’t help, no matter how many times she told him she’d never yet seen Jesus or Our Lord in her telescope, even though she’d looked all over, and neither had any of the great astrophysicists in this entire world. Holy Karl just covered his ears and howled so loudly he couldn’t hear what she was saying, and Maiken eventually just had to give up. She was scared, too, that Holy Karl’s howling would be heard by someone outside the church.
Jon-Johan and Richard had meanwhile been trying to loosen Jesus on the Rosewood Cross.
But Jesus was well fastened, and however much they sweated over him he wasn’t moving. Then Ursula-Marie had gone over to Jesus. And as she placed her hand on the foot of Jesus with the nail and the blood, it was like she burnt herself.Ursula-Marie had to admit that even if she didn’t believe in all that hokum, she certainly got a real scare. The church was so strangely empty and infinite inside, and at once it was like the Jesus figure was coming alive. Ever so slowly, without anyone even touching him, Jesus slid on his own with a scraping sound all the way down the wall and hit the floor with a bump and broke that same leg that Ursula-Marie had just touched.
That was about the eeriest thing Ursula-Marie had ever seen in her life.
They all felt like taking to their heels, but now they’d come this far they couldn’t just let Jesus lie there on the floor. So despite his astonishing weight they managed to lift him free and haul him over to the prie-dieu and tip him over onto the other side. It was almost unnatural how heavy Jesus was, and however much Holy Karl was against it, he had to help carry. So now they were five to carry, and still they were barely able to haul Jesus out into the street and the waiting trailer.
By then it was seven thirty and dark as they went through the streets with Jesus on the Rosewood Cross in Holy Karl’s trailer. Even so, they had to stop a couple of times to hide behind trees and hedges so as not to be seen by passersby.
Holy Karl howled all the way through Tæring and out to the old sawmill and kept on repeating that they couldn’t do this. And Ursula-Marie, whose hand was still stinging from the burn, was beginning to agree. And Maiken kept on and on repeating that she’d never seen either Jesus or Our Lord in her telescope, almost like what she was mostly doing was trying to remind herself. And even Jon-Johan, who normally wouldn’t shy at
Once again I took my playing cards with me to the sawmill, this time the deck with the clowns on the reverse. And once again we drew lots.
This time it was Ursula-Marie, Jon-Johan, Richard, and Maiken who drew the highest cards and who therefore were going to help Holy Karl, regardless of Holy Karl maintaining that this was something we couldn’t and mustn’t do. He softened up some when Jon-Johan said that Karl had the code to the padlock and could come byand pray to his Jesus on the Cross anytime at the sawmill. And that we would of course be returning Jesus to the church as soon as we were done with him.
I wasn’t a part of it, but what Ursula-Marie without her six blue braids told me in a hushed voice on Monday morning during our music lesson, while the others were listening to Beethoven and nearly drowning her out, was that it hadn’t all worked out according to plan.
————
Holy Karl had hidden himself away in the church as agreed following the late Sunday service. And when the church had grown still and was locked up and everyone had gone, Ursula-Marie, Jon-Johan, Richard, and Maiken had come and given three short and three long knocks at the door, and Holy Karl had let them in. But then it all started going wrong.
First Holy Karl had started to cry.
It was when the others had crawled over the prie-dieu and gone behind the altar, and he sobbed and begged so much that they had to let him stay behind on the other side. And Maiken had to stay with him to make sure he didn’t run off. And it didn’t help, no matter how many times she told him she’d never yet seen Jesus or Our Lord in her telescope, even though she’d looked all over, and neither had any of the great astrophysicists in this entire world. Holy Karl just covered his ears and howled so loudly he couldn’t hear what she was saying, and Maiken eventually just had to give up. She was scared, too, that Holy Karl’s howling would be heard by someone outside the church.
Jon-Johan and Richard had meanwhile been trying to loosen Jesus on the Rosewood Cross.
But Jesus was well fastened, and however much they sweated over him he wasn’t moving. Then Ursula-Marie had gone over to Jesus. And as she placed her hand on the foot of Jesus with the nail and the blood, it was like she burnt herself.Ursula-Marie had to admit that even if she didn’t believe in all that hokum, she certainly got a real scare. The church was so strangely empty and infinite inside, and at once it was like the Jesus figure was coming alive. Ever so slowly, without anyone even touching him, Jesus slid on his own with a scraping sound all the way down the wall and hit the floor with a bump and broke that same leg that Ursula-Marie had just touched.
That was about the eeriest thing Ursula-Marie had ever seen in her life.
They all felt like taking to their heels, but now they’d come this far they couldn’t just let Jesus lie there on the floor. So despite his astonishing weight they managed to lift him free and haul him over to the prie-dieu and tip him over onto the other side. It was almost unnatural how heavy Jesus was, and however much Holy Karl was against it, he had to help carry. So now they were five to carry, and still they were barely able to haul Jesus out into the street and the waiting trailer.
By then it was seven thirty and dark as they went through the streets with Jesus on the Rosewood Cross in Holy Karl’s trailer. Even so, they had to stop a couple of times to hide behind trees and hedges so as not to be seen by passersby.
Holy Karl howled all the way through Tæring and out to the old sawmill and kept on repeating that they couldn’t do this. And Ursula-Marie, whose hand was still stinging from the burn, was beginning to agree. And Maiken kept on and on repeating that she’d never seen either Jesus or Our Lord in her telescope, almost like what she was mostly doing was trying to remind herself. And even Jon-Johan, who normally wouldn’t shy at
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