What to read: a novel "Bear's Corner" of the provincial Swedish town where all crazy about hockey

1

Once evening in late March, a teenager took a double-barreled shotgun, I went into the woods, put a gun to the man's forehead and pulled the trigger.

Here is the story of how we came to this.

2

Bank bank bank bank bank.

Now the beginning of March, nothing has happened. Friday arrived, all in anticipation. Tomorrow Bjornstad junior team plays in the final game - youth semi-finals of the country. You say, so what? To so what, and who is nothing more important in this world. If you are, of course, you live in Bjornstad.

Bank. Bank. Bank-Bank-Bank.

City, as usual, wakes up early. What can you do, small towns have to give yourself a head start, we must somehow survive in this world. Straight rows of cars on the factory parking lot already covered with snow, and the lines of people pecking nose and silently waiting for their turn to electronic controllers, to secure their presence at its full no. On autopilot, they shake with shoes adhering dirt and were talking voices answering machines, waiting caffeine, nicotine, or sugar will reach the goals and provide them with sleepy bodies normal activity before the first break Coffee.

Trains depart from the station to the largest population center on the other side of the forest, frosty gloves knock on the heater, and curses heard those normally allow themselves only in a drunken board, dying or sitting in the early morning driving through promorzshego "Peugeot".

If you shut up and listen, you can hear "Bank-Bank-Bank. Bank. Bank».

Waking up, Maya looked around my room: on the walls, interspersed hanging pencil drawings and tickets to concerts in large cities, in which she had once visited. They did not so much as she would have liked, but much more than allow parents. He may still lying in bed in her pajamas, plucking the strings of the guitar. She loves his guitar! She likes to feel like a tool presses on the body responds like a tree, when it taps on the body, like the strings dig into otokshie after sleep fingertips. Simple chords, gentle transitions - a pure delight. May, fifteen years old, she often falls in love, but her first love was the guitar. She helped her daughter's sports director of the hockey club, to survive in this city, surrounded by a forest thicket.

May hates hockey, but understands his father. Sport - is the same instrument as the guitar. Mom loves to whisper in her ear: "Never trust a man whose life is not what he likes without looking back." Mom loves a man whose heart is given to the town, where all are obsessed with the sport. The main thing for this town - hockey, and that whatever is said, Bjornstad - the place safe. You always know what to expect from him. Day after day the same thing.

Bank.

Bjornstad is with nothing near and even on the map looks unnatural. It was as if a drunken giant went pee in the snow and gave him his name, say some. As if nature and people engaged in tug of living space, others will say, more balanced.

Be that as it may, the city is losing, winning at least something he had to do not very long ago. Work less and less, people too, and every year the forest eats one or two abandoned house. In those days, when the city was still something to brag, local authorities hanged at the entrance a banner with the slogan in the then popular style: "Welcome to the Bjornstad! We are waiting for new victories! ". However, a few years tropki wind and snow banner lost syllable "on." Bjornstad sometimes seemed the result of a philosophical experiment: what would happen if the forest will collapse the whole city, but no one would notice?

To answer this question, we can try a hundred meters towards the lake. Before us is not great, but nevertheless it is a local ice palace built factory workers, whose descendants in the fourth generation wander today Bjornstad. Yes, we are about those factory workers who worked six days a week, but wanted it to be something to look forward to on the seventh day.

It sat in the genes; all the love that slowly defrosts the city, he still put the game: ice and board, red and blue line, stick, puck - and every ounce of will and strength in youth body aspiration at full speed for her chase. Year after year, the same thing: every weekend grandstand full of people, but sports achievements fall in proportion to the drop in the city's economy. Perhaps this is why all hope that when local business club again will go smoothly, and the rest will be tightened by itself.

That's why small towns like Bjornstad always pin their hopes on children and teenagers - because they do not remember what used to a better life.

Sometimes it's an advantage. junior team was going in the same way, by what the older generation to build your town: work like a bull; Endure kicks and zubotychiny; Don `t cry; Shut up and show these metropolitan hell who we are.

See in Bjornstad not much to see, but everyone who has visited here, know that it is a stronghold of the Swedish hockey.

Bank.

Amata sixteen soon. His small room is so small that in the area richer, where the apartments are a little more, it would be considered for the toilet too close. The walls are completely plastered with posters with NHL players, so it is not visible wallpaper; however, there are two exceptions. One - Photo Amata aged seven to crawl on his forehead helmet and leggings that are clearly great to him. it is the smallest of the whole team.

The second - a sheet of paper on which Mom wrote prayers scraps. When Amat was born, my mother was lying with him on a narrow bed in a small hospital on the other side of the globe, and was not she more than anyone in the whole world. The nurse whispered this prayer in her ear. They say that Mother Teresa wrote it on the wall above his bed, and the nurse hoped that this prayer will give a single woman hope and strength. Soon already sixteen years since this piece of paper with a prayer on the wall in the room of her son - word a little messed up, because she recorded on the memory that could: "Honest may bring. And still be honest. Good may agree. And still be kind. All the good things you have done today, tomorrow may be forgotten. And yet do good. "

Every night Amat puts skates near the bed. "Poor your mother, I expect you to skate and was born" - often repeated with a grin old Doorman at the Ice Palace. He offered to leave Amata skates in a locker in a warehouse, but the boy preferred to carry them with you. I did not want to leave them.

All teams Amat was always lower than the growth of all, he had neither the fortress of muscles or throwing power. But no one could catch him in the speed of his peers did not. Amat did not know how to explain this word, here as with music, he thought, alone, looking at the violin, see the piece of wood and screws, while others hear the melody. Skates, he felt like a part of yourself and pereobuvshis in regular shoes, felt like a sailor, set foot on dry land.

Leaf on the wall ended with these lines: "All that you build, the other can destroy. Yet Build. Because ultimately answer to God will not be the other, and you. " And just below the strong hand of second-graders gave a red chalk: "Well, let govarit INTO GAMES FOR I DO NOT VYSHYL growth. Vseravno BECOME steep igrakov! "

Bank.

Once Bjornstad hockey team took second place in the premier league. With twenty years have passed since then, and the composition of the higher league had to change three times, but Bjornstad tomorrow will once again compete against the best. So if important match juniors? What does it matter to the city some of the youth in the semi-finals of the series? Of course, no. If only we are not talking about the above-mentioned clumsy spot on the map.

In a couple of hundred meters to the south of the road signs begins the area called the Hill. There is a cluster of exclusive villas overlooking the lake. It is home to the owners of the supermarket, the factory management, or those who dangle in the big city for the best work where their colleagues at corporate parties, eyes wide, asking: "Bjornstad? How can you live in such a wilderness? "In response, they, of course, muttering something unintelligible about hunting, fishing and proximity to nature, thinking to myself that live there and the truth may be unlikely. At least in recent times. In addition to real estate, the price of which falls in proportion to the temperature of the air, there was nothing left.

They wake up from a call "Bank!". And smiling, lying in bed.

3

For ten years the neighbors have become accustomed to the noises coming from the garden Erdal family: bank bank bank bank bank. Next, a short pause while Kevin gathers the puck. Then again, the bank bank bank bank bank. He first started skating when he was two and a half years; three, he was presented with his first stick; four could beat the five-year period, and in five of seven years has surpassed rivals. In the winter, when he was seven, he had frostbitten face, that on the cheeks, if you look closely, you can still discern the small white scars. That evening, he participated for the first time in this match, and in the last seconds of the game did not score a goal in the empty net. Children Bjornstad team won with a score of 12: 0, all the goals scored by Kevin, and yet he was inconsolable. Late at night, parents have found that a child in bed there, and at midnight the whole city chain to comb the forest.

Bjornstad - not a place for a game of hide and seek: it is necessary to move the child to a couple of steps before it absorbs the dark and at a temperature of minus thirty little body freezes instantly. Kevin found only at dawn - and not in the woods, and on the ice. He was brought to the gate, five goals and all the flashlights that have managed to find a home. All night long he scored the puck into the goal from the angle under which failed to score in the final seconds of the match. When he was taken home, he cried desperately. White markings on the face remain for life. He was only seven, but everyone knew that inside it lives a real bear, which can not be contained.

Kevin's parents paid for the construction of a small ice rink in his garden, for whom he courted every morning, and in the summer the neighbors dug in their beds the whole cemetery washers. Descendants for centuries will be found in these gardens of the particles of vulcanized rubber.

Year after year, the neighbors heard the boy grows, and the body grows stronger: strikes became more and more rigid. Now he is seventeen, and was not in the best player from that time, as the team Bjornstad got to the big leagues before he was born.

All he had in place: muscles, hands, heart and head. But most importantly - he saw the situation at the site as nobody else. In hockey, a lot can be learned, but the ability to see the area - it's innate. "Kevin? Golden Boy ", - said sporting director Peter Anderson, and he knew that if Bjornstad once was the talent of this magnitude, then this talent was himself: Peter went all the way to Canada and the NHL and played against the strongest players in the world.

Kevin knows what it takes in this case, it taught him when he first set foot on the ice. I need you all. Hockey will take you without a trace. Every morning at dawn, while your classmates see the tenth dream under warm blankets, Kevin runs into the woods, and starts bank bank bank bank bank. Then he gathers the puck. And repeats bank bank bank bank bank. Again, he gathers the puck. And every evening to practice with the best team, and then exercise and a new round in the forest, then the final exercise in the yard with spotlights, specially installed on the roof villas.

Bank bank bank bank bank. That's all you need to hockey. Just you all, without a trace.

Kevin did offer major hockey clubs, it invited high school sports in a big city, but it has consistently said "no." He is a simple guy from Bjornstad, like his father. Perhaps, in other places it is an empty phrase - but not in Bjornstad.

So, how important do some juniors semifinals? Just enough to the best junior team reminded the country of the existence of the town, where they came from. Just enough to regional policy allocated money to build their own sports gymnasium here instead in some Hede and most talented guys from the neighborhood we wanted to move in Bjornstad, rather than in large cities.

The best local team did not disappoint, and will break again in the big leagues and attract sponsors steep, municipality will build a new ice palace pave him wide roads, and perhaps even erect conference and shopping centers, which are interpreted is not the first year, to open new businesses, there will be more jobs, residents want to renovate their homes, instead of their sell. All this is important for the economy. For self-esteem. In order to survive.

So important that seventeen guy just standing in his yard - since as chilblains face night ten years ago - and scores goals, one by one, and keeps all on his shoulders town.

That's what it means. And point.

North of the pointer on the so-called lowlands. If Bjornstad center occupied houses and small villas located on the downlink in proportion middle class stratification, the Arathi built up with apartment houses, located so far from the hills, it is only perhaps. Artless name Holm and Arathi was originally developed as a topographical designations: Arathi actually lies below, What is the main part of the city, it begins where the terrain down to a gravel pit and a hill overlooking the lake. But when in due course the local people began to settle in a valley or on a hill depending on the level of prosperity, the name changed from the usual place names in the class markers. Even in small towns, the children quickly learn what the social status: the further you live from the Lowlands, the better for you.

Kopeck piece of Fatima is located on the outskirts of the Lowlands. Soft power moves she pulls out of the bed of his son, and he grabs his skates. In addition to them on the bus one, they sit silently in their places - Amat learned to carry his body on autopilot, not including consciousness. At such moments, Fatima affectionately calls his mummy. They come in an ice palace, and Fatima wears a form of cleaners and goes to look for Amat watchman. But first of all it helps the mother to remove debris from the stands, until she runs it. The guy is worried about her back, and her mother worried that the boy will see it together and be teased. Amat much as he could remember, he and his mother were alone-odinoshenki in the whole world. More kid he collected on these same stands empty cans of soda at the end of the month; sometimes he still does it.

Every morning he makes Doorman - unlocks the doors, check the fluorescent light, gathers the puck, ice harvester starts - in a word, prepares the site to the top of the working day. First, in the most inconvenient time coming skaters. Then all the players, one by one, in order of rank: the most convenient time and the main intended juniors, adult team. Juniors have become so steep that they occupy in the hierarchy is almost the top position.

Amat until there was not, he was only fifteen, but can fall into the next season. If you do everything right. The day will come when he will take away his mother, he knows exactly; it will cease to constantly add and subtract in the mind of income and expenses.

There is a clear difference between children living in families where the money may end up and where the money never runs out. Also, importantly, at what age did you realize.

Amat knows that his choice is limited, so it is a simple plan: to join the team of juniors, from there to the junior, and then the team pros. As soon as it will be the first account in the salary of life, he will select his mother trolley with cleaning equipment, and the more she sees it not. Her work-worn hands will rest, and a bad back - to luxuriate in bed on the morning. He does not need new stuff. He just wants one night to go to bed without thinking about pennies.

When all things were finished, Doorman Amata tapped on the shoulder and handed him the skates. Amat laced them, took a stick and drove to an empty area. His duties include helping janitor, if you need to pick up something heavy and tight doors open collar, which can not afford the old man because of rheumatism. Thereafter Amat polishes the ice and gets the platform at their disposal for an hour, until they come skaters. And this is the best sixty minutes of each of its day.

He put on the headphones, put the sound at full volume, and flew with all speed to the other end of the site - so that the helmet hit the board. Then at full speed I ran back. And so over and over again.

Fatima momentarily looked up from cleaning and looked at her son. Doorman, locked eyes with her, guessing his lips silent "thank you". And he nodded, hiding a smile. Fatima remembered his confusion when the coaches of the hockey club for the first time told her that Amat exceptionally gifted child. She had not yet specifically understood in Swedish, and it was a miracle that Amat began to skate almost as soon as learned to walk. Years passed, and she was not used to the eternal cold, but learned to love the city as it is. Yet never in my life did not see it is nothing more strange than a boy born to play on the ice, she gave birth in a land where never seen snow.

On one of the small houses in the town center of the shower came out of breath and red-eyed athletic director of the hockey club Bjornstad Peter Anderson. That night, he did not close his eyes, and streams of water could not wash away the nervous tension. He was twice vomited. Peter heard the world is busy in the hallway near the bathroom as there is a wake up children, and he knew exactly what she would say: "My God, Peter, you have forty! If the coach is nervous for the upcoming junior game more, than juniors, so it's time to take Sabri, wash it down with a good cocktail and generally relax a little. " For the past ten years, Anderson's family returned home from Canada in Bjornstad, but Peter was not able to explain to his wife that means hockey in this city. "Are you serious? Adult men, what you are so close to the heart of it takes! - so allover the world throughout the season. - This junior seventeen years! They are still children! ".

At first he did not answer. But one evening, still spoke: "Oh, I know, Mira, it's just a game. All I understand. But we live in the forest. We have neither tourism nor mine, nor high-tech. One dark, cold but unemployment. If in this town at least something will take to heart, then things went smoothly. I know, honey, it's not your city, but you look around: the jobs are fewer, the commune still tightening their belts tighter. We austere people, real bears, but we have so much slapped slap. "

"This city needs to win anything else. We must once feel that we were at least somewhat better. I know it's only a game. But not only... And not always. "

Mira kissed him on the forehead, pressed her, smiled, and gently whispered in his ear: "You idiot," That's right, he is without it knows it.

He came out of the bathroom and knocked on the door of his fifteen-year daughter, until there is not heard guitar sounds. Daughter loves his instrument and not a sport. There were days when he is due to this very frustrating, but there were also other days, when he was just happy for her.

He may lay in bed. When there was a knock on the door, she began to play louder and heard the parents are busy in the corridor. Mom with two higher educations, who knows by heart the whole body of law, but even on the dock will not be able to remember what icing and offside. Dad, who knows all the subtle nuances in hockey strategy, but not able to watch the show, in which more than three heroes - every five minutes, he will ask: "What are they doing? And who is this? Why should I remain silent?! Well, now I listened to what they said... you can rewind? "

In Mai this caused some laughter, then sighs. Only in fifteen years a person can so unbearably want to run away from home. Says her mother, when cold and darkness completely exhaust the patience and she drinks three or four glasses of wine: "In this city, in May, you can not live, you can only survive."

Both did not even know how true their words.

In the following chapters, the story begins to unfold rapidly. Crunch hockey match someone brings joy, but someone irreparably changing lives. This novel is very different from previous works Fredrik Backman filled with positives. "Bear's Corner" - a serious reading of the social problems that affect not only the people from the small Swedish town, but all of us.

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