—Can I lie next to you? he asked.
Through another bolt of lightning I saw his pale face and took pity on him.
—Okay, I said.
Then he crawled out of his bed and into mine. He lay close to me, motionless and quiet.
Not long after, he fell asleep.
We didn’t see Grandpa until late morning the next day. We were sitting at the kitchen table eating toasted cheese sandwiches when a blue Rover pulled into the driveway. It was the second Rover this week. Two nights earlier he’d driven a red one. A moment later he stood in the door.
—Why aren’t you two in school?
His cream-colored suit was wrinkled, and what was left of his hair formed a wooly halo atop his head.
—We don’t have any milk money, I said.
—Where have you been? Morten asked him.
Grandpa pawed through his jacket and found two ten kroner coins, which he handed to us.
—Now get going, he said.
I could tell that Morten was about to ask again, so I elbowed him.
—Come on, I said.
The teacher smiled wearily and a little sadly at us as we snuck into the classroom and slid into our seats in the back. As soon as we sat down I saw Rose turn her fresh pink cheeks and look at Morten, who stared at his desk, embarrassed.
For some reason, we were spared that day. Every now and then the teacher glanced at us, but passed us over and made others read aloud and calculate math problems on the chalkboard. As usual, Morten wrote letters to Rose. He never dared give them to her; he was never quite satisfied and crumpled them up one after the other as he wrote new letters, which would also end up in his bag. Sweet flower, my Rose, prettier than anyone. That’s how all the letters began. I sat staring at her long hair and felt warm all over.
We got to go home early, but we stayed to see if anything fun would happen. Tommy told a story about his cousin, who’d gotten a pair of pointy-toed cowboy boots with iron tips. He had worn them on the first day of school, and had booted one of the small kids right in the ass so hard that the little muscle that sits up there popped and the boy’s intestines had fallen out.
Instead of riding home, we went into town. At the grocery store we each bought a water pistol with Grandpa’s money. Afterwards we rode past Rose’s. A whole row of girls’ bikes was lined up outside, but there was no one in the yard or behind the windows in the big house. For a while we stood leaning against the picket fence. Suddenly the curtain was thrust back, and fat Lilly’s face appeared. I gave her the finger, and she disappeared, but immediately the curtain was pushed back and a line of new faces appeared. Rose wasn’t there, I made faces at them and waited for her to show up. I peered down the street, first toward the train tracks and then toward the grocery store. When the coast was clear, I yanked down my pants. I pulled out my dick and stuck it in between the white slats. The curtain wavered, and more faces appeared, all watching me pee with my arms folded over the fence, my dick jammed between the slats. When I was done, I pulled my pants back up and drifted over to my bike.
Morten had already ridden off. He kept a few hundred feet ahead all the way home and wouldn’t stop, even when I yelled at him.
When I got home, his bike lay in the driveway.
Grandpa sat in the kitchen eating a toasted cheese sandwich and drinking one of Dad’s beers. He wore the same cream suit and didn’t look any better than he had in the morning. Five or six empty bottles were arranged next to one of the table legs, and beside another, five or six unopened bottles.
—There are more in the freezer.