Trafika Europe 1 - Northern Idyll

chores, takes lessons twice a week from Gísli, the most educated man in the village, the county, even this quarter of the country, the headmaster himself, has English lessons twice a week with Hulda, occasionally arithmetic with Helga, wakes up in the mornings, connects dreams and reality with poems, reality where he’s encouraged to get an education, what is distant has come to him, yet he asks, why am I alive, where is life heading? And then the boy receives a letter.

Is your heart still beating?

And if so, how?

It’s beating like that of a drowning man, a wingless bird, how the hell should he answer this? But of course it’s important to receive a letter, to have a person consider it worthwhile enough to be willing to sit down and draw up words and have you in mind the entire time it takes to write the letter, to receive a letter indicates that you exist, that you’re closer to being light than darkness. Admittedly, not all letters are good, and some should perhaps never have been sent, never have been opened, read, some are full of hatred, accusations, they’re poison that will deprive you of all your strength, they bring darkness and disappointment.

There’s a letter for you, said Andrea, with something of a sarcastic look. Letter?, he exclaimed in surprise, because

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