The Boy From Sweden

by Craig Smith

sure you don’t want to talk to me about what was bothering you on Monday. You were very quiet that day and you had me really worried.”

  On Monday, the day after he had helped Jacobs steal the car, he had felt sick to the stomach the whole day and hardly said a word to anyone. His uncle had noticed and bugged him about it ever since. “Yes! I’m sure.”

  “You don’t have to be nasty about it.” His uncle shook his head. They were getting closer and closer to his school.

  “Sorry, Uncle. It’s kind of personal, but I will tell you one day.”

  His uncle smiled and winked. They were outside the school. “See you tomorrow.”

  Melody and Siswe got out of the taxi and made their way to the school. For some reason she didn’t run away from the taxi, like he had the plague or something, like she normally did. She actually walked next to him.

  “This friend of mine...” she said, not even looking at him. Her skin seemed to glow in the morning sunlight and her dark eyes dazzled. She seemed to stop and look around to check if anyone had noticed that they were talking.

  “Yes, this friend of yours?” asked Siswe as they got closer to the school. They passed the school sign. It said Heathwood High School.

  “Oh yes,” she whispered,“she said that on Sunday she saw you driving like a mad person in a BMW down the road, and almost ran her over.”

  Siswe’s eyes went big, but he quickly caught himself and didn’t alter his pace or his voice. It was very hard to stay calm, but he did his best.

  “Is your friend high or something?” Now he knew why the girl on the pavement had been familiar. She went to the same school as him.

  “Hey! She’s my best friend, she wouldn’t make things like that up.”

  “How do you know?”

  “It would be a pretty crazy thing to make up wouldn’t it?”

  “That’s for sure,” said Siswe, hoping he wasn’t sounding too defensive, “your friend needs help.”

  Melody seemed to consider it for a while. “Yeah, you’re too much of a loser to be doing something cool like that anyway!” She stormed off down the passage.

  Siswe sighed, turned around, and walked forward without looking where he was going. He collided with another boy.

  “Sorry about that,” said Siswe, helping the other boy pick up his books.

  “Totally okay,” said the other boy

  Siswe found the boy’s accent to be pretty strange and he looked different to most other people as well.

  The bell rang and they went off to their classes.

  Friday 7:00am

  Gunter got out of the shower and put on the school clothes that Mary had bought for him before his arrival. They fitted just right except for the shoulders on the shirt. They were a little tight. He had developed his arm muscles quite a lot over the last couple of years since taking up rowing as a sport at school. The shower had also made him feel a lot better, as if his troubles were washed away. During the night he had woken up from a nightmare. He had been running down the road away from a man in a red jacket with a gun. The nightmare had been so vivid and real. It made him doubt his decision to stay on, but after he had calmed down a little he realized it was just his mind dealing with the high stress situation of the hijacking incident and being shot.

  After he had gathered all of his school things he walked into the kitchen. James and Mary were there and Amy was sitting on a tall stool by the counter reading a textbook. Fred was still upstairs getting ready.

  “Good morning, Gunter.”

  “Good morning.” He took a seat at the kitchen table and within moments of sitting down Mary came over and put a plate of flapjacks on the table in front of him. They had a big wallop of cream on top and some syrup trickling down the side. Gunter hadn’t seen such nice looking breakfast in a while. He normally had cereal and his mother only cooked breakfast occasionally.

  “Are you sure you’re up for a full day of school?” asked Mary.

  “I am. My side is hurting a lot less and I feel a lot more energetic.”

  “Okay just be careful, and if you feel unwell at any time just go to the nurses office or tell one of the teachers and I will come straight through and pick you up.”

  “Thank you so much,” said Gunter taking a mouthful of the fresh flapjacks. It melted in his mouth. When he was about halfway through he remembered something he forgot to ask. “The incident with the hijacking, was it mentioned in the news?”

  Mary was a little taken aback by the sudden change of subject. “It was in the local newspaper and on the radio.”

  “Not on the TV news?”

  “Afraid to say things like that aren’t covered on the national news that often.”

  “Oh, I see,” said Gunter continuing to eat his flapjacks.

  Friday 7:30am

  Fred was dropped off at the primary school first. It was his last year of schooling there. The primary school looked like it was quite a few years old. By Gunter’s reckoning maybe from the late 1930’s. His own school back home was a new school that had only been built five years ago. In fact the smallish town where he was from had seen a lot of development in the last ten years. Before the high school had been built, students had to travel ten miles to the city.

  “Good luck at school,” said Fred as he got out of the car and ran inside.

  “He’s a bit eager,” commented Gunter as Mary drove off.

  “Yes,” said Amy with a smile. “There’s this girl he really likes and he only really gets to speak to her in the mornings so he’s always bugging us to get him to school early.”

  Gunter smiled. “She’s a lucky girl, you have a great little brother.”

  Amy laughed. “I’m glad someone thinks so!”

  “Amy!” protested Mary.

  “Mom...” Amy sighed, “I was only teasing!”

  A few minutes later they pulled up to the high school. It looked even older than the primary school. Gunter was a little nervous. How would the other kids at the school treat him? Was it a good idea going there when he wasn’t in full health? Gunter pushed the doubt from his mind when he saw Mary’s concerned face again. He said he would be strong and that’s exactly what he was going to do.

  “Just remember to be careful, and if you need anything please just call, okay?”

  “I will, Mary. Thank you.”

  Mary drove away and Gunter and Amy made their way towards the school.

  “How are you feeling?”

  “Nervous, but good actually.”

  Amy smiled. “Do you have your timetable?”

  “I do.”

  “Great, I’ll show you to your first class.”

  They entered the school and started navigating the bustle of people moving around. It was maybe a little more rundown than Gunter was hoping, but he thought it was more than adequate and the place seemed to be kept clean and was well looked after. A few people seemed to notice that he was new to the school, but most carried on with what they were doing and didn’t look in their direction. Gunter was talking to Amy and wasn’t looking where he was going when he bumped into someone. The schoolbooks he was carrying fell out of his hands.

  “Sorry about that,” said the boy he bumped into.

  “Totally okay,” replied Gunter. He couldn’t help but see that the other boy looked very worried about something.

  The bell rang and the incident was forgotten. “I better get you to class.”

  They moved swiftly. “I don’t want to make you late?” Gunter did his best to hide the fact that moving swiftly was taking his breath away and irritating the pain in his side.

  “Don’t worry.” Her long black hair flowed behind her. “That was just the warning bell.”

  “Who was that kid I bumped into?”

  “That was Siswe.” Amy slowed her pace. “You best be careful of him.”

  “Why is that?”

  “There are rumours that his older brother is in prison because of being in a gang and that S
iswe might be a part of that gang too.”

  “Oh, I see.” Gangs and prisons were the sort of things you only heard about through TV or reading the newspaper in Sweden. There were said to be a few gangs in Stockholm, but most weren’t considered to be too dangerous.

  “Of what I’ve heard he’s a very good student, but no harm in being extra careful.”

  They stopped at the start of another passageway. “Your class is down there, I better get to mine. Good luck and enjoy. I’ll see you during break time.”

  Gunter hugged his books a little closer and joined the boys line outside the class. A few of the other students looked his way, but none seemed to be overly concerned about his sudden appearance. A boy in front of him was the exception, he turned around and looked Gunter up and down. He was slightly bigger built than Gunter, he had red hair and there was a sprinkling of freckles across his cheeks.

  “You must be that Swedish boy who was shot?”

  Gunter found this to be a funny and really direct way of being greeted. “Yes I am, and your name is?”

  “Ryan,” replied the red-headed boy with a frown and a grin. “And yours?”

  “It’s Gunter.” They firmly shook hands.

  “You have a good grip.”

  They hadn’t noticed that the class was looking at them and that the teacher had come out. “If you ladies have finished groping each other, I would like to start my class, if that’s okay with you?”

  “Indeed it is, sir,” replied Ryan, not missing a beat and smiling broadly at the hulking teacher.

  Some of the class chuckled but soon stopped when Mr. Haversham stared them down.

  First the girls then the boys filed into class.

  Gunter was the last to go in and Mr.