The Hanging Girl

11

September 2013

It was now the tenth time that Pirjo read Wanda Phinn’s latest message about her imminent arrival, and Pirjo didn’t like it. Gut instinct wasn’t an applicable element in the teachings of nature absorption, but with Pirjo’s background it was a tool that couldn’t just be ignored.

This time the gut instinct wasn’t good. With each new reading, she imagined new scenarios and probable consequences arising from Wanda Phinn’s arrival on the scene, and yet the end result was always the same. Regardless of how you looked at it, what was indicated between the lines in the woman’s e-mail was catastrophic. She’d disregarded Pirjo’s rejection of being accepted into a course, and now she would come to conquer Pirjo’s and Atu’s world, and that was something Pirjo simply couldn’t tolerate. Not now when her biological clock was ticking so quickly.

Pirjo thought it was a good thing that she was the one in charge of these requests. If Atu had seen it, his curiosity and libido would’ve been awoken. She knew his weaknesses better than anyone. So no, she simply couldn’t allow this woman to come to the Nature Absorption Academy or the consequences would be impossible to control.

She looked at her watch and thought the whole thing through. In an hour the woman would be standing with all her talents and firm flesh at Kalmar Central Station expecting Pirjo to simply bow out.

But that was where she was mistaken.

Pirjo decided to improvise; that’s what she was good at.

Everything would be fine.

* * *

She took her scooter from the area in front of the wooden pier.

She stood for a moment and watched the weathered planks out in the water with the seaweed dancing around the bottom of the poles. What could be more peaceful than that, and yet it had uncomfortable associations for her. It wasn’t the first time Pirjo had had serious threats to her existence hanging over her head, and last time it had ended here.

She’d quarreled with one of the female disciples who she realized had become a dangerous rival. It had resulted in shouting, pushing, and slapping that had become gradually harder. For some weeks the woman had become a permanent fixture in Atu’s quarters, and ever so slowly had begun to agitate to take over some of Pirjo’s responsibilities; she’d felt it.

So right there she overstepped a boundary from which there was no turning back.

Strictly speaking, the upshot of that confrontation was an accident, but ending as it had, it was nevertheless the best thing that could have happened.

That was all a good few years ago, and now it was the turn of this Wanda Phinn.

Pirjo looked up at the academy and chose the gravel path that went around the buildings through the plantation. It was a longer route than the more direct road up to the highway, but this path was secluded, so no one from the academy would know which road she’d taken or when.

If somebody asked her later where she’d been, she would say that she’d taken a drive north to clear her head and give herself space to think. That she was in the process of developing some new ideas for her telephone line and just needed to get them in order.

It was important that her absence was understandable and believable, and as long as she could avoid mentioning Wanda Phinn to anyone, then she wouldn’t exist in anyone’s consciousness but her own.

When today was behind her, and she’d neutralized and eliminated this woman, then the time would be right for Malena’s turn.

She hadn’t yet worked out how she would even the score with that woman without Atu needing to know about it, but if it didn’t happen relatively quickly, it could develop into a nasty affair.

—

The journey had first really begun for Wanda when she boarded the train in Copenhagen. The flight had been as flights are prone to be, but this final leg of the journey by train through landscapes unlike any she had ever seen before felt like a fairy tale. The language alone was like that in the world of the sagas: magical, exciting, and from a vanished past.

She saw extensive flat areas of farmland, broken by bedrock and mile-long dry stone walls that had seemingly been built and repaired since the dawn of time. And then suddenly red wooden houses and endless pine forests. Here, in this strange and wondrous Swedish peasant country, she’d find her kingdom and her throne. Here she’d be able to escape herself and her past and live with Atu for the rest of her life. She was more certain of this than anything else in the world.

And Wanda was well prepared. Since she hadn’t been invited, she had to anticipate resistance and reluctance that could drag things out. But if that was the case, she had no intention of backing out, even if she met with point-blank refusal. She had announced the time of her arrival in yet another e-mail and if there was someone to meet her at the station, then good. If there wasn’t, she’d booked a hotel and had enough money to last several weeks. She was certain to get her audience then; she was sure of it.

“Is this your first time here?” asked the man opposite her when she began turning around in her seat. They’d passed Karlskrona now, so there was only half an hour to go until they reached Kalmar.

She confirmed that yes, it was her first time.

He smiled. “And where are you headed?”

“I’m heading out to Öland. I’m meeting my husband-to-be out there,” she heard herself say.

A look of disappointment came across his face. “A lucky guy. Dare I ask who he is?”

She noticed that strangely enough she was blushing. “His name is Atu Abanshamash Dumuzi.”

The lines on his forehead were visible as he nodded, turning his face out toward the blurred light that had cast itself over yet another country town.

When they reached the station he helped her off with her suitcase.

“Do you know what you’re getting yourself into?” he asked, setting the suitcase down on the platform.

“Why do you say that?” she asked. He was probably one of those bigots who could only see the world through the lens he’d inherited at his mother’s breast.

“I’m a journalist working here in Kalmar. I’ve been out to the center on Öland to interview the guru over there and it was a mixed experience. I’m sorry, and this is just my opinion, but I didn’t see anything other than fraud and manipulation. The leader, Dumuzi, wanted to captivate me but I have to say that it was far from a successful attempt. But you’re sure about what you’re doing?”

She nodded. She was, and more than ever before.

“Thanks for your help,” she said without further comment and headed for the square in front of the station.

She stood for a while, leaning up against a flagpole, squinting at the sun. It was just as she’d imagined. There was no one to meet her.

She thought she might as well go down to the hotel and drop off her luggage, where no doubt they’d also order a taxi for her.

Then she’d be out there in three quarters of an hour.

She was just about to bend down for her suitcase when a woman came around the corner at full speed on a scooter. Covered in white from head to toe, clenching her teeth.

It was because of that expression she was able to recognize her. And it was for the same reason that she instinctively clenched her fists.