The third Sunday in Advent: Sorcery and dark powers
The darkness is closing in. Up in the sky thousands of white lights are lit in The Golden City. The snow around us is shining white like the moon.
I fall down on my knees with raised hands.
”I give up”! I shout, and at the same time Gloria picks up a last handful of snow and rubs it over my face.
”Now we are finished”, she says.
I catch her in my arms and swirls her around in the air. She’s choking with laughter, one single and wonderful sound in the cold and silent night.
As if it’s only the two of us left.
”We should rest”, I finally say and put her down, reaching out for her with my hand. ”Let’s go, we will continue searching tomorrow. We really can’t see anything right now.
We walk hand in hand through Lundagård. The naked trees try to catch us with their long claw-like shadows, dimming the light from the moon and the stars. An icy wind passes us.
”Bo”? Gloria whispers and grabs hold of my hand harder. ”What do they say”?
”Say”? I repeat silently. ”What do you mean”?
A second wind tries to catch us, and its bitterly cold and bites my cheeks, seeking its way to my bare skin through the seams of my clothes. But it is more than that. Gloria is right. The trees are trying to tell us something. They whisper in the wind, but it’s too silent. I can only hear the dull whisperings from too many voices at the same time.
I walk faster, pulling Gloria along.
We are almost at the cathedral when I hear a rook cawing above us. It is the first sound I’ve heard from a living creature since I met Gloria at Mårtenstorget.
The rook lands on a signpost and looks down on us. Gloria stops.
”You ought to go home”, it says with a hoarse cawing voice. ”Don’t you know that it’s dangerous to be out a night like this”?
Then it takes off and disappears between the whispering trees.
”It talked”, I say.
”It’s always talking”, says Gloria and looks at me with her big dark eyes. ”You did understand this time”.
The wind tears us apart, like it is trying to pull us back in among the trees. Join us … Stay with us …
I swirl around, holding Gloria’s little hand hard.
”Who’s there”? I ask.
No answer.
”Do not listen to them, Bo”, Gloria whispers and at the same time I’m feeling the pulsating warmth from her hand, from the light within her. ”It’s their night. If you join them, you will never return”.
But I can’t leave. The shadows are getting closer, sweeping around me like the wind. Try to make me let go of Gloria’s hand. Try to separate me from her and lead me back into the darkness.
Join us…
The shadows try to help me, make my hand small and elastic enough to slip from Gloria’s grasp. But every time they touch her hand they cry with terrible screams from pang. Why?
Why does she hurt them?
Stay with us …
”Bo”! Gloria terrified shouts when I pull back my hand and take a first step back towards the trees.
But I can’t get any further. Suddenly there is a sound stronger than the whispers of the trees, and that sound breaks the spell. It is a woman’s singing voice, getting closer. Then I catch sight of her, gliding towards us between the trees. She is dressed in white and on her head is a green crown with candles. When they hear her voice there is an echo of the painful scream of whispers through the night. When they try to put out her candles they vanish and die.
Gloria hastens to me the same moment the woman reaches us. Behind her walks an elderly man.
”Thank you”, I say. ”You saved us”.
The woman smiles at us. The elderly man catches up with her. ”Just in time, thank God. We were afraid we wouldn’t find you”. He offers me his hand. ”It is an honor to finally meet both of you. My name is Staffan. This is Lucia”.
”Bo”, I say.
”Gloria”, says Gloria.
”I saw a falling star”, Staffan continues. ”And the rooks told us that you were looking for it”.
”It was not a star”, Gloria says. ”It was a halo. Falling together with the snow”.
”And without the halo she cannot return home”, I say without really being able to take my gaze of Lucia.
”We must find it”.
”Then we must leave at once”, says Staffan. ”I saw where the halo fell. If we’re lucky, the darkness has not reached it yet and little Miss Gloria can still find her way home”.
I nod and turn to Gloria. I squat in front of her.
”Do you want to go home”?
Gloria gives me a careful smile. ”No. But I want my halo back”.
”Then we have better leave, Hurry on!” Staffan starts walking towards the cathedral. Gloria touches my cheek before she follows him.
I turn to Lucia.
”Are you coming”?
She shakes her head,
”The night isn’t over yet. I stay here to see to they don’t follow you”.
”Are you sure”?
She nods. ”Leave. Find the halo. For her to show the way, and everything will be all right”.
Text: Emma Andersson
Translation: Lars Jansson
