Wild Song by Janis Mackay Read Free Book Online Page B

all he said was, ‘So, Niilo, you going to stir this jam or just stare at it?’
    I dunked my wooden spoon in the huge copper pot and mashed the sugar and strawberries together, harder than I needed to. The red juice splatted out of the skins like bright blood.
    ‘Hey, Niilo,’ Hannu said, ‘I have good news.’
    I kept jabbing into the strawberries.
    ‘We’ll have strawberry jam for supper.’
    ‘Big deal.’
    ‘And I got more.’ Hannu sounded excited. ‘Yeah, wait for it, Niilo. This is really good news.’ He cleared his throat and I knew he was waiting for me to look round at him. When I didn’t, Hannu carried on, ‘Yeah, seriously good news. The boss says, now it’s warmer, and now you are showing an interest in swimming, I can take you swimming in the sea!’
    I said nothing for a while, but stopped bashing the strawberries. I swallowed hard and felt my heartbeat race. The sea. The thing I hated most was the thing that would take me to freedom. I pushed down the panic that was rising from my gut. I was tough. I was hard. And, whatever it took, I was going to show Hannu that I could swim in the sea. I nodded my head and stared into the red mush. ‘Cool,’ I mumbled.
    ‘Yeah,’ Hannu said. ‘I thought you’d like it. You have to wear a buoyancy aid to keep you afloat. That’s the rules. But if you’re okay with that we can go tomorrow. Management say you’re doing well.’
    The jam started bubbling. ‘Cool,’ I said again. ‘That’s cool.’ I would look like a dork with a rubber ring round my waist, but for once I didn’t care.

Chapter Ten
    The clock on the wall crept. It was two a.m., then half-past three, then quarter to four. At five I got up and dressed. I sat on the edge of my bed, waiting for Hannu. I couldn’t stand the feeling of hoping so much. What if Hannu didn’t come? What if a storm came and we couldn’t go into the sea? I’d psyched myself up so much that I had to face this fear.
    I, Niilo, was going to swim in the sea!
    What if Hannu woke up with a headache? Or the staff ferryboat didn’t run? If anything happened to ruin this trip I was sure the disappointment would kill me. Hannu wasn’t due until nine a.m. and I was expected to eat bread and cheese before that, in the mad dining room. Hannu had talked me into doing that with one of his stories about folk doing cool stuff together and having fun. Like you could too, he said, in the dining room. You could meet friends there. Then he said how Riku always went to thedining room, and that had swung it for me. So I’d been trooping in with the rest of the bad boys for a few days now. Then, after breakfast, I was even expected to help clear the breakfast dishes. What if I dropped a dish? What if I lost my temper?
    I survived breakfast, but I could hardly eat today. Every time the door opened I swung round. ‘You waiting for your sweetheart?’ one of the older boys said, sneering. I so wanted to punch him in the face, but dug my fist into my other hand and gripped it tight. They just didn’t get it. From across the table Scarface looked at me and chewed noisily, like he was curious how I would react.
    ‘Cut it out,’ the staff member said.
    ‘Coz Hannu’s already got a sweetheart,’ the boy whispered, ‘and it ain’t you.’ Then he tittered like a fool.
    ‘I said, cut it out.’
    A hush ran round the dining room and I made like I hadn’t heard him. I bit into the bread. Nothing was going to spoil this day. Nothing.
    ‘They’re jealous,’ Riku said, coming over and sitting down next to me – I got the feeling he was protecting me. He tore off chunks of bread with his teeth like he was a wolf. We both chewed noisily. ‘You’re gonna swim in the sea?’ he said, eyeing me sideways.
    I nodded, my mouth crammed with bread. I swallowed it down. ‘How do you know?’ I asked him.
    He didn’t answer that, just winked at me and tore into another chunk of bread. ‘You gonna escape?’
    I shrugged and tore into the