Daisy Sisters (1982) by Henning Mankell, pages
43-45 of 651. The original book is in Swedish and it has not been translated
into English. The following text is my humble attempt of a translation to
English from the Finnish translation of Daisy Sisters they had in our local
library.
Suddenly Vivi and Fingers have disappeared
to the darkest corner of the barn, and when Elna feels an urgent need to go out
into the night to get some fresh air, pale Nils accompanies her eagerly. But
why on earth he drags the other sleeping bag with him? Handsome he’s not, but
he seems to be suspect to peculiar whims. And why not? They can lie outside a
moment in the beautiful summer night. Dew is refreshing and dim summer stars
spin like shimmering wasps in the sky. Or are they bolts of lightning in her
head, behind her eyelids? She really can’t tell.
And when Nils tries stubbornly to crawl on
top of her, she lets him, assuming it’s something she has to put up with, and
she knows exactly at which point she’s going to tell him to stop. But the man
isn’t satisfied with hands and head, face and neck. He claws and yanks tenaciously.
When he gets his hands under her dress and starts squeezing her breast, Elna has
had enough and rolls over on her stomach. It seems like he’s going to leave her
alone; she hears him fuss next to her, but why should she care? The grass is
moist and cool against her face, actually she should sleep already, she has a
hunch she’s going to see a lot of dreams. But then the man is on top of her
again. Before she has time to react he has pulled her dress up on her back and
yanked her panties down to her knees. She’s furious. She doesn’t want this, but
arousal has given him strength and Elna has to flail and struggle a long time
before she manages to turn on her back again. She sees that Nils doesn’t have
his pants on. His penis juts out from beneath the hem of his shirt, and it’s
not pale like his face but purple and engorged. He tears her panties off and forces
himself between her legs. When Elna grabs his hair and pulls, the man gives her
a hard cuff on the ear and pins her hands down. He pokes and pokes but can’t
find the right spot, and Elna twists and turns all she can. She manages to
squeeze his testicles, giving him a jolt, but as if the pain gives him more
strength he aims true and thrusts himself inside her with an agonized grunt. Elna
realizes she’s being raped. Her face still stings from the force of his slap,
booze makes everything hazy – upstairs and downstairs. She fights him but can’t
get free. He pants and pumps and it feels like he’s up deep in her belly. Then
he twitches hard a few times, gasps and drools, and collapses heavily on top of
her. When Elna now beats his back with her fists, the man doesn’t care. Elna
inches away from under him. He lies stretched out on the ground, huffing. Elna
spots her panties in the grass, puts them on and finds her crotch all sticky.
She has only one thought, she wants to sleep. She takes the sleeping bag and
staggers to the barn wall. She crawls in the bag and zips the zipper close all
the way up. She just wants to sleep. What happened didn’t happen. In the
morning everything will be better and they still have a long way to pedal.
In the morning the men are gone. When Elna
wakes up Vivi is sitting down making coffee on a portable stove. It’s a
beautiful new day. A bumblebee buzzes by her head. Elna’s mouth is dry and she
has a throbbing headache.
- Good morning, Vivi says. – Look at the
state of you!
The state of her? She crawls from the bag
and totters shakily into the barn where she has a small mirror in her bag. When
she sees her face she remembers Nils hitting her. She has a scratch mark on her
cheek and a bruise on her neck. Whether it’s the result of a love bite or a
smack she can’t say.
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