Stockholm Archipelago, Möja, Björndalens Naturreservat
Scene 8
Maille dived below the surface, as deep as he possibly could. The water was so dark and turgid that he could discern nothing. He tried it over and over again, but there was nothing to be seen. It seemed almost as though the rays of the sun simply could not penetrate this liquid.
«A galaxy devoid of light, a black wormhole», thought Maille: «When I rise now to the surface of this pool, perhaps I will dive not into Sweden at all but into Santa Lemusa.» Into a pond such as, for instance, the one that lay just a few yards behind his house, also in the middle of the forest, but that held water which was transparent and soft. Actually, Maille had not yet bathed in that pond – though whenever he felt the urge for a quiet moment, he would search for a comfortable position, close his eyes and lie down, naked as God had created him (even if somewhat slimmer than in reality), and glide slowly in that mellow water.
Such a bath was like Valerian for the nervous temperament. Eventually, however, the vision of a fair female figure loomed out of the dark forest on the opposite bank – she had a skin that looked as if no cloth had ever touched it, sometimes with blond hair like Marie's, sometimes with charcoal-dark eyes, coy and opaque like the forest itself. Then, naturally, the peace was gone.