The Snowman ( PDFDrive )

The man behind the desk raised his head from his hands. ‘Did I say you could come in ?’
He paused when he saw Harry. And shifted his gaze down to the boy standing next to him.
‘Jonas!’ Filip Becker said, the tone somewhere between bewilderment and a reprimand. His eyes
were red-rimmed. ‘Didn’t I say you should sit quietly?’
‘I brought him with me,’ Harry said.
‘Oh?’ Becker looked at his watch and stood up.
‘Your students have left,’ Harry said.
‘Have they?’ Becker dropped back into his chair. ‘I I only meant to give them a break.’
‘I was there,’ Harry said.
‘Were you? Why ?’
‘We all need a break once in a while. Can we have a chat?’
‘I didn’t want him to go to school,’ Becker explained after sending Jonas into the coffee room with
instructions to wait there. ‘All the questions, speculation, I quite simply didn’t want it. Well, I’m
sure you understand.’
‘Yes.’ Harry took out a packet of cigarettes, shot Becker a questioning look and put it back when
the professor firmly shook his head. ‘That at any rate is much easier to understand than what was on
the board.’
‘It’s quantum physics.’
‘Sounds weird.’
‘The world of atoms is weird.’
‘In what way?’
‘They break our most fundamental physical laws. Like the one about an object not being able to be
in two places at the same time. Niels Bohr once said that if you aren’t profoundly shocked by
quantum physics, then you haven’t understood it.’
‘But you understand it?’
‘No – are you crazy? It’s pure chaos. But I prefer that chaos to this chaos.’
‘Which one?’
Becker sighed. ‘Our generation has turned itself into servants and secretaries of our children. That
applies to Birte as well, I’m afraid. There are so many appointments and birthdays and favourite
foods and football sessions that it drives me insane. Today someone rang from a doctor’s surgery in
Bygdøy because Jonas hadn’t turned up for an appointment. And this afternoon he has training God