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2.
Jonas moves carefully through the grain trying to keep his path as
secret and as invisible as possible. He lies down on a blanket in the
middle of the field and munches on a carrot from a blue box that he
keeps hidden on his secret island.
Here he lies every day and gazes at the clouds changing shape as
they go by. Sometimes they appear from nowhere, then sail past and
disappear into nothingness. It must be so hard for them to recognize
each other, thinks Jonas, when they're always changing shape. |
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3.
Suddenly Jonas feels something hard and spiny under his heel. It's
covered with mud and the curious spikes sticking out make it resemble
a hedgehog. But it's not alive. It must be some kind of unusual stone.
Jonas begins to scrape the mud off with a branch. It's larger than
an orange and there's a deep fold along its side. |
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4.
Jonas runs through the grain to rinse the strange thing off at a water
hole in a grassy field. He squeezes through the barbed wire, jumps
over the fresh cow turds and kicks at the dried ones so that they fill
the air with dust. The cows with curved horns on their heads look up
to see who's come to disturb them in their drinking. But Jonas isn't
afraid of them.
He scrubs and scrapes his find in the cool water until no more
earth comes out. Now it's very light in colour, there's a silvery glow
deep inside the fold and he can't see where it ends. |
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6.
Now Jonas carries his conch shell with him everywhere and he keeps it
by his side when he sleeps at night. My conch must meet the ocean
again, he thinks. He knows that the conch still remembers the ocean.
It still has the sound inside. Finally, one evening, his father says,
"We're going to the ocean tomorrow."
That night Jonas sleeps in his hammock on the terrace. He lies warm
and cosy in his sleeping bag and looks up at the stars while he holds
the conch to his ear. It's almost as though he hears sounds and voices
from far off in space. Perhaps there are other children out there
among the stars. Do they look like him? Are they green or blue? Do
they change shapes all the time, like the clouds? It doesn't matter,
thinks Jonas. As long as they want to play. |
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... this is how Jonas and the Conch
Shell begins. The book has till now been published in Danish only.
Translated by
Arun Dhundale.
(Danish: Jonas og
konkylien).
Jonas and the Conch Shell is
followed by
Jonas and the
Sky Tent. |
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