Note for Swedish readers: This is the English translation. You can also find the original Swedish version called En lektion on this site.
This piece of fan fiction is based on John Ajvide Lindqvist’s novel Låt den rätte komma in. Features that have been fetched from the novel are his work, however, he is in no way responsible for the work below.
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“Oskar, I’ve got something important I have to talk to you about.”
Oskar was hanging by his feet from a branch. He had made gripping feet, and was considering to fix a tail too.
“Well, about what?”
“Will you come down?”
“Nah, this is fun, don’t you want to try?”
“No, you can do your monkey business by yourself.” Eli sounded irritated. “Come down, now.”
Apparently it was something important. Oskar flicked his body so that he made a somersault in the air and landed on his feet on the ground. Then he sat down facing Eli and listened.
“It has worked out well to overpower strangers. But we’ll not always be able to do that.”
Eli looked stern, as if it was a topic he rather would avoid.
“No?” Oskar didn’t quite understand.
Eli looked at him, frowning a little. Oskar felt a bit uncomfortable, there was something with Eli’s seriousness that felt strange.
“Sometimes you have to lure people to yourself.”
Eli struggled with himself. Oskar was worried, Eli usually didn’t behave like that.
“You have to be able to. Especially when you’re weak.”
Eli shut his eyes, pulled himself together, drew a breath as if to push off.
“You have to learn that.”
Eli looked down towards the ground.
“It's no fun. You don’t want to be that way. So false. But you have to. Else...”
Then he looked up again.
“I think I wanted to avoid having to teach it to you, that's why I haven’t told you anything about this before.”
He was silent for a moment, gazing at Oskar with a strange look in his face. Eli suddenly seemed just as old as he actually was, Oskar realised.
“I wanted you to stay pure!”
Oskar all at once felt so immature, so inexperienced and naive. He didn’t like the feeling, but he wasn’t sure that he would like to learn the things that Eli was talking about.
“You have to train yourself how to look small. It’s important. If you’re small you’ll get help.”
Eli was silent a moment. Then he continued.
“Now just watch, it's not for real. Remember that, it’s not for real.”
Oskar wondered what would happen. Then he saw Eli change, just a bit, almost imperceptibly, but the effect was overwhelming. There was something about his eyes, they suddenly looked so large. Then Eli began to cry, his tears flowed, his chin quivered, his shoulders were shaking. He looked so lonely and unhappy that Oskar wanted to rush forward and comfort, he was heading to when Eli held up his hands.
“Stay there, it's not for real.”
Eli suddenly looked like normal again, except for the tears that still were running down his cheeks.
“You must learn that, I'll teach you how to do it.”
Oskar watched Eli incredulously, then his face changed. If Eli was able to dissemble like that, how could Oskar be able to trust him. Had everything been a lie, after all? Oskar's posture changed, he pulled away a bit. Eli saw it, and understood.
“Please, Oskar, I don’t lie to you. I'll never do it, I haven’t done since ... you know.”
Oskar remembered how he had hit Eli because he was so disappointed with all the lies Eli had told.
“I lied then because I was afraid to scare you away, because I needed a ... friend ... so much.”
Eli went up to his knees, approached Oskar, but he pulled away, crawling backwards.
“Look into my eyes, Oskar!” Eli followed him, he was pleading. “Please, Oskar!”
Oskar bumped against a tree, he couldn’t get further away. Eli came up to him.
“You can see that I’m not lying. Please look into my eyes, you can see that I tell you the truth.”
Eli's face was now quite close, Oskar still flinched. But he saw, he realised that he could actually see it, that he could somehow anticipate Eli's intentions, if they were good or evil. He saw the true Eli in there. And Eli didn’t lie, he knew at once that it would be impossible for anyone to lie so that he couldn’t see through it. He was calm now, he would never again have to worry about Eli not being honest.
“It's true, you don’t lie.”
Eli sat down again, wiped his face with his sleeve, then he started anew.
“Now listen. You need to remember a time when you were very sad. Then, let the memory fill you until you are sad for real. Don’t tell what it is, because then it doesn’t work as well. Think about it for a moment, and tell me when you're ready.”
Oskar searched his memories. His dog, when it died, or ... was euthanised. He felt a lump in his stomach, his eyes started to sting.
“Good! Stop!”
Eli clapped his hands a couple of times, the sharp sounds made Oskar flinch and he was dragged out of the memory. He blinked away the tears from his eyes and sniffled back the snot that had started to run inside his nose. He felt depressed. This wasn’t a fun game.
“Repeat that again, or use another sad memory, but now try to, like, stand aside and watch yourself from the outside when you become sad. And stop it just when you start to get tears in your eyes.”
Oskar hesitated a while, he didn’t want become sad again. But then he let himself approach the memory again, although now he somehow at the same time stood next to himself, watching. It worked, he could do that. He was just as sad as before, but he didn’t feel it as much in some strange way. He hadn’t thought that it would be possible to do something like that. But he did not like it, he was false, he was dishonest to himself. He suddenly understood Eli’s aversion about luring people towards himself that way. One could lose oneself by doing that too much.
“Never forget who you are, never let go of yourself, that's important.”
Oskar had understood the danger, he was ready to continue. He would not lose his soul.
“Yes, I know, I do know what you mean. Really. But teach me now.”
Eli realised that Oskar understood. He smiled a little, Oskar was so eager to learn anything Eli wanted to teach.
“You should practice this a few times each night, though don’t overdo it. You can get sick from it. But when you can do it, you should continue practicing until you can cry really hard, but still are able to stop when you decide to.”
Eli was silent for a moment, he looked withdrawn, but then he remembered something.
“Oh, yes, the infection can’t do this. You have to use your humanity, otherwise it won’t fool anybody. There’s no shortcut, it won’t work if it doesn’t hurt.”
Oskar understood, the infection was like an animal, it had no complicated human emotions, only the most basic ones, hunger and fear. The infection couldn’t cry, it couldn’t induce compassion.
“But the infection still can help. Large eyes are good, small children have large eyes. You should make your eyes big, then you’ll look small. But just a bit, otherwise you look horrible instead. Now practice, I’ll tell you when it looks right.”
So Oskar practiced, with Eli as a critical judge. Though eventually they got tired of the gravity and the exercise transformed into to their favourite game, making comical faces helped by the infection.