In the Land of the Long White Cloud

of perspective drawing. David was a fast learner. From then on, they spent every free minute on these lessons. When the master carpenter saw them at it one day, he promptly pulled Lucas from the lumberjack group and put him on construction. Until then, Lucas had known little about structural analysis and architecture—just the basics that every true lover of art acquired by necessity if he was interested in Roman churches or Florentine palaces. That by itself was significantly more than most of the people involved in construction here knew; added to which, Lucas was a gifted mathematician. He quickly made himself useful by producing construction drawings and formulating the directions for the sawmill much more precisely than the builders had done thus far. True, he was not very adept at working with the wood, but David showed a real talent for that and was soon attempting to make furniture from Lucas’s designs. The future occupants of the new house—the wood trader and his wife—could hardly contain their delight when Lucas and David presented them with the first results of their work.

    Naturally, Lucas thought incessantly about approaching his young student and friend physically. He dreamed of intimate embraces and then awoke with an erection or, worse, between wet sheets. But he kept an iron grip on himself. In Ancient Greece a physical relationship between a boy and his mentor would have been completely normal; in modern Westport they would both be damned for such a thing. That said, David became closer to his friend without thinking anything of it. When he lay naked next to Lucas after swimming, drying himself in the paltry sunlight, he often brushed against an arm or a leg. When it grew warmer after the winter and even Lucas would splash around in the water, the boy encouraged him to engage in wild wrestling matches. He did not think anything of gripping Lucas with his legs or pressing his upper body into Lucas’s back. Lucas was thankful that the Buller River remained cold in the summer and that his erections were therefore short-lived. Getting to sleep with David would have represented a consummation, but Lucas knew he could not be too greedy. What he was currently experiencing was already more than he had ever hoped for. To dream of anything more would be presumptuous. Lucas also knew that his good fortune could not last forever. David would eventually grow up, perhaps fall in love with a girl, and forget all about him. Lucas hoped that by then the boy would have learned enough to make a financially secure living as a master carpenter. And he would do everything he could do to make that happen. He tried to inculcate the basics of arithmetic in the boy in order to train him not only to be a good craftsman but also a shrewd businessman. Lucas loved David selflessly, devotedly, and tenderly. He was happy for every day with him and simply tried not to think about the inevitable end. David was so young that they should still have a few years together ahead of them.

    David—or Steinbjörn, as he still thought of himself—did not share Lucas’s happiness. The boy was clever, diligent, and hungry for success and life. Above all, he was in love, a secret he had never shared with anyone, not even Lucas, his fatherly friend. Steinbjörn’s love was also the reason he had so willingly adopted his new name and why he used every free moment to fight his way through
David Copperfield
. He would be able to use it as an excuse to talk to Daphne—naturally and innocently—and no one would ever guess how he pined for the girl. Of course he knew that he had no chance with her. She would probably not take him into her room with her even if he managed to save up enough money. To Daphne, he was no more than a child, deserving of protection like the girls she took care of, but by no means a customer.
    But the boy didn’t want to be just another customer. He did not see Daphne as a whore, but imagined her as a respectable wife by his side. Someday he would make a lot of money, buy Jolanda’s right to the girl, and convince Daphne that she had earned an honorable life. She could bring along the twins—in his dreams, David could support them with ease.
    If all that was to happen, David needed money, a great deal of it, and fast. It cut him to the core to see Daphne serving in the pub and then disappearing up to the second floor with some john. She would not be doing that forever; but most importantly, she would not be