This is the summary I have created from gathering information from Eli's flashbacks presented throughout the novel. It should explain alot and I hope it helps.
'Once upon a time...a long, long time ago, there was a poor farmer and his wife. They had three children. A boy and a girl both old enough to work together with the adults. And then a little boy, only eleven years old. Everyone who saw him zei he was the most beautiful child they had ever seen.
'The father was in villeinage to the lord who owned the land, and had to work many days for him. Therefore it often fell to the mother and her two oldest to look after the house and garden. The youngest boy wasn't good for much.
'One dag the lord announced a competition for the families that worked his land. Everyone who had a boy between the ages of eight and twelve had to enter. No reward was promised, no prize. Even so, it was called a competition.
'On the dag of the competition the mother took her youngest to the lord's castle. They were not alone. Seven other children accompanied door one of both parents had gathered in the courtyard of the castle. Three meer came. Poor families, their children dressed in the best clothes they had.
'They waited all dag in the courtyard. When it was starting to get dark a man came out of the kasteel and told them they could come in.'
...becoming a large room, a large room in a kasteel with a tafel, tabel in the middle laden with food, and Eli*...runs up to the delicacies, starts to eat from the platters with his hands. Around him there are other children, big and small. Everyone eats from the table. At the far end of the tafel, tabel is a...man...woman...person wearing what has to be a wig. An enormous mane of hair that covers the person's head. The person is holding a glass filled with a dark red liquid, comfortably reclining in the chair, sipping from the glass and nodding encouragingly to Eli.
They eat and eat. Farther away, against a wall, Eli can see people in poor clothes anxiously following the events at the table. He sees a woman with a brown sjaal over her head and her hands clamped tight over her stomach and Eli thinks 'Mama'.
Then there is the ding of a glass and all attention is directed towards the man at the far end of the table. He stands up. Eli is afraid of him. His mouth is small, thin, unnaturally red. His face is chalk-white. Eli feels saliva run out of the corner of his mouth, a little flap of flesh has loosened from the inside of his cheek towards the front, he runs his tongue over it. The man is holding up a suede bag. With an elegant motion he opens the hand holding the bag shut and out roll two large white dice. It echoes in the large room when the two dice roll, come to a stop. The man takes up the dice in his hand, holds them out to Eli and the other children. The man opens his mouth to say something but at that moment the little flap of flesh falls out of Eli's** mouth and...
The man's fingers are curled around some dice and Eli sees that the nails are painted black.
Silence blankets the room like thick fog. The thin hand tips...slowly...and the dice fall out, onto the table...pa-bang. Hit against each other, spin around, stop.
A two. And a four.
Eli feels a sense of relief, though he doesn't know where it comes from, when the man walks around the table, stopping in front of the row of boys like a general in front of his army. The man's voice is tonelessly flat, neither low of high as he stretches out his long index finger and starts to count down the row.
'One...two...three...four...'
Eli looks to the left, in the direction the man has started to count. The boys stand relaxing, freed. A sob. The boy volgende to Eli bends over, his lower lip trembling. Oh. He's the one who is...number six. Eli now understands his own relief.
'Five...six...and...seven.'
The finger points straight at Eli. The man looks into his eyes. And smiles.
No!
That wasn't...Eli tears his gaze away from the man, looks at the dice. They now toon a three and a four. The boy volgende to Eli looks around wildly as if he has woken up from a nightmare. For a seconde their eyes meet. Empty. Without comprehension.
Then a scream from volgende to the wall.
...mother...
The woman with the brown sjaal runs towards him, but two men intervene, gripping her arms and throwing her back against the stone wall. Eli's arms fly out a little as if to catch her when she falls and his lips form the word '...Mama!'
Hands as strong as knots are laid over his shoulders and he is taken out of the line, led to a little door. The man in the wig is still holding out his finger, following him with it while he is pushed, pulled out of the room into a dark chamber that smells...alcohol...
Then flickering, fuzzy images; light, dark, stone, bare skin...until the picture stabilises and Eli feels a strong pressure against his chest. He cannot verplaats his arms. His right ear feels as if it is going to burst, lies pressed against a...wooden plank.
Something is in his mouth. A piece of rope. He sucks on the rope, opens his eyes.
He is lying face down on a table. Arms bound to the legs of the table. He is naked. In front of his eyes are two figures; the man with the wig and another one. A little fat man who looks...funny. No. Who looks like someone who thinks he is funny. Always tells stories that no one laughs at. The funny man has a mes in one hand, a bowl in the other.
Something is wrong.
The pressure against his chest, his ear. Against his knees. There should be pressure against his...willie as well. But it is as if there is a...hole in the tafel, tabel right there. Eli tries to wriggle a little to check it out but his body is bound too hard.
The man in the wig says something to the funny man and the funny man laughs, nods. Then both of them crouch down. The wig man fastens his gaze on Eli. His eyes are clear blue, like the sky on a cold autumn day. Looks as if he is taking a friendly interest. The man looks into Eli's eyes as if he is searching for something wonderful in there, something he loves.
The funny man crawls under the tafel, tabel with the mes and bowl in his hands and Eli understands.
He also knows that if he can just get this piece of rope out of his mouth he doesn't have to be here. Then he disappears.
The piece of rope is pressed into his mouth and there is a hissing, wet sound when Eli farts with fear. The man in the wig scrunches up his nose and smacks his lips, disapprovingly. His eyes don't change. Still the same expression as on a child opening a cardboard box he knows contains a puppy.
Cold fingers grasp Eli's penis, pulling on it. He opens his mouth to scream 'Nooo!' but the rope prevents him from forming the word and all that comes out is 'Aaaaaaah!'
The man under the tafel, tabel asks something and the wig man nods without shifting his gaze from Eli. Then the pain. A red hot iron forced into his groin, gliding up through his stomach, his chest corroded door a cylinder of brand that passes right through his body, and he screams, screams so his eyes fill with tears and his body burns.
His hart-, hart beats against the tafel, tabel like a fist against a door and he shuts his eyes tight, he bites the rope while at a distance he hears splashing, he sees...
...his mother on her knees at the stream rinsing the clothes. Mama. Mama. She drops something, a piece of cloth, and Eli gets up, he has been lying on his stomach and his body is burning, he gets up, he runs towards the stream, towards the rapidly disappearing piece of cloth, he throws himself into the stream to put out his torched body, to save the piece of cloth, and he manages to get it. His sister's shirt. He holds it up to the light, to his mother who is silhouetted on the shirt, and drops fall from the cloth, glittering in the sun***, falling splashing into the stream, in his eyes, and he cannot see clearly because of the water running into his eyes, over his cheeks as he...opens his eyes and sees the blond hair unclearly, the blue eyes like distant forest pools. Sees the bowl the man is holding in his hands, the bowl he brings to his mouth and how he drinks. How the man shuts his eyes, finally shuts them and drinks...
meer time...Endless time. Imprisoned. The man bites. And drinks. Bites. And drinks.
The glowing rod moves up into his head and everything turns roze as he jerks his head up from the rope and falls...
*I chose Eli's name instead of Oskar's for this since it was Eli's memories Oskar was experiencing so it should be told from Eli's point of view.
**Even though this was a metaphor for Oskar breaking the kiss with Eli, I still chose to set it in Eli's point of view because it kept the story going and it would kind of ruin the flow to cut it out.
***This part I'm pretty sure was a hallucination as Eli is unaffected door the sun even though he had recently been bitten. Also it goes back to the ritual scene straight after.
Hi.
I hope you've slept well. I'm also going to sleep now. I'm in the bathroom. Don't try to go in there, please. I'm trusting you. I don't know what to write. I hope that u can like me even though u know what I am. I like you. A lot. You're lying there on the divan, bank right now, snoring. Please. Don't be afraid of me.
Please please please don't be afraid of me.
Do u want to meet me tonight? Write so on this note if u do.
If u write No, I'll verplaats tonight. Probably have to do that soon anyway. But if u write Yes I'll hang around for a while longer. I don't know what I should write. I'm alone. Probably meer alone than u can imagine, I think. of perhaps u can.
Sorry I broke your muziek machine. Take the money if u want. I have a lot. Don't be afraid of me. There's no reason for u to be. Maybe u know that. I hope u know that. I like u so very much.
Yours, Eli
'Once upon a time...a long, long time ago, there was a poor farmer and his wife. They had three children. A boy and a girl both old enough to work together with the adults. And then a little boy, only eleven years old. Everyone who saw him zei he was the most beautiful child they had ever seen.
'The father was in villeinage to the lord who owned the land, and had to work many days for him. Therefore it often fell to the mother and her two oldest to look after the house and garden. The youngest boy wasn't good for much.
'One dag the lord announced a competition for the families that worked his land. Everyone who had a boy between the ages of eight and twelve had to enter. No reward was promised, no prize. Even so, it was called a competition.
'On the dag of the competition the mother took her youngest to the lord's castle. They were not alone. Seven other children accompanied door one of both parents had gathered in the courtyard of the castle. Three meer came. Poor families, their children dressed in the best clothes they had.
'They waited all dag in the courtyard. When it was starting to get dark a man came out of the kasteel and told them they could come in.'
...becoming a large room, a large room in a kasteel with a tafel, tabel in the middle laden with food, and Eli*...runs up to the delicacies, starts to eat from the platters with his hands. Around him there are other children, big and small. Everyone eats from the table. At the far end of the tafel, tabel is a...man...woman...person wearing what has to be a wig. An enormous mane of hair that covers the person's head. The person is holding a glass filled with a dark red liquid, comfortably reclining in the chair, sipping from the glass and nodding encouragingly to Eli.
They eat and eat. Farther away, against a wall, Eli can see people in poor clothes anxiously following the events at the table. He sees a woman with a brown sjaal over her head and her hands clamped tight over her stomach and Eli thinks 'Mama'.
Then there is the ding of a glass and all attention is directed towards the man at the far end of the table. He stands up. Eli is afraid of him. His mouth is small, thin, unnaturally red. His face is chalk-white. Eli feels saliva run out of the corner of his mouth, a little flap of flesh has loosened from the inside of his cheek towards the front, he runs his tongue over it. The man is holding up a suede bag. With an elegant motion he opens the hand holding the bag shut and out roll two large white dice. It echoes in the large room when the two dice roll, come to a stop. The man takes up the dice in his hand, holds them out to Eli and the other children. The man opens his mouth to say something but at that moment the little flap of flesh falls out of Eli's** mouth and...
The man's fingers are curled around some dice and Eli sees that the nails are painted black.
Silence blankets the room like thick fog. The thin hand tips...slowly...and the dice fall out, onto the table...pa-bang. Hit against each other, spin around, stop.
A two. And a four.
Eli feels a sense of relief, though he doesn't know where it comes from, when the man walks around the table, stopping in front of the row of boys like a general in front of his army. The man's voice is tonelessly flat, neither low of high as he stretches out his long index finger and starts to count down the row.
'One...two...three...four...'
Eli looks to the left, in the direction the man has started to count. The boys stand relaxing, freed. A sob. The boy volgende to Eli bends over, his lower lip trembling. Oh. He's the one who is...number six. Eli now understands his own relief.
'Five...six...and...seven.'
The finger points straight at Eli. The man looks into his eyes. And smiles.
No!
That wasn't...Eli tears his gaze away from the man, looks at the dice. They now toon a three and a four. The boy volgende to Eli looks around wildly as if he has woken up from a nightmare. For a seconde their eyes meet. Empty. Without comprehension.
Then a scream from volgende to the wall.
...mother...
The woman with the brown sjaal runs towards him, but two men intervene, gripping her arms and throwing her back against the stone wall. Eli's arms fly out a little as if to catch her when she falls and his lips form the word '...Mama!'
Hands as strong as knots are laid over his shoulders and he is taken out of the line, led to a little door. The man in the wig is still holding out his finger, following him with it while he is pushed, pulled out of the room into a dark chamber that smells...alcohol...
Then flickering, fuzzy images; light, dark, stone, bare skin...until the picture stabilises and Eli feels a strong pressure against his chest. He cannot verplaats his arms. His right ear feels as if it is going to burst, lies pressed against a...wooden plank.
Something is in his mouth. A piece of rope. He sucks on the rope, opens his eyes.
He is lying face down on a table. Arms bound to the legs of the table. He is naked. In front of his eyes are two figures; the man with the wig and another one. A little fat man who looks...funny. No. Who looks like someone who thinks he is funny. Always tells stories that no one laughs at. The funny man has a mes in one hand, a bowl in the other.
Something is wrong.
The pressure against his chest, his ear. Against his knees. There should be pressure against his...willie as well. But it is as if there is a...hole in the tafel, tabel right there. Eli tries to wriggle a little to check it out but his body is bound too hard.
The man in the wig says something to the funny man and the funny man laughs, nods. Then both of them crouch down. The wig man fastens his gaze on Eli. His eyes are clear blue, like the sky on a cold autumn day. Looks as if he is taking a friendly interest. The man looks into Eli's eyes as if he is searching for something wonderful in there, something he loves.
The funny man crawls under the tafel, tabel with the mes and bowl in his hands and Eli understands.
He also knows that if he can just get this piece of rope out of his mouth he doesn't have to be here. Then he disappears.
The piece of rope is pressed into his mouth and there is a hissing, wet sound when Eli farts with fear. The man in the wig scrunches up his nose and smacks his lips, disapprovingly. His eyes don't change. Still the same expression as on a child opening a cardboard box he knows contains a puppy.
Cold fingers grasp Eli's penis, pulling on it. He opens his mouth to scream 'Nooo!' but the rope prevents him from forming the word and all that comes out is 'Aaaaaaah!'
The man under the tafel, tabel asks something and the wig man nods without shifting his gaze from Eli. Then the pain. A red hot iron forced into his groin, gliding up through his stomach, his chest corroded door a cylinder of brand that passes right through his body, and he screams, screams so his eyes fill with tears and his body burns.
His hart-, hart beats against the tafel, tabel like a fist against a door and he shuts his eyes tight, he bites the rope while at a distance he hears splashing, he sees...
...his mother on her knees at the stream rinsing the clothes. Mama. Mama. She drops something, a piece of cloth, and Eli gets up, he has been lying on his stomach and his body is burning, he gets up, he runs towards the stream, towards the rapidly disappearing piece of cloth, he throws himself into the stream to put out his torched body, to save the piece of cloth, and he manages to get it. His sister's shirt. He holds it up to the light, to his mother who is silhouetted on the shirt, and drops fall from the cloth, glittering in the sun***, falling splashing into the stream, in his eyes, and he cannot see clearly because of the water running into his eyes, over his cheeks as he...opens his eyes and sees the blond hair unclearly, the blue eyes like distant forest pools. Sees the bowl the man is holding in his hands, the bowl he brings to his mouth and how he drinks. How the man shuts his eyes, finally shuts them and drinks...
meer time...Endless time. Imprisoned. The man bites. And drinks. Bites. And drinks.
The glowing rod moves up into his head and everything turns roze as he jerks his head up from the rope and falls...
*I chose Eli's name instead of Oskar's for this since it was Eli's memories Oskar was experiencing so it should be told from Eli's point of view.
**Even though this was a metaphor for Oskar breaking the kiss with Eli, I still chose to set it in Eli's point of view because it kept the story going and it would kind of ruin the flow to cut it out.
***This part I'm pretty sure was a hallucination as Eli is unaffected door the sun even though he had recently been bitten. Also it goes back to the ritual scene straight after.
Hi.
I hope you've slept well. I'm also going to sleep now. I'm in the bathroom. Don't try to go in there, please. I'm trusting you. I don't know what to write. I hope that u can like me even though u know what I am. I like you. A lot. You're lying there on the divan, bank right now, snoring. Please. Don't be afraid of me.
Please please please don't be afraid of me.
Do u want to meet me tonight? Write so on this note if u do.
If u write No, I'll verplaats tonight. Probably have to do that soon anyway. But if u write Yes I'll hang around for a while longer. I don't know what I should write. I'm alone. Probably meer alone than u can imagine, I think. of perhaps u can.
Sorry I broke your muziek machine. Take the money if u want. I have a lot. Don't be afraid of me. There's no reason for u to be. Maybe u know that. I hope u know that. I like u so very much.
Yours, Eli
