[From the Prime Minister's speech 07.00]
Prime Minister: Military personnel have relocated the reliving during the night. It was a necessary step, for the purposes of being able to provide the proper care…
Journalist: Where have they been taken?
[Pause]
Prime Minister: Please save your questions for the appropriate time, otherwise I will have to ask you to leave. [Pause] In order to be able to provide the proper care, the reliving have been moved to a facility where they can be kept separated. The mental stress attested to by medical personnel must be taken seriously.
At first the proposed solution was to divide them up among a number of hospitals. This would however have compromised the provision of regular health services. Even the level of service would have been affected.
The solution that we have arrived at is the best at this point in time. The reliving have been moved to the residential area the Heath in north-west Stockholm. The necessary personnel have been dispatched and our aim is for rehabilitation to begin shortly. A place will be made in society for the reliving.
[Pause]
Any questions?
Journalist: Is it possible to care for seriously ill people in a residential complex that's only half-completed?
Prime Minister: We have received medical reports to the effect that the condition of the reliving is not nearly as critical as was first thought. Many of the precautionary treatments that were initially provided have turned out to be unnecessary.
Journalist: How can you be sure?
[Pause]
Prime Minister: These were questions I was in fact going to refer to Sten Bergwall, who was appointed director of the relocation. I can only say that we had guarantees.
Journalist: Did Sten Bergwall commit suicide?
Prime Minister: I will not dignify that question with speculation. Absolutely not.
Journalist: Isn't this a pretty desperate measure?
Prime Minister: Well, there you are again. How do you expect me to answer that?
Journalist: Why are no relatives allowed into the area?
Prime Minister: Family members will shortly be afforded the opportunity to see their reliving. It is regrettable that it has taken so long.
Journalist: Is this something you are doing in order to avoid a no-confidence motion?
Prime Minister: [Sighing] My government and I are fully capable
of making decisions without having a gun held to our heads. Up to this point it has not been possible to allow the public to make visits. Now it is possible. Therefore we are now opening for the public.
[Letter found in Sten Bergwall's office]
It is with great regret that I must advise that everything has gone to hell. I cannot assume responsibility for a decision that I know in my heart to be wrong, and one that will lead to catastrophe.
I am exhausted as I have never been before. My hand is shaking on the pen. Thoughts come only with difficulty.
How could it have been handled differently?
The reliving are regarded as vegetables, without will, or thought. This is wrong. They are like jellyfish. Their behaviour is influenced by their environment. They have a will. The will of the person thinking of them. No one is prepared to accept this.
We should isolate them completely. We should destroy them. Burn them. Instead, they will now be released into the uncontrolled thoughts of the public at large. It will end badly. I do not want to be present when this occurs.
If my legs have the strength to get me to the subway, I will leave now.
[Daily Echo-lunch edition 12.30]
… spokesperson now says that the situation in the Heath is under control and that relatives who wish to visit their reliving may do so starting at noon tomorrow…
[From Bruno the Beaver Seeks and Finds (in press)]
… but with each storey that Bruno added to the tower, the moon slipped further away. He stretched out his paw. His paw was on the moon. He tried to feel if it was rough or smooth. But he only felt air. The moon was still as far away as when he had started to build the tower.
[…]
The tower was now fourteen storeys high, higher than the tallest tree. When Bruno sat at the top he could see the mountains far away. Something was moving in the lake under his feet. Deep down there he saw the Waterman gliding around among the stilts on which he had built his tower. Bruno pulled up his feet and closed his eyes.
[…]
At night Bruno saw that there were two moons. One up in the sky and one down on the surface of the water. The one up there he could not reach, and the one down there he did not dare to take. That was the Waterman's moon.