Beyond the Reeds

From the bridge the windmill looked close. Noor could see the red edging round its cap. On her map it almost touched the island. As they walked beside the water, it slipped behind a different tree at every bend.

‘Is it much further?’ Sami asked.

‘You can see it,’ Noor said.

‘I can see the moon too.’

Daan walked a few paces ahead. He stopped at a narrow side path to check the sign. It pointed towards a field for exercising dogs. Not their turning. Bente passed him and went on to the bend.

‘The pumping station fence is further along.’

Here the air smelled of wet leaves. A chestnut husk floated on the water, one half sticking up. Noor walked past it. That morning she had pointed at almost everything that floated. Now she wanted to see what was missing from her map.

A few minutes later they reached a low building surrounded by a green fence. Inside were two grilles and a coiled hose. The path continued outside the fence. Daan put his shopping bag by his feet so he could hold the map in both hands.

‘This is the pumping station,’ Bente said.

Noor drew a square. It was much nearer the bridge than the windmill. She had thought they would be almost at the end of their route by now.

The reed island lay ahead, longer than a playground. Noor could see where the water divided, but a broad clump of stems hid the far tip. A gull circled above it without landing.

‘We’re facing west now,’ Daan said, pointing briefly at the windmill. ‘The lock’s behind us. Back past the bridge, then further on.’

Noor looked round. The bridge was smaller now, but she recognised the library light beside it. She turned back.

To the right of the island lay the broad stretch of water, reflecting the pale sky. To the left, a channel ran between the reeds and their path. In places it was so narrow that two feathery reed heads almost touched. Further on it widened again.

‘So that’s what I left out,’ Noor said.

Bente didn’t take the map from her. She pointed to where Noor needed to make the channel longer.

Sami bent to empty a stone from his shoe. He held on to the bench, one foot still in its sock.

‘The boat would fit through there,’ he said once his shoe was back on.

‘Even the narrow bits?’ Noor asked.

Bente held her hands apart. ‘It’s this wide. Including the rim.’

Noor had kept drawing it as one long line. Between Bente’s hands there was room for a whole roof, with windows and people underneath. She drew a little view from above beside the map. No arrows would be allowed through that later.

They walked on. The channel stayed on their right, though now and then a bush hid it. Daan walked on the water side of the path. They stopped by a bench to look through a gap in the reeds. Noor saw the brown underside of a leaf and a piece of string attached to a post. No roof.

Bente waited for Noor to put her pencil away before walking on. She hadn’t brought the scissors, but a grey scrap of cardboard still clung to her sleeve. She picked it off and put it in her coat pocket.

Soon the old landing stage came into view. Noor saw the railing first. Behind it lay broad wooden boards, with a bench in the middle. The water disappeared beneath the outer edge.

A red-and-white barrier blocked the entrance. A large sign hung from it.

‘PAINTING IN PROGRESS,’ Sami read. ‘Landing stage reopens Sunday, ten o’clock.’

Under the words was a picture of a paintbrush. A real one lay on a tub beyond the barrier. Noor looked from the sign to the boards. Fresh paint shone darkly on the railing.

‘Tomorrow, then,’ Bente said.

Noor looked along the barrier. It only blocked the entrance. At the side, a bush grew right up against the wood. There was no other path onto the landing stage. She turned her map over and wrote: Sunday 10.

A man stood up behind an open box near the bench. His knees were paint-spattered and his glasses kept sliding down his nose.

‘Looking for the walking trail?’ he asked.

‘A model boat,’ Bente said. ‘With a white roof. It came loose on Friday.’

He glanced at the water beside him. ‘I haven’t seen a boat. I’ve mostly been working on this railing.’

‘Can you see underneath from there?’ Noor asked.

He looked over his shoulder. ‘Only under this side. The outer edge is lower. I’ll be here clearing up tomorrow morning. Then the barrier can go at ten.’

He held his glasses up with the back of his hand. Bente thanked him. He knelt by the paint tin again, first wiping his brush.

They followed the public path round the bush. There was a bench with its back to a vegetable garden. Daan waited beside it while the children looked towards the outside of the landing stage from the path. Reeds hung in front. Noor caught glimpses of a dark beam, then only water again.

Sami went a few steps back along the path. He could see past the bush from there, but now the landing-stage bench blocked his view. Noor joined him. The boards were close together. From the side they looked like one solid surface. On the landing stage itself you could look straight between them. She shaded her eyes from the sun. The dark patch beneath the edge stayed dark. Bente tried to follow the gaps in the reeds without leaving the path.

Something tapped.

Noor held her breath for a moment.

‘What?’ Sami asked.

‘Did you hear that?’

Something rattled on the landing stage. The paint tin, perhaps. Noor couldn’t see the man. Then came another tap, softer. She didn’t know whether the sounds belonged together.

Bente stood still beside her. A reed head brushed a post. That might have made the sound too. Everything went quiet again.

Noor didn’t put a cross on the map. She only added a small word beside the landing stage: listen.

‘We can’t get a proper look from here,’ she said.

Daan folded his shopping bag. ‘At least we know where we can stand tomorrow.’

On the way back Bente walked a little ahead. She waited at the pumping station. Noor held up the map, this time turning it until the building on the paper lined up with the real one.

‘Like that?’ she asked.

Bente pointed to the narrow channel. ‘That needs to stay on this side of the island.’

Noor corrected the line. It no longer fitted between her first drawings. She added a small arrow that pointed only to the word channel. Sami held the corner until she finished.