The Pool Room

"It was almost night when Harry tottered into the kitchen and his grandmother hugged him and said that his father, grandfather and all the adults from the neighbouring farm were out looking for him. Where had he been? In the forest. But hadn’t he heard their shouts? They had been calling Harry, she had heard them calling Harry all the time. He didn’t remember it himself, but many times later he had been told that he had sat there trembling with cold on the wooden box in front of the stove, staring into the distance with an apathetic expression on his face, and had answered: ‘I didn’t think it was them calling.’ ‘Who did you think it was then?’ ‘The others. Did you know that darkness has a taste, Grandma?’"

Highlighted by Lachlan Hardy in The Snowman by jo nesbo