Stechmückensommer

This is not how Madeleine imagined her summer holidays: first, her parents pack her off to a summer camp in Sweden although she doesn’t want to go, and then she accidentally gets herself kidnapped by a crazy punk, Julian, who only intended to steal the VW bus, because – as he says – he needs to get to the North Cape urgently. And when they are joined by Vincent, the boy with the extra chromosome, the unlikely trio is complete. In a summer full of mosquitoes, woods, lakes and adventures …

“Stop! Stop this bus right now!”

No reaction.

“Hey! Are you deaf, or what?” I leaned forward over the backrest again. “Stop

the bus!”

Silence.

“I said: Stop! Please.” My voice sounded squeaky now, not at all confident.

He lifted his head and glanced in the mirror again.

“Why?”

Why? All at once, the anger rushed back into my belly with full force. This guy

stole a Volkswagen bus in broad daylight and then had the cheek to ask me why

I wanted him to stop?

“Because. I. Want. Out. Now. Because I have to get out. Back to the others. And

because they have to get the bus back. You have to go back. You have to turn the

bus around and drive me back.”

Silence.

“And you had better do it before someone calls the police.”

I hoped mentioning the police would at least make him nervous. But he stretched

out his hand, the one with the studded armband, towards the gear stick.

Moved it. The engine gave a little roar. And then we were moving faster. Faster.

Not slower.