A Master Builder Page #8

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She had a talent

for building and shaping...

the souls of young children.

She would have enabled

her children to grow up...

with a kind of equanimity

and a kind of grace.

All that talent just lies there now...

like a pile of rubble

after an enormous explosion.

It's completely useless.

Yes, but even if that's true...

Well, it is true.

It is true. I know Aline.

But the point is, it wasn't your fault.

None of it was your fault.

No?

But that's the question, isn't it?

'Cause I think it probably was my fault.

What?

The fire?

Yes, all of it.

Everything that happened.

Master Builder...

when you talk like that...

you sound as though

you really are mentally sick.

Well, there...

Excuse me.

Well, please come in,

so we can settle this.

Yes, that'd be great.

Things aren't going any better

for your father, I hear.

No, he's, deteriorating very fast.

Um...

That's why I've come here to ask you...

Please...

could you possibly write a few words

on one of my drawings?

You know, just anything that

he could read before he...

Ragnar, could you please not talk to me

any more about those drawings?

Why? Have...

Have you looked at them?

Yes, of course.

So...

perhaps you don't find them very good.

Or perhaps...

you don't think that I'm very...

Ragnar, please just stay here...

and keep on working with me.

You'll have everything

that you could possibly want.

You can get married to Kaya.

You'll live without any anxieties.

You might even be happy.

You just have to stop thinking

about becoming a builder yourself.

All right.

Fine.

So...

that's what I'll go home and tell Father.

Fine. Well... good.

'Cause I promised to tell him

exactly what you said.

And that's what you want me to tell him

before he dies, right?

Well, for God's sake,

tell him whatever you like.

The best thing, really,

would be to tell him nothing.

May I take the drawings with me then?

- Yes, please.

- No, leave them.

Leave them? Leave them for what?

Because I want to take a look at them too.

But you've already...

Fine.

Leave them then.

Ragnar, you mustn't ask me for something

that I can't give you.

Of course. Of course.

Excuse me.

That was incredibly cruel. I-I-I...

Do you think so?

Yes, that's just what he was thinking.

You were brutal with him.

It was sickening.

You said I was the only one

who should be allowed to build.

Yes. I said it.

You shouldn't say it.

Hilde, if I can't have...

a single moment

of inner peace in my life...

please at least allow me

to keep my position in the world.

Why can't you have

a single moment of inner peace?

All right, I will tell you.

See, Hilde...

in the old house where we used to live...

the one that burned down...

there was an attic...

and I used to go up there very frequently.

And one day, when I was in the attic...

I noticed a crack

in the chimney pipe there.

And every time

that I would go up to the attic...

I would check to see

if the crack was still there.

- And it always was.

- Yes, because nobody but me knew about it.

- And you never mentioned it to anyone?

- No, I didn't.

A cracked chimney pipe

is incredibly dangerous.

Didn't it occur to you to get it fixed?

Yes, it occurred to me...

but every time I was about to do something

about it, something stopped me...

as if a hand had suddenly come out

of nowhere and was holding on to me...

and I would just say to myself,

"Well, I'll do it tomorrow."

So the crack was never mended.

You just ignored it?

How could you do that?

Because I kept on wondering

about that little crack.

Could I possibly fly through that crack...

and fly up to a great height

as a master builder?

That must have been

a very exciting thought.

See, I kept thinking

of this little... this little story...

and it all seemed so natural.

It seemed so simple and easy.

It would all take place, naturally,

in the wintertime, a little before lunch...

and Aline and I would be out,

and I'd be driving her around somewhere.

And of course those who stayed behind...

would have lit big roaring fires

in all of the stoves.

Yes, 'cause it would have

been a terribly cold day.

Yes, bitterly, bitterly cold.

So it would happen as we'd be riding

toward home, we'd see smoke rising.

You'd just see smoke.

At first, just smoke.

But then as we would approach

the garden gate...

we'd be able to see the whole house...

like a big wooden box...

in a ring of flame...

a surging, pulsing ring of flame.

I see.

Tell me, are you...

are you absolutely certain

that the fire was caused...

by that little crack in the chimney pipe?

No, no, no.

No, on the contrary, the crack

in the chimney pipe, I definitely know...

had nothing to do with it.

What?

No, it was clearly determined...

the fire broke out in a clothes closet in

a completely different part of the house.

Well, then why are you talking

to me about this?

Well, I can explain!

I can explain! Hilde...

Hilde, I can explain this.

I can explain this.

You see... Listen to me.

I have to ask you something.

Would you agree with me, possibly...

that there are certain

people in the world...

certain particular selected individuals...

who have received a certain favor...

and they've been granted

a certain power...

so that they can desire something

so passionately...

that the thing they wish for

simply has to take place?

Well, if there are...

we'll learn one day

whether I'm one of them.

But see, Hilde...

an individual can't

accomplish things like that...

entirely on their own.

See, there are forces in the universe...

that serve people and that help people.

And in order for one's desires

to be realized...

those forces have to be there.

They don't just suddenly appear, Hilde.

One has to call for them...

with a sort of intense

inner determination.

And I did that. I called for them.

I called, and they came, and they did

exactly what I wanted them to do.

And that's why I say

that it was my fault that the boys died...

and that Aline was never able to be

what she should have been.

Master Builder, I wonder...

if perhaps you were simply born...

with an oversensitive conscience.

Wh-What does that mean?

It means that your conscience

is very delicate...

and it's much too weak...

and it is too easily crushed

by heavy things.

I see. And what sort of a conscience

should I have then?

I would like you to have

a more robust conscience...

which can lift up those things

and bear their weight.

You know, in all those old books

of the Norse sagas...

Have you done any reading

in those old books, Hilde?

Yes, certainly.

Well, they always talk about the Vikings.

They always describe how the Vikings went

to foreign countries and...

they set fire to the countryside...

and they robbed, and they stole,

and they beat men to death.

- They seized the women.

- They just took them away.

Carried them off in their ships.

Well, those Vikings really had

those consciences that were s...

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