Beartown

Maya is playing her guitar, thinking that either Kevin has to die, or she does. Something about the rock going through the window changed her. She goes to Ana’s house to visit. She asks if they can take the rifles and go shoot in the forest. Ana tells her she is going to take her to New York and be her manager when she gets a recording contract.

Kevin’s father and Tails visit Ramona at the Bearskin. Erdahl tells Ramona that there is going to be a meeting of the sponsors, to vote Peter out, and he wants her support since the Bearskin is also a sponsor. She tells him that the only thing worse than being accused of rape is probably being raped. She tells him that if he had played hockey after age 12, he might have turned into a man and been a better example to his son. Erdahl leaves, reminding her that she doesn’t own the building. Ramona tells Tails that his father would be ashamed of him.

Kevin goes for a jog in the forest. He doesn’t notice Maya, who is watching him from a distance, timing him. She “wonders where she ought to stand. One of them is going to die. She still hasn’t decided who” (342).

Peter realizes that he was so good at hockey that he never had to learn how to fight: “He hasn’t reasoned his way to not believing in violence. He just doesn’t have it in him” (343). He goes into the rink cafeteria where the meeting is going to be held.

Ann-Katrin and Hog go in as well, and Hog tells her that they can’t get involved. They just need to listen.

Fatima hears a knock on the door. Two huge boys talk to Amat on the porch and then leave. He won’t tell her what the conversation was about. It was Bobo and Lyt, ordering him to go to the meeting to show his support for Kevin. When Fatima goes into his room, Amat is looking at the business card. He tells her about the job. She tells him that she doesn’t need a man to take care of her, except him, and that the best job for her is the one where she can watch him play every day. She says she knows he knows something that someone wants him not to reveal, and that he is not alone. He walks to the rink and stands with his teammates.

At the meeting, everyone interrupts the president to take their turn saying that they know Maya is lying, and that Peter is behind it. Peter stands in the doorway, then leaves, choosing not to defend himself. He finds Ramona in the hallway. She pushes by him and walks into the cafeteria, where she immediately begins yelling at a man who is making a joke about how tight the jeans are that young girls wear these days. She shakes her walking stick at them all and says, “This is not my town. You’re not my town. You should be ashamed of yourselves” (352). A man tells her to shut up. Three members of The Pack step forward and tell him that if he says it again, they will shut him up for good.

Amat walks in and stands before everyone. He says that he is in love with Maya, that Kevin raped her, and that he’s going to the police tomorrow: “I’m going to tell you everything now, everything that Kevin did, everything that I saw. And you won’t ever forget it” (353). He reminds them that he sees better and differently than any of them.

Outside, Lyt grabs him and screams at him. Ann-Katrin gets between them and pushes him away. Bobo has never felt so proud of her. Amat walks to Zacharias’s house, wishes him a happy birthday, and goes in. They play video games together.

One of the members of The Pack tells Ramona that he isn’t sure he can get everyone to vote the way she wants. She pats his knee and says she knows he’ll do what he can. It is the man who drives the black Saab. After Ramona leaves, the man watches Kevin’s father and thinks.

Maya texts Amat with one word: “Thanks,” and he replies, “Sorry” (358).

David goes to Sune’s house and tells him that he has been offered the A-team job. He says that Peter damaged the team because he couldn’t wait until a day after the final to accuse Kevin. He says that it’s up to a court to decide whether Kevin is guilty, and the court could have been convened one day later if the GM had decided to consider the team. Then David reveals that the offer was to coach the A-team in Hed, not in Beartown.

The president visits Peter’s house and tells him that he won’t be fired. He says that the players will follow David to Hed and that the sponsors are already withdrawing. The president looks past David, to Maya, and tells her that he is sorry.

Kevin’s mother visits Benji at Gaby’s house. She tells Benji that his sisters are a blessing and that she knows he is the one person Kevin has never been able to lie to. She knows Benji would do anything for her son, and that the fact that he has not been there to support Kevin must mean something. They embrace and she leaves. When she gets home, she goes into the garden and stares at Kevin until he meets her eyes: “So that the son has to look at his mother. Until she knows” (369).

Maya, Kira, Peter, Ana, and Leo are playing a card game when Kevin’s mother knocks on their door. She comes in and kneels in front of Maya. She starts sobbing and tells Maya she is sorry. Maya tells her that it isn’t her fault, and strokes her hair.

Amat looks out the window at Zacharias’s house and sees a group of hooded figures moving toward the buildings, looking for him. He leaves quickly while Zacharias is in the bathroom.

Ann-Katrin sees a group of boys in hoodies and scarves talking to Bobo in the driveway. Lyt is the leader. She sees Bobo trying to protest, but after they leave, he goes into the garage and gets a hoodie and scarf, then follows them.

Amat stands under a streetlight, on purpose: “Perhaps you get tired of being frightened if you’ve been frightened long enough” (373). Two of them begin to hit him with pipes. Then Bobo is fighting them all, but they overwhelm him. A car drives by and stops and the group scatters. Amat and Bobo are bloody and battered. They smile at each other as they lie on the ground. The car is the black Saab. A man gets out and tells Amat that he should have kept quiet at the meeting, but that Ramona trusts him. He hands Amat an envelope. Inside are five, 1,000-kronor notes.

Benji knocks on the bass player’s door with skates in his hand. That night they kiss on the ice. 

In the garage, Hog tells Bobo that he is proud of him and that he is embarrassed that he didn’t stand up as bravely as Bobo has. He says that they need to talk about girls, and Bobo says he would never rape anyone. He also tells Hog that he watches porn, so he doesn’t have to have the birds and the bees talk. Hog reaches for a bottle of whiskey. Ann-Katrin hears their conversation and feels that she has never been prouder of them.

Fatima takes Amat to the police station in Hed, where he makes his statement. Two hours later, Kevin tells his story in the same room, with his parents there.

Kira’s colleague has a friend in the police office. She goes into Kira’s office, shaking, and shows her six words on a piece of paper: “Preliminary investigation closed. Lack of evidence” (382). Kira falls to the floor and begins to scream.

Benji is on the way to the bass player when he gets a text that says, “Island?” (383). He walks to a secret spot that he and Kevin have always shared near the lake, and Kevin hugs him when he sees him. Benji tells him that he can’t lie to him and that he won’t be going to Hed with him. Kevin screams that he needs him and that he is sorry. Benji leaves, saying that he hopes Kevin finds the version of himself that he is looking for.

When Kira gets home and tells Maya, Maya consoles her. She says they can’t win, and that she doesn’t want to move because “this is my fucking town too” (385). Maya goes into the bathroom and looks in the mirror, then tells herself that she only needs one bullet. She goes and asks her father to stay and make a better club for everyone. Maya goes to the table and leaves two wrapped parcels for her parents on it. Then she and Ana take shotguns out into the forest and practice shooting.

Kira and Peter open their gifts. One is a mug with a wolf on it. Peter’s is an espresso machine.

Kira goes to the Bearskin and thanks Ramona for what she did at the meeting. She asks why Ramona had the Pack vote for Peter to keep his job. Ramona tells her that “[p]eople around here don’t always know the difference between right and wrong. But we know the difference between good and evil” (390). The Pack buys Kira a beer. They can respect the bravery it takes for a woman to walk into a place like the Bearskin, knowing that a gang who hates her husband is there.

David goes looking for Benji, but can’t find him. When he goes to the Barn, one of the workers says that Benji took skates out to the outdoor rink. David goes out and sees Benji kissing the bass player: “David is shaking all over. He feels ashamed and disgusted” (393). He doesn’t know if he’ll ever be able to look Benji in the eye again. He feels that Benji has betrayed him by keeping this secret. He thinks of his own father, who hated homosexuals. David feels that he has let Benji down because “[t]here’s no other way to explain how much a grown man must have failed as a person if such a warrior of a boy could believe that his coach would be less proud of him if he were gay” (397). He hates himself for not being better than his dad. When he goes home he cries and tells himself that he will never let anyone else ever wear number 16, Benji’s number. And he will never stop hoping that Benji will come to Hed to play for him.

Ana falls asleep in a bed with Maya at her house. Maya takes a shotgun and goes outside into the dark.

At his house, Tails hears his son yelling at his daughter, calling her a bitch because she won’t give him a phone charger. He yells that “[e]veryone knows you WISH you’d been raped but there’s no one who WANTS to do it!” (404). Tails does not remember going in and slamming his son into the wall, but he realizes he is holding him, crying, and telling him that he can never grow into that kind of man.

Amat’s mother drives him to a store, where he buys a new guitar for Maya with the money. He leaves it on her porch, but she is not home.

Tails goes to the Bearskin and tells Ramona he wants to stay. He’s not going to withdraw his sponsorships and wants her on the board. He says he is going to sell one of his stores to raise money for the club.

Kevin is out jogging on the illuminated running track.

Ana wakes up and is frantic when she realizes that Maya is gone. Downstairs, she finds a note in the gun cabinet. It says, “Happy, Ana. In ten years’ time I see myself being happy. You too” (407).

Maya steps onto the track ahead of Kevin and points the gun at him. She tells him to get on his knees. She says, “Look at me. I want to see your eyes when I kill you” (409). She sees that Kevin has wet himself in fear. She puts the gun to his forehead and pulls the trigger. Kevin falls to the ground and realizes that he is still alive. Maya had only put one cartridge in the shotgun. She crouches and says, “Now you’ll be scared of the dark too, Kevin. For the rest of your life” (411).

The narrator states that in 10 years, Maya will run into Kevin in a parking lot while he is there with his wife. She will know—as will he—that she spared him that day, as she had on the track. In the car, after, Kevin will break down and tell his wife everything.

In 10 years, Maya will be signing autographs as she walks toward the sold-out concert she is about to play.

Ana makes it to the track in time to see what happens with Maya and Kevin. The next day she goes back and gets the cartridge that Maya had dropped in the snow.

Benji goes to the rink and sees Peter in the hall. He tells him that he’s not leaving and that he will always play for Beartown.

In 10 years, the narrator says that no one will see the 4-year-old girl step onto the ice for her first skate and that she will go on to be the most talented player the club will ever see.