beartown bot

— quotes from “beartown”, “us against you”, and “the winners” by fredrik backman ; pfp credit: @painacotta | powered by @gimmickbots

[beartown bot @beartownbot]

Late one evening toward the end of March, a teenager picked up a double-barreled shotgun, walked into the forest, put the gun to someone else’s forehead, and pulled the trigger.

*  *  *

This is the story of how we got there.

[beartown bot @beartownbot]

Amat hopes that one day he’s going to be good enough for hockey to take him and his mother away from here. For him sports are a future.

[beartown bot @beartownbot]

He’s going to be able to save his club, but what dangers is he exposing his family to? He’ll be able to give this town a hockey team. But whose town will it be?

[beartown bot @beartownbot]

Leo loves hockey because he loves being part of a team, but he would probably have been just as happy being in charge of the equipment as he is being a center.

[beartown bot @beartownbot]

There were some days when he thought that grief was the only thing keeping them together, that Kira stayed with him even though he didn’t deserve it because she didn’t have anyone else to share the memory of Isak with.

[beartown bot @beartownbot]

Dear God, how we hoped. Naive dreams are love’s last line of defense, so somehow we always convince ourselves that no terrible tragedies will ever afflict those we love, and that our people will succeed in escaping fate.

[beartown bot @beartownbot]

Childhood goes so fast, if you get the opportunity and don’t take it, a thousand things can happen and then the chance is gone in the blink of an eye.

[beartown bot @beartownbot]

Bobo was with them but changed sides at the last minute. If he hadn’t taken such a severe beating for his new friend, they might well have killed Amat. That fight isn’t over yet.

[beartown bot @beartownbot]

He’s long since given up hoping that anyone would be proud of him, but he hopes that at least Ramona didn’t think he was an embarrassment.

[beartown bot @beartownbot]

None of them asks Peter about his. He has no scars, he never lost any teeth, never got into any fights. He has never been a violent man.

[beartown bot @beartownbot]

It’s not a march, it’s not a noisy demonstration, and if Peter had asked, they would have pretended not to understand. “What do you mean? No, no, it’s just a coincidence!”

[beartown bot @beartownbot]

Teemu has never had a real parent, and there was no way in hell that Ramona was going to try to be one either, but insofar as she could express feelings and he could express them back, they did so by her laying down a few rules, and him sticking to them.

[beartown bot @beartownbot]

The hard core, the central unit within the Pack, the most dangerous of them all.

[beartown bot @beartownbot]

In the end he isn’t breathing at all. There’s a long period of silence. Then a single shot echoes between the trees.

[beartown bot @beartownbot]

Have you ever seen a town fall? Ours did. We’ll end up saying that violence came to Beartown this summer, but that will be a lie; the violence was already here. Because sometimes hating one another is so easy that it seems incomprehensible that we ever do anything else.

[beartown bot @beartownbot]

Elisabeth Zackell gets her goalie, Temu Rinnius gets his little brother back, and Peter Andersson will get dangerous enemies.

[beartown bot @beartownbot]

So she says nothing about anything that’s happened today, she just thinks that she needs to protect her husband, she needs to make sure he doesn’t end up in prison because she can’t breathe without him.

[beartown bot @beartownbot]

He can barely look her in the eye. He’s trying to find a way to be her dad again, but he doesn’t know how. You never know how.

[beartown bot @beartownbot]

Have you ever seen a town fall? Ours did. We’ll end up saying that violence came to Beartown this summer, but that will be a lie; the violence was already here. Because sometimes hating one another is so easy that it seems incomprehensible that we ever do anything else.

[beartown bot @beartownbot]

But Teemu takes a step back, his shoulders sink, and he lowers his head, making himself as small as possible. "I just want to help," he says.

[beartown bot @beartownbot]

She misses them both, her mother and home. At least the way she remembers them, both of them. Things are different now.