He had once tried cocaine, towards the end of the ‘70s. A fashionable rock band had offered, and he had accepted. One line and that was it, had never done it again- because it had been fantastic. Too fantastic.
We are always in a certain amount of pain. There is chafing somewhere, and if it isn’t in our body, then it’s in our mind. There’s an itch, all the time. The cocaine took it away. His body became a receptacle made of velvet, and within that receptacle there were only crystal clear thoughts. The mists had lifted, and life was wonderful. Afterwords, realizing that striving to regain this feeling could become his life’s work, Lennart refrained from taking cocaine again.
As he sat here now with his hands resting on the wheel, he felt something similar. There was a stillness in him, the forest was glowing with autumn colours, and a great being was holding its breath and waiting his decision.
Now I suppose that what Lennart is feeling could be the elation brought on by the possibilities presented to him by a tiny singing prodigy. Yes, it could be that. It also occurs to me that Lennart is experiencing the extraordinary, even supernatural power of the child's singing voice. Through out the novel, every character comments on the extraordinary power of Theres' singing voice, and later her speaking voice as well. It is described as "soporific" and hypnotic. It's the effect of a powerful psychoactive drug. Just like narcotics, Theres' singing is especially appealing to very unhappy people. People like Lennart, people like Jerry, people like Teresa, people like all those lost girls that are drawn to Theres.
This only occurred to me after I finished re-reading, so I did not make special note of every passage where somebody experiences Theres, but there is a great scene towards the end. After experiencing a tremendous high after their "Pack" weekend at the lake, Teresa and all of the other girls come crashing down into terrible depression and fear. Then they all meet up again with Theres at the zoo and she soothes their troubled minds by singing to them and with them:
I suppose it could be argued that what the characters in the novel experience is the physiological effects of a nice pop anthem. Plenty of troubled adolescents obsess over their favorite musicians. But then I have to come back to Lennart at the very beginning. All he hears is a baby singing one perfect "E" and that does it for him. Theres is no ordinary child, and her voice has supernatural powers.Theres sang the song all the way through, the others helped out in the choruses, and the music was like morphine. The pain in their bodies eased, flowed out through the notes, and as long as the song went on there was nothing to fear.