cabinet where I held my breath and let it out, surrounded by only smiling people, who thereafter wrapped me up with rough, brutal hands in a large white bandage that held me erect and prevented me from breathing in more deeply than I needed to, whereupon I was bundled out again, as stiff as a poker and given a hug by Marlene, who became embroiled in yet another frank conversation with the receptionist, bent down to us, made secretive, mischievous faces, as though she had just managed to pull the wool over someone’s eyes, and whispered as she pushed us out into the winter cold that now we were going to take a bloody taxi, which
she
had arranged for us!
A taxi home.
With Linda and me on the rear seat. Marlene and the driver sat at the front smoking filter cigarettes and talking as if they had known each other all their lives, the way Marlene talked to everyone and the way everyone talked to her. Marlene was born to mend all the wayward and the weird in life with her words, her beauty and her red-lipped smile. She talked the driver into taking us right up to the entrance, the lad’s not well, you see. And it created something of a stir because, as it happened, school was over, and the black Volga we rolled up in was almost on a par with an ambulance. Anne-Berit asked Linda what was going on, although I didn’t hear whether she got an answer. But I made a few more faces and was very stiff, as Marlene signed a slip of paper and said bye-bye to the driver before steering us through the crowd of kids in through the door and up the stairs.
Mother was already home from work, and in quite a different frame of mind from when she had left us, gentle and full of energy, with food on the table, rissoles and creamed cabbage, and she wanted to know exactly what we had done during the course of the day and most of all how I was.
Well, not so bad, I ate as I had never eaten before. But then I had to have another lie-down, this time in Linda’s bed, on the lower bunk.
“Linda can sleep with me,” Mother said, pinching her cheek. Linda had been on my bunk once and there had been a hell of a to-do, caused by fear of heights, Mother reckoned.
I stayed there for a full week.
That might have been a bit over the top, seven days in bed on account of a few ribs, but I read the whole time, books and comics, and Linda entertained me by sitting still in Mother’s bed and looking in my direction, in case I needed anything, volume four of the encyclopaedia, for example, a glass of water with fizzy drink powder, and I paid her with small scraps of paper with numbers on, I called them bank notes, which she collected in a little shoe box and I forced her to add them up, to keep a kind of balance sheet, to no avail, but she did at least want to keep them in piles, sorted by size.
I also had some visitors, first Anne-Berit, who was disappointed to find that my bandage was not a plaster cast. Then Freddy 1, who had been sent by his mother with two Fox chocolate bars and hung around the beds, ill at ease, not knowing where to sit, until I made room for him on my bed. We ate the chocolate and played Snakes and Ladders, Ludo and a card game called Pig. While Linda watched.
“Is she not going to play?” asked Freddy 1.
“Nope.”
“Why not?”
“She doesn’t like games.”
“Doesn’t
like?” Freddy 1
wondered with an intrigued grin, and glanced over at her through his long fringe, Freddy 1 had always had longer hair than everyone else, apart from when he had his hair cut, then he had shorter hair than everyone else, and always looked as if he groomed his hair with a hand grenade. “Can’t you play Pig?”
Linda didn’t answer. She was making heaps with the money.
“I can teach you,” Freddy 1 said.
“No,” I said loudly, and he looked upset. “O.K., have a go then.”
Freddy 1 explained, but Linda looked away.
“See if you can chuck ‘em,” he suggested. “Like this!”
And he started throwing cards around the room.
she
had arranged for us!
A taxi home.
With Linda and me on the rear seat. Marlene and the driver sat at the front smoking filter cigarettes and talking as if they had known each other all their lives, the way Marlene talked to everyone and the way everyone talked to her. Marlene was born to mend all the wayward and the weird in life with her words, her beauty and her red-lipped smile. She talked the driver into taking us right up to the entrance, the lad’s not well, you see. And it created something of a stir because, as it happened, school was over, and the black Volga we rolled up in was almost on a par with an ambulance. Anne-Berit asked Linda what was going on, although I didn’t hear whether she got an answer. But I made a few more faces and was very stiff, as Marlene signed a slip of paper and said bye-bye to the driver before steering us through the crowd of kids in through the door and up the stairs.
Mother was already home from work, and in quite a different frame of mind from when she had left us, gentle and full of energy, with food on the table, rissoles and creamed cabbage, and she wanted to know exactly what we had done during the course of the day and most of all how I was.
Well, not so bad, I ate as I had never eaten before. But then I had to have another lie-down, this time in Linda’s bed, on the lower bunk.
“Linda can sleep with me,” Mother said, pinching her cheek. Linda had been on my bunk once and there had been a hell of a to-do, caused by fear of heights, Mother reckoned.
I stayed there for a full week.
That might have been a bit over the top, seven days in bed on account of a few ribs, but I read the whole time, books and comics, and Linda entertained me by sitting still in Mother’s bed and looking in my direction, in case I needed anything, volume four of the encyclopaedia, for example, a glass of water with fizzy drink powder, and I paid her with small scraps of paper with numbers on, I called them bank notes, which she collected in a little shoe box and I forced her to add them up, to keep a kind of balance sheet, to no avail, but she did at least want to keep them in piles, sorted by size.
I also had some visitors, first Anne-Berit, who was disappointed to find that my bandage was not a plaster cast. Then Freddy 1, who had been sent by his mother with two Fox chocolate bars and hung around the beds, ill at ease, not knowing where to sit, until I made room for him on my bed. We ate the chocolate and played Snakes and Ladders, Ludo and a card game called Pig. While Linda watched.
“Is she not going to play?” asked Freddy 1.
“Nope.”
“Why not?”
“She doesn’t like games.”
“Doesn’t
like?” Freddy 1
wondered with an intrigued grin, and glanced over at her through his long fringe, Freddy 1 had always had longer hair than everyone else, apart from when he had his hair cut, then he had shorter hair than everyone else, and always looked as if he groomed his hair with a hand grenade. “Can’t you play Pig?”
Linda didn’t answer. She was making heaps with the money.
“I can teach you,” Freddy 1 said.
“No,” I said loudly, and he looked upset. “O.K., have a go then.”
Freddy 1 explained, but Linda looked away.
“See if you can chuck ‘em,” he suggested. “Like this!”
And he started throwing cards around the room.
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