The Shadow Girls by Henning Mankell

had been sitting at the very back got up and made their way to the front.
    ‘They’re my parents,’ Leyla explained.
    ‘All of them?’
    ‘The two tallest ones are my brother and sister. The other two are my parents.’
    Leyla pointed to them as she spoke. They all looked equally short to Humlin.
    ‘My family would like to be introduced to you.’
    ‘I thought only your brother was going to come,’ Humlin said.
    ‘I have three brothers. My grandmother is also here. And two aunts on my father’s side.’
    Humlin was introduced to the family members one by one. They were friendly enough but were also clearly looking him over. Humlin heard their names but forgot them all immediately. When all the introductions were over they started their way back through the rows of other people. Humlin felt sweat running down his chest, inside his shirt. The windows looked nailed shut. He looked over at Törnblom who was standing by the door like a bouncer. Humlin felt a growing panic and cursed the fact that he had for once in his life forgotten to bring the pills he had for calming his nerves.
    ‘This is Tanya,’ Leyla said, indicating the girl who sat with her head turned away.
    Humlin half-expected to hear a new group of family members approach the table, but heard nothing. Tanya must have come on her own.
    ‘Where are you from?’ Humlin asked.
    ‘She’s from Russia,’ Leyla answered.
    ‘And you are here to learn to write? To tell your story?’
    ‘She has been through more than any of us,’ Leyla said. ‘But she doesn’t talk very much.’
    This turned out to be an accurate observation. Tanya did not say a single word all evening. Humlin looked at her surreptitiously from time to time. He assumed she was the oldest of thethree, perhaps twenty-five or twenty-six. She was the complete opposite of Leyla, slender and with a beautiful oval face framed by straight brown hair that fell to her shoulders. She was very tense and stared at a fixed point on the wall. Humlin realised that he didn’t have the slightest idea what she could be thinking, not even when he employed all of his imaginative powers. He also realised, with the usual mixture of anxiety and anticipation, that he was starting to feel attracted to her.
    Next to Tanya was Tea-Bag, the young woman he had first met in Mölndal and who had asked him the question that was the real reason he had returned to Stensgården. That time she had struck him as outspoken and strong. Now she seemed preoccupied and insecure and never quite met his gaze.
    There was a hush in the room. Humlin realised that the orchestra had arrived, and that he was the conductor. He had to think of something. He turned to Leyla.
    ‘Why do you want to write?’ he asked.
    ‘I want to be a TV star,’ she said.
    Humlin was taken aback.
    ‘A TV star?’
    ‘Yes, to be on TV, ideally a programme that comes on every night for ten years.’
    ‘Well, I hardly think I can help you with that goal. We’re not going to be talking about the TV business.’
    Humlin didn’t know how to continue. The whole situation seemed preposterous. A low buzz had started up again in the room. On one side he had Leyla, who was sweating and who had just told him she wanted to be a TV star, on the other side was Tanya, who still had her face turned away from him, and Tea-Bag whom he no longer recognised. In order to buy some time hepointed to the pads of paper the girls all had in front of them, labelled ‘Törnblom’s Boxing Club’.
    ‘I want you to write two things,’ he said and was immediately interrupted by someone with a heavy accent asking him to speak up.
    ‘This is not actually intended to be a lecture,’ Humlin replied in a loud voice. ‘What I want at this point is for the girls to write down the answers to two questions: “Why do you want to write?” and “What do you hope to do in the future?”’
    A murmur of surprise and anticipation filled the room. Törnblom made his way over to the table