Yrsa Sigurdardottir - Someone to Watch Over Me

‘That sounds sensible.’ Thóra smiled. Another salary wouldn’t hurt. ‘You can always change jobs later. It’s not like they’re hiring you for life.’

‘No, that’s true.’ He was obviously making an effort to be upbeat. ‘Which of course is all this job has going for it, apart from the fact that I’m finding it incredibly difficult just sitting about doing nothing.’

‘And it hasn’t exactly made things easier having Mum and Dad hanging around…’ There was no need for Matthew to respond to this. ‘Well, anyway, you’ll figure something out. It’s not as if we’re broke.’

Matthew smiled at her. ‘Don’t you need an assistant?’

She smiled back. ‘Get rid of Bella for me and you can apply to be our receptionist.’

The match ended with Sóley’s team being thrashed as usual; in fact the winners even seemed a bit shamefaced, as if they’d been playing against a team of younger girls and had got too carried away by the game to keep their victory to a modest level. But Sóley and her teammates didn’t take the loss to heart and came off the pitch with their heads held high, in the true spirit of sportsmanship.

Jakob wasn’t handcuffed to the bed or restrained in any other way. Nor were there any guards posted at his door. The hospital room was securely locked, though, so he couldn’t have got far if he had made a run for it – which seemed unlikely in any case, considering his injuries. The nurse who had opened the door for Thóra had called for authorisation to let her in, which didn’t appear to be a problem. Not knowing the full story behind the attack, Thóra had brought Matthew with her just to be safe; it was entirely possible that Jakob had started the fight and she knew she might be in for a thrashing similar to the one that Sóley’s team had suffered if he felt like turning his anger on her. Matthew’s presence didn’t seem to bother anyone, which reinforced the impression that people weren’t particularly worried about Jakob. Thóra didn’t quite know how to interpret this, but in the end she decided it probably wasn’t a good thing: they weren’t even considering that they might need to keep an eye on him. Of course there could be an entirely different, quite practical explanation; perhaps it was simply yet another manifestation of savings and cutbacks.

Jakob was lying in a hospital bed with the blanket pulled up to his chin. His right eye was covered with thick white bandages and he had made an attempt to put his glasses neatly over them. The large, clumsy frames were crooked, since one arm did not reach his ear, which had also been damaged – it too was covered with bandages, and taped to his head. The result was rather comical; even more so as Jakob turned his head quickly away from the television to see who had come, which meant the glasses dropped and ended up so crooked that they lay almost at right angles to his face. He hurried to straighten them with his chubby fingers. ‘Hello, Jakob,’ said Thóra. She held out the box she’d bought on the way. ‘We’ve brought you some chocolates. You remember Matthew, don’t you?’

‘Yes.’ Jakob stared at the colourful box. ‘Can I have some now?’

‘Of course.’ Thóra immediately regretted saying this. He might well be nil by mouth. ‘Are you allowed to eat? Has anyone told you you shouldn’t?’

‘No. No one.’ Jakob shook his head to emphasize his words. ‘But I’m still hungry. I couldn’t finish my supper last night.’ He didn’t need to explain any further what had disturbed his supper. ‘I got food before but I should have had two meals because I’m owed one from yesterday.’

‘Of course.’ Thóra smiled. She opened the box and placed it on the table next to him as Matthew pulled two chairs up to the bed. ‘Watch out for the cracknel.’

Jakob took Thóra at her word and chose carefully. With his mouth full of chocolate he muttered politely, ‘Thank you very much.’

‘You’re welcome.’ Matthew took the empty wrappers from him and threw them in a rubbish bin by the sink, then sat back down. ‘How are you feeling, apart from hungry?’

‘Bad. I’m itchy but I can’t scratch because there are ban-dages in the way.’

Thóra pointed to the television remote. ‘Would you mind turning down the volume or turning it off, just while we’re here? Then we can hear you better.’ The actors in the film had suddenly burst into song.

Jakob looked at the screen and spent a few moments making up his mind. In the end he reached for the remote and turned off the TV. ‘I’ve seen this movie anyway.’

‘Thanks, that’s much better.’ Thóra smiled at him again. ‘Has your mother been able to visit you?’

‘Yes. She was here before.’ Jakob selected another chocolate. ‘She’s going to come back later. I can see our house from here, so she can see me too. We live on the third floor and if I’m not home, Mummy needs to carry the food all the way up the stairs on her own.’ He pointed towards the window with his right hand, which was also wrapped in bandages.

‘I’m sure you’ve been a great help to her.’ Thóra looked out of the window but couldn’t see the house he meant. ‘Hopefully you’ll be able to go and help her again. But first you’ve got to get better, and then a few other things have to happen. But let’s not worry about those things now.’

‘No.’ Jakob closed the box. ‘We can talk about all sorts of other things. Like my eye.’ He placed his hand on the part of his glasses that lay over the bandages.

‘How did this happen? Do you think you’re up to telling us about the attack?’ said Matthew.

‘It was bad. I was eating and then all of a sudden… just really bad.’

Matthew nodded sympathetically. ‘Was he sitting next to you?’

‘Yeah. He was having some fish and then he suddenly stood up and just… just really bad.’

‘So you didn’t punch him, even as a joke, or anything like that?’ asked Thóra.

‘Nah. I was eating my fish. We were supposed to get rice pudding if we finished it all.’ His expression turned sad. ‘I never got any.’

‘I’m sure they’ll give you some.’ Thóra resolved to remember to ask the nurse in reception whether it would be possible to bring Jakob a bowl of rice pudding. ‘Has he ever tried to hurt you before? Maybe he was stopped by the staff?’

‘No, never. He’s always good. Except now. Maybe he didn’t like the fish.’

‘Maybe. Did he say anything when he attacked you, or just before?’

Jakob stared at Matthew thoughtfully, his mouth wide open. ‘Yes, he did. It was really strange.’

‘Do you remember what it was?’ Thóra leaned closer.

‘He said that it would be better for me to be in Reykjavík. I remember because I was so happy and I was going to say that I thought that too but I couldn’t say anything because… all of a sudden everything hurt so much and I couldn’t see anything.’

Thóra’s stomach lurched at the thought of someone with a fork in their eye, and she felt like she had to interrupt Jakob in order to block out the image. ‘Maybe we should talk about something else, something more fun. I’m sure you’ll have to discuss this with the police and various other people, which is why it’s probably not a good idea to be talking about it too much now.’ Suddenly her recent conversation with Jósteinn popped into her mind. Again she interrupted Jakob, who looked as if he were about to say something. ‘Did he say better? That it would be better if you were in Reykjavík?’

‘Yes.’ Jakob nodded so eagerly that his glasses slipped again. ‘That’s what he said.’

Thóra tried not to seem surprised. ‘He didn’t say anything else?’

‘He did, he said one more thing. He said that I should be good and talk to you. But then he started to cut my ear and jab my eye so I screamed and I didn’t hear him after that. Maybe he said something else.’