Peter Stamm: Unformed Landscape

Kathrine had grown up as an only child. Once, she’d taken Thomas back to her mother. They had spent a nice afternoon together, and gone ice fishing. But after that, Thomas had always found excuses, and her mother hadn’t minded that Thomas never came to visit again. Go to him, she said, what would you do here anyway, his parents’ house is so much bigger.

They had visited his family continually. There was always something going on — holidays, a birthday, a summer party. They were continually in his parents’ big house, and Kathrine had forever had to listen to what a wonderful family it was, and how everyone stuck together, and how stupid and bourgeois all the other people in the village were.

The big house had a sauna, and sometimes when Kathrine was visiting, the father had lit the furnace and said, right, now we’re all going to the sauna. At first Thomas hadn’t wanted to go, but then his father had said, before the Lord we are all the same, and had laughed, a strange, rather nervous laugh, and then they’d all gone in the sauna together. Kathrine had wrapped up in her towel, but when she went out to shower, Thomas’s father had come out straight after and had stood outside the shower until she was done. He had held the towel out for her, but she had grabbed it out of his hands, and quickly brushed past him, draping the towel round her hips. She felt certain he was watching her.

Nothing in Creation is hidden from His eyes, Thomas’s father said later, when they were sitting in the sweating room, everything lies bare and open to the eyes of the One to whom we owe an account of ourselves and a reply. He laughed, and with the palm of his hand brushed some drops of sweat off his chest and belly, so that they flew across the room, and some landed on Kathrine’s neck.

Afterward they drank tea, and Thomas’s father said, now you’re one of us, welcome to the bosom of the family.

Kathrine’s girlfriends had congratulated her on their engagement, and her mother was happier than she’d been for a long time. She had liked Thomas right away, had permitted herself to be dazzled by him, just as Kathrine herself had been dazzled by him in the early days. He was good-looking, and was always in a good mood. He had been all over the world, and had an interesting job and a good salary. At first, Kathrine used to ask herself what she had done to find such a husband, and what he saw in her.

Thomas had one of the highest grades in his year, and had a PhD in economics. He had been a champion swimmer as a boy, and had friends on every continent. He could speak five languages fluently, and had once had an offer to be the personal adviser to a cabinet minister in Oslo. He had devised a well-known computer game, and was a black belt in quite a rare form of martial arts. Twice a week he would run the ten kilometers to the airport and back. He had spent a few winters as a substitute skiing teacher in north Norway. Once, he’d gone on a tour with Crown Prince Hakon, and once spent the night in a ski hut on the Hardingervidda with Agnetha from ABBA. And not a word of it was true.

But for Morten, Kathrine would probably never have found out. Morten was her oldest friend, her only real friend. They had known each other since school. Both of them said they’d known each other forever. At the time, everyone thought they would get together sometime, but then Kathrine had got the baby from Helge, and after the divorce, either she or else Morten had always been in a relationship, or some sort of affair. They had always missed each other, as they said from time to time when they had a beer or a coffee together. And Morten and Kathrine would have been a good-looking couple. He was dark, not too tall, and slender. As a child, he had always claimed to have a French grandmother. It wasn’t actually the case, but because of that, and because he always kissed girls on both cheeks, they later all called him the Frenchman. Kathrine was pretty sure he had some Sami in him, as many in the village did. Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, and Sami stock were all mixed together here, in some families there was also Russian or Chukchi. The borders had always been permeable, as the humans simply followed the reindeer herds, the fish migrations, which weren’t governed by boundaries. They came to the village because they wanted to work here for a couple of years, because the fish factory paid good money. It didn’t matter where you lived, it was cold all over and dark. It doesn’t matter, said Morten, I’ve lost touch with my family anyway.

Kathrine and Morten saw each other often in the village, but after Kathrine married Thomas they never went out together. Thomas didn’t want Kathrine to be seen with other men. Not that he didn’t trust her, he said, but the village wasn’t the biggest, and he didn’t want his wife and his marriage to be the subject of gossip.

“And least of all with the Frenchman.”

“Why do you call him that? You don’t even know him.”

“I’ve known plenty of French men,” grinned Thomas, “and plenty of French women, too.”

Then, two weeks ago, Morten and Kathrine happened to bump into each other. Thomas and Kathrine and the boy had spent New Year with Einar and Veronica in Tromso. Thomas had taken a couple of days off work to go skiing with Einar. Kathrine flew back on New Year’s Day, because she had to work, and the boy had to go to school. That evening, she popped into the Elvekrog.

For weeks and weeks it had been dark. Kathrine had never managed to get used to the darkness of winter, even though she had never known it any other way. In summer, she drew the light into herself, in winter she had the feeling she wasn’t alive, or just half-alive, and dreaming. When the sun shone, everything sparkled in its light, and was living and beautiful. Winter was just a long period of waiting.

The bar was almost empty, only the Senegalese physiotherapist from the clinic was there as usual, drinking one beer after another. The floor was littered with rubbish from the New Year’s party the night before, with bits of paper chains and little colored cotton wool balls. Kathrine sat at a table in the corner and drank a beer. Then, just as she was about to go, in came Morten, and she stayed.

Morten got two beers at the bar and joined Kathrine. He had recently broken up with his girlfriend, and was quickly on to the subject of love. Kathrine was already a bit tipsy, and over her third beer she was telling Morten that Thomas hadn’t slept with her now for almost a year. She knew that was a betrayal of Thomas, and she felt bad about it, and perhaps that was why she went on to tell Morten all about Thomas’s excuses, and that she suspected him of betraying her with one of the girls at the fish factory. She told how on their wedding night they had played with each other, as Thomas had referred to it, and when Morten asked what that was about, she told him.

“What did you marry him for?” he asked.

Then Kathrine called her mother, and asked her to keep the boy overnight. Where are you, asked her mother. Nowhere, said Kathrine.

Later, Morten made a sort of declaration of love to her. They had both had quite a bit to drink, and it was past midnight. Morten asked if she fancied going back with him, and Kathrine said yes. He lived right up at the top of the village. They parted outside the Elvekrog, and took different routes, so that no one would see them together. As Kathrine came to the house she lived in, she almost went in. But then she walked past it.

Morten came to the door. He was smiling. He held a bottle of wine in his hand. Kathrine went in. She took the bottle of wine out of his hand, set it down on the table, and kissed Morten on the mouth. They threw their arms around each other, and undressed each other. They went into the bedroom without letting go. Morten went in backward, then he thought he would carry Kathrine in, and he almost fell over in the process. She laughed because he was so awkward. He kissed her to stifle her laughter. Then they were both laughing and kissing and embracing. They made love, and lay together on the bed. Kathrine lay on Morten. She sat up and looked at him. She took his hands and kissed them.