Christian Jungersen - The Exception

‘Yes?’

‘You must tell me what’s wrong.’

Anne-Lise stares at her.

‘It’s something to do with your new job, isn’t it? Is it the same old problem?’

Soon after Anne-Lise started work at DCGI, she told Nicola a little about how the others behaved, but she kept the worst to herself.

Nicola is concerned. ‘You’ve changed so much. I hardly recognise you.’

‘I haven’t changed!’

‘Anne-Lise, listen. You’re not yourself. Don’t you remember what you used to be like?’ Nicola looks Anne-Lise in the eye and reaches out a hand to console her. A gold bracelet slips out from under the thin white shirtsleeve. ‘Why don’t you give your old boss a ring? She really liked you. Maybe they could take you back.’

Anne-Lise is speechless. She feels so defeated. Does Nicola really believe it would be that easy to get her old job back? The room becomes blurred; her eyes are filling with tears.

Nicola takes her hand. ‘You must tell someone about what your colleagues are doing to you. If you don’t, they’ll ruin your life away from work as well.’

Anne-Lise is sniffing back the tears. She clears her throat and Nicola runs off to fetch a roll of paper towels.

Soon everything comes pouring out. For the first time Anne-Lise tells someone apart from Henrik what it is really like.

‘I can’t understand how they can be so callous! And yet they think of themselves as such good, idealistic people …’

Nicola is rubbing her arm gently. It’s so different from the way Anne-Lise is treated at work.

‘It doesn’t matter one iota to them if I lose my job, or my husband divorces me, or my children get into trouble, but I still have to work with them. I have to smile and talk to them. Every single day, I’m forced to look them in the eye and pretend I don’t hate them.’

‘Anne-Lise, you must stop working there.’

‘But I can’t!’

‘Yes, you can. Just stop. You’ll find another job soon enough.’

Anne-Lise tears herself away. ‘But I’ll become … like one of those women!’

‘Nonsense. You won’t.’

‘Yes, I will! Like Jutta! I don’t want to be like … I’d hate to be like her. I’m not Jutta!’

Nicola’s voice is calm and gentle. ‘Anne-Lise, you will never be like Jutta. I’m sure of that. Whatever happens, you won’t.’

When Nicola and Anne-Lise were friends with Jutta, Jutta worked for a marketing company. She and the company director had a falling-out and Jutta couldn’t stand working there any longer. Afterwards she landed another job, but got into trouble with her colleagues.

Her husband had started out as a self-employed investment broker and did very well, earning much more than either Anne-Lise’s or Nicola’s husbands. Jutta being out of work didn’t matter financially, but she disliked staying at home all day, so she decided to run a small shop selling exclusive Italian and French kitchenware. Her husband put up the cash to help her get started, but in the end she couldn’t cope with managing a store either.

Now Jutta is better dressed than ever. She has turned the house into an amazing display of Oregon pine, all the floors and the panelling. The furniture has been designed by a Swedish architect, whom Jutta got in touch with after seeing a long article about his ideas in an interior-design magazine. When she meets working women, she always asks how they are getting along and invariably says something like: ‘How wonderful for you!’ — but her interest is only superficial. She apparently believes the mantra preached by all her magazines: buy all these things and they will make you a better person.

A few years ago Jutta would occasionally phone Anne-Lise or Nicola when she was drunk. They never found out how often she drank alone at home but the phone calls prompted them to talk about trying to help her. She not only rejected their help but also managed to do it in a condescending way. Worst of all, her children were said to have become aggressive and problematic. Could it be that Jutta has abandoned her responsibility for her children as well?

Anne-Lise and Nicola hear Henrik’s car in the driveway. Her family has arrived home.

For a moment she is confused. Then she makes a dash for the door, calling out to Nicola: ‘Tell them I’m in the loo!’ In the hall, she suddenly turns back and pops her head around the door. ‘Nicola, thank you! I just have to …’

She runs into the bathroom to fix her face. Outside the children’s voices call ‘Mummy! Mummy!’ as they run to the sitting room. It feels so bad to hide from them. Henrik comes in and slams the front door.

Anne-Lise washes off the smeared mascara and lipstick and rinses her eyes with cold water. As she goes through the motions quickly, she listens to Ulrik running around from room to room looking for her. Before the Centre, Anne-Lise could not have imagined ever being tempted just to let go, to follow in the footsteps of Jutta. But then, maybe she’s already on that downward slope? Maybe everyone else thinks so, but Nicola is the only one who dared say anything. Whatever happens, her problems must not affect Clara and Ulrik. She can’t let them pay the price for her troubles at DCGI.

A few weeks after Nicola’s visit, Iben and Malene both receive an anonymous email from someone who is threatening to kill them. The office is unsettled by this turn of events and for the first time Anne-Lise dares to mention that the others don’t always treat her well.

Malene, Iben and Camilla instantly jump down her throat. Either they are extremely accomplished liars, or they are so dishonest with themselves that they aren’t even aware of what they are doing. To them, ‘the librarian’ is a dull, colourless creature with poor social skills because that’s exactly what they expect her to be and they won’t let Anne-Lise change their minds.

The day after their attack Paul asks her to join a staff meeting in his office. At the meeting the others claim that the door between the Winter Garden and the library has always been closed. Anne-Lise knows differently — the door was always open when she started and it was only a month later that Camilla began to complain that she would get arthritis from the draught.

Paul doesn’t agree with them and makes his first ever decision in Anne-Lise’s favour. After having been patient for a whole year, she will at last be allowed contact with the Centre’s users, as she was promised in her interview. Also, the door to the library will not be closed any more.

It takes less than a week for the others to get their revenge, in an act more cruel than Anne-Lise could have imagined. One morning she discovers a brown powder all over her hands. She has managed to stain her blouse with it, and smudge her face with brownish-red streaks.

Anne-Lise observes Malene’s face. That woman knows something; it feels just like the time when Malene humiliated her in front of Frederik Thorsteinsson, a few days earlier. But Anne-Lise still can’t figure out what the substance is. She searches her office area. When she knocks over a box file on the top shelf, the fluid inside it splashes out over her. She closes her eyes instantly, leaps backwards and hears the box crash to the floor.

She screams and opens her eyes. Thick, viscous fluid is spattered everywhere. Her clothes are covered in spots and stains. It is blood. Her skin is sticky with blood. It is so awful that her mind blanks out. All she can do is look at Malene, who has appeared in the doorway. Malene acts as if she is truly shocked, but she’s not convincing enough. There’s a smug little smile lurking behind her frown.

Anne-Lise wants to leave and go home, and accepts Paul’s offer of a taxi even though her car is parked right outside.