Tore Renberg - See You Tomorrow

Cecilie is lying with her head in his lap and it feels pretty damn good. Rudi becomes aware of a growing erection developing against her cheek and that feels pretty damn good too. They left in a hurry, managing to hump some of Pål’s possessions from the house, a couple of computers, a TV and some other odds and ends, not exactly the haul of a lifetime, but like Jan Inge said: ‘It’ll do given the day that’s in it.’ Tong is lying in the back of the van under an old dog blanket they grabbed on the way out, faceless and bloody, and Jan Inge is sitting behind the wheel of the Transporter, as they drive uphill in the darkness towards Ullandhaug.

A strange mix of emotions.

Rudi can’t feel it inside. He doesn’t feel as though he’s been cheated on. He has no emotional reaction to his woman having been unfaithful to him for months. Nothing. Almost the opposite, and that’s what’s so weird, he feels only happiness. As if he had won it all, and maybe he has!

What did Gran say that time?

‘Rune, dear,’ she said, ‘you’ll soon be a man.’ He was sixteen or seventeen, sitting in Gran’s, drinking decaf, outside it was raining cats and dogs, she’d served him Swiss roll and she had that crafty expression round her eyes that made her look like an owl, and she said: ‘And you know what it means to be a man?’

‘No, I mean, yes, well…’

‘It means you have to be big-hearted, Rune,’ she said. ‘Kind and big-hearted. That’s what the girls like, you know.’

Chessi’s eyes are shining. She is so bloody gorgeous.

The Transporter slows down as it reaches the top of Limahaugen, Jani puts on the indicator, pulls up to the kerb and turns around to them, and Rudi can’t help but feel everything is just perfect as their conversation unfolds: ‘So. What’ll it be? Lura Turistheim?

‘Brother? You mean?’

‘Well, just figured, before we get home and take care of this—’

‘Reindeer stew with Waldorf salad and lingonberry jam. That was good. You can’t go wrong with meatballs and mushy peas. Salt cod with bacon and onion, you liked that, brother.’

‘I think they close at six.’

‘Ah shit.’

‘Dolly’s Pizza?’

‘We’re always ordering from Dolly’s.’

‘Thai Summer number two, baby, Thai Summer number two, you know how much you love that. Lime and coriander.’

‘Yeah, I suppose.’

‘No no. Hinna Bistro, then.’

‘They only do pizza too.’

‘Yeah yeah. But we do like pizza. Number fifteen — Gringo?’

‘Is that the one with chicken, chilli and salsa?’

‘Mhm.’

‘I can’t help but feel we’ve made idiots of ourselves.’

‘Yeah yeah. Depends how you look at it.’

‘Word.’

‘Just think of George Michael.’

‘Whaddayamean?’

‘If you want to compare. People who’ve made idiots of themselves.’

‘Poor guy.’

‘I have no sympathy for him.’

‘Yeah, yeah. It’s cosy at Hinna Bistro. Long time since we were there. Must have been before the summer.’

‘Aww. I’m looking forward to the summer.’

‘Eh, yeah. But summer has just been.’

‘Well. Y’know, I’m a summer kid, baby.’

‘Yeah, but it’s a long way off.’

‘So, Hinna Bistro?’

‘Hinna Bistro.’

‘Be just the ticket. Some pizza, a nice kip, and then — Christ, I just realised we’ll have a baby by the time summer comes.’

‘Wow, yeah. Imagine that. Running around the garden.’

‘He’ll like that.’

‘How do you know it’s a he?’

‘Heh heh. Daddy just knows.’

‘You don’t even know if you are the daddy, you nitwit.’

‘I can feel it.’

‘That it’s a he or that you’re the father?’

‘Both, Chessi, both.’

‘Oh, good.’

‘So that’s the reason your tits are bigger.’

‘Mhm.’

‘Hinna Bistro, so.’

‘Weather’s been nice for days now.’

‘Yeah.’

‘I like this time of year. Brisk and bright. Kind of like summer but autumn.’

‘How do you think Pål is now?’

‘Well, not great, I suppose.’

‘Poor dog.’

‘I have a feeling this isn’t going to be any problem.’

‘Me too. No chance of Pogo suspecting us.’

‘Probably not. And I think we can rely on Pål.’

‘Good thing you shot Tong in the van though.’

‘Yeah. Otherwise we’d already be in Åna.’

‘You know, he was at our place once.’

‘Eh?’

‘Oh?’

‘At our place?’

‘Eh?’

‘In Hillevåg?’

‘Mhm. In the eighties.’

‘Gosh.’

‘Gosh.’

‘There was something familiar about him though.’

‘There was.’

‘So. You mean—’

‘Yeah.’

‘When you say he was at our place.’

‘Yeah.’

‘Does that mean that, that you—’

‘We’re not going to talk about it.’

‘No. Ah. That’s what it is to be a man.’

‘Eh?’

‘Big-hearted and kind.’

‘Oh.’

‘I’m considering cutting out the speed.’

‘Oh?’

‘Something about kids and drugs that doesn’t really go together.’

‘Mhm.’

‘Something about our line of business and drugs that doesn’t really go together either.’

‘Mhm.’

‘Yeah. Reindeer stew with Waldorf salad and lingonberry jam. Now they go together.’

‘I wish Lura was open.’

‘Yeah yeah, but it’s not. Hinna Bistro is cosy.’

‘Strange seeing Tong like that. Without a face, I mean.’

‘Yeah, but makes things better in a lot of ways.’

‘I can’t get George Michael out of my head now.’

‘That’s so you, soon as you get something on your mind, it just sticks.’

‘Our first murder.’

‘Not good.’

‘Not good.’

‘Not good.’

‘Do you think there was something wrong with Tong?’

‘Eh?’

‘Well, I mean, he has always been a vicious bastard, but like, I don’t know, just wondering if there was something up with him now.’

‘Nah, that there had been coming a long time. Sick in the head, sick all over.’

‘You’re going a bit far now. To be fair, we did have a lot of good times together.’

‘Yeah, but did we though.’

‘I thought the worst thing was the dog.’

‘Not good.’

‘Killing a dog. I don’t know. I just feel like it’s not on.’

‘You’re not wrong there.’

‘It was so cute. Doing that to it, horrible.’

‘We’ll get him a new dog.’

‘That makes two murders then.’

‘Three with the hedgehog.’

‘Now you’re being unfair, mamacita. That was an accident.’

‘Yeah.’

‘Yeah.’

‘Okay, we’re agreed. Hinna Bistro it is.’

The telecom tower on top of Ullandhaug, Rudi thinks, has always been one of the most beautiful things in the world. But most people probably feel that way, it occurs to him as he feels his erection twitch against Cecilie’s cheek, as though she were a door he was knocking on. Most people must have something bolted on tight inside of them, something so dear to them that it never disappears, something that just grows and grows for every strange day that passes.

After a good pizza at Hinna Bistro, with beef, bacon, onions, chilli, nachos and extra cheese, and a long, warm night filled with plentiful sleep and fertile dreams, they took it easy on Friday. They slept almost until noon, had a nice breakfast of chocolate milk, pâté, beetroot and eggs, and for the sake of propriety, Cecilie put Tong’s chocolate chip cookies at the back of one of the kitchen cupboards, while at the same time she threw out his black Puma trainers, which were lying in the hall. After they had drunk some coffee and Cecilie had consumed a large portion of Neapolitan ice cream, they rolled Tong up into an old carpet in the basement and spent the rest of the day on the sofa with their feet up, with crisps and soft drinks on the table, watching a couple of good films, a repeat viewing of The People Under the Stairs and A Tale of Two Sisters . They lounged and loafed about the house, Rudi entertaining and adding to the ambience by quoting lines from the Korean film, not without his thoughts drifting to the homeland of the recently departed, while he contorted his Mick Jagger mouth into horrific grimaces: That woman is strange! And so is this house!