A few hours later he pulled up outside their house. We watched a video and ate pizza. Yngve had been there a lot over the last six months, he liked her parents, her brother and sister, and they liked him. He was like a son in the house, I could see.
Her sister’s name was Cecilie and she was one year younger than me, I saw some photos of her and was impressed. Her brother was much younger than them, he was still at primary school.
I stayed the night and slept in Cecilie’s bed. We decided to go out together the following night, Kristin would bring along some girlfriends, but first we would eat in a restaurant, just us three.
I drank two bottles of white wine with the food, and when we went to the discotheque I had three more.
And who should I meet there but the girl from the ice cream stand!
The four of us took a taxi to Tromøya. I sat in the front seat. We had stood wrapped around each other snogging while we waited for it to come, and, still dazed by that, I stretched my arms back towards her. She took my hands and caressed them. Her hands were very rough, I noticed.
‘Oh, Karl Ove,’ Yngve said from behind me.
They laughed.
Furious, I retracted my arms.
‘How much have you had to drink, actually?’ Yngve said.
‘Five,’ I said.
‘Five bottles of wine?’ Yngve said. ‘Are you kidding?’
‘No,’ I said.
‘No wonder you’re behaving so weirdly. If it had been me I would have been lying in the street snoring.’
‘True,’ I said.
The taxi stopped, I paid, we went into the house.
The same thing happened there, with the sole exception that this time she was absolutely naked. But no, she didn’t want to. Alabaster skin, full-bosomed and beautiful, she lay there saying no, no, no.
When I awoke next morning she was gone.
Still drunk, I went upstairs and into the kitchen, where Yngve and Kristin were having breakfast.
‘She caught the bus a while ago,’ Kristin said. ‘She said to say hello and thank you for yesterday.’
For a change, the sky was overcast. I decided to give this day a miss, lie on the sofa and read until Yngve went in to do his evening shift. The next day she wasn’t there. There was a girl in her twenties at the hatch. I asked her where Sigrid was, she said she had finished, yesterday had been her last day. Did she have any idea where she was? No, she didn’t.
I went to Kristin’s a couple more times, and on the last evening the family had returned from their holiday. I said hello, they were as nice as Yngve had said they were, we rented a video of Apocalypse Now, Kristin sat leaning against Yngve while I sat beside Cecilie, we exchanged occasional glances and smiled, we were so clearly the little brother and sister on the floor below our two siblings, who, if they had decided to get married, would not have surprised anyone.
There are was a tension in the air, I felt it all evening, but what kind of tension was it?
We were a bit shy with each other, was that what it was?
I saw how Cecilie sometimes tried to wrest the initiative, as though wanting to make it clear that she was not only on an equal footing with her sister but also very distinct from her.
I liked to see that. Her will, how that led the way and she followed.
She did ballet, and she was good, Kristin had said; after leaving school she was going to take the ballet school entrance exams.
The way she threw herself onto the sofa. The way her face could suddenly become quite open and artless when she smiled.
But this was no good. There was no point even thinking about it.
Yet I did.
There was only a week left of the summer job and I joined Yngve whenever he drove to Kristin’s, I enjoyed being in her home too, there was such a nice atmosphere, they were good people and it was reflected everywhere in the house.
I saw how Yngve was treated and how happy he was. I thought to myself, come on now, don’t be an idiot, just let him have it all.
But I also thought about Cecilie, because when she was in the room I could feel her presence with the whole of my body.
And I knew it was the same for her too.
First of all her parents left and went to bed. Then Yngve and Kristin left and went to bed.
We sat alone in the big living room, on opposite sides of the table. We made conversation, for we couldn’t talk about or show anything of what we felt, or rather of what I felt and of what I imagined she also felt.
‘I was there when they got together,’ I said. ‘At Vindilhytta. You should have seen it. It was really sweet.’
‘Yes, they are sweet,’ she said.
‘Yes,’ I said.
What kind of situation was this I suddenly found myself in? In a house on Tromøya alone with the sister of Yngve’s girlfriend?
Nothing wrong with the situation. Only with my feelings.
‘Well,’ she said with a yawn. ‘Time to go to bed.’
‘I’m going to stay up for a bit,’ I said.
‘See you at breakfast then.’
‘Yes, goodnight.’
‘Goodnight.’
She disappeared down the stairs, moving in that self-assured elegant way she had. Thank God I was going home soon and could put all this behind me.
The following evening, which was the last, I went to see Yngve, he was on the evening shift and served me an enormous pizza, which I ate at the table in the lobby while he worked and came over for a chat whenever he could. He said Cecilie and Kristin were in town. Kristin was coming here soon. He didn’t know what Cecilie was doing. But she came as well, I joined them, it was the last night, in very few hours I would be home again. Nevertheless, even though I knew it was stupid, I strung along with Cecilie, we walked side by side, we had nothing to say to each other, we just walked and listened to each other’s breathing, which was deep and tremulous, and then we hugged and kissed, again and again.
‘What are we doing?’ I said. ‘Can we do this?’
‘I’ve been thinking about that ever since I first saw you,’ she said, holding my face between her hands.
‘Me too,’ I said.
We stood wrapped in each other’s arms for a long time.
‘At the last moment,’ Cecilie said.
‘Yes,’ I said.
‘Now you mustn’t have any regrets,’ she said. ‘Or rather, of course you can. But tell me if you do. Do you promise?’
‘I won’t have any regrets,’ I said. ‘I promise. Are you at home next weekend?’
She nodded.
‘Can I come and see you?’
She nodded again, we kissed for a last time and then I went, turned, she waved, I waved.
~ ~ ~
Yngve was standing behind the counter studying a sheet of paper when I went into the hotel to get the keys. I said nothing about what had happened. Were we going out together now? I wondered as I walked up Arendal’s steep hills in the hazy darkness of the late summer night. In which case how strange it would be for Yngve and me to be going out with two sisters! Wasn’t there something a bit circus-like about this? Roll up, roll up, come and see the two brothers who go out with two sisters! But why should I care? He lived in Bergen while I lived in Kristiansand, and soon he and Kristin would be in China.
This had completely bowled me over.
She was walking home now too, likewise bowled over.
Yngve drove me to the bus the following morning. I didn’t say anything then either. When I sat down in a window seat and looked for him, he was already on his way up the street.
I closed my eyes and could feel how thoroughly exhausted I was. As the bus turned into Grimstad town centre I was asleep and didn’t wake until it passed Kristiansand Zoo. I jumped off at the Timenes intersection and caught a different bus for the last part up to Boen. Out of habit I looked for a glimpse of Jan Vidar in his window as the bus crossed Solsletta, but he wasn’t there and his car wasn’t in the drive either.