Eyes of the Rigel by Roy Jacobsen

Author:Roy Jacobsen [Jacobsen, Roy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Biblioasis
Published: 2022-02-04T19:28:27+00:00

* * *

For the last few hours as they approached the town, Ingrid shared the compartment with two young soldiers in uniform and a middle-aged woman, and she had a strong sense that all three of them were staring strangely at her.

She wondered if it was because she smelled, but all that met her nostrils when she wiped the back of her hand across her face was Hans Kvåle’s station soap. She did her best to look out of the window, where in the reflection she saw the eyes of one of the soldiers move away. The woman sitting directly opposite her, her plump knees pressed together, was knitting a small sweater and announced without warning, into her lap – as though to everyone present – that it was for her youngest grandchild, whom she was going to visit in Trondheim and hadn’t seen since Christmas.

Ingrid gave a start, as though she had been caught red-handed watching her, and said that the sweater was very nice, but the pattern looked complicated. The woman held the knitting aloft to inspect it, and said, no, it wasn’t, still without looking at Ingrid, then carried on knitting and suddenly muttered that Ingrid should stop staring at her.

“A’m counten,” Ingrid said.

“What?”

“A count ev’rythin’.”

She looked out of the window, where the soldier’s gaze once again evaded hers, and from there down at Kaja, who was still asleep, placed a hand under her head, and the woman said it was a pretty child, did Ingrid have any others?

“No.”

“I’ve got five.”

One of the soldiers got to his feet and manoeuvred his way between two sets of women’s knees and leaned against the window.

“Stjørdal,” said the woman with the knitting, without looking up.

He thanked her and sat down again, and Ingrid began to sweat, sniffed the back of her hand once more and was considering waking Kaja when the other soldier let out a stifled groan and got up and went into the corridor, while his companion stared straight at the floor as though he were taking an oral exam he had no chance of passing.

The woman with the knitting said that maybe they should have a drop of hot milk, and pulled out a shiny steel Thermos flask, put two cups on a small folding table that she raised into position between them, and when their eyes met above the steaming milk Ingrid repeated that she only had one child, Kaja.

“Yes, you said that,” the woman answered and began to question her about where she came from and where she was going. Ingrid sat with her hands in her lap and replied politely that she didn’t feel like speaking. The woman asked if she was unhappy about something. Ingrid stared straight ahead and said she wanted to go home, the train was going in the wrong direction.

The woman screwed up her eyes and placed a hand on Ingrid’s knee. The other soldier also got up and went out. The woman pulled down the roller blind over the glass pane in the door.

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