I is Another — WINNER OF THE 2023 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE E-Book

Jon Fosse

• Herausgeber: Fitzcarraldo Editions
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

Asle is an ageing painter and widower who lives alone on the southwest coast of Norway. His only friends are his neighbour, Asleik, a traditional fisherman-farmer, and Beyer, a gallerist who lives in the city. There, in Bjorgvin, lives another Asle, also a painter but lonely and consumed by alcohol. Asle and Asle are doppelgangers - two versions of the same person, two versions of the same life, both grappling with existential questions. In this second instalment of Jon Fosse's Septology, 'a major work of Scandinavian fiction' (Hari Kunzru), the two Asles meet for the first time in their youth. They look strangely alike, dress identically, and both want to be painters. At art school in Bjorgvin, Asle meets and falls in love with his future wife, Ales. Written in 'melodious and hypnotic slow prose', I is Another: Septology III-V is an exquisite metaphysical novel about love, art, God, friendship, and the passage of time.

Leseprobe

‘The reader of I is Another is both on the riverbank and in the water being carried forward, and around, by the great, shaping, and completely engrossing, flow of Fosse’s words. It’s a doubleness of view that is reflected in the characters, named Asle, who are both one and other, and through which we can see and feel the world, and ourselves, more clearly.’ — David Hayden, author of Darker with the Lights On

‘Jon Fosse is a major European writer.’ — Karl Ove Knausgaard, author of My Struggle

Praise for The Other Name

‘Fosse has written a strange mystical moebius strip of a novel, in which an artist struggles with faith and loneliness, and watches himself, or versions of himself, fall away into the lower depths. The social world seems distant and foggy in this profound, existential narrative, which is only the first part of what promises to be a major work of Scandinavian fiction.’ — Hari Kunzru, author of White Tears

‘There is, in this book’s rhythmic accumulation of words, something incantatory and self-annihilating – something that feels almost holy.’ — Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal

‘Septology is on its way to becoming some of Fosse’s most meaningful art, his singular picture finally dislodged.’ — Spencer Ruchti, Music and Literature

‘The Other Name trembles with the beauty, doubt, and gnostic weariness of great religious fiction. In Fosse’s hands, God is a difficult, pungent, overwhelmingly aesthetic force, ‘the invisible inside the visible’. — Dustin Illingworth, The Nation

I IS ANOTHER SEPTOLOGY III-V

JON FOSSE

Translated by

DAMION SEARLS

‘Je est un autre.’ — Arthur Rimbaud

Contents

Title PageDedicationIIIIVVAbout the AuthorsCopyright

9

III

10And I see myself standing and looking at the picture with the two lines, a purple line and a brown line, that cross in the middle and I think that it’s cold in the main room, and that it’s too early to get up, it doesn’t matter what time it is, so why did I get up then? I think and I turn off the light in the main room and I go back to the little bedroom and I turn off the light there and I lie back down in bed and I tuck the duvet tight around me and Bragi lies down against me and I think well I got a little sleep last night, even if not that much, and today is Wednesday and it’s still early in the morning, or maybe it’s still nighttime? I think and it was so cold in the main room that I didn’t want to get up, I think and I pet Bragi, rub his back, and then I look into the darkness and I see Asle sitting on the swing outside his front door and he’s not swinging, he’s just sitting there, and he’s thinking he can’t figure out anything to do and he swings carefully, slowly back and forth a little and then Mother comes out onto the porch and she’s angry and Asle doesn’t know why she’s so angry

Come here! she says

What’s the matter, he says

Get over here, Mother says

Okay, Asle says

and he gets off the swing and goes over to Mother who’s standing on the porch and she’s looking right at him and he walks up the stairs

Yes, he says

There you are, she says

and he doesn’t understand why Mother’s voice is so angry, what’s wrong with her? what has he done now to make her so mad at him? he thinks

Look at this, Mother says

and she opens her hand and Asle sees three one-krone 11coins lying in the palm of Mother’s hand and she stands there holding out her hand with the three krone coins in it and she doesn’t say anything and Asle thinks how did Mother find the three kroner? and he’d meant to hide them somewhere clever, yes, he’d meant to put them under one of the flagstones outside the front door but then he forgot, it just disappeared from his mind and now Mother is standing here holding the three coins out to him, and how did she find them anyway? Asle thinks, and then he thinks of course she found them in his pocket because he forgot to take them out of his trousers and hide them

Where did you get these? Mother says

and Asle thinks that he can’t say he got them from The Bald Man, that he got them after sitting with him in his car, and he definitely can’t say why he got them, no

Answer me, Mother says

and Asle thinks that he definitely can’t tell her the truth, that he got them from The Bald Man, and that’s because he mustn’t tell anyone that he went for a car ride with The Bald Man, and that The Bald Man put his hand on his leg and then took his hand away, at least twice, that The Bald Man did that, he thinks

Where did you get these coins? Mother says

Well, answer me, she says

Don’t just stand there with your mouth hanging open, she says

and then she grabs his shoulder and she shakes him and she says he needs to answer her when she asks him something and she’s almost shouting

Answer me, Mother says

and he has to say something, anything, Asle thinks

I found them, he says

You found them? Mother says 12

Where did you find them? she says

Answer me, tell me where you found them, she says

and Asle just stands there and Mother lets go of his shoulder

On the road, he says

On the road you say, Mother says

Yes, on the road, Asle says

Where exactly, she says

Outside The Bakery, he says

You found them outside The Bakery? Mother says

and she says does he expect her to believe that, that he found them, outside The Bakery

You stole them, Mother says

I didn’t steal anything, Asle says

Yes you did, you stole them, she says

I did not, he says

You did, she says

and Mother says she checked her own purse because she had a few krone coins in there, yes, she doesn’t have that much money but she did have a few krone coins in there, and she didn’t remember how many, but it was several, and for all she knows he stole the krone coins from her, she says, but she’s not sure, because she has five one-krone coins in her purse now but she can’t remember anymore if she’d had more in there, she might well have had more, yes, she could have had eight not just five

Did you steal this money from me? Mother says

and Asle says that he didn’t steal the money, he found it, like he said, yes, outside The Bakery

You’re lying, Mother says

I’m not lying, Asle says

and then they stand there and neither of them says anything and then Mother says that she was about to do 13the laundry and she checked in his pockets like usual, what hasn’t she found in there, she always finds something, a stone, pine cones, nails, marbles, rope ends, she doesn’t even know what all she’s found, but never, ever before has she found three shiny new krone coins, and she doesn’t know how Asle could have gotten them but it can’t have been honestly

I found them, he says

Yes you said that, Mother says

and then they just stand there and then they see Father coming around the corner of The Old House where Grandma and Grandpa live and Mother calls Father and tells him he needs to come here and Father comes up to them just walking slowly

What’s going on? he says

and he looks at Mother

Yes, she says

You don’t look like everything’s all right, Father says

No, Mother says

and it’s silent for a moment

So what’s wrong? Father says

Look, Mother says

and she holds out her hand with the three krone coins

Three kroner, yes, Father says

Yes, exactly, Mother says

And I need to drop everything for that? he says

But, Mother says

and she breaks off

But? Father says

But I found them in his pocket, Mother says

and she looks at Asle and then Father doesn’t say anything and they just stand there

Where did you get them? Father says

and Asle says that he found the coins 14

He says he found them outside The Bakery, Mother says

Yes well that could happen, Father says

You believe that? Mother says

and Father doesn’t say anything

Look in your wallet, see if anything’s missing, Mother says

and Father takes out his wallet and he looks inside it and he says he can’t remember exactly how many coins he had in there, so there’s no way for him to know if someone took any coins out of his wallet, but why would Asle have done that? he doesn’t steal, does he? Father says and he looks at Asle

I don’t steal, Asle says

I’ve never stolen anything, he says

No, Father says

and then Father says that he might have found the coins outside The Bakery, but in that case there’s someone who lost them, and maybe they’ve noticed they’re gone, Father says, and maybe they’ll think that they might have lost the money outside The Bakery, after they’d bought their bread, or maybe they’ll think they forgot to get their change at the counter once they’d paid with a five and they were going to get three back, yes, and so maybe they’re going to go back to The Baker or The Baker’s Wife and ask if maybe they forgot their three kroner or dropped them outside The Bakery and The Baker or The Baker’s Wife found them, Father says, and he says that the best thing to do would be for Asle to go to The Baker or The Baker’s Wife and give them the coins, in case anyone lost them and dropped by to ask about it, Father says and Mother says she was sure that Asle had stolen the coins and Father says we can’t know that for sure can we? he says 15

I’m glad to hear you say that, Mother says

It’s a good thing, that you think like that, she says

and she looks at Asle and she says that if he really found the coins then she owes him an apology, for thinking he must have stolen them, but he might have found them, she hadn’t thought of that, she says

You might have found the coins, sure, Mother says

Anyway I owe you an apology, she says

I shouldn’t have suspected you of stealing, of being a thief, she says

and Father says they don’t need to say anything more about it and Asle you’ll go to The Bakery and give the krone coins to whoever comes out when you ring the bell, either The Baker or The Baker’s Wife, and you’ll say you found them outside The Bakery and then, if no one’s come to ask The Baker or The Baker’s Wife about some money, well then you can keep them, right? Father says

And that would mean you sure were lucky, finding three krone coins, he says

Yes I should think so, Mother says

I’ll run over there right now, Asle says

and then he runs down the driveway and up the country road to The Bakery and he walks in the front door and goes to the counter and picks up the bell sitting there and he shakes it and it rings and The Baker comes out and stands behind the counter and Asle says that he found these three krone coins outside The Bakery, and now, now he really is lying, it’s bad and he’s ashamed, Asle thinks and he’s really stammering and The Baker looks at him and he says yes, yes, he says

Yes, yes, The Baker says

and he looks at Asle

If you found some kroner then you found some 16kroner, you were lucky, Asle, yes, The Baker says

But maybe someone lost them, maybe they came to buy bread and then lost them? Asle says

I didn’t give three kroner in change to anyone recently, at least not that I can remember, The Baker says

So they’re yours Asle, he says

You found three kroner and now it’s your money, he says

and Asle looks at The Baker

That’s what I think, he says

and even if there’s a smell of drink coming from The Baker and he’s holding onto the counter as he stands there, still he’s right when he says that, Asle thinks

and The Baker says that he has a custard roll around, one last one from the ones he baked, and since it’ll be time to close up the shop soon, yes, he should have closed up already, Asle should just take the custard roll, since he’s such a nice honest boy, The Baker says and he picks up a custard roll, the only one left, and wraps it in grey paper and hands it to Asle and he thinks that this is really really wrong, he is standing here lying and now he’s getting a custard roll on top of everything, and it’s a good thing he never liked custard rolls with vanilla custard and confectioners’ sugar and coconut on top, it’s a disgusting combination, that disgusting confectioners’ sugar or whatever you call it, and the coconut, that’s what that’s called, but Sister likes custard rolls, so she can have it, she’ll be really happy to get a custard roll, Asle thinks

Thank you, thank you, he says

and The Baker hands Asle the custard roll and he stays there for a moment watching The Baker raise a cup of coffee to his mouth and take a sip and he says today was really your lucky day Asle, finding three krone 17coins, no, not bad, he says

And then getting a custard roll too, Asle says

Yes well that’s nothing, The Baker says

and he goes back through the door behind him, and Asle knows that the door leads to The Baker’s and The Baker’s Wife’s main room, and Asle runs home and he tells them what The Baker said, that he’d found the money so now it was his, and he, The Baker, didn’t remember giving anyone three krone coins in change to anyone recently, and definitely not today, Asle says, and The Baker said that Asle found the coins so they were his, that he’d really been very lucky, The Baker said, Asle says and Mother says well then maybe that’s how it was and Father says yes The Baker’s right about that, now that he thinks about it the coins are his all right, Father says and Mother asks him if he bought a custard roll now that he’s come into all this money, she says, and Asle says The Baker gave him the custard roll, it was the last one left and since he’d been honest enough to try to give back the money and since The Baker was about to close up for the day anyway he should just take the one custard roll that was left, that’s what The Baker said, Asle says and Mother says that was really nice of The Baker, but Asle never liked custard rolls did he, or rolls at all, not cake either, nothing like that, she says

No he never did, Father says

No, Mother says

and Mother laughs and Father says well he doesn’t take after her, she likes custard rolls, if anyone does then she does, he says

And Sister, Asle says

Yes custard rolls are really good, Sister says

and suddenly Asle sees that Sister is standing next to Mother, he hadn’t even noticed her, he thinks 18

But I don’t really care too much for them, Father says

and then Mother says that they should eat that custard roll while it’s fresh, shouldn’t they? she says and Father nods and says he doesn’t feel like a custard roll and Asle says he doesn’t feel like a custard roll either and then Mother goes to the kitchen and she comes back in with two little plates with half a custard roll on each plate and she gives one plate to Sister who’s sitting on the sofa and then Mother sits down next to Sister and then they sit there on the sofa eating the custard roll and Asle stands there and looks at them and he thinks what’s the matter with The Bald Man? why did he touch his leg like that? and he tried to move his hand so far up on his leg, and Asle pushed it away, he thinks and Mother called him a thief, and he isn’t that, but he did lie, he thinks, today he lied to Mother and to Father and to The Baker and then he got a custard roll from The Baker for being so honest, Asle thinks and he thinks he wants to go outside

I’m going to go out for a bit, Asle says

Don’t go away from the house, Mother says

I thought I could maybe go to Per Olav’s, Asle says

Yes, you’re building a truck together aren’t you, Father says

That’s what you told us, he says

Yes, Asle says

But don’t be late, Mother says

and then Asle goes outside and he thinks that it was nasty of The Bald Man to touch his leg, and eventually he pushed his hand away, several times too, or at least two, he thinks, and he can’t tell anyone, because it’s embarrassing, it’s shameful, and if anyone finds out it’ll be even worse so he can’t tell anyone, not any grown-ups anyway, because that would be totally wrong, he thinks, now it’s just a little wrong and also yes also a 19little exciting in a way, yes, that too, even if he hadn’t liked when The Bald Man touched his leg, Asle thinks and he’s never going to take another car ride with The Bald Man again, that’s for sure, and he’ll never go into his house, that’s for sure too, Asle thinks and he goes out to the road and then he sees a tractor coming towards him from far away and it’s an old tractor and it’s driving slowly and the engine is making an unbelievable noise and Asle keeps walking, and the tractor is far away but coming closer to him, slowly, and now he’s about to cross the country road and then soon he’ll go up the other driveway and the hill to where Per Olav and his family live and he’ll ask if Per Olav is home and then, if Per Olav is home and he feels like it, maybe they can start working on the truck they were building, or something, Asle thinks and he crosses the road and wow that noise from the tractor driving towards him from far away, it’s a horrible screeching noise, Asle thinks and he walks up the driveway to where Per Olav and his family live and he knocks and Per Olav opens the door and Asle says hi and asks him if he wants to do something together and Per Olav says yes yes, sure, he has something he wants to show him, he says in a quiet voice and then Per Olav puts on his shoes and a jacket

We need to go somewhere where no one can see us, he says

and Asle nods

And then we can do something we’ve never done, he says

Maybe we should go down to The Boathouse? Asle says

Your family’s Boathouse? Per Olav says

Yes, Asle says

and Per Olav says that’s a good idea and then they go 20down to The Shore, below the country road, and they walk along The Shore and they get to The Boathouse and then they go behind The Boathouse because the back door there, or really it’s more like a kind of hatch, is kept shut with just a rusty hook and Asle opens the door and Per Olav goes in and then Asle goes in after him and it’s almost totally dark in The Boathouse itself and Asle keeps the hatch half open and Per Olav takes out a matchbox and strikes a match

You’ve got a match? Asle says

Yeah, Per Olav says

And more than that, he says

and then Per Olav takes out a pack of cigarettes

Where did you get those? Asle asks

I took them from Grandpa, Per Olav says

He left some on a shelf in his room, he says

and Per Olav lights another match

Have you ever smoked? he says

No, Asle says

You? he says

No, Per Olav says

and then the matches burn out and Per Olav says now he’ll open the pack of cigarettes and they’ll each have a smoke, but it’s strong and Asle needs to not inhale the smoke into his belly because then he’ll throw up, he says, yes, someone told him that, that he’d had a cigarette and when he sucked the smoke down into his belly he threw up right away, but it was probably also because he’d sucked all the smoke into his belly, Per Olav says and now their eyes are used to the darkness in The Boathouse so they can see fine and Asle sees Per Olav open the pack of cigarettes and he hands a cigarette to Asle and then Per Olav puts a cigarette in his own mouth and then he says that Asle has to breathe in 21just when he puts the match to the cigarette and Per Olav lights a match and he puts it to the white cigarette and Asle breathes in and the cigarette lights and Asle holds it away from his mouth between his index finger and middle finger and he sees the glow and he sees smoke rising from the glow and it’s beautiful to watch and then he puts the cigarette back between his lips and he sucks in a breath and a little smoke comes into his mouth and he breathes the smoke out and it smells good

The smoke smells good, Asle says

and he takes another drag, and slowly breathes the smoke out, and he sees the smoke vanish into the darkness, and then he takes another drag and he holds the smoke in his mouth a little longer before he breathes it out and Asle realizes that he likes smoking, so he’s going to be a smoker, Asle thinks, and he takes another drag and he sucks the smoke a little way down into his throat and he hears Per Olav start coughing

Ugh that was horrible, he says

and Per Olav throws the cigarette down on the floor of The Boathouse and steps on it

I felt sick right away, he says

and Asle sucks smoke even farther into his throat and he feels something like a nice tingling in his whole body, yes, it’s like he feels calmer and somehow better, he thinks

You like it, you like smoking? Per Olav says

Yeah, Asle says

Really? Per Olav says

Yeah, Asle says

and he says that when he gets older he’s definitely for sure going to start smoking and Per Olav says well not him, and then he says Asle can keep the cigarette pack and the matchbox and Asle asks doesn’t he want them 22himself and Per Olav says no way and then Asle says thanks and he puts the cigarette pack and the matchbox in his pocket and then he thinks that the best place to hide the cigarette pack and matches is probably in The Boathouse, there are some beams running crosswise near the roof with various nets hanging on them and some of the nets are so rotted through that they fall apart as soon as you touch them and Asle thinks he can put the pack of cigarettes and matchbox up on one of those beams, one with a junky old net on it, he thinks and then he climbs up on a couple of fish crates and puts the pack of cigarettes and matchbox up on a beam

I think I’ll go home, I feel kind of sick, Per Olav says

and Asle nods and then Per Olav leaves and Asle leaves and he puts the hook back in place and then they go up the path and when they get up to the road they say see you and then Per Olav goes farther up the way and Asle crosses the road and then walks up his driveway and he goes inside and hangs up his jacket in the hall and takes off his shoes and then Mother comes over to him and she says you smell like smoke

Have you been smoking? she says

Are you big enough to smoke now? she says

Breathe on me, she says

and he breathes on her and she asks how Asle got cigarettes? and who did he get them from? and he just says he got them from someone, and she asks who he got them from? and Asle says that he’ll never tell her, never in his whole life, not even if she kills him, he says and then he sees Mother go up the stairs and I lie there in bed and isn’t that the sound from an engine I hear, and a grinding noise? a screeching noise? yes it is, I can hear a tractor engine far away making a loud noise and I hear a plough scraping and it’s cold where I am in bed under 23the duvet, so I probably need to just get up, I have to get up now, I think and I stand up and I turn on the light in the bedroom and I see my clothes lying there on the chair and I get dressed fast and the clothes are cold and I go into the main room and I turn on the light there and it’s cold in the main room and I think that I should have started a fire in the stove and not just stood there peering into the nothingness, but I’d rather go back into the bedroom and lie down in bed again for a bit, yes, the way Bragi’s smart enough to be doing, I think, because it’s still early in the morning, I think, but I don’t want to know what time it is, I think and wow is that tractor making a racket, I think and I look at the picture where the two lines cross, there on the easel in front of me, and I see that I’ve signed the picture with a big A in the lower righthand corner which means that I think the picture is done whether it is or not, I think and I look at those two lines crossing, one purple and one brown and I see Asle running downstairs into his basement at home, they were having potato dumplings for dinner and Mother asked him to go get a bottle of juice and Asle pitter-pattered on his little feet down to the basement and went into the pantry where the glass jars of preserved plums and apples and pears were, and lots of bottles of juice, because in the autumn Mother makes juice from all the gooseberries and redcurrants they have, and there’s a bin full of potatoes, and Asle takes a juice bottle and runs outside, and no, no, I can’t think about that, I think and suddenly Ales is right next to me and she puts a hand on my back and she just stands there next to me and it’s so good to feel her hand on my back, I think and I see Asle sitting in a car and a man is holding a towel around his wrist and they’re driving to see The Doctor and Asle is somewhere outside himself and he looks 24back at where he lives, at The New House and The Old House, and he thinks that this is the last time he’s ever going to see the house and everything is shimmering slightly, in a mysterious light that he’s part of and that’s much bigger than him, yes, it’s everything that exists, and from this light, yes, that’s like it’s put together out of tiny dots of flickering yellow, yes it’s like a cloud of yellow dust and from that cloud of shimmering yellow he sees himself sitting there in the car with his bleeding hand because Asle slipped on the ice and smashed the juice bottle and a piece of glass cut the artery in his wrist, and Asle feels very weak, and he is in the shimmering cloud of glinting shining transparent yellow dust and he’s not scared, he feels something like happiness, like a great peace, no, there’s no word for what and how he feels, how he’s seeing, Asle thinks and I look at the picture there in front of me and Ales is stroking my back, up and down, and I see Asle sitting there in the car with his bleeding hand and Ales rubs and rubs my back and it’s so soothing and good to feel her hands, I think and I see Asle sitting there with a bleeding hand and I don’t want to think about that any more, it’s better to put it in my pictures as best I can, I think, and it’s in the painting with the two crossing lines too, I think and then I realize that Ales has taken her hand off me and she’s gone and I just stand there and look at the picture even though it’s cold in the room and I should light a fire in the stove and I see Asle standing outside the front door at home and looking at Father who is looking almost without believing it at a brand new car, it’s grey, and it looks like Father can hardly dare to touch the car, much less sit in it, and Mother is standing there and she says it’s amazing, now they have their own car too, she says, yes it’s hard to believe, but it’s true, she says and Father says that it’s not 25exactly their car yet, it’s the bank that owns the car, he says and Mother says well still it’s their car, and Father says yes yes and then he says look, look down at the bus stop, there’s The Bald Man, he doesn’t take buses very often, just when he needs to go to Bjørgvin, Father says and Asle looks down at The Bald Man and it’s so cold in the room, I need to light a fire in the stove, I think, but what I really want most to do is go lie down and tuck myself nice and tight under the covers with Bragi, I think, and it would be fine for me to go lie back down in bed, warm up a little, why not, I think, and I go back into the bedroom and lie down on the bed fully clothed and Bragi is lying there and he lies down right next to me and I spread the covers around us well and I feel Ales lying down right next to me, there’s Bragi on one side and Ales on the other side, and she’s warm and comforting, and I think it was good to come back to bed and warm up under the covers instead of standing there in the cold main room, I think and Ales asks me if I’m doing all right and I say everything’s fine, everything’s the same as usual with me, yes, as she already knows, I say and Ales doesn’t say anything and then I just lie there and I think that I should have turned off the lights, in the main room and in the bedroom, but that’s all right, I think and I hear Ales say that we are always together, the two of us, and I stare straight ahead and I see Asle and some other kids sitting under an overhanging rock, in a kind of shallow mountain cave, there’s alpine blue sow-thistle there, it’s still raining out, and there are three boys and three girls and they’ve climbed a little way up from the country road, it’s not so far up to the overhanging rock, and then they went under it and there are tallow candles they’ve left there and a box of matches and they light the candles and it’s pretty cold so they sit 26close together and Asle puts his arms around the waist of the girl sitting next to him and she leans against him and she puts a hand on his leg and then Asle feels her mouth on his cheek and then she finds his mouth and they kiss and she opens her mouth and he opens his and then they touch the tips of their tongues together and their mouths kind of suck together and Asle feels his dick getting hard and he puts a hand on one of her breasts and it’s small, but it is a breast, and her breathing starts to get faster and he strokes her breast, over her pullover, and then she takes his hand and puts it under her pullover and brings it up to her breast and then Asle holds her breast in his hand and it fits into his grip and then he feels that her nipple is hard and he takes the nipple between his thumb and finger and she’s breathing even faster and then she moves her hand from his leg and puts it on his trousers where his stiff dick is and she keeps her hand there and then she gently moves the palm of her hand back and forth and the whole time their mouths are stuck fast to each other and then Per Olav says no look at those two and they let go of each other and Per Olav says he didn’t know they were a couple but he knows it now, Per Olav says and I look straight ahead and I realize that Ales is gone now and I think is it still early in the morning? or maybe it’s still night even? but I don’t want to look what time it is, I think, and I should have slept more, I feel sleepy, I think, and I retuck the covers around me and Bragi but it is morning already because I hear the racket from the engine in the old tractor, and a scraping noise, like from a plough, or is that just something I’m imagining? no I hear it, a screeching noise, I think and I think that it was a good thing I drove back to Bjørgvin and that I found Asle there in the snow, because it’s so cold now he really could 27have frozen to death, I think, but how is he doing? they took him straight from The Clinic to The Hospital and I need to drive to The Hospital to see him today, I think, and I need to drive the paintings down to Bjørgvin today and bring them to The Beyer Gallery, I haven’t made any plans with Beyer about that but even if he isn’t there I can take the pictures in and put them in the room Beyer calls The Bank, because the gallery is open and there’s always some girl or another there, if Beyer isn’t there himself, and it’s always a new girl, a student, Beyer says, it’s a student who wants to make a little money, he says, but they never stay long, there’s always a new face to see there, so he probably pays them badly, he must, and so he always has to get a new girl, I think, because Beyer, well, he doesn’t throw money around, and that’s why he’s become the well-off man that he is, I think and then I hear the racket from the old tractor disappear and I think that in that case Åsleik must be here already, he’s parked the tractor out in front on the stoop, because he was supposed to come over today, but I didn’t think he’d come so early, I think, and then I hear a knock at the door and I think that if I don’t open the door Åsleik will just come inside and I get to my feet and it’s so cold in the bedroom that I wish I could just stay lying in bed all day, I think and I’m so cold I start to shake my arms to warm up and Bragi is lying there in the bed, under the covers, and he looks at me with surprised eyes

You just stay right there, I say

Just stay where it’s nice and warm, I say

and I hear footsteps and I hear a door open and I go into the main room and there’s Åsleik standing and looking at the painting of the two lines crossing, in warm clothes and a fur hat and boots, he’s standing and looking at the picture and he says boy I certainly get up 28late, it’s been light out for a long time, he says

You didn’t get up? he says

Yes I did, I say

And then you just lay back down, he says

Yeah, I say

Anyway it’s ten o’clock, he says

Yeah, I say

and I think that I never would have guessed it was so late

You’re usually up at five or six, he says

Is something wrong? he says

No, I say

You must have just been especially tired, he says

Yes, that’s to be expected, he says

and he says that driving down to Bjørgvin and back the same day and then driving there again the same day, and in such conditions, snow and blizzards and slick roads, the way I did the day before yesterday, and then driving from Bjørgvin back to Dylgja again yesterday, yes, that would take a lot out of anyone, he himself would barely come out alive, Åsleik says and then he says that it’s so cold in my living room that it’s warmer outside and he’ll just light another fire in the stove then, like he had to do yesterday, and the day before too, it really seems to have turned into his job now hasn’t it, pretty much, he says, but maybe I could at least make some coffee? Åsleik says and I say yes

No, I shouldn’t have stayed in bed all morning, I say

I don’t think I’ve done that for years, I say

No well I can’t remember the last time I did anyway, Åsleik says

and then he goes over to the stove and he puts the wood chips and kindling and a log in and he lights the kindling and then Åsleik stands there and looks in at 29the wood and says that’s good dry kindling so it’ll catch in a second, he says, and who do I have to thank for that kindling? and wood? yes, for being about to have a nice warm room? it’s him, yes, sure is, Åsleik says and I don’t say anything because I’ve heard this so many times before, so many, I think and Åsleik says he’s here to get something in return for the wood chips, kindling, and logs, the driest birchwood, he says, and that, that, as I know he wants a painting to give to Sister for Christmas, and every year before he’s always chosen one of the small paintings but yesterday we agreed that this year he should pick one of the big paintings, or bigger ones, none of the pictures I paint are really all that big, Åsleik says and he says now he wants to choose one before I drive to Bjørgvin and deliver the pictures to The Beyer Gallery, and that’s why he dropped by so early, or earlyish, because if he didn’t misunderstand me I was planing to drive back to Bjørgvin again today with the paintings and take them to Beyer, who I had such trust in, such faith in, even though he, like a lot of other Bjørgvinners, was just out for money, to make money, money money money, buying low and selling high, that was the only thing people in Bjørgvin cared about, whether they bought and sold fish or paintings, yes, that’s how they’d always been and that’s how they still were, Åsleik says and I’ve heard him say this so many times before, obviously, because neither Åsleik nor I ever have that much new to say to each other and that’s why we always talk about the same things, because you have to say something

Yes it’s burning well in the stove now, Åsleik says

and he stands there and looks at the logs

I’ll let it burn a little with the hatch open, then I’ll put another log in, he says

Because damn it was cold in your room, he says 30

But it won’t be long now before it’s nice and warm, he says

At least warm enough to be in the room without a coat and hat and boots on, he says

and I go over to the stove and stand there and stretch my arms out above the stove and it’s nice to feel the warmth coming up to my hands, my arms, my whole body, I think and Åsleik stands next to me

Now it’s warming up the room, he says

Yes, I say

But what did you do with the dog? Åsleik says

He’s sleeping, I say

In the bed in your bedroom? he says

Yes, I say

and then we stand there silent

Bragi, that was his name, right? Åsleik says

Yes, I say

and again it’s quiet

You’ve talked about getting a dog so many times, now you’ve finally done it, he says

and I don’t answer and then Åsleik goes over to the easel where the picture with the two intersecting lines is and he says St Andrew’s Cross, yes, of course he says that, I think, St Andrew’s Cross he says again and he emphasizes the term, like the words are so important, it’s like he’s saying he can do more than just fish and clear roads you know, like that, wait don’t go over there, I think and then Åsleik says that that’s the picture he wants even if it’s isn’t finished, he says and I freeze for a second, because I want to keep that picture myself, I don’t want to sell it, so I don’t want to give it to Åsleik either no

But it’s not done, I say

Doesn’t matter, he says 31

It’s good the way it is, he says

But don’t you want to look at the other pictures first, the ones in the stack there, the big ones? I say

and I point at the stack leaning solidly against the wall next to the kitchen door

I’ve found the one I want, Åsleik says

But I’m not done with that picture, I say

Doesn’t matter, he says

But I want to finish it, I say

Yes yes, but it’s finished in a way the way it is, he says

And you signed it, he says

And it wasn’t signed the last time I saw it, he says

Doesn’t that mean you’ve decided you’re done with it? he says

and I don’t say anything and I think you can’t pull a fast one on him so easily can you, on Åsleik, he always picks the best picture to give to Sister, often, yes, well, usually, it’s been a painting I’ve wondered if I wanted to keep for myself, in the collection I have upstairs in the crates, but that would be just the painting that Åsleik would say and think and feel the same way about, the one I wanted to keep

But at least take a look at the other finished paintings, I say

Yes, at the big ones, I say