Part 26 (1/2)

Vijay suddenly has a look of sadness again, an emotion I'm not used to seeing in him. I realize that he's opening up to me much more than he has before.

I tread cautiously. ”That's what he says, but . . . do you think there's some other reason?”

Vijay shrugs his shoulders, lights yet another cigarette, and out of the corner of my eye I see his hand trembling a little. ”I don't think . . . ,” he begins.

”What?”

He hesitates. Takes a breath and says, ”I don't think he loves me anymore.”

He looks into my eyes, and his eyes are black and empty. He nods slowly at me.

”Now you know,” he whispers.

Even though it's only two in the afternoon, it's already almost dark. Swift rivers flow in the gutters, brownish-gray water mixed with the occasional autumn leaf and piece of trash. The river pa.s.ses my feet and disappears with a slurping sound through the grating.

Just beyond McDonald's I spot the sign: Employment Center. So this is where she works.

Kattis invited me for coffee, and even though I'm aware that I'm getting too close to her, I like her too much and have given up on maintaining the kind of professional distance a therapist and client are supposed to have. So here I am outside her office, coming to have coffee with her, as if that were going to make anything better. I catch myself wondering what Aina would think if she saw us, and suddenly I feel ashamed, because I know she'd have something to say about my behavior, something I probably couldn't argue against, since she is sometimes right.

Kattis smiles widely as she opens the door and then embraces me warmly for a long time. ”Come in,” she says. ”Oh my G.o.d, your fingers are like icicles.”

She brushes a few raindrops off my forehead and laughs again, a little embarra.s.sed this time. I hang my coat on the hook and follow her into the bright office s.p.a.ce. The ceiling is high, at least sixteen feet; enormous, muntin windows run along the wall facing St. Eriksgatan. There are about ten men and women around the same age as us sitting at desks that look like they've been strewn randomly throughout the open floor plan. A couple of people wave cautiously and I wave back.

”Wow, this is nice,” I say.

”It is, isn't it? It's an old bicycle factory from the turn of the century. There are fifteen of us who work here now, although everyone isn't in at the moment. A few of us are out doing site visits and things like that.”

Kattis leads the way through the large s.p.a.ce, over to a little kitchenette all the way over at the right side of the room.

”I bought some cinnamon rolls,” she says. ”I didn't know what you liked. I hope that's okay.”

Suddenly she looks nervous, as if she's extremely anxious that every little detail should be right today. I nod and sit down in one of the chairs.

”Cinnamon rolls sound great,” I tell her.

Then we sit like that for a while, on those white chairs at the white table in the enormous white room. Chatting, eating the cinnamon rolls, giggling a little at Kattis's story about her former boss.

”Hey,” she says suddenly, and lays her hand lightly on mine. ”I have something for you.” She walks over to the cabinets and reaches for something. ”Here, I want you to have this.”

I look at her, smile a little.

”Kattis, you didn't need to do that,” I tell her.

”Open it!” she says eagerly.

I look at the beautifully wrapped package sitting in my lap. It's from a local art gallery called Bls & Knda. Slowly I pull the black, tarred ribbon, which smells like a wharf in the summer, and open the paper. It's a little ultramarine ceramic vase, not unlike the one Kattis broke that day at the office when she rushed into the conference room and told us Susanne was dead. I sit there with the vase in my lap for a few seconds, not sure how to respond.

”Why . . . ?” I begin.

She holds the palms of her hands up in front of her as if to protest something, to prevent my words with her bare hands.

”Please, it's important to me. Can you understand?” Kattis says.

I nod and look at her. Suddenly she looks so sad, sitting there across from me in her thick, gray hooded sweater. I carefully set the vase on the table in front of me, notice its reflection in the glossy tabletop.

Then Kattis suddenly looks up, over my left shoulder. She furrows her brow, troubled.

”What is it?” I ask. I turn around and see a guy in his twenties behind me. He's wearing worn jeans and a hooded sweats.h.i.+rt. His dark, shoulder-length hair hangs like a curtain over his eyes and he avoids eye contact with me. He's fiddling with a coin in one hand.

”Can we talk?” he asks Kattis, his voice deep and hoa.r.s.e-as if he'd been partying and smoking all night-his eyes still fixed on the ground.

”Now's not such a good time, Tobias,” says Kattis. ”You'll have to wait a bit. I have a visitor.”

”Oh, okay,” he says, but instead of going on his way, he sits down on one of the chairs at the table. An uncomfortable silence takes over. I pick up little sugar crystals that have fallen off the cinnamon rolls, gather them up in my hand and eat them, one by one.

”Tobias-” Kattis begins.

”It's okay, I don't mind,” I say, but she shakes her head.

”I need to talk to Siri a little. You'll have to take a seat over on the couches by the front door, okay?”

He makes eye contact with Kattis for the first time, and there's something pained about the way he's looking at her, something resentful. As if she has insulted him by asking him to wait. But a second later he looks down at the table again and shrugs. Then he picks his lanky body up and plods over toward the front door without turning around.

”Sorry,” Kattis begins.

”No need to apologize, my G.o.d. I mean, you are at work.”

She continues, still apologetic. ”Tobias is one of the guys I'm in charge of. He's a sweetheart, really. And I think he might have a little crush on me too.” She chuckles. ”Maybe I should go for him, then at least I'd end up with a nice guy.” She smiles and shakes her head, looks almost tender, like a mother or a big sister.

Suddenly I'm curious about what Kattis does. I want to know more about her job.

”What do you guys actually do here at the Employment Center?” I ask her. ”I mean, I know you're a case manager, but what exactly does that mean?”

”The Employment Center is a resource for young adults who have a hard time entering the workforce for a variety of reasons. For example, they may have some sort of disability, or they've been unemployed for a long time, or maybe they've suffered some sort of chronic illness. We meet with our clients, perform a skills a.s.sessment, and prepare an action plan that can include various components, for example, vocational training, or a list of what types of jobs they should look for. Then we help them with the actual job search, writing resumes and cover letters and so on. We receive government funding, but we're owned by a private foundation.”

Suddenly a young black woman is standing by our table. She's wearing a batik dress and her dreadlocks are wound up into a bun she wears high on the back of her head. The expression on her face is dogged, grim.

”I'm sorry to bother you, Kattis, but something has happened,” the woman says.