by Jon Fosse
So, here are our runaways, The Policeman said
They didn’t get far, he said
and then The Policeman’s Partner handcuffed them both and put them in the car and The Policeman said now he’d drive them straight to the prison in Bjørgvin, and then there’d be a trial and they wouldn’t get out of there so easily, and if there was one thing he was sure of it was that this wasn’t the only crime they had on their conscience, he said and then they were put in a real prison, this time, in separate cells, there was a bench and a writing desk with drawers and then somewhere to shit and piss, in the cell, and there were bars on the window, and then they were both found guilty and then they were sent to The Prison there in Bjørgvin, Sigve says, and then, yes, then you’re sorry about all the stupid things you’ve done, he’ll never be rid of these shameful marks, he says and he holds out his hands with the tattoos on them, three dots between thumb and index finger on his right hand, making a triangle, they call it a beggar’s mark, he says, and in the same place on his left hand he has a heart, a cross, and an anchor, yes, a person does all sorts of crazy things when he’s drunk, he says and the bus pulls over and stops in front of The Stranda Hotel and they get out and Asle says it’ll be nice to get a glass of something now and Sigve says it sure will, that’s the truth, and then the question is whether The Namesake will be there, he says, yes, he can go into The Stranda Hotel first and see if he’s there and if not they can go up and knock on the basement door where he lives, because it has its own door, the basement, and he knows, as he said, where he lives, Sigve says, and now Asle should just stay there and wait and then he walks into The Stranda Hotel to see if The Namesake is sitting there and so Asle stands there, just standing around, in his black velvet jacket, and with the brown leather shoulder bag hanging over his shoulder, and with a scarf around his neck, and he rolls himself a cigarette and he lights it and then Sigve comes out and says yeah, his Namesake is in there, with The Bjørgvin Times and a cup of coffee, so they can just go on in, Sigve says and then Asle walks up the stairs and Sigve opens the door and Asle walks into the lobby, and next to the front desk there’s a dining room, and Sigve goes inside and Asle follows him and there, at a table way at the back, with his back against the wall, by a window, there’s a guy with long brown hair, and of course he’s wearing a black velvet jacket, and a scarf around his neck, Asle sees and then Sigve says they need to go over and say hello to The Namesake and Asle walks towards The Namesake who looks up and Asle thinks that the guy sitting there looks like him, yes, Sigve was right, he thinks and Sigve and Asle go over to the table and Sigve says he thought the two of them should meet, because they’re not all that different, he says and The Namesake gets up and holds out his hand to Asle and says Asle and Asle holds out his hand and says Asle and they shake hands
So we’re both named Asle, Asle says
Yes, so we are, The Namesake says
and then he sits back down and Asle sits down in the chair opposite The Namesake and he looks down and Sigve says well then they’ll just get a beer, yes, he says and he looks at The Namesake
You probably don’t have enough money for a beer? Sigve says
That’s probably why you’re drinking coffee? he says
Yeah, it’s like you’re psychic, The Namesake says
and Sigve says he doesn’t need to be psychic to know that much and then he asks hasn’t The Namesake sold any pictures recently and The Namesake says that he hasn’t been painting the kinds of pictures people want to buy for a while now, he just paints the pictures he’s going to paint and wants to paint and needs to paint, but he has started on two paintings of a sailboat in a storm, Boat in a Storm is the title, yes, the same title that he gives all his paintings like that, he says and he’s planning to finish them both quickly, since he needs the money, and then he’ll stand in front of The Stranda Hotel like usual, at the bottom of the stairs with the paintings leaning up along the ground-floor wall and see if anyone wants to buy a picture from him
You’re still standing on the hotel steps selling pictures? Sigve says
Yes, The Namesake says
You said you’d stop doing that, Sigve says
I certainly did say that, The Namesake says
and then it’s silence
But I need the money, he says
and then the woman who was sitting at reception comes walking towards to them and Sigve quietly tells Asle that her name is Gunvor and that she’s the wife of the owner of The Stranda Hotel and she comes over to them and she asks what’ll it be and Sigve says it’ll be a glass of beer each, he says and she looks at Asle and she asks if he has proof of age and then Asle takes out his wallet and takes out his ID card and hands it to her and she looks at it and then she says three glasses of beer then and she gives Asle back his ID and she turns and walks away
I would never have thought you were eighteen years old, or well maybe I would, The Namesake says
and Sigve looks around and then says that Asle’s not old enough, he’s not eighteen, but they did a little something to his ID card and then suddenly he was eighteen and The Namesake says so that’s how it is, he might have known, he did the same thing with his own ID, he says, and it was easy as can be, you’d almost think they made the IDs so that people could change the numbers on them, he says
Yeah, Sigve says
And if you work carefully no one can see that anything’s been changed, he says
Anyway, you need to use a magnifying glass, he says
and then it’s quiet and then Sigve sits down next to Asle and he looks at The Namesake and says that Asle is going to The Academic High School in Aga
So you’re an advanced student then, The Namesake says
But he paints pictures, him too, Sigve says
Yes I thought so, The Namesake says
And he just painted a picture of the house I live in, well, you’ve been there, yes, from a photograph, the one hanging above the sofa in the living room, Sigve says
So you do that kind of thing, The Namesake says
I used to do it a lot, but I was so tired of painting houses and homes with a blue sky and a blue fjord and a white house and a birch tree just putting its leaves out and a black mountain with white snow on the top that I stopped that, so the picture of the house is in black and white, Asle says
and The Namesake says that he used to do that too
You painted pictured of people’s homes for them too? Asle says
Let’s not talk about that, The Namesake says
and Asle thinks that he doesn’t want to ask The Namesake where he’s from, but one thing’s for sure, he’s not from Barmen or Stranda, but he must be from some other town in Hardanger anyway, you can hear it in his voice, Asle thinks, and he thinks he’d rather not know exactly where The Namesake comes from, it’s like he’d prefer not to know that
But lately I haven’t wanted to paint any more happy little houses in happyland, it’s just lies, The Namesake says
And then, he says
Yes, then I started thinking I’d rather make money painting pictures of boats in a storm at sea, and especially sailboats, but I’ve also painted steamships and you might say almost modern boats, wooden fishing smacks, that kind of thing, but those paintings are all just lies too, he says
Lies and fraud, he says
and again everyone stops talking
But you have to live on something, everyone needs a little money, he says
and he says, and he looks straight at Asle, that now he’ll have two pictures like that done soon and then he’ll set up outside The Stranda Hotel, in front of the stairs, with the pictures leaning against the ground-floor wall, he’s already done that lots of times, and he always manages to sell the paintings, but it’s no good to try to sell too many at once, he says, the best thing is to have just one or two to sell, because then you can get more money for each one, he says, and he says he hopes Asle’s not getting any ideas into his head because this is his territory, he says, an
d he’d rather avoid any competition when it comes to selling paintings like this, he says and Asle hears what he’s saying and he has suddenly started thinking about all the people who’ve sat in this hotel drinking beer, at one or another of these tables, and who are gone now, yes, the ones who are lying in their graves and the ones who’ve left nothing behind, and now he is sitting at a table in this old hotel, The Stranda Hotel, drinking beer, now it’s his turn to be up on the earth, but not for long, and he doesn’t know how long he has, no, and then he too will be in the ground, down in the dirt, and will there be anything of him left behind? yes well, aside from the remains lying down in the earth? no, nothing will be left, or maybe a few bones for a while, until they disappear too, so there’s nothing left of all the many people who’ve sat in this old Stranda Hotel drinking beer, Asle thinks, but every single person is more than just bone and meat and fat, and hair and skin, there’s a soul too, or a spirit, or both, or whatever you’d call it, whatever the difference is between soul and spirit, and the same way every single person looks different, yes well almost, yes, almost everyone but well it’s basically impossible to see any difference between him and The Namesake, he and every other person also has a soul, or maybe a spirit, that’s totally unlike other people’s, so if he and The Namesake look exactly the same then their souls, their spirits, can’t be as similar as their appearance, he thinks
Well you’re off in dreamland, The Namesake says
What are you thinking about? he says
I was thinking about all the people who’ve sat and drank beer at one of the tables in this old hotel and are gone now, Asle says
Yes, The Namesake says
What I’m trying to paint has something to do with them, he says
Same with me, Asle says
But what we’re talking about now isn’t something that can be said, it can just be painted, maybe, yes, it can be shown in a way, The Namesake says
Yes, Asle says
and it gets quiet and then Gunvor comes over with a tray that has three bottles of beer and three glasses on it and she puts a glass and a bottle down in front of each of them and then she pours a little beer into each glass and she says enjoy and Sigve says thank you and that he’ll be paying, but they might be having a couple more rounds probably so maybe he can wait until later to pay, he says and Gunvor says that’s fine and she leaves and then Sigve says can’t they talk about something else, because this is starting to sound like prayers at a meeting house or a sermon in church or something
Let’s drink and be merry, he says
While we still can, he says
and he raises his glass
Yes, The Namesake says
and he raises his glass and then Asle raises his glass and they toast and they drink and then they bang their glasses back down on the table and then they each start rolling a cigarette and they light them and then Sigve says that it’s good to be alive, just a glass or two of something and life is good, he says
Yes, Asle says
Yes, it feels good, he says
It calms me down, he says
and The Namesake nods and then none of them says anything
Well that was quite a silence, The Namesake says
Nothing wrong with a little silence, Sigve says
and then The Namesake says someone he knew has moved in with him, now the two of them are living together in one room there in The Basement, she’d started working as a maid at The Stranda Hotel and at first she lived in one of the ordinary hotel rooms herself, but she didn’t like that, so she moved in with him, they agreed that she should move in one night when he was sitting here having a beer and she came and sat down at his table, he says and she’s there at home in The Basement right now, he says and then he says that he’s going to try to get into The Art School in Bjørgvin, one of these days he’s going to bring some of his paintings and take the bus to Bjørgvin and then he’ll go up to The Art School and show them his paintings and if he starts there, yes, then he too will get an artist’s stipend, The Namesake says, so now if he just finishes the two paintings he’s working on and gets them sold and gets the money for the bus he’ll go to Bjørgvin and try to get a spot at The Art School, he says, and Asle says that he thought you needed to have gone to an academic high school to get into The Art School, that’s why he was going to The Academic High School, not because he wanted to but because he wanted to get into The Art School, he says and The Namesake says that that is how it is but it’s possible to make an exception to the rule, if a painter’s good enough he can get in even if he hasn’t gone to The Academic High School, he says and he wasn’t clear about that either, he says, but then he wrote to The Art School and asked if that ever happened and got an answer and it said in the letter that it was possible to get into The Art School without having gone to an academic high school if you painted good enough pictures, he says, and Asle thinks how about that, yes, so maybe he doesn’t need to slog through all of The Academic High School, because the pictures he paints are good enough, he’s sure of that, or maybe that’s just something he’s imagining and they aren’t as good as he thinks they are and it’ll be easier for him to get into The Art School if he has his examen artium, so it’s probably better if he finishes The Academic High School after all, he thinks, and he feels calmer now, the beer has taken his fear away and The Namesake says that the woman who’s moved in with him is a few years older than him, her name is Liv and now she’s going to have a baby too, yes, they’re going to have a baby together, he’s already about to become a father, young as he is, The Namesake says and Sigve says well he’s going to be a young father and The Namesake says that it isn’t something he wanted, so of course that’s what happened, but what will be will be, and if he gets a spot at The Art School and gets an artist’s stipend and they find a place to live in Bjørgvin it’ll probably all work out, he says, because there must be cheap apartments to rent at what they call The Student’s Home, maybe they can get a place there, he says and then he finishes his drink and Sigve says live and let live and both Sigve and Asle have a lot of beer left in their glass and The Namesake says that he should probably get home to Liv, she must be waiting for him, because he said he would just go out for a little walk, he says and he gets up and he says that he needs to finish painting those two sailboats, and he signs all these pictures of boats in a rough sea in the lower right corner, he writes Helle Halle there, and so unclearly that it’s illegible and whenever the buyers ask him what his name is he says Helle Halle, The Namesake says and he puts his shoulder bag on and then he says see you and he leaves and then Sigve and Asle are sitting there and Sigve moves over to the other side of the table where The Namesake had been sitting and he moves the empty coffee cup and the empty beer glass that The Namesake left behind over to the side of the table and then he takes his own beer glass and puts it in front of him and Asle takes a sip of his beer and then he looks out the window at The Fjord and it’s almost totally still, it’s not entirely calm but almost, because there’s a light wind making small waves on The Fjord, and every single wave is different, if you look closely you can see that there isn’t a single wave that’s exactly like another, the same way there’s not a single cloud that’s exactly like another cloud, all the waves are different, and all the clouds are different, Asle thinks and that’s how they are in a good painting too, no wave is just a wave and no cloud is just a cloud, they’re like that only in pictures of a sailboat in a storm, as The Namesake puts it, and that’s probably why he thinks these paintings are so bad, and that he paints them quickly and badly just to make money, since those are the kinds of painting that people want to buy, Asle thinks, and then he thinks that it’s strange that people like so much to buy bad paintings but no one wants to buy the good ones, no, it’s impossible to understand, Asle thinks and then he hears Sigve say that he needs to drink, too, not just think or dream or whatever it is he’s doing and Asle sees that Sigve has finished his glass and Asle sees that his is only half drunk so he ta
kes a good sip and Sigve says that as soon as Gunvor shows up, because she’s always checking to see if the customers want anything, they’ll order another drink, Sigve says, yes, he’s been to The Stranda Hotel so many times that he even knows that the woman who was sitting at the reception desk and who’s serving them now is named Gunvor and that her husband, who owns the hotel, is named Stein, they’re both named Stein, The Stranda Hotel has been in the same family for generations, Sigve says and no sooner has he said it than Asle sees Gunvor appear and Sigve raises his hand and she comes over right away and Sigve says that he’d like to order two more beers and Gunvor says that’ll be fine and then she takes away the empty glass and empty bottle and empty coffee cup that The Namesake left and then she walks away and Sigve says yes, her name is Gunvor, and she married into the family, and then there’s silence and then Asle thinks so it was The Stranda Hotel that Sigve broke into back in the day and Sigve says that it was The Stranda Hotel that he and the other crook broke into to get more to drink, but he’d accepted his punishment and settled things with Gunvor and her husband, he says and then he says that he assumed Asle wanted another beer too, yes, at least one and I’m lying on the bench with the grey blanket wrapped around me, the one Grandmother had on her when she was lying on the bench in The Old House after she’d had her stroke and that I took with me when I moved to Aga to live in a rented room and that’s followed me everywhere I’ve lived since then, I think and I see that now there’s just embers lit in the stove, and it’s a little cold in the room now, so I should put a couple more logs in, I think but I stay lying down because sometimes it takes a real effort just to get to my feet, I think and then I suddenly hear footsteps and I see the door to the hallway open and there, yes, right there in the middle of the hall is Åsleik and he’s downright brandishing a cured leg of lamb waving it back and forth over his shoulder like he’s about to throw it at me and I think I must have dozed off a bit yes