by Jon Fosse
I’m going shopping for my mother, he says
At The Co-op Store? The Bald Man says
Yes, Asle says
And then at The Dairy and The Bakery too, he says
and Asle holds up the tin milk canister and The Bald Man says he can see that Asle is carrying a tin milk canister, isn’t he, and it must be his mother who asked him to go shopping for her, he says and Asle says yes it was and The Bald Man says he can get in and sit with him if he feels like coming along on a drive, and then they’ll drive on over to Innstranda, because he needs to talk to a man there, The Bald Man says and then he asks Asle to get into the car and The Bald Man rolls up the window and then opens the front door and Asle gets in and sits in the passenger seat with the tin milk canister between his legs and he slams the door shut and then The Bald Man starts driving and he doesn’t say anything he just sits there and grips the wheel and looks straight ahead and then Asle sits there in the front of the car and they drive past The Bakery and past The Dairy and past the big yellow house where The Bald Man lives and then they drive past The Co-op Store and around a bend and once they’ve taken that turn they can see a long way up The Fjord, up Hardangerfjord, all the way to where The Fjord ends, they can see to The Bottom Of The Fjord and then they drive in along Hardangerfjord towards Innstranda and The Bald Man says he needs to have a little talk with a man at Innstranda, yes, and Asle hears that The Bald Man’s voice is a little shaky and he thinks it must be lonely living by yourself in such a big house like The Bald Man does and then The Bald Man puts a hand on Asle’s leg and Asle pushes his hand away and he thinks why did The Bald Man put his hand on his leg? and then they drive farther and neither of them says anything and then The Bald Man puts a hand on his leg again, and he runs his hand up and down Asle’s leg and Asle pushes his hand away and then he asks The Bald Man why he’s doing that and he doesn’t answer
You mustn’t tell anyone, The Bald Man says
and his voice is shaky and he’s looking straight ahead and he keeps driving
It would be best if you didn’t tell anyone that you came for a drive with me at all, The Bald Man says
Especially don’t tell your parents, he says
and The Bald Man says that if Asle comes home with him he has both soft drinks and hot chocolate, if not today then maybe some other day, he says and Asle doesn’t say anything and then The Bald Man turns off the country road and drives up a driveway and he stops the car and turns off the engine and then he gets out and knocks on a door and a man comes out and he and The Bald Man stand in front of the house and the man looks at Asle and The Bald Man talks to the man who’s come out of the house and who’s looking at Asle, and why did The Bald Man put his hand on his leg? Asle thinks and then The Bald Man comes back and gets into the car and he starts the car and he puts his left hand on the wheel and drives down the driveway and Asle looks a little off to the side and then The Bald Man puts his hand on Asle’s leg and then puts his hand on his fly and unzips his fly and takes his penis in his hand and moves his hand up and down on Asle’s penis and it tickles and Asle pushes his hand away and he hears The Bald Man breathing as if he’s out of breath and Asle turns and turns and looks at The Bald Man and sees that he’s pulling up and down on his own penis, and The Bald Man’s penis is big and long like a stick and Asle looks straight ahead again and he hears The Bald Man groan and then The Bald Man puts his right hand on the steering wheel too and he looks straight ahead and again The Bald Man says that Asle mustn’t tell anyone that he’s been on a drive with him, he says and Asle sits there with the tin milk canister between his legs and he says he won’t tell anyone and he thinks that he’ll never tell anyone, never, because this, he knows, is something you don’t talk about, you can’t tell anyone about something like this, and especially not Mother or Father, Asle thinks and The Bald Man asks shouldn’t he do his shopping at The Co-op Store now and Asle says yes he should and The Bald Man says he can give him a few kroner so that he can buy something nice for himself and then Asle can come over to his house someday and get ice cream and hot chocolate, he says, but yes the best thing to do would be to drop Asle off a little before The Co-op Store, he says and Asle says that’s fine with him and then they drive out along Hardangerfjord without saying anything
You musn’t tell anyone, The Bald Man says
I’ll give you a few kroner if you promise not to tell anyone, he says
and Asle says he won’t tell anyone and The Bald Man pulls over and stops and then he takes out his wallet and gets three kroner out and he gives them to Asle and he puts them right into his trouser pocket and at the same time he zips up his fly and then The Bald Man says that it would be best if he stops here, because it’s not far to The Co-op Store, he says and Asle says yes and he puts his hand down into his pocket and he feels the three kroner he’s been given, that’s money for three ice creams right there, he thinks and The Bald Man bends down over Asle and his belly is covering Asle’s whole body and then The Bald Man opens the door on Asle’s side and he gets out of the car and then Asle is standing here holding the tin milk canister and then The Bald Man drives on and Asle goes to The Co-op Store and I lie there in bed, and did I doze off? or maybe I’ve been awake the whole time? I, Asle, I think and I’m probably too tired to fall asleep, overtired they call it, I think and then I stroke Bragi’s fur as he lies stretched out next to me, and a dog gives off a good warmth, I think and now I can’t start thinking about how I found Asle there in the snow, almost covered with snow, I think, because then there’ll be no way I can get to sleep tonight, and I’m so tired, so tired and I see Asle lying there and his whole body’s shaking, jerking up and down and The Doctor is standing there looking at Asle and he says it’s bad and I hold between my thumb and index finger the brown wooden cross on the rosary I got from Ales once and I say inside myself Pater noster Qui es in cælis Sanctificetur nomen tuum Adveniat regnum tuum Fiat voluntas tua sicut in cælo et in terra Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie et dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris Et ne nos inducas in tentationem sed libera nos a malo and I move my thumb and finger to the first bead and I say inside myself Our Father Who art in heaven Hallowed be thy name Thy kingdom come Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil and I think that I want to say a Salve Regina but I haven’t managed to make a good enough Norwegian version of that so I can only say it in Latin, I think and I move my thumb and finger down again and I hold the cross and I say inside myself Salve Regina Mater misericordiæ Vita dulcedo et spes nostra salve Ad te clamamus Exsules filii Hevæ Ad te suspiramus Gementes et flentes In hac lacrimarum valle Eia ergo Advocata nostra Illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte Et Iesum benedictum fructum ventris tui Nobis post hoc exsilium ostende O clemens O pia O dulcis Virgo Maria and I hold the brown wooden cross between my thumb and my finger and then I say, again and again, inside myself, as I breathe in deeply Lord and as I breathe out slowly Jesus and as I breathe in deeply Christ and as I breathe out slowly Have mercy and as I breathe in deeply On me
About the Authors
Jon Fosse was born in 1959 on the west coast of Norway and is the recipient of countless prestigious prizes, both in his native Norway and abroad. Since his 1983 fiction debut, Raudt, svart [Red, Black], Fosse has written prose, poetry, essays, short stories, children’s books, and over forty plays, with more than a thousand productions performed and translations into fifty languages. The Other Name is the first volume in Septology, his latest prose work, to be published in three volumes by Fitzcarraldo Editions.
Damion Searls is a translator from German, Norwegian, French, and Dutch and a writer in English. He has translated four books and a libretto by Jon Fosse – Melancholy (co-translated with Grethe Kvernes), Aliss at the Fire, Morning and Evening (novel and libretto), and Scenes from a Childhood – and books by many
other classic modern writers.
Copyright
Fitzcarraldo Editions
8-12 Creekside
London, SE8 3DX
Great Britain
Copyright © Jon Fosse, 2019
Translation copyright © Damion Searls, 2019
Originally published in Great Britain
by Fitzcarraldo Editions in 2019
The right of Jon Fosse to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
ISBN 978–1910695–91–3
eISBN 978–1–910695–92–0
Design by Ray O’Meara
Typeset in Fitzcarraldo
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission in writing from Fitzcarraldo Editions.
The translation has been published with the financial support of NORLA