Right before he was about to start, Törnblom and his wife entered the room. Humlin immediately fell in love with her. She had a beautiful face, with deep-set eyes. During his reading he directed his inner attentions towards her, reading his poems for her and no one else. The rest of the audience consisted mainly of the retired, among them a man whose breath rattled worryingly in his chest. In Humlin’s mind the breathing came to sound like stormy waves smashing up against a rocky shore. After the reading there were no questions. Törnblom smiled and Humlin grew suspicious. He looks down on me, he thought. When we were younger the literature we had in mind was of a completely different sort. We were going to write deadly critiques of oppressive regimes. I ended up in the world of poetry, he in a barge and then a boxing club.
While the librarian was presenting Humlin with a small bouquet of flowers for his troubles — among the smallest he had ever received — he decided he would leave through a back door and take a taxi straight to the airport. He realised this would likely make any future contact with Törnblom impossible. But he was genuinely afraid of Andrea’s reaction. When the room was almost empty Pelle Törnblom and his wife approached him.
‘I did not understand your poems,’ Amanda said simply. ‘But they were very beautiful.’
‘I understood them,’ Törnblom said. ‘But I didn’t think they were very beautiful.’
‘Let me just get my coat,’ Humlin said. ‘Then I’ll meet you down at the boxing club.’
Törnblom looked closely at him.
‘I thought we could walk over there together.’
‘After a reading I always like to have a little time to myself to clear my head.’
‘I think we should walk over together. But we don’t have to talk.’
He senses I’d like to get out of this, Humlin thought. When he came back into the room with his coat he still wasn’t sure what he was going to do. The thought of calling Andrea and telling her of the change in his plans seemed too much. He got out his mobile phone to call a taxi when his phone rang. He didn’t recognise the number that appeared on his display. He answered. It was his mother.
‘Where are you?’
‘Why don’t you ask me how I am?’
‘We live in a new age now. With mobile phones one never knows where people might be. Why don’t you ask me where I am?’
‘I don’t recognise the number. Where are you?’
‘I’ve been invited out to a restaurant.’
‘By whom?’
‘A secret admirer.’
‘Who?’
‘I’m not going to tell you.’
‘Is that why you called? So you can tell me you’re not going to tell me who has invited you out to dinner?’
‘I’d like you to drop by later this evening. We have something important to talk about.’
‘I can’t come by this evening. I’m out of town.’
‘I spoke to Andrea earlier. She said very definitely that you were coming home tonight.’
Humlin felt trapped.
‘I could be dead by tomorrow night. I’m almost ninety years old.’
‘You’re not going to die tonight. I’ll be over tomorrow evening.’
‘That’s not possible. Andrea is coming over then.’
‘Andrea?’
‘I’d like to see you tonight and her tomorrow.’
‘Why can’t we come over together?’
‘I have some important things to tell you. But I would like to speak to you separately.’
Humlin tried to understand what could be going on with his mother.
‘I’ll be by if I make my flight.’
‘Where are you?’
‘Andrea didn’t tell you?’
‘She couldn’t remember if it was Luleå or Malmö.’
‘I’m in Gothenburg.’
‘I don’t have any more time to talk now. I’ll be home after midnight. We’ll have a glass of wine.’
‘I don’t want to have any wine.’
The connection was already broken. Humlin called the taxi company but the number was busy. He found a phone book on a shelf in the hallway where he quickly looked up other companies. Everyone’s number was busy. Humlin was starting to sweat. I don’t want to go to a party, he thought. Maybe I would like to be alone with Amanda and explain the meaning of my poetry to her.
He called the first company again and got through this time.
‘We can send a taxi out to you in twenty minutes.’
‘That’s too late. I’m trying to catch a flight.’
‘There’s a medical conference on in town. That’s why we’re so busy tonight.’
‘I need a cab out here immediately.’
‘I’m sorry, sir. It doesn’t look like we can help you.’
Humlin decided he would try to wave one down on the street. He found the back exit and thought to himself that he was leaving by the door of the Failed Poets. Bestselling crime novelists probably always left through the front door.
But when he got outside Törnblom was there waiting for him.
‘Amanda went the other way,’ Törnblom said. ‘We were afraid we might lose you.’
Humlin felt humiliated.
‘I saw it in your face that you were going to try to stand us up,’ Törnblom said accusingly. ‘I have to look out for my kids, for everyone who’s going to be disappointed if you don’t show.’
‘You don’t know Andrea.’
Törnblom held out his hand impatiently.
‘Give me your phone. I’ll call her.’
‘What are you going to say?’
‘That you’re indisposed.’
‘She knows I never get ill. She’s a nurse. She knows me.’
