‘My name is Azar Petterson,’ she said. ‘I will be doing this interview. But I had taken it for granted that the young women in your seminar would be present.’
‘For now I would like to handle this situation with the utmost discretion,’ Humlin answered. ‘There’s a chance that we cannot continue our work in peace if there is too much publicity and unwanted attention.’
Azar looked critically at him.
‘What should I ask you?’
Humlin was starting to feel nervous.
‘I thought it was your job to come up with the questions.’
Azar shrugged then turned to her crew.
‘We’ll do a short interview,’ she said to the fat young woman holding the camera. ‘Then we’ll come back another time and shoot the girls.’
Humlin was very uncomfortable by this point. He had never been in a situation where the reporter showed such reluctance towards her task.
‘Where do you want me to stand?’
‘Right there is fine.’
The red light on the camera started glowing and the boom hung down over his head.
Azar turned to the camera woman.
‘We’ll cut here.’
Humlin’s mouth dropped.
‘That’s it?’
‘We can use it as an intro to the segment with the girls.’
‘My name is Humlin, not Hultin.’
‘I’ll cut that.’
Azar handed him her card.
‘Call me a few days before your next meeting. And make sure the girls are going to be there.’
‘They’ll be here soon.’
‘We don’t have time to wait around.’
The TV crew packed up and left. Humlin felt humiliated, but did not have time to ponder his hurt feelings. Haiman came in through the door. Humlin’s feelings turned to fear. Haiman was coming straight at him, holding a plastic bag in one hand.
‘I did not mean to hurt you. I’m sorry.’
‘That’s all right.’
‘If I had been really angry, the blow would have killed you.’
‘I believe you.’
Haiman took a stained and worn rugby ball from the bag and held it out to Humlin.
‘I hope we can be friends.’
‘It’s all behind us,’ Humlin said breezily. ‘I’ve already forgotten about it.’
Haiman frowned.
‘I have not forgotten. I never forget what I do.’
‘Of course we both remember what happened. But we just won’t think about it any more.’
Haiman looked at him in a confused way. The furrow in his brow grew deeper.
‘I don’t understand you.’
Humlin broke out in a light sweat.
‘I mean the same thing you do. Neither one of us has forgotten what happened but now you give me this wonderful rugby ball and we are friends.’
Haiman smiled.
‘That’s exactly what I mean. Do you like rugby?’
‘It is one of my favourite sports.’
Törnblom appeared in the doorway and said it was time to start. When Humlin walked into the room he saw that Leila’s large family was once again in attendance. Leyla, Tanya and Tea-Bag were sitting up in the front waiting for him. He pushed his way through the throng. The chatter died away. Humlin waited until there was complete silence in the room.
‘We are now at the point where we can start the course in earnest. Tonight I want you to take twenty minutes to write down the most important thing that happened to you today. You can write in any format you please: a poem, whatever you like. But you only get twenty minutes. Then we’ll read what you’ve written. Don’t talk to each other. And please, no chatter from the audience.’
‘What about what we wrote last time?’ Leyla asked. ‘Aren’t we going to talk about that?’
The tone of her voice irritated Humlin, but he tried not to show it.
‘Of course we’ll talk about it. Just not right now.’
Leyla got up and walked over to a corner of the room, asking some of her relatives to move. Tea-Bag stayed in her chair hunched up in her thick coat. Tanya moved as far away from the others as possible. There was complete silence in the room. Humlin looked at Tea-Bag and her bowed head. She seemed completely oblivious of her surroundings. He got to his feet.
‘I’ll be back when the time is up,’ he said, and left.
Törnblom had brewed some coffee in his office. Humlin looked at the old boxing posters and thought about how appropriate it was — not that it had ever been his decision — to hold these writing seminars in a place devoted to the art of fighting.
‘Things are going well,’ Törnblom said and squeezed himself into a chair behind the overflowing desk.
‘How can you say that? We’ve hardly started.’
‘Life isn’t what you think it is, Humlin.’
Humlin was immediately on guard.
