Read Online Not Dark Yet by Berit Ellingsen - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Berit Ellingsen
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called the university’s cleaning service, but all that blood seemed dangerous so I wiped up a little first, and threw it in the biohazard bin before they arrived. But everything is clean now.”
“What about the owl?”
“I put it in the freezer for dissection later on. Who knows, the bird might have been sick, injured, or had some kind of parasite, which caused the sudden change in behavior.”
He nodded. “Let me know if there is anything I can help with.”
“Not much we can do about the owl now,” Narayan said. “But better it than professor Kaye. How badly was he hurt?”
“I didn’t see the wounds clearly, they had to be cleaned first,” he said. “But I’m certain the owl missed Kaye’s eyes. He wouldn’t have been sent home so quickly if not.”
“Good point. It can’t have been that serious then.”
“I left the camera bag in the owl room, but will pick it up as soon as I can. If Kaye calls tonight, will you let him know I said hello?”
“Of course.”
He downloaded, prepared, and sent the last batch of photos to Kaye’s email account. Then he sent the professor a text message wishing him a good and speedy recovery. He didn’t stop by Kaye’s house, thinking that the professor needed sleep to heal. Instead he went home to the honeycomb towers.
He texted Michael, but there was no reply. Maybe Michael was still at work, preparing mathematical simulations of financial risk that were going to run the whole night. He showeredand pulled on the terrycloth bathrobe and slippers he had pilfered from some hotel abroad, padded out to the elevator, and upstairs to the swimming pool. At the time of planning, a pool on the top floor probably seemed like a good idea to draw more buyers to the overpriced apartments instead of a few large and even more difficult to sell penthouses, but now, with the towers built and populated, not many inhabitants seemed to have the time or the inclination to use the large space and water.
As usual at night, the cold unlit room beneath the vaulted glass ceiling was empty, and the water’s surface still. He stepped out of his slippers and left the bathrobe on one of the white plastic chairs furthest away from the pool so it wouldn’t get wet. Then he dove in and swam two laps, fifty meters, under water, with slow, deliberate motions, finishing each arm stroke before starting on the leg stroke. When that was done he crawled fifty laps on the surface, quietly, in the darkness. Afterward, he floated in the water for a long time while he watched the cloud of stars at the center of the galaxy rise above the silhouette of the marsh and the city center in the distance, feeling like every shining point of light moved and lived inside him.
“Sometimes when I think about you, it’s like there’s nobody there,” Kaye once told him. They were lying in the broad bed on the second floor of Kaye’s house. As the dining room downstairs, the bedroom was filled with antique furniture in a ruddy wood with carved legs and miniature pilasters: the stout double bed, a two-door closet with matte elliptical mirrors, and two bedside tables. Paperbacks, hardbound, and jacketed books, mixed with academic journals and photo prints were stacked in a blast radius around the bed.
“I’m here,” he said. “I always am.”
10
HE DIDN’T RECEIVE ANY MORE REQUESTS FOR photographic assignments from the faculty, but nevertheless sent them his resignation letter, preferring to believe that he had preemptively quit, rather than been fired.
Beanie, Michael’s sister, came over. At first she was yelling a stream of unflattering descriptions because she had recently thrown her boyfriend out, despite not being able to pay the rent on the apartment they shared on her own. But as her anger cooled it turned to tears.
“It’s so unfair!” Beanie said, crumpling the tissue paper he had offered her against the crying, and which she had wept and blown her nose into several times, and threw it
“What about the owl?”
“I put it in the freezer for dissection later on. Who knows, the bird might have been sick, injured, or had some kind of parasite, which caused the sudden change in behavior.”
He nodded. “Let me know if there is anything I can help with.”
“Not much we can do about the owl now,” Narayan said. “But better it than professor Kaye. How badly was he hurt?”
“I didn’t see the wounds clearly, they had to be cleaned first,” he said. “But I’m certain the owl missed Kaye’s eyes. He wouldn’t have been sent home so quickly if not.”
“Good point. It can’t have been that serious then.”
“I left the camera bag in the owl room, but will pick it up as soon as I can. If Kaye calls tonight, will you let him know I said hello?”
“Of course.”
He downloaded, prepared, and sent the last batch of photos to Kaye’s email account. Then he sent the professor a text message wishing him a good and speedy recovery. He didn’t stop by Kaye’s house, thinking that the professor needed sleep to heal. Instead he went home to the honeycomb towers.
He texted Michael, but there was no reply. Maybe Michael was still at work, preparing mathematical simulations of financial risk that were going to run the whole night. He showeredand pulled on the terrycloth bathrobe and slippers he had pilfered from some hotel abroad, padded out to the elevator, and upstairs to the swimming pool. At the time of planning, a pool on the top floor probably seemed like a good idea to draw more buyers to the overpriced apartments instead of a few large and even more difficult to sell penthouses, but now, with the towers built and populated, not many inhabitants seemed to have the time or the inclination to use the large space and water.
As usual at night, the cold unlit room beneath the vaulted glass ceiling was empty, and the water’s surface still. He stepped out of his slippers and left the bathrobe on one of the white plastic chairs furthest away from the pool so it wouldn’t get wet. Then he dove in and swam two laps, fifty meters, under water, with slow, deliberate motions, finishing each arm stroke before starting on the leg stroke. When that was done he crawled fifty laps on the surface, quietly, in the darkness. Afterward, he floated in the water for a long time while he watched the cloud of stars at the center of the galaxy rise above the silhouette of the marsh and the city center in the distance, feeling like every shining point of light moved and lived inside him.
“Sometimes when I think about you, it’s like there’s nobody there,” Kaye once told him. They were lying in the broad bed on the second floor of Kaye’s house. As the dining room downstairs, the bedroom was filled with antique furniture in a ruddy wood with carved legs and miniature pilasters: the stout double bed, a two-door closet with matte elliptical mirrors, and two bedside tables. Paperbacks, hardbound, and jacketed books, mixed with academic journals and photo prints were stacked in a blast radius around the bed.
“I’m here,” he said. “I always am.”
10
HE DIDN’T RECEIVE ANY MORE REQUESTS FOR photographic assignments from the faculty, but nevertheless sent them his resignation letter, preferring to believe that he had preemptively quit, rather than been fired.
Beanie, Michael’s sister, came over. At first she was yelling a stream of unflattering descriptions because she had recently thrown her boyfriend out, despite not being able to pay the rent on the apartment they shared on her own. But as her anger cooled it turned to tears.
“It’s so unfair!” Beanie said, crumpling the tissue paper he had offered her against the crying, and which she had wept and blown her nose into several times, and threw it
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