The Devil's star

38

Monday. The Cloud.

Rakel opened her eyes with a start. Her heart was pounding fiercely. She had slept. She listened to the unrelenting din of children swimming in the open-air Frogner swimming pool. A faintly bitter taste of grass lingered in her mucous linings and the heat lay like a warm duvet on her back. Had she been dreaming? Was that what had woken her?

A sudden gust of wind blew the duvet away and gave her goosepimples.

Odd how dreams sometimes just slide away from you, like slippery soap, she thought as she rolled over. Oleg was gone. She raised herself on her elbows and looked around her.

The next second she was on her feet.

‘Oleg!’

She began to run.

She found him by the diving pool. He was sitting on the edge talking to a boy she thought she had seen before. Could have been a boy in his class.

‘Hi, Mummy.’ He squinted up at her and smiled.

Rakel grabbed his arm, harder than she had intended.

‘I told you not to clear off without saying a word.’

Oleg was taken aback and a little embarrassed. His friend fell back a couple of paces.

She let go. Sighed and stared at the horizon. The sky was blue apart from one single white cloud that seemed to be pointing upwards as if someone had just fired a rocket.

‘It’s nearly five. We’re going home now,’ she said. Her voice was a long way off. ‘Time to eat.’

In the car on the way home Oleg asked if Harry was coming.

Rakel shook her head.

While they were waiting for the lights to change on the Smestad crossing she bent forwards to look up and find the cloud again. It had not moved, but it was a bit higher now and there was a tinge of grey at the bottom.

She remembered to lock the door when they arrived home.