The Leopard

15
Strobe Lights

Stineeyed the boy who had just spoken to her. He had a beard, blond hair and a woollen hat. Indoors. And this was no indoor hat, but a thick hat to keep your ears warm. A snowboarder? Anyway, when she took a closer look, this was no boy, but a man. Over thirty. At any rate, there were white wrinkles in the brown skin.

‘So?’ she shouted over the music booming out through the stereo system at Krabbe. The recently opened restaurant had proclaimed it was the new hangout for Stavanger’s young avant-garde musicians, filmmakers and writers, of whom there were quite a few in this otherwise business-orientated, dollar-counting oil town. It would turn out that the in-crowd had not yet decided whether Krabbe deserved their favour or not. As indeed Stine had not yet decided whether this boy – man – deserved hers.

‘It’s just I think you should let me tell you about it,’ he said with a confident smile and looked at her with a pair of eyes that seemed much too pale blue to her. But perhaps that was the lighting in here? Strobe lights? Was that cool? Time would tell. He turned the beer glass in his hand and leaned back against the bar so that she had to lean forward if she wanted to hear what he was saying, but she didn’t fall for that one. He was wearing a thick puffa jacket, yet there was not a drop of sweat to be seen on his face under that ridiculous hat. Or was that cool?

‘There are very few people who’ve biked through the delta district of Burma and returned sufficiently alive to tell the tale,’ he said.

Sufficiently alive. A talker, then. She liked that up to a point. He looked like someone. Some American action hero from an old film or a TV show from the eighties.

‘I promised myself that if I got back to Stavanger I would go out, buy myself a beer and accost the most attractive girl I could see and say what I am saying now.’ He thrust out his arms and wore a big white smile. ‘I think you’re the girl by the blue pagoda.’

‘What?’

‘Rudyard Kipling, missie. You’re the girl waiting for the English soldier by the old blue Moulmein pagoda. So what do you say? Will you join me and walk barefoot on the marble in Shwedagon? Eat cobra meat in Bago? Sleep till the Muslims’ call to prayers in Rangoon and wake to the Buddhists in Mandalay?’

He breathed in. She bent forward. ‘So I’m the most attractive girl in here, am I?’

He looked around. ‘No, but you’ve got the biggest boobs. You’re good-looking, but the competition is too fierce for you to be the best-looking of the lot. Shall we be off?’

She laughed and shook her head. Didn’t know whether he was fun or just mad.

‘I’m with some girls. You can try that trick on someone else.’

‘Elias.’

‘What?’

‘You were wondering what my name was. In case we meet again. And my name’s Elias. Skog. You’ll forget that, but you’ll remember Elias. And we’ll meet again. Before you imagine, actually.’

She slanted her head. ‘Oh yes?’

Then he drained his glass, put it on the bar, smiled at her and left.

‘Who was he?’

It was Mathilde.

‘Don’t know,’ Stine said. ‘He was quite nice. But weird. Talked like he came from eastern Norway.’

‘Weird?’

‘There was something odd about his eyes. And teeth. Are there strobe lights in here?’

‘Strobe lights?’

Stine laughed. ‘No, it’s that toothpaste-coloured solarium light. Makes your face look like a zombie’s.’

Mathilde shook her head. ‘You need a drink. Come on.’

Stine turned towards the exit as she followed. She thought she had seen a face against a pane, but no one was there.