The Demon of Dakar aka The Demon from Dakar

Thirteen

Two days at Dakar and Eva was completely exhausted. Her arms and legs ached, but above all it was the stress of trying to perform that drained her. She was supposed to respond both to her clients’ wishes and to Tessie’s orders, because orders were what she gave. Without reservation, without a smile, except for a wry expression now and again that Eva interpreted as critical oversight. With her stress level, Eva also had trouble understanding Tessie’s rapid commands in broken Swedish.

But all in all, Eva felt she was managing all right. Feo was the one who gave her constant encouragement. His thin face shone with kindness across the counter where the chefs placed their finished plates.

“Take it easy, take it easy,” he repeated. “It’ll be fine.”

Eva smiled at him and couldn’t help laughing when he made faces at Tessie.

“America is great but not the greatest,” he whispered, “for that is love.”

Already on the first day he complimented her on her hair.

“Your hair is as beautiful as silk.”

Even Donald chuckled. He glanced briefly at Eva across Feo’s shoulder and shook his head.

But it was true that Slobodan’s hairdresser had done wonders. Patrik and Hugo had stared in amazement at her when she came back from the salon.

“What have you done?” Patrik asked.

“Wow!” Hugo burst out. “You look like someone on TV.”

When Helen looked in she ended up standing in the doorway.

“Well, I do declare, you’re certainly primped. Now all you need are the bunny ears.”

Not a word about it looking nice, just small snorts and the toss of her head.

That evening Eva stood in front of the mirror for a long time and tried to get used to her reflection. She wasn’t sure what to think, but in the end she decided to like her new appearance. Helen’s attitude had made her unsure of herself. As Eva stood in front of the mirror, she decided that in future she was going to limit her interaction with Helen. Bunny ears, indeed!

Eva had been allowed to go home at eight-thirty, when the worst of the rush was over. Hugo was home, sitting in front of the TV. She sat down for a while and rested her legs, stroking her son’s head and telling him what she had done during the day, but the knowledge that she should do a couple of loads of laundry made her restless.

“Where is Patrik?” she asked and stood up.

“He was going to see Zero and then down to the old Post Office.”

The latter was an old post office that had been converted into a community cafe for young people. It was the local parish that ran it. It offered snacks and pool tables, from time to time a lecture on some topic. After a slow start it had become a popular hangout for teenagers in Bergsbrunna and Sävja.

Eva thought it was good that something was being done for the young people in the area, but she did not approve of Patrik hanging out with Zero. Zero, whose family came from the Kurdish part of Turkey, was famous in the area for his hot temper. He often became involved in disputes and sometimes fights. The police had caught him a couple of times but it had never gone any further.

Zero’s father was disappeared. He had returned to Turkey for his mother’s funeral but was immediately arrested. That was six months ago. A cousin had called and told them that they believed the father had been brought to a military prison, but no one knew anything for sure.

To all intents and purposes, Zero had stopped attending school. Admittedly he did turn up from time to time, but that was mostly to have a bite in the cafeteria and to provoke conflict. Eva thought that deep down the teachers were probably happy not to have to deal with the unpredictable boy. She had heard the teacher everyone called “Gecko” complain that no one could control Zero and get close to him.

“It’s not that he’s stupid,” the teacher said, “but he’s so completely asocial that he’s hard to take.”

That Patrik had started hanging out with Zero was a bad sign. What was there about that boy that Patrik found tempting? It could not be anything other than the lure of excitement, perhaps music or computer games.

Eva returned to the living room and stared at the television screen.

“What is this?”

“A series,” Hugo said.

“But what is it about?”

“It’s a gang that’s going to revenge themselves on the other gang, with traps and stuff. Outsmart the others. Then they get points.”

“Oh, that sounds exciting.”

“It’s really bad,” Hugo answered.

“What are Zero and Patrik up to?”

“How should I know?”

“What interests does he have, that Zero?”

Hugo looked up in surprise.

“Are you joking? Zero has no interests. He doesn’t know what the word means.”

“Well, music then.”

Hugo sighed.

“Since his dad disappeared he only listens to Arab pop.”

“I thought he was from Turkey.”

“It’s the same thing,” Hugo said.

“You should turn off the TV if it’s bad,” Eva said. “Don’t you have any homework?”

“The math teacher is sick. It’s great.”

“Don’t you have a sub?”

Hugo shook his head.

Eva returned to the bathroom and put in a load of wool delicates. With regard to her neighbors it was actually too late, but a wool cycle did not take long. She would have to do the rest the next day.

She wondered if she should call Patrik, but decided to wait until ten o’clock.

By a quarter to eleven. Patrik had still not come home. His cell phone went to voice mail and Eva recorded a message. At eleven she called again but the result was the same, just voice mail.

Hugo had reluctantly gone to bed.

Eva sat in the kitchen and checked the time on the wall clock at regular intervals. He usually called when he was going to be late. She stood up and walked to the window. In the building across the courtyard most of the windows were dark. In Helen’s place, on the first floor of building seven, the light was on. She was probably sitting up knitting. Perhaps she was waiting for her husband. Sometimes he worked nights, or at least claimed to.

She leaned her forehead against the windowpane. If only he would come home soon, she thought, and glanced at the clock again.

She did not know exactly where Zero lived and she did not have his telephone number. She had seen Zero’s mother at a meeting at the school, but from what Eva could tell she did not speak Swedish.

It struck her that maybe Hugo had Zero’s cell phone number and she gently tiptoed up to the door of his room.

“What is it?” Hugo called out immediately.

“I thought maybe you had Zero’s cell phone number,” Eva said and tried to sound as normal as possible.

“I’ve already called,” Hugo mumbled. “There’s no answer.”

The first thing Eva saw was the blood. As if the rest of Patrik did not exist. It was when he closed the door behind him that all of him appeared.

“What have you done?”

The question that all parents in all times and cultures ask their children. Thrown out with an anger that conceals the first gnawing anxiety and even finally the fears of the worst.

“I fell,” Patrik said.

“Fell?! Your whole head is bleeding.”

She saw that he had made an attempt to wipe away the worst of it, but even so his forehead and one cheek were covered. At the hairline he had lumps of clotted blood and his lower lip was swollen.

For a moment they stared at each other. Patrik had that expression in his eyes from a long time ago, before he imperceptibly and then all the more clearly changed into someone else. Eva assumed it was the teenager’s way of developing, distancing himself in order to find himself, but she still missed the old connection and closeness.

Now it was there again for a few seconds and Eva realized she had to tread carefully.

“I’ll put on some tea,” she said.

Patrik took off his jacket, which was covered in blood, and held it indecisively in his hand.

“I’ll take care of it later,” Eva said. “Drop it on the floor.”

A jacket, she thought, bought for a couple hundred kronor-what does it matter? Her whole body trembled at the sight of him. At that moment the door to Hugo’s room opened.

“What is it?”

Eva knew he must not have slept a wink.

“It’s okay,” she said. “Go back to bed.”

Hugo looked bewildered and a little frightened at his brother.

“No, I take that back, you can have tea with us.”

While the water was heating up, Eva wiped Patrik’s face clean. The wounds were not so large: one three-centimeter cut at the hairline, a scratch across his right eye, and a swollen lip.

She wondered if the cut at his hairline needed stiches, but decided in the end that it didn’t. It would heal fine and a small scar, concealed by his bangs, wouldn’t matter.

Patrik winced every time she dabbed at the cut with disinfecting solution. He smelled of sweat. His hair was sticky and his face pale.

Hugo had put out mugs. At the center of the table on a small plate were three tea bags, all with different flavors. Now he was standing at the window in his robe, looking out.

“Do you think he’s coming here?” Hugo asked.

“Who?”

“Zero.”

“I don’t think so, and we don’t know what’s happened. Are you afraid of him?”

Hugo shook his head while Patrik sat at the kitchen table.

Eva poured out the water.

“Tell us about it,” she said.