Months have passed, a year perhaps, its late summer, at a woman’s birthday party, a man and woman dance, romance and determinism…

Italo Calvino believed that the names of characters are very important. So why not experiment I thought, why not use names? But still in the silence that accompanies the party going on in the garden, there is music, and sound of voices. A man let us call him mark johnson, its as good a name as any other. Is sitting his back against the wall, he has been reading children stories to a small boy, who he calls nyr, which is not his name and which has replaced the name his actual father called him. But the father is long gone and all that’s left is this man and the child’s mother who is downstairs, it is both her birthday party and a few other more important things. He is her bodyguard and assistant, but actually more importantly from our perspective as readers he has read stories and put the child to bed a few hundred times. Sometimes the child calls him ‘dad’. Perhaps it’s equally important to know that he more or less lives in the house. Still the child is now asleep and instead of leaving the child’s bedroom he is reading a few pages of the crime novel by W & S. ( I wonder how many revolvers there are in this city alone? martin beck said. The question could hardly be answered. They must have been legion — inherited, stolen and smuggled. Hidden away in wardrobes and drawers and old trunks. Illegal, of course, but people didn’t worry about that). — Sweden, he thought. Unlike martin beck who likes his revolver he prefers his sig’. He was enjoying the few minutes of peace and quiet. mark hears them in the adjacent bathroom, she is being sick. Then as water flows, they are talking as she is recovering. They left the bathroom door open. The man is rubbing her back but mark doesn’t know this. She sits on the edge of the white metal bath. She is rinsing her mouth out with water. Complaining about the mourning sickness being worse this time. “I don’t know perhaps I am misremembering being pregnant with Suki last time.” They are both still, almost as still as he is, listening to them through the wall. She says “I always thought she split up, divorced her husband because of us.” The man replies after a long moment of quiet hesitancy. “I did too, but bizarrely it happened even earlier because we weren’t here.” Water runs again, the sounds of her washing her face. “What about that guy?” mark hears him laugh. “I hope so, he seems better than her husbands, besides later she will need some support.” “Still it’s nice to know we didn’t destroy her marriage, after all. ..” “Do you think nyr and imo will be the same later on? “ the man says. She laughs. “ I think they are fated. their relationship is determined by the universes….” “Then all you need to do then is have a second child and ….” “That is not an attractive thought at the moment when I am feeling sick like this.” She said drily. “Do you think she knows about him? “ He asks “Probably, she obviously just likes being with him, no idea why, If she hasn’t already I’ll tell her to take him to bed….” She says. He laughs. “OK I’m feeling better now. We should go downstairs…” mark sits there for a few more minutes thinking about the strangeness of what they said, he thinks he must tell jean that they are very strange, But No that is not true for ultimately he is thinking about having sex with jean. If she wasn’t my boss, probably my friend, looking at nyr fast asleep now, it would be less important. And he doesn’t know how to speak to her about it. What a mess. He tries to read a few more pages, a list of revolvers in 1960s Sweden. gives up. I’ll try to speak to her about how I feel he says aloud. Sleep tight nyr. Switches lights down or off. Closes the bathroom door.. And goes quietly downstairs.