It was over now, but after three courses, a couple of cold beers, and a digestif he felt sleepy. This could have been easily resolved with a nap in the break room at the office, but since Britt-Inger from HR was ninety percent certain to be lying there in the throes of a migraine, he considered it more resource efficient to swing by the house and close his eyes for twenty minutes before heading back to work.

So he took the car from Stora Torget and eased his way through the narrow streets without scratching his paintwork or rims. Granted, this had never happened before, but it could happen at any moment given he was unfortunately not the only motorist in this town. Then he realised that he might as well stop by the branch of XL-Bygg up at Skarphäll retail park. He could pick up the fittings he had ordered as part of the project to give the family room at home a facelift.

He did that. Just as he had chucked the bag of fixtures into the back seat he noticed a woman in distress standing nearby. A young girl who had—as women do—bought too much, her face wearing an expression of semi-desperation as she tried to call for a taxi. Clearly without success.

He heard where she was going, and it was some distance. But it was cold as hell and she had been waiting for a long time. He felt sorry for her, and also thought that a chat with a young lady would probably have the same energising effect as a siesta at home.

She was delighted by his offer. Happy people made Jan happy, so he had made the right decision, despite it being enormously out of his way and costing him a fair bit in petrol, wear to the car, and loss of income. She was a bit dull and didn’t have much to say. Jan talked about the kinds of things that might interest a girl of twenty-five to thirty, which seemed to be nothing much. Then he switched to talking about what interested him, of which there was a lot.

Occasionally, he would try to make eye contact to get some sort of confirmation that he wasn’t alone in the car, but she was shy and was mostly watching the road. She was probably a little timid too, because despite her quiet and compliant manner she was playing the role of backseat driver. Not that she commented on his driving, but he could see how she was mentally slamming on the brakes and leaning into corners. On a couple of occasions, she pointed out that it was icy, or that someone was emerging from the right that he might not be able to see.

Jan wasn’t easily annoyed, so he was indulgent towards the girl. He studied her discreetly and noted that she didn’t look so bad despite her horsey mouth and the fact that she was overweight. All young people were these days—the American epidemic had made it to Sweden. But the freshness of youth forgave most things.