We heard the noises made by märitljungqvist throwing up in the toilet.

Ingermarklund put on more coffee. We all had a refill.

Jeanette asked who would like to join in a few lines of lotto. Twenty kronor each. I said yes because I had made up my mind to keep practising the role of team player. Everyone joined in except hansmikaelnilsson. He was the only man who did homecaring and a right sourpuss. So negative we called him minus.

Not a hope of winning he said. Do you even have an idea how poor the odds are.

Fiftyfifty surely jeanette said so we are in with a good chance wouldn’t you say.

Come off it minus said. Fiftyfifty. More like one to sixteen million.

You either win or you lose. So it’s fiftyfifty jeanette insisted.

Everyone except minus laughed at her logic.

Märitljungqvist came out from the toilet on unsteady legs. I think I had maybe better go home she said. And picked up her handbag and left.

Her deputy ingermarklund took over now.

Let’s go for the same worksheets she said. Nothing has changed as far as I know.

The night staff had nothing new to add. My chess partner had been uncomfortable but otherwise all had been as usual. 244

I had a new name added to my list. Veronicabäckström. Göranbäckström’s mum. Ever since göran married she had gone to live in the bakehouse on their farm. I would call on her last before going home.

It was a fine day. Clear high air and sunshine.

Allanberg had moved up into the slot for my first morning visit now that ingelahansson had gone and died. In the spring I had managed to swap allanberg for a demented couple in northvillage but it only lasted until the end of the summer and he was back on my list again.

Even the memory of his long yellow nails couldn’t stop me from feeling upbeat about the future. I turned up the volume on the car radio and was singing along to the refrain of brownsmilingeyes when a deer ran out into the road. I stood on the brakes and just managed to miss the leaping animal’s white rump.

Whenever I was in a good mood something had to remind me how fragile life was. No matter what I did all would end in the cursed place of gehenna anyway.

I had to park halfway along the track to the earthly antechamber of gehenna. It was impossible to get any further. Rubbish piled up here as it did figuratively on the eternal dump of evil in the bible where the fire never stopped burning and the worms never died.