“Let’s find the optician,” I said as we walked through the twilight, down the street, and across the meadow, “and then we’ll go to Selma’s and eat something. And you’ll sleep there tonight. So will I. Frederik, too. I’m sure he’ll come back soon. He just needs some peace and quiet. And the optician can sleep at Selma’s, too. We’ll put all the mattresses in the living room. Selma would like that. I don’t know if we have enough pillows. My father sleeps upstairs and my mother at Alberto’s. I’ll pan-fry some potatoes. My fried potatoes are really good. The sofa cushions will work as pillows. I’m sure Frederik will come back soon. We could ask Palm if he wants to come over. Do you like fried potatoes? Where is Palm, actually? Maybe the shopkeeper wants to come over, too. Are you cold? The shopkeeper could bring a bottle of wine. Although, that’s probably not a good idea because of Palm. Where is he, actually?”

Marlies stumbled along beside me. “Could you please stop talking?” she asked.

FREDERIK

Frederik did not come back until it was night. I waited for him in the kitchen.

“Where did you go?” I asked, and for a second I imagined he might have visited Dr. Maschke, as Alaska had once.

“Everywhere,” Frederik replied.

He ate three helpings of cold fried potatoes. There was hardly a sound aside from my father’s footsteps in the upstairs apartment, where he had withdrawn right after Selma’s funeral. No one was allowed upstairs except Alaska. Alaska finally was what Dr. Maschke had invented him for years ago, a furry, externalized pain.

“How is he?” I asked Alaska now and again when he came downstairs so someone would take him for a walk, and Alaska would give me a look suggesting that in this case he was happy to respect his duty of confidentiality.

Frederik washed his plate, then followed me down the hallway to the living room. Just before the door, he took hold of my wrist. I turned to face him.

“You always confuse everything,” he said.

I looked at him. Frederik was all worked up. He held my wrist very tightly.

“Always is a bit much,” I said. “This is only the third time we’ve ever seen each other.”

That didn’t change a thing. People you don’t see can be particularly good at being involved in a life that is playing out far away and creating disorder, like invisible ghosts pushing precious things over. Besides, Frederik and I had written each other at least once a week for ten years.