He huffed and glowered in the direction of some barracks at the other end of some open land, said “Follow me”, and took her to an office that was so hot it almost took her breath away. A bald, middle-aged officer was entrenched behind an imposing desk, a man with a blond moustache, a pink scar across his face and large, artless eyes, a man who was about to poke a spoon that was far too big into a boiled egg, while talking excitedly into a telephone receiver.

He looked up at her and nodded angrily at a chair.

Ingrid sat down and stared with fascination at the spoon in the hairy fist, it resembled a buoy, while the officer continued to talk on the phone as if she weren’t there and the soldier saw his chance to escape.

Eventually the officer rang off and shifted the spoon into his other hand. Ingrid repeated Tote Tote, again using her fingers, told him where she lived and said she needed help. He appeared to understand what she was talking about, shook his head as if to rid himself of some discomfort and said, “Jawohl, they had been struck by a disaster, eine riesige Katastrofe. Die Leichen sind überall auf den Inseln.” There were bodies everywhere.

Again Ingrid had the feeling she was searching for something that didn’t exist, a chill ran through her and she asked for permission to go. He blinked:

“Selbstverständlich. Ich hab’ Sie nicht eingeladen.”

Of course. I didn’t invite you here.

She staggered out into the cold and walked down to her boat, but by the canning factory she made a sharp turn north and entered Hanna and Jenny’s hot, ashen-grey kitchen, greeted them and said she had heard they had some kittens.

Hanna said yes, they did, and told her to sit down, to take it easy, Ingrid didn’t look well.

With a brief laugh Ingrid asked what she looked like then, realising she couldn’t say anything about the bodies here either, as though she couldn’t trust them, these people she had known all her life, as if they were from a different island. Hanna looked down at her knitting and asked if it wasn’t lonely out there now, on Barrøy.

Ingrid said yes, it was, that was why she wanted a cat.

Wouldn’t she rather stay with them for a while until Barbro returned?

And now Hanna looked straight at her again.

Ingrid said it wasn’t certain Barbro would be coming back.

Hanna looked dubious, but shouted into the adjacent room.

They heard Jenny’s voice and the clatter of doors. It was a clean, freshly scrubbed home, the chimney didn’t draw properly, there was a hiss under the washing boiler. Hanna said they had kept this kitten because of the checked pattern on its back, was Ingrid hungry?