‘Jesper, right? And your two oldest, Daniel and Andreas, my God, they must be close to thirty by now. Are they here, too?’

‘Thirty-one and thirty-three. No, they’re out on the rig over the holidays. Einar, too. The money was too good to turn down, but are they ever going to be miffed when they find out you were here. They were already fuming about missing Christmas when they left.’

‘The rig’, NoorOyl’s oil platform north-west of Gudheim. A lifeline for families lucky enough to have secured an income from another energy source after the last mine closed.

‘Sounds rough,’ she says.

‘Not a lot of options up here anymore,’ Finn replies. ‘You work on the rig or up at Groth’s or you go hat in hand to the government, like me.’

‘Is it your back, still?’

Finn nods.

‘And Odd, how’s he doing?’

‘Why don’t you ask him?’ Finn says with a nod to someone standing behind her.

She turns around and disappears into yet another embrace.

‘Would you look what the cat dragged in?’ Odd hollers to his brother over her head. ‘I almost thought this was another one of Mum’s tricks to get us over here.’

When he relaxes his grip after a few long seconds, Karen tilts her head back to look at his face. The fire has gone out; only a few faint streaks of red are left in Odd’s greying hair, which is slicked back from a high, furrowed forehead.

‘Damn it, Kay-Kay, it’s good to see you.’

‘Good to see you, too, Odd Boy,’ she replies.

Without taking his eyes of Karen, he shouts to the side, ‘Gunnela, damn it, come say hi already!’

Odd’s wife leaves her spot by the door, saunters over and extends her hand.

‘Hi, Karen, long time no see.’

Gunnela’s dull, platinum blonde hair is pulled up into a high ponytail and she’s wearing leopard-print tights. Karen notes that, for some reason, she has had the names of her children, grandchildren and husband tattooed across her ample décolletage.

‘Hi, Gunnela, yes, it’s been too long.’

There’s a pause; to fill the silence, Karen reads the ornate script out loud.

‘Odd, Tina, Kevin, Liam. That’s very convenient – I have a hard time remembering names, too.’

She instantly regrets the joke, but her sarcasm seems to have gone over Gunnela’s head.

‘I’ve become a grandmother again, actually, so I’m going to be adding another name soon,’ she says with pride. ‘Tina just had a girl. They’re naming her Jasmine.’

Of course they are, Karen scoffs inwardly and tears her eyes away from Gunnela’s bosom.

The next moment, she stiffens.