The Snowman ( PDFDrive )

‘Who do you know here then?’
‘No one.’
‘I don’t know anyone here, either. What’s your name?’
‘Mathias. Lund-Helgesen. And you?’
‘Idar Vetlesen. Have you been up Ulriken Mountain?’
‘No.’
But Mathias had been up Ulriken. And up Fløyen and Sandviksfjellet. He had been in the narrow
alleyways, to Fisketorget, to Torgalmenningen – the main square, seen the penguins and the sea
lions at the Aquarium, drunk beer in Wesselstuen, listened to an overrated new band in Garage and
seen SK Brann lose a football match at Brann Stadium. Mathias had found time to do all these
things that you should do with student friends. Alone.
He did the circuit with Idar again and pretended it was the first time.
Mathias soon discovered that Idar was a social suckerfish, and by fastening onto the suckerfish
Mathias found himself at the heart of all the action.
‘Why did you choose to study medicine?’ Idar asked Mathias at a pre-ball warm-up in a flat
belonging to a student with a traditional Bergensian name. It was the evening of the medical
students’ annual autumn ball, and Idar had invited two nice Bergen girls in black dresses and with
pinned-up hair, who were leaning forward to hear what the two of them were saying.
‘To make the world a better place,’ Mathias said, drinking up his lukewarm Hansa beer. ‘What
about you?’
‘To earn money, stands to reason,’ Idar said, winking at the girls.
One of them sat down beside Mathias.
‘You’ve got a blood donor badge,’ she said. ‘What blood type are you?’
‘B negative. What do you do then?’
‘Let’s not talk about that. B negative? Isn’t that extremely rare?’
‘Yes. How did you know?’
‘I’m training as a nurse.’
‘Right,’ Mathias said. ‘Which year?’
‘Third.’
‘Have you thought about what you’re going to speciali—?’
‘Let’s not talk about that,’ she said and placed a hot little hand on his thigh.