Reykjavík Grapevine - 12.01.2007, Blaðsíða 14

1_RVK_GV_01_007_FICTION
I was frying eggs in the kitchen
when the phone rang, just before
six on a Friday afternoon. I had
grabbed a beer from the fridge,
not knowing if there’d be a second,
and was in good mood, I suppose,
whistling along to Radiohead’s Fake
Plastic Trees. I turned the stove of
and walked into the bedroom.
„Hello.“
„This question might surprise
you,“ the person on the phone
said without introducing herself,
„but I need to know how honest
you really are.“
By strict definition this wasn’t a
question – a question put the verb
in front of the pronoun and ended
with a question mark: How honest
are you? But that was probably not
the heart of the matter.
„How honest I am? Rather ho-
nest, I suppose. Not that it’s any of
your business, honestly.“
Gallup, great. They’d been cal-
ling me incessantly since I moved in
and it was starting to get to me.
Maybe I wasn’t used to having my
opinions appraised by others, but
still, I’d had enough. What were
these surveys worth anyway if they
always called the same people?
„Listen, I really don’t have time
for this,“ I said. „I was just frying
eggs in the kitchen.“
I was going to add, goodbye,
but the Woman on the Phone in-
terrupted me.
„Where else would you? What
I mean is: what are the odds of you
frying your eggs some place else
than the kitchen?“
Metaphysics freak, great. I had
heard these companies were short
of people but still thought they
should take more care in who they
hired. Wasn’t Gallup one of the lar-
gest companies in its field?
„I really don’t have time for
this,“ I said and felt like the good
mood would end up in the sink,
along with the eggs, if I wouldn’t
soon be free of this woman. „And
if you’d be kind enough to remove
me from your list, that would be
great.“
„Unfortunately that’s not an
option, Tomas.“
Tomas. She might as well have
casually caressed my genitals as ad-
dressed me by name in that way.
Your name simply wasn’t within
the communication frame available
to Gallup.
I hung up.
Two minutes later the phone
rang again.
„You hung up on me. That’s an
honest answer, of sorts. But I have
to tell you that I’m really hurt that
you should treat me this way. I did
not expect that, when I wrote the
letter.“
The letter, Christ. This must be
one of the freaks that had written
about the room.
„If this is about the room I’m
sorry to tell you that it’s already
let.“ The truth was that I had de-
cided not the let out the room, but
that really wasn’t anybody’s busi-
ness but my own.
„I really had great hopes for
this relationship. That’s something
you should think about when you
get involved with other people.
There will be consequences. You
can’t just walk away like there’s no-
thing to it, like there are no feelings
at stake.“
What was this woman on
about? I was afraid that if I didn’t
get rid of her right away I’d be
stuck with her for a long time.
„There are no feelings at stake.
The room’s been let, I’m being as
honest as I possibly can be and
now I’m asking you to stop calling
me.“
„You can’t just walk away from
what’s already happened. If you go
trough life that way you’ll never be
able to live with yourself.“
This was hopeless. I pulled the
receiver away from my ear and sta-
red into this little space that contai-
ned all the potential nutcases of
the world, and listened till I’d had
enough.
Brief Synopsys
Tomas is a young university student
who has just moved from a small
town to the city. He spends his
days drinking coffee and reading
and is relatively happy with his soli-
tude until one day the beautiful but
strange Saiko barges into his life.
Half Japanese - half Icelandic Saiko
is larger than life and such a mys-
tery that not even she knows the
answer. Saiko introduces Tomas to
the taste of whisky, the works of
Haruki Murakami and the world of
the leg model. But Saiko is haun-
ted by terrible nightmares and the
enigma reaches its peak when she
disappears. Tomas sets out to find
her and the lines of reality start to
blur. In this fast-paced yet lyrical
novel of love and loss, everyday life
in contemporary Reykjavik collides
with a world where girls can read
minds, brainpower is for rent and
Workers hunt the Dreamers for
their inspirations.
About the author
Sölvi Björn Sigurðsson (b. Oct. 7,
1978) is an Icelandic novelist and
poet. His second novel, Floating
World was published in 2006 by
Edda Publishing.
The Floating World
An Extract
Sölvi Björn Sigurðsson
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Patrekur 1,5
SÝNT Á SMÍÐAVERKSTÆÐINU
R
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F
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Ef
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hr
if
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n.
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