Page 31 of The Second Chance Bus Stop
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It’s the third and final day in this first location. When I arrive at the market, a new man meets me instead of Vincent. Which
goes to prove my point that every day is highly unpredictable. He’s around fifty, and I’d put his average step count at two
thousand. I wait for him to say something.
‘Hi there. Sophia?’
‘Indeed. With a “ph” as in “Philadelphia”. The city or the cheese spread. Take your pick,’ I say.
‘Vincent told me to open up for you. Bit of a flu, he’s got. I’m the building maintenance manager.’
‘Wonderful. Well, I’m ready for you to open up when you are.’ I move towards the door. He pushes it open, he’s clearly been
inside already as the key isn’t needed.
‘Bit young to run a business by yourself. Look no more than twenty.’ He looks me up and down which takes a while considering
my height.
‘I’m twenty-six next month,’ I say. It’s more my body language and facial expressions that make me seem younger, because in
pictures I certainly feel I look my age.
‘Well, I’m exactly double your age then, in August.’
‘I like older men,’ I say. Then realise my mistake. This is a comment-in-the-lift scenario that’s gone against me. I try to save myself from death of embarrassment.
‘I mean dads. Grandads. Those sorts of men. Uncles! I was very fond of my late uncle.’ The man laughs, and my technique seems
to have worked. I’m saved from any unwanted advances.
‘All right then, young lady, I’ll leave you to it. Don’t want you to become too fond of this old man, now do we?’ He stretches
out his hand, and I shake it.
‘Thanks and bye.’
I’ve come to enjoy my evenings with company. It only took us four nights to fall into a routine. We eat, then we sit until
the forest noises start to grow louder—leaves rustling, trees swaying, owls hooting in the distance—letting us know it’s time
to sleep. The social hangover is still there, but for the first time I can understand Lina when she says that a night of drinking
is worth feeling sluggish the next day. I think talking to Blade makes up for the overwhelm I feel afterwards.
‘Where were you born?’ I ask. He answers my questions with long sentences now. We have definitely moved past small talk about
gum. I might be imagining it, but he seems less anxious, less jumpy, and the dark circles under his eyes that I had thought
were permanent have started to pale.
‘London. My mother raised me alone.’
I imagine this man’s mother and find myself wanting to know more about his upbringing. About him. Weird .
‘I think we should always set up camp by a lake,’ Blade says after a pause, taking a bite of dinner. I’ve cooked tonight which
means we are having ham and cheese toasties.
‘There are about a hundred thousand lakes in Sweden.’
‘I love how you know those random facts.’
‘Who decides what’s random?’
‘No idea. But I reckon I’d happily visit every single one of those lakes with you.’
I have something hard in my throat, an invisible tennis ball, by the feel of it.
‘Cold?’
Shaking my head I turn to him. We’re in chairs, but only a few inches separate us and I wonder how we got his close. Didn’t
he start out on that other log, over there, an hour ago?
‘I’m fine.’ I’m not, though. I’ve learnt that when Blade is this near me, I’m something else entirely.
‘What’s that?’ Blade ducks then jumps up from his chair.
‘If you mean that black thing that just touched your shoulder ever so slightly I’d say it’s probably a bat.’
‘A bat? A bat ?’
‘They’re not dangerous. Bats are the only flying mammal. They’re very cool.’ I’m sharing scientific facts, which can only
mean one thing: that I’m comfortable.
‘He just flew right at me. This one seems pretty aggressive.’
I laugh. ‘You’re scared. That’s sweet.’
‘Yes, I’m scared of insects and bats and all sort of nightly creatures that you normally avoid meeting because, you know,
you don’t sleep in a forest. What else is there in Swedish forests? Don’t tell me there are wolves.’
‘Not in the south. Bears would be unusual as well.’
‘Wild cats? Badgers?’
I stare at him. And stare some more. I stare at this man who just vented his fear of wildlife and is now going through a mental
checklist of the forest fauna.
God. Oh God. I think I like him.
I’m not sure what time it is when I wake and sit upright, pulling the eye mask from my face.
It’s raining again. I can hear it thudding against the roof.
It always soothed me as a child, and I never slept better than to that drumming noise.
Maybe I won’t need to imagine faces tonight, I thought as I climbed into bed earlier.
The drumming is interrupted by persistent knocking, and I quickly throw my night shirt on.
Blade. Soaked by rain.
‘How can I help you?’ I say. His eyes search my face.
‘The tent is letting water in. I hate to impose on your space and a deal is a deal, but we are moving on to the next location
tomorrow, and if I drown out there I’ll be of no use. You may even have to put your project on hold to dispose of my body,
and then technically you’d be on the run from the authorities from then on out, and I don’t think that’s something you want
to do. Which leads me to ask: Can I sleep on the sofa?’
The sofa is about half the length of Blade. I wouldn’t sleep there if you paid me. Which is why I stare at him unconvinced.
‘Technically that would be fine. Considering the drowning potential. Obviously. However, there may be some problems. One, I’d say the sofa is much too small for you.’
‘It apparently turns into a bed if we combine the chairs and table. The guy at the rental desk told me when I collected it.’
‘I doubt it will be a two-metre one.’ I eye him up as if trying to judge if I can fit his dead, drowned body into a given
storage unit and if that would be a better option than the sofa.
‘I’ll make it work.’
‘Secondly, I sleep naked.’ It’s true: The fabric of clothes on my skin as I sleep is almost painful, but it’s not the main
reason why him in my space is an unsettling thought. The main reason is a school field trip. Rooms with bunk beds, one room
for the girls and one for the boys. I had begged not to go, but as Dad put it, It is compulsory, Sophia. Bloody hell, you can’t treat school like a drop-in club. I must have been utterly exhausted, worn-out from the new environment and a full schedule because I fell asleep. Heavily asleep
until I wasn’t, because there was cold water on me and the boys’ were laughing and someone was shining a torch in my face
and when I jumped out of bed to get away from the cold, sticky wetness my shirt was soaked and they could all see right through
it. My mind flashes back to it automatically, I don’t think I’ve shared a room with anyone since.
‘So anyway.’ I wonder if I somehow should have padded that statement. I try to fix it. ‘Clothes bother me. When I sleep. They’re
scratchy.’
‘Like the tag in my sweater.’
‘Yes, exactly like that.’
‘So. You. Sleep. Naked.’ He looks as if he’s just encountered the biggest problem during our trip so far which, considering
the ant infestation on our first day, getting lost multiple times and the wet tent, seems bewildering. But then here we are,
his eyes rising to the ceiling as if waiting for some help. I wait, hoping he tips his head just that a farther so his ridiculous
beanie will finally fall off.
‘So—this isn’t usually a problem, except now we need to share the sleeping space. I stay strictly under my duvet so there
is no real risk. Plus it will be dark.’
‘It’s light until three in the morning in summer here.’
‘You’re a great problem-solver, aren’t you?’ I say.
‘I’ve noticed that your sense of humour relies heavily on me being ridiculed.’
‘Blade, I’m trying to solve this for us.
Unless you want to sleep and possibly drown in the tent, then sleep here.
On the sofa. And I’ll stay in the bed.’ My initial panic has gone, without me even noticing it.
I suddenly know that he can be in a sofa metres away from me and I won’t have flashbacks to bunkbeds, bullies and never feeling safe.
‘Thank you. I’ll go and get my sleeping bag and you... can hopefully be in bed by the time I’m back.’
I hear him leave, come back, then turn the key and go straight to his sofa. I turn the light off, and it takes me a long time
to sleep.