Page 54 of The Sleepwalker

Cool air floods towards him, carrying the scent of fabric and dust.

He blinks and waits for his eyes to adjust, and little by little the room starts to emerge.

It looks exactly how he remembers it: identical to his.

Around three metres beyond the threshold, however, there is something on the floor. It looks like a long line of pebbles.

Steadying himself against the doorframe, Hugo leans forward and realises that they are pistachio shells.

Someone has laid out perhaps two hundred pistachio shells in a straight line between the wardrobe and the wall.

Hugo takes a step back and shudders. Maybe he should call Lars, he thinks. Admit to accidentally opening the door.

He glances over to the wardrobe, convinced that he has just seen a movement inside the slatted door, when he hears a loud knock behind him.

Hugo’s hand is shaking as he carefully closes the door.

Whoever is outside knocks again.

He hurries back into the hallway, presses the lock button, opens the door and feels a rush of warmth and relief when he sees Rakia standing outside. The Tunisian research nurse is in her fifties, with tinted glasses, shoulder-length hair, heavy eyeliner and red lipstick.

‘Rakia,’ he says with a smile. ‘Come in, come in.’

‘I need to hook you up to some sensors,’ she says neutrally, pushing a trolley of wireless polysomnography equipment into the room.

‘I was starting to wonder when you’d drop by to say hi.’

She doesn’t reply, just follows him through to the bedroom, parks the trolley beside the bed and stamps on the wheel lock.

‘I’ve checked your stats, and everything looks normal,’ she says without meeting his eyes.

‘OK, great.’ Hugo takes a seat on the edge of the bed.

‘Your P-ASAT level is a bit high, which we’ll look into, but it shouldn’t affect anything else.’

‘How’re things?’

‘Fine .?.?. thanks for asking.’

Rakia works quickly to attach a number of sensors: ten to measure brain activity and six his heart rate, two to track his eye movements and four to detect any muscle tension or leg twitches.

Once she has gone, and the electric lock has clicked behind her, Hugo gets out of bed. The sensor pads tug at his skin with every movement.

He doesn’t feel particularly tired, but he grabs his toiletry bag and goes through to the bathroom to wash his face and brush his teeth. He then fills a glass with water in the kitchen and returns to the bedroom. After putting the glass down on the nightstand, he gets into bed and writes a text message in the warm glow of the reading lamp.

Maybe I could sleepwalk all the way to Canada, save having to pay for my plane ticket.

Olga replies immediately, with a ‘haha’. Hugo sees that his father has sent several messages, but he doesn’t have time to reply before Olga calls.

‘I’ll help you if you can’t save enough,’ she says.

‘If my grades are OK this term then I’m going to get a weekend job at Starbucks .?.?. earn me some dough, yo.’

Olga laughs. ‘Really, Hugo?Dough?’

‘What?’

‘You’re just so Swedish,’ she says cheerfully. ‘You’re rich, live in a great house, go to a good school.’