Page 138 of The Sleepwalker
‘Come on, Hugo. There are broken people everywhere .?.?. You know I’m not all sweetness and light, but I’m nice to you.’
‘Are you?’
‘If you’re nice to me, yeah.’
Hugo hears her light up and take a deep, bubbling drag on a pipe. He lies still, looking out of the window. The blinking light of a plane cuts across the night sky.
‘Did you have time to check whether my mum is registered in Le Grand-Village?’ he asks once the bubbling stops.
‘Huh?’
‘We talked about it, her family home was there .?.?. You said you’d check with the Canadian authorities.’
‘Désolé, mais je n’ai pas eu le temps.’
She takes another hit on the pipe and holds the phone away from her as she coughs.
‘This is important to me,’ he explains.
‘It’s important to you, you want us to go there, but clearly I don’t earn money the right way,’ she snaps.
‘Come on, I just don’t want you getting mixed up in anything bad.’
‘Olga’s a big girl.’
‘OK.’
Through the phone, Hugo can hear subdued dance music.
‘I added more money to the account, anyway,’ she says after a moment.
‘Me too.’
‘I saw. That’s great .?.?. though we still have a long way to go,’ she says, clearing her throat. ‘I know you don’t really want to ask your dad for a loan, but we could pay him back together, come up with some sort of repayment plan and—’
‘It’s just that he already thinks I’m a failure,’ Hugo speaks up.
‘You’re not a failure.’
‘Yeah, I am.’
‘In that case, anyone who hasn’t written an international bestseller is a failure.’
‘Nah, it just applies to me,’ he says with a sigh.
‘And that’s why you can’t borrow money from him?’
‘I would rather not.’
‘Would he notice if you just took some from his safe?’ she asks after a moment.
‘No, but I would never do that.’
‘OK, but as a loan?’
‘I’ve already embarrassed myself enough with thatAftonbladetinterview.’
‘It’s your life. You’re allowed to do whatever you want. You don’t have to sit there and take his shit,’ says Olga.
