Page 55 of The Sleepwalker
‘Busted.’
‘Yup.’
‘Guess I might as well admit that I’m thinking of swallowing my pride and asking Dad—’
‘You’re breaking up a little.’
‘He has some money saved in case I ever want to studyabroad. No idea how much,’ Hugo continues. ‘The man’s clueless when it comes to that sort of stuff. Sometimes he buys shares, sometimes he opens investment accounts .?.?. He’s got gold in his office, dollars and euros. Just last week, he was talking about buying a bit of forest outside of Gävle.’
‘Are you planning to tell him .?.?. th y ar goi .?.?. try to find your mum?’
‘Might as well tell him the truth, yeah.’
‘What?’
The line crackles.
‘How lon .?.?. yo goi .?.?. to be there? I miss you already,’ she says.
‘Lars wants me to stay for a week, but I’m going to try to get out sooner.’
‘I .?.?. I thi .?.?.’
The call drops.
Hugo notices the low hum of the ventilation system, followed by what sounds like a dog barking through the walls.
Olga rings him back after a few minutes.
‘The line’s really bad,’ he says.
‘Can you hear me now?’
‘Yeah. I’ve been thinking about what you said about Canada. That .?.?. that even if we don’t find Mum, at least I tried .?.?. I really believe that. I can’t just sit around, waiting forever.’
‘I got a bonus, so I paid it into the account.’
‘You shouldn’t do that until I’ve caught up,’ he says.
‘Stop, it doesn’t matter. Let me do it my way. You’ve got your dad, but I have to work.’
The line crackles, and when Olga next speaks her voice sounds much closer.
‘Are you allowed visitors there?’ she asks in a flirty tone.
‘All these electrodesarepretty sexy.’
‘I’m .?.?. s .?.?. re the .?.?. are,’ she stutters before the call dropsagain.
A few seconds later, a text message arrives.Night night, I love you, dream about me, followed by three red hearts.
Hugo puts his phone down beside the water glass and realises that his eyelids are heavy. Maybe he is tired after all, he thinks, reaching up to turn out the lamp.
The soft glow from the amber nightlights emerges in the darkness, accompanied by the small LEDs on the cameras.
The first couple of nights at the lab always feel a bit strange, trying to sleep while covered in sensors, knowing that he is constantly being monitored.
Hugo closes his eyes and thinks about the fact that he hasn’t seen any of the other patients yet. He did hear a soft, monotone voice in the corridor while he was eating dinner, and guesses it must have been the boy Bo mentioned.
