“Right,” he said. “So how do I find this Atomos?” he asked, taking a step back from the chameleon. “Don’t you remember anything else about him?”
“You know what? He was five years younger than me. I couldn’t have cared less about him back then.”
Carl smiled wryly. Interests could certainly change over the years.
“Any distinguishing marks? Scars? What about his hair? His teeth? Is there anyone else in town who knew him?”
“I don’t think so. He came from a children’s home up in Tisvildeleje.”
She paused for a moment, thinking with her eyes averted. “Wait a minute. I think the place was called Godhavn.” She handed the framed photograph to Carl. “If you promise to bring it back, you can try showing the picture to the staff at the home. Maybe they can answer your questions.”
Carl had come to a stop at an intersection sparkling with sunlight. He was sitting in the car, thinking. He could drive north to Tisvildeleje to talk to the staff at the children’s home, in the hopes that somebody still remembered a boy named Atomos who lived there twenty years ago. Or he could drive south to Egely and play a game about the past with Uffe. Or he could park his vehicle on the side of the road and set his brain on cruise control while he took a nap for a few hours. The last option was especially tempting.
On the other hand, if he didn’t put the Playmobil figures back on Morten’s shelf in time, there was a real risk that he might lose his lodger, along with a big chunk of rent money.
So he released the handbrake and turned left to drive south.
It was lunchtime at Egely, and the aroma of thyme and tomato sauce had settled over the landscape as Carl parked his car. He found the director sitting alone at a long teak table on the terrace outside his office. As on the previous occasion, he was impeccably dressed, with a sun hat on his head and a napkin tucked into his collar. He was tentatively nibbling at a small serving of lasagne that took up only a corner of his plate. He was clearly not the sort who lived for worldly pleasures. The same could not be said of his administrative coworkers and a couple of nurses who sat thirty feet away, chattering vociferously as they attacked the food piled on their plates.
They saw Carl come around the corner and suddenly fell silent, which made other sounds suddenly seem very loud: the nest-builders, giddy with spring, noisily fluttering about in the bushes; the clattering of dishes from inside the dining hall.
“Bon appetit,” said Carl as he sat down at the director’s table without waiting for an invitation. “I’m here to ask you something about Uffe. Did you know he played a game where he was supposedly reliving the accident that left him handicapped? Karen Mortensen, a caseworker in Stevns, observed him playing that game shortly before Merete Lynggaard died. Did you know about it?”
The director nodded slowly and took another bite of his food. Carl looked at the plate. Evidently the last bites would have to disappear before the undisputed king of Egely deigned to carry on a conversation with a mere commoner.
“Is there anything about it in Uffe’s case file?” asked Carl.
Again the director nodded, as he continued to chew very slowly.
“Has it ever happened since?”
The man shrugged.
“Did it happen again or didn’t it?”
The director shook his head.
“I’d like to see Uffe alone today. Just for ten or fifteen minutes. Is that possible?”
The director didn’t reply.
So Carl waited until the man finished his lunch, wiped his mouth on a cloth napkin, and licked his teeth with his tongue. A single gulp of ice water and then he looked up.
“No, you can’t be alone with Uffe” was his answer.
“Dare I ask why not?”
The director gave him a condescending look. “Your profession is a pretty far cry from what we do here, isn’t it?” He didn’t wait for Carl to respond. “We can’t risk having you cause a setback in Uffe Lynggaard’s development. That’s the way it is.”
“Is he in a period of development? I didn’t know that.”
Carl noticed a shadow fall across the table and turned around to face the supervisory nurse, who gave him a friendly nod, immediately stirring up memories of better treatment than the director was willing to offer.
She gave her boss an authoritative look. “I’ll take care of this. Uffe and I are going out for a walk now, anyway. I can accompany Mr. Morck.
It was the first time Carl had stood next to Uffe Lynggaard, and he now saw how tall he was. Long, lanky limbs and a posture that indicated he spent his time sitting down, hunched over a table.
The nurse had taken Uffe’s hand, but apparently he didn’t care much for that. When they reached the thickets near the fjord, he let go of her hand and sat down in the grass.
“He likes to watch the cormorants. Don’t you, Uffe?” she said, pointing at a colony of prehistoric-looking birds perched in clusters of semidead trees covered with bird shit.
“I’ve brought something that I’d like to show Uffe,” said Carl.
She looked with alert interest at the Playmobil figures and car that he pulled out of a plastic bag. She was quick on the uptake — he’d noticed that the first time — but maybe not quite as accommodating as he’d hoped.
She placed her hand on her nurse’s badge, presumably to give her words added weight. “I know about the episode that Karen Mortensen described. I don’t think it would be a good idea to repeat it.”
“Why not?”
“You want to try to replay the accident while he watches, right? You’re hoping it will open something up in him.”
“Yes.”
She nodded. “I thought so. But to be honest, I don’t know if I should let you.” She made a motion to get up, but then hesitated.
Carl cautiously placed his hand on Uffe’s shoulder and squatted down next to him. Uffe’s eyes shone happily in the reflection from the waves, and Carl understood him. Who wouldn’t want to disappear into this beautiful clear and blue March day?
Then Carl set the Playmobil car on the grass in front of Uffe and one by one put the figures in the car seats. The father and mother in front, the daughter and son in back.
The nurse closely watched every move Carl made. He might have to come back another day and repeat the experiment. But right now he wanted to convince her that at least he knew enough not to abuse her trust. That he regarded her as an ally.
“Vroooom,” he said warily, driving the car back and forth in front of Uffe on the grass, to the great distress of a couple of bumblebees flitting among the flowers.
Carl smiled at Uffe and smoothed out the tracks left by the car. That was clearly what interested Uffe most. The flat-pressed grass that sprang back up.
“Now we’re going out driving with Merete and Mum and Dad, Uffe. Oh, look at this, we’re all together. Look, we’re driving through the woods! Look how lovely it is.”
Carl glanced at the woman in the white uniform. She looked nervous, the lines around her mouth showing traces of doubt. He had to be careful not to go too far. If he shouted, she would flinch. She was much more into the game than Uffe, who was just sitting there with the sun glinting in his eyes, letting everything around him mind its own business.
“Look out, Dad,” warned Carl, imitating a woman’s voice. “It’s slippery, you might skid.” He gave the car a little jolt. “Watch out for the other car — it’s skidding too. Help, we’re going to crash into it.”
He made the sound of a car braking and metal scraping the undercarriage of the car. Now Uffe was watching. Then Carl tipped the car over, and the figures tumbled out on to the ground. “Look out, Merete! Look out, Uffe!” he shouted in a high voice. The nurse leaned toward Carl and put her hand on his shoulder.
“I don’t think. .” she said, shaking her head. In a second she would take Uffe by the arm and pull him to his
