...of a painter

“So you’re also a painter,” I said. He nodded, a bit sadly - perhaps because he didn’t have enough time for painting, thanks to his responsibilities; or maybe it was because he wasn’t happy with what he’d achieved up to this point? Who knows. I’d had to say something. Maybe I should have said something else. “Well, is painting pictures any harder than painting staircases?” I tried to make this sound like an invitation, so that he would feel like talking a bit about his work. It’s hard to show interest in a subject you know next to nothing about. But he just smiled. Was there also a hint of disdain? I wasn’t sure. I sat and waited for him to say something. I couldn’t look away. But now it  didn’t seem like he’d meant to be unkind. I wondered how old he was. There was something simultaneously adult and quite childish about him, as if he knew exactly what he needed to know, but not any more than that.
“Of course it takes time,” I said. I couldn’t come up with anything better. Then he looked up at me, as if asking a question, but I didn’t hear what he said - if he said anything. I wasn’t entirely sure. Was he mumbling on purpose? “What?” I asked, in a deliberate ambiguous tone. “With your job I mean,” I added. Perhaps that’s what he needed. A clarification. I thought later that what had seemed so youthful about him was the fact that he sat there kind of defiantly, even though we didn’t know each other, waiting until something got said that actually interested him before bothering to answer. He set down his cup, took out a packet of cigarettes, helped himself to one, and lit it without asking permission. This was fine. The unfamiliar scent of tobacco that filled the room was refreshing. He watched the orange that followed every drag. It seemed he would be content to do this for hours. He went on sitting silently, a bit hunched in his jacket, which was too big for him, and which had dark brown buttons like snail shells - small, silent conquerors of the shiny surrounding material.

[Siamese, Sæterbakken, S.]