Shame

the cleaning so fast that I have time for a short walk.’
    ‘Why should you do that? She’s just been outside.’
    ‘But I thought she might want to go for a longer walk. It might be good for her to get some exercise.’
    Maj-Britt smiled to herself. This was a bolder move than most of them made, but there would still be some way to get rid of her.
    ‘Why do you think she needs that?’
    ‘A little exercise is always a good thing.’
    ‘For what?’
    Maj-Britt could see her gaze waver. She was suddenly searching for a better choice of words, and that was certainly needed. The objective was to make her opt for no words at all.
    Maj-Britt didn’t take her eyes off her.
    ‘What do you think would happen if someone didn’t get any exercise?’
    Now she was finally speechless.
    ‘Maybe you think someone might get fat, if they didn’t exercise?’
    ‘It was just a suggestion. I’m really sorry.’
    ‘So what you’re saying is that it would be dangerous to get fat. Am I right?’
    So. This one shouldn’t be any problem in future.

    Ellinor had already opened the front door when Maj-Britt handed her the letter.
    ‘Could you post this for me?’
    ‘Of course.’
    Her eyes scanned the address with curiosity just as Maj-Britt had foreseen.
    ‘I didn’t ask you to deliver it in person. Just stick it in a post-box.’
    Ellinor put the letter in her handbag.
    ‘It was nice meeting you. I’m the one coming next time too, so we’ll be seeing each other again.’
    When she received no reply, she closed the door behind her. Maj-Britt looked at Saba and sighed.
    ‘We can hardly wait, can we?’

    It turned out as she had anticipated, only easier. As soon as the letter was out of the flat, the walls managed to regain something of their old ability: to provide a boundary between herself and everything out there she didn’t want to deal with. She felt safe again.
    She had two days to be happy. Then Ellinor was back again, and Maj-Britt understood right away that she hadn’t managed to shut her up as properly as she had intended. The girl wasn’t in the flat more than a few minutes before her torrent of words caused another deep rift.
    ‘Say, is it okay if I ask you a question? I know you don’t like to talk to any of us who come here, but …’
    She had both asked the question and answered it herself. Why should Maj-Britt have to join in her conversations? She caught Saba’s eye, and they were in agreement. They had to see about getting this person replaced.
    ‘That letter that I posted …’
    She didn’t even have to finish her sentence before Maj-Britt wanted with all her heart to get her out of the flat so that she could open the refrigerator undisturbed and select what she was going to stuff in her mouth.
    ‘Was it the Vanja Tyrén?’
    Maj-Britt was trapped again. Once more her long since forgotten ‘best friend’ was trying to force her into something against her will. She didn’t intend to permit it. She didn’t intend to reply. But it was no use. When Ellinor didn’t get an answer she just kept going on her own, and the words she said made the cracks grow to huge holes exposing her to the hostile outside world.
    ‘The Vanja Tyrén who killed her entire family?’

5
    L eadership – tools and methods that produce results .
    She had agreed several months earlier to take the course, a long time before Thomas had come into her life. At a time when any of the infrequent breaks in her monotonous daily life had been more than welcome. Back then she had looked forward to the trip.
    Now everything was different. Now she didn’t know how she was going to make it through the four days.

    A pharmaceutical company had offered to pay her course fee. Not for a moment had they managed to convince her that they were worried about her leadership skills or ability as a boss to motivate her staff. Perhaps they were worried about her ability to motivate her staff to select their company’s brand of medicine when they were writing prescriptions, but both sides participated in the game. It wasn’t the first time that a pharmaceutical company had shown some of the clinic’s doctors a little extra appreciation. Nor would it be the last.
    She didn’t consider herself a particularly good boss, but as far as she knew the staff in her department were satisfied. Her poor leadership qualities seldom had any effect on them; on the contrary, she was the one who usually took on the most extra work. Delegating tedious