Voyage 2002

"Just say 'Frida', you know," she said with a smile. January 2002 / Benny

He grabbed the vacuum cleaner and pulled out the cord. With care, he vacuumed the guest room. Under the bed, along the cabinets, under the armchair. When he was done, he lifted the device out of the room and put it in the hallway. With a cloth and a bucket of soapy water, he cleaned the bookcase. Books out, wet rag, books back. Next shelf. With that job he appeared to have killed an hour and a half and he was sweating.

"Jesus," he let slip before continuing.

He grabbed a clean comforter cover from the linen closet. It was neatly ironed. Without Mary, his faithful help, life would be a lot more complicated. After a lot of fumbling he had the comforter in the cover and he was making the guest bed. When he had finished that job too, he walked to the kitchen. He picked up the vase with flowers and brought it to the room he had just cleaned.

"Well, well," he said, looking around, satisfied with how it had turned out.

Then he took a shower, got dressed and left for Djurgården. Once there, he discovered that he had forgotten to call Mary. She was supposed to do the shopping and he had promised to pass her a grocery list. As he stepped into Cirkus, he grabbed his phone. For a moment he raised his eyebrows. Frida had called. Immediately he called her back. Unfortunately, he got her voicemail.

He sent a text message after it, "Hi Friddle. I saw you called, but now I can't get hold of you. I'll hear from you. X, B."

Then he called Mary for the shopping list. Björn was the first one he saw as he walked to the edge of the stage where it was already crowded. He was late, but he had announced that in advance, so it was no problem.

"So, Andersson! How are you? Long time no see!" called Björn, above the sounds of the actors.

Benny chuckled. He had had dinner with him the night before. That was the first time since the holidays that they had seen each other. At the table, they had gone over all sorts of things about Chess På Svenska, whose premiere would be in a month and a half. On most they had agreed quickly, as usual. Then they talked about other stuff. Their exes, for example. About their most recent ones, they had quickly run out of things to say.

"Does Lena still nag your head off, too? Or is that just a talent Mona has?" he had asked, because he found it strange that she still called him so often with all kinds of questions; what about that tax return, what does Ludvig want for his birthday, do you think, and do you have that cookbook with that one recipe I often made at Christmas? It drove him crazy.

"I have weekly contact with Lena," Björn replied, "but she doesn't really nag, I think. I'm getting a bit annoyed about her frustration though, while she's in bed with Carl herself by now. It's entirely up to her, but I just can't make sense of it."

Then Björn told him about the situation that had taken place at Agnetha's home in the 1990s. Benny listened with an open mouth. Although Frida had already more or less hinted it to him, saying that Björn and he had no idea, he was, in one word, shocked. Björn made him swear on all the dead people he knew that he would keep his mouth shut to everyone, and both of them realized that the process in the studio was not going to go smoothly. It couldn't be helped that Agnetha had to cross a gigantic threshold.

"And when will the big F come?" asked Björn, after they had talked 'Agnetha from A to A'.

"On Wednesday."

"Nice! She's staying with you?"

"Yeah, of course," he replied, feeling how he smiled.

"Looking forward to it?" Björn asked, winking.

Benny smiled and was already thinking of his plans. They would cook, they would walk through the snow for a day, and they would probably talk a lot again. Although he had visited her recently in Zermatt, he was indeed looking forward to seeing her again. Extremely proud he was of her. She was still the most extraordinary woman he had ever met! Despite all the difficulties, all the violent things that life had thrown at her, she was still standing straight. She even managed to laugh again from time to time. Like when she called him a short while ago, from America, to wish him a happy new year... Jonathan in the background loudly yelling and the fireworks making a fuckin' noise. "I can't hear you, Benny, but happy new year, dude! I love you!"