INGRID (ENGLISH VERSION)

MENTAL HEALTH HOSPITAL

ATTENTION PLEASE: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS NAMES ABOUT DRUGS AND MEDICINES AS WELL AS PASSAGES ABOUT THEIR CONSUMPTION.

"Hello, youngster", the man said.

I stared at him and cracked a smile. "Hello, Ingrid", Vivian said silently.

"How did you know?", I said in terror.

"Dina informed me". She sat next to me and hugged me.

"I'm so sorry", I whispered. "You hate me, right?".

"What?", Vivian exclaimed. "How could I hate you about your feelings?".

"They inserted this....disgusting tube in my body", I said bitterly. "But now I'm clean".

"Ingrid, you have really frightened us. If you had talked to us about anything that has happened, we would be close to you".

I sighed and sat on the bed.

"I'd like to introduce you to Ingmar. He lives in a town towards Alta. Its name means salmon river. Oh, what's its name? Something like Len....Las....".

"Lakselv", Ingmar replied.

I knew where Lakselv was. Two hours away from Alta. I looked at him right in the eyes. They had a deep blue colour, which reminded me of my brother's, Daniel's, eyes.

"Have we met before?", I asked.

"I am Ingmar, Raglan Hundred's keyboardist".

I knew him! Of course, I knew this band. When we had stayed at Bryan's house, I'd been at a gig of theirs at the Blakey Ridge inn. I was highly impressed by the fact that their voices and their sound reminded me of us when we formed the band. There was this campfire atmosphere in the way they would mix their voices. However, in contrast with us, there was harmony. On the other hand, in our first album, we didn't get the correct sound in our voices, exactly because we didn't know how to sing. We were completely out-of-tune and uncoordinated when singing in unison. But then, we learnt from our mistakes and in our following albums, our voices became better and better. Raglan Hundred had the same style like us, but they weren't, of course, out-of-tune.

Raglan Hundred was the kind of band I had always been looking for. Even though I didn't know them in person, I was under the impression that they had been really carefree and they had strong bonds with each other, as if they were a family. Their music had nothing special, in the sense that there was nothing revolutionary in them, which had never appeared in the history of music again. But, then again, I was drawn towards that. I liked simple music, without complex riffs. I also liked the fact that they would fund their albums themselves and they had signed no contract, just like us.

I was gazing at Ingmar, smiling. But what I was feeling was no admiration towards a celebrity, just like in Pink Floyd's concert, when I was young. I was feeling as if I had known this band for my whole life. Because I was thinking that I was exactly like them. I wanted to be connected with others through music because this was the only way for me to communicate with people around me.

"I was in a live show of yours last year", I said.

"And why didn't you talk to us afterwards? Vivian and Bryan have been our long-term friends", Ingmar replied.

I blushed in embarrassment.

"You should talk to them", Vivian said. "Ingmar is the most easy-going person in the world".

"I see", I said with widely-opened eyes.

I was so embarrassed that I was introduced to a person, like Ingmar, in such an awful state. If I ever met Raglan Hundred normally, I'd like it to happen under completely different circumstances. In general, I don't like meeting celebrities, nor am I one of these people who crave meeting their idols. I would never like to meet my idol in real life. To start with, I believe that we have a completely different view about artists in our head. The fact that an artist might create an excellent work doesn't mean they are nice people. They might be the greatest pricks ever, just like Dali. Furthermore, I believe there's no point in meeting my idol because it's completely vain. I take great heed in human relations and meeting someone only to tell them how much I admire them, is completely meaningless, as long as we'll never become friends. On the other hand, Raglan Hundred didn't seem to be people who had distinguished their music from their character. That's why I wanted to meet them and become friends with them.