The Room Read Free Page A

what their shortcomings are.
    —
    Fresh documents kept arriving from the investigators. The numbers on the title page indicated the level of priority given to their conclusions, on a declining scale where number 1 was the most important. On the fourth floor we worked exclusively with three- and four-figure documents. The framework decisions from one to ten were almost never changed now, and those in double-figures were dealt with by considerably more senior administrators on the floors above. No one in my department had ever worked with a single- or double-digit decision. Not even Karl. As soon as anyone started working on a file near two or three hundred, rumors of promotion would start to circulate about the person in question. Fortunately for everyone on my floor, there were departments lower down that worked with all the five-figure material.

9.
    The fourth time I went into the room I took my colleague Håkan with me. We had some questions about internal organization to go through, and I thought it best to discuss them inside the room.
    —
    Håkan sat on the other side of my desk. We worked opposite each other. At any moment we might happen to look up and meet each other’s gaze. I tried never to look straight ahead whenever I looked up from my work. Håkan carried out his duties with the same lightness of touch as everyone else in the department. He used the phone more or less as he liked, took breaks whenever he felt like it. He would spend ages gazing off into the distance without it apparently having anything to do with work. Now and then he would try to talk to me as well. I would rebuff him gently but firmly. Usually with a simple gesture of the hand. Arm out, palm raised toward him. It worked.
    We didn’t actually share a desk. We each had one of our own. But the desks were positioned back to back and Håkan had an irritating habit of shoving his papers across his desk every time he started something new, which meant that they eventually ended up on my side.
    One day I caught him in the process of doing precisely that. In the middle of one of my fifty-five-minute periods.
    It certainly wasn’t my intention to sit and stare at him as he worked, but his movements were so expansive that it was hard not to. He took out a couple of weighty new files from the investigators and put them in front of him on the desk, but instead of gathering up and tidying away what was already there, he merely pushed it away from him. Toward me.
    I realized at once what was going to happen.
    Not now, maybe not even today, but eventually Håkan’s desktop would overflow with files and papers and documents, and they would begin to eat away at my side.
    I had seen the same pattern before, in other workplaces, and knew it would be a source of irritation between us. I spent a little while wondering how best to tackle the situation on this occasion.
    For the time being there was nothing I could say. He could manage or mismanage his desk however he liked as long as he kept to his side. There were still a few centimeters left as yet. Almost a decimeter. What could I say?
    —
    I looked at the time. There were still about twenty-five minutes left of my fifty-five-minute period, but my rhythm had been disturbed. I would just have to regard the rest of the period as lost.
    At the same time, I realized that now that the thought of what was going to happen with Håkan’s and my desks had arisen, it was going to be very hard to let go of. It would be there as a point of friction, and was bound to unsettle me. Maybe it would be just as well to deal with the confrontation at once, seeing as I now, in a manner of speaking, had some time to spare? At some point Håkan would have to learn to put things away before he started on something new. Not just push it away and assume that it would disappear by itself. Maybe it made sense to make him aware of that without delay?
    I got up quickly. Walked behind my chair and stood there with my arms