Chapter 6 (Lítið Fólk

Marel meets someone he didn't expect to at Annette's house.

28 September 1990. I had seem Omi a few more times after our first meeting. A couple of times on the street, and once behind the school. On this day I had come home from picking up Stefan to find him sitting on Annette’s couch.

“Omi?” I called. He turned around and made a face at me, as if he was just as shocked as I was.

“Marel? What are you doing here?”

I sat down next to him. “I could ask you the same thing.”

“Annette invited me over to work,” Omi said. He looked down at his lap as if he felt awkward that we had met here. “She’s very talented in physics.”

Just as he said that, Annette walked into the room, accompanied by Lárus, from the kitchen. I assumed she had given him something to eat. She collapsed onto the couch in between me and Omi.

“What are you boys talking about?” I didn’t answer, and Omi murmured ‘nothing.’

They jumped right into their work, and I had nothing to do but sit and watch them. In retrospect, I suppose I could have watched TV, read a book, or done literally anything else, but in the moment, I felt perfectly content observing. The information itself they were discussing didn’t interest me, but it was intriguing to see two people I knew so well, separately, interact.

I noticed many things about Omi. His right leg would shake when he didn’t understand something; he would chew on the end of his pen when he thought he understood something, but realized he was wrong; he would throw himself back into the cushions of the couch when he finally grasped something. This further supported my conclusion that Omi Brjannson was a person who lived life full of uncertainty and a small sense of shame. I assumed it had something to do with how he was raised - he had brought up his mother every time we had had a conversation.

It felt like only a few minutes had passed when I was being, quite literally, shaken back to reality by Annette, who had a gentle grip on my shoulder. The clock read 4:49.

“What?”

Omi was kneeling in front of me, untying and re-tying his shoes as he looked directly at me.

“I said there’s going to be a small dinner at my house on the first of October, at 6:00, and my mother said if I invited friends over, she wouldn’t force me to stay downstairs and talk to my family. Would you be interested? This kind of thing doesn’t really happen often for me...”

I nodded absent-mindedly before remembering my brothers. It was so soon after Annette’s parents had watched them, and I didn’t want to test my luck. “Can my brothers come? They wouldn’t be any trouble…”

Omi thought for a second and turned to look at Magnus and Stefan, who were sitting quietly at the table, eyes transfixed on the TV. Lárus’ head was in a book. He turned back and smiled at me. “Sure. Want to walk with me?”

I nodded again and stood, stretching my sore muscles and cracking my back. I had spent the entire day outside, looking for a bit of work. I hadn’t been at all successful, but I was still exhausted when I had finally gotten back to Annette’s.

My brothers trailed behind Omi and I as we accompanied him on the walk to his house, which he swore was on the way to the old school. If it hadn’t been, I still would have chosen to walk with him. It was a bit chilly - which I liked - and the sun was out. There was no wind, so everything felt a bit still, like someone had captured us inside of a painting.

  Omi’s house was located in a beautiful neighborhood, decorated with a spectacular amount of plants and trees - more than I had ever seen at one time in my life. The house itself was fairly large, and had been painted a very faint blue.

I was about to tell Omi goodnight when he turned around and gestured for me to wait. He ran inside, leaving the door wide open. I tried to catch a glimpse of him through the window, before realizing there were black tarps covering the glass from the inside. I couldn’t understand why someone, especially one with such a beautiful house, would want to hide themselves from the outside. I imagined what it might have done to one’s mental health to be constantly deprived of the sunlight while in their own home

My thoughts were cut short when Omi returned, carrying a duffel bag. He handed it to me, and I immediately unzipped it to look inside. There was yet another blanket, small and yellow this time, rolled up inside, along with a bag of raw vegetables and a few cartons of milk, and two large sweatshirts.

“I hope it’s okay,” Omi said, as soon as I looked up at him. He was anxiously tapping his fingers on his thigh. “I don’t want to come across as patronizing or anything. There’s just some things - I don’t need it. And you do - and your brothers do, so I -”

“It’s fine,” I said quickly, cutting him off. “This will actually be very helpful. The milk, especially. Thank you.” He stopped tapping and smiled again. I smiled back at him and zipped the bag back up, handing it to Magnus to hold, as I had Stefan on my back and didn’t feel like carrying it.

“Well, if you ever need anything else…”

I nodded. “Right, yes. Thank you again...I’ll see you Monday night.” With that, I ushered Lárus and Magnus back the way we came. I heard the door close, then open, then close again.

Author's Note

I don't know why the first bit keeps getting cut off. It says "28 September."
This one's a bit longer than the others, but still short. I would like to make it a bit more meaningful to the story. Any suggestions?