Page 29 of The Happiness Blueprint
A young apprentice named Hanna who has just graduated with a diploma in tiling and for whom we would be her first paid position. She was a recommendation from Lennart, which I happily took, especially since my first attempt to hire a female turned out so disastrously.
“Good, Klara, because have a look at this.” Gunnar shows me his screen which I study with concern. Another email saying someone regrettably needs to cancel the job, and even after Gunnar explained that their deposit would be lost, they insisted. I am starting to have a bad feeling in my tummy, like one single moth flying around, but I decide not to worry Dad about it yet. I have Gunnar, Alex and Hanna to put things back on track now. And Saga, if she could ever get her act together with the website she promised to sort out.
“We can’t do anything other than keep being the best at what we do. No point in stressing about it,” Alex tells me and I can’t help but notice that he’s already including himself in the team,we.I have a sudden idea.
“Will you teach me some carpentry? If there is time. And if it’s no trouble.” I used to love houses, once upon a time. Before reality hit me in the back of the head and ended my plans and aspirations, limiting me to reading books on architecture. But still, I’d like to be more useful.
“Sure.”
“Thanks.”
Alex is pulling his sweater off, and in the process it gets tangled with the T-shirt, and his flat, hard stomach shows. I immediately regret suggesting carpentry lessons because I can tell that the work conditions won’t be ideal, what with teachers undressing and showing abdomens as they please.Keep walking.Turns out I don’t follow my own instructions. I stop in the door frame as if it’s impossible to leave without looking back. In all fairness he stared at me, so why shouldn’t I be able to look at him? For self-preservation I should probably avoid it. There’s no other way to describe him than this: he’s the Viking font, Mjölnir. Bold, unique and attention-grabbing but in a size 8, which also makes him quiet. And can make it difficult when trying to read between the lines.
“Bye, Viking.” The words slip out before I can even process them. Luckily, he seems amused rather than offended.
“Viking? As in killer pirate?”
“Well,Vikingis actually a verb. You set outviking. They were normal tradesmen, blacksmiths and farmers who went raiding, so my sister tells me. I didn’t mean it as per its definition, I meant it as some sort of compliment. The same way people call youprincessorpet, despite the person being neither. Viking is also a Microsoft font.”Oh my God, stop babbling, you knobhead.
“I got it. Thanks. I like it,” he says, and something very funny happens inside me as I reverse out of the room with small steps.
“You can call me Viking anytime.”
Goose bumpsagain. I must turn the heating up despite Dad’s grumbling about energy prices. Can’t have everyone around here getting goose bumps all the time.
Hanna has energy. Her T-shirt is neon green and readsstay litin block capitals. I could use some of that lit-ness, because every time the buzz of being around Alex wears off, an exhaustion hits. I feel drained, as if I’ve used up all my emotions and have nothing left. I guess some fonts just strain your eyes more. I’m sure if I were to googlebest fonts for eyesight, I’d find Mjölnir at the very bottom.
I sigh, pick myself up and focus on the interview.
When I show Hanna the checklist from the ad I posted she laughs and says, “I think I’ll like working with you.”
Dad has briefed me heavily on not oversharing.Do not tell them we are losing contracts or what happened with the last two employees, K.So I focus on the positives: the pension contribution, the delightful team members and our bean-to-cup coffee machine.
“You have only just graduated. Do you feel ready to work independently?” I say.
“Absolutely.” She sticks her chin up as if she worries I won’t believe her. But I do. Even though she’s only nineteen, she has a confidence that is so effortless I can spot it from this briefest of meetings. I used to think if I surrounded myself with normal, confident people it would rub off on me, and I would absorb some of it and get to call it my own. It was only much later that I realized that confidence, like a gym membership, is personal and nontransferable.
My finger slides across the iPhone screen, and I look down at it. Blood-sugar surveillance is the perfect excuse to take a minute away from the intense conversation and eye contact of an interview. My graph line is perfect, horizontal and centered.
So I’m forced to look up again.
“I’d be happy to employ you on a trial basis,” I say. “You’d be working with Gunnar, our resident tiler, until you get the hang of it all.”
She lights up. “Amazing! Thank yousomuch.”
“One more thing. Are you by any chance adept at website design and social media? My sister, Saga, was meant to take care of it but has turned out to not be helpful at all.” I realize I just overshared and cover my mouth with my hand to avoid anything else slipping out. Hanna doesn’t seem to mind.
“I’d say I could handle that, yes.”
“Splendid.”
ALEX
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