Chapter 14: Her Sleep Is My Gold

Ebba put the kettle on, which meant Siri was allowed in the kitchen.

She did not offer her a chair.

Siri stood by the counter in her good wool coat, with the canvas bag at her feet.

"I'll say it once," she said. "Then you can throw me out."

"Say it," I said.

"I edited every episode. All five hundred."

"I know you did."

"I knew the lines were yours before the first one aired."

She looked at the table, not at me.

"Kasper came in with a page of your handwriting in his bag. He said you'd left it out and he couldn't stop reading it."

"And you said?"

"I said it was the best thing I'd ever read."

Ebba set a cup of tea down at her own place and sat.

"Go on," she said.

"He wanted to read it on air. I said we should ask you."

"And?"

"He said you'd say no. He said you didn't know how good you were." Her voice cracked. "I let him say it. I thought it was a gift to the world."

"My mother's last night was a gift to the world."

"I know how that sounds."

"Do you?"

"Yes," Siri whispered. "I've known since March. That's when I stopped telling myself it was a gift."

"Because of him."

"Because I was sleeping with him, and I could finally hear how he talked about you."

The kettle clicked off behind Ebba.

Nobody got up.

Siri crouched and pulled a thick folder of flash drives and a small recorder out of the bag.

"Sponsor lunches, mostly. I recorded every one. I told myself it was for the show's records."

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