Erotic Refugees (20 page)

Damien was suddenly standing
there holding both a ball and a Frisbee under his arm. He stuck his
hand out. Eoin, making a judgement based on the child's state of
sweatiness, handed him a plastic cup with diluted fruit juice. Off
he went again, drinking as he ran.

“
Oh I doubt it took them
long,” Milly said. “It's an easy addition as it's not connected to
anything else on the site. One drop-down, a few database tables, a
change to their search motor, and there you go. They could have it
up in a day.”

Eoin held up a thermos and
looked inquiringly at the others. They nodded and he went about
pouring coffee into some carefully balanced plastic cups. “Well now
there's really no point in dissecting it, since it's done. Let's
look forward and decide what to do next. Rob, you had a whole pile
of other ideas, what was top of the list?”

Rob took the coffee that Eoin
handed him and grabbed a handful of biscuits and a few grapes.
“Cheers. Well, Milly and me went through every idea I had, and a
few of hers. We picked out one of my ideas and one of hers—”

“
Let me do mine Rob!”
Milly tossed a grape into the air and opened her mouth wide but it
just bounced off her nose. “So yeah. Mine was the haircut
database.”

Eoin was doubtful. “Right…”

“
No, wait, here me out,
it's brilliant! You know when you get a haircut and it's not like
you asked for, and all you can do is, well, nothing, because it's
too late? Well I thought you could have a mobile app where you take
photographs of haircuts you actually liked and then just show them
to the hairdresser when you get your next cut. Then she can't say
you haven't told her what you wanted, can she?”

“
Right,” Eoin said again,
not really having experienced the wrong haircut problem. His own
haircut rarely failed him.

“
And here's the great
part,” Milly went on. “You can try out other haircuts by just
dragging them onto your face. Other users will vote on what suits
you best and chat about it and send pictures around and so on. A
big blob of instant user content! Plus I can salvage the login part
we have, and the database I just need to change a little. Rob's
work is mostly wasted, although uploading of images shouldn't
be—”

“
Wait, hold yer horses,”
Rob said. “No-one’s heard my one yet! It's the code idea, did I
tell ye that one Eoin? No? Alright, ye know how ye've got all these
pin codes to remember for cash cards and things. Well, all we do is
get the users to pick out ten questions that have numbers as
answers—”

“
Personal questions,”
Milly corrected him, “that only you would know, all with numerical
answers—”

“
Yeah, and then we break
down the code into a set of questions. Then ye save the questions
on—”

“
Look, hang on, wait, I
don't follow,” Eoin said. “I have no idea what you're saying. And
if I don't get it, maybe nobody else will either. Go with the first
one.”

Rob frowned. “So what, the hair
thing's better?”

“
Sure it's better!” Milly
said. “And we'd get lots of straight females in, they love that
kind of thing, or so I hear. And lots of females means a big chance
to grab lots of advertising. Could be huge if we do it
right.”

“
Maybe,” Rob said. “Let's
do it and see where it gets us. We'll keep the colour scheme we
have for the moment until we get a better idea of the
content.”

“
But you'll tell Karen we
switched ideas,” said Eoin. “So she can start thinking about the
new layout.”

“
Um, yeah,” Rob said with
a furtive look. “I'll do that, sure.”

Eoin eyed him suspiciously,
wondering what he was hiding, because he was clearly hiding
something. He was about to ask when he was distracted by somebody
poking at the shoulder. He turned to see Damien standing behind him
again.

“
What is it, young
sir?”

“
Slide,” said the boy
plaintively with his best puppy eyes. “Biiiig slide.”

Eoin nodded. “Sure, in a
minute, I just have to talk some more—”

Damien positioned himself right
in front of his father, blocking his view of the others. His mouth
curled down in the sourest frown he could muster. “Slide,” he said
in a tone that was terribly final.

Eoin sighed. “Look,
Damien—”

“
I'll take him up,” Milly
said. “I wanted to try that slide anyway, it looks
brilliant.”

Eoin studied the steps that led
up the slope to where the slide began. It was a long way, strewn
with many leg-breaking, nettle-burning and eye-poking
opportunities.

“
Thanks, but I doubt he'd
go with somebody else—”

“
Slide!” Damien grabbed
Milly's hand and hauled her to his feet. He didn't even glance back
as the two of them raced towards the steps, yelping in delight.
Eoin forced himself to look away and back to Rob.

“
So that's it then, we do
Milly's haircut idea?”

“
It's not a bad idea,”
Rob said. “It's just not, ye know—”

“
Not your idea,” Eoin
said. He broke up the end of his baguette and tossed the fragments
to a few sparrows that were pecking around near the tree. “Right, I
know what you mean. I'm not exactly involved in this new one
either.”

“
Chill Eoin, if this ever
takes off we'll need somebody who knows the business side of it,
and that sure as hell isn't me, or her over there. All that boring
stuff with money and forms, there's still only one of us who can
tackle that.”

“
Right,” Eoin said.
“Boring stuff with forms. Well I'm glad I can be of some use.” He
heard a yell and snapped his parenting searchlight in that
direction. Milly and Damien had just disappeared into the mouth of
the slide and were now screaming all the way down. They emerged at
the bottom, Damien sitting on Milly's lap, and both of them
cheering wildly. They turned around and charged back up the steps
for another go without even pausing for breath.

“
What about Karen?” Eoin
said, fishing for the reason behind Rob's furtiveness. “Isn't she
coming here soon?”

Rob rolled a lit cigarette
between finger and thumb, saying nothing. After a while he nodded.
“Right,” he said. “It's like this. Karen left Ireland a few days
ago. She's on her way here, but she hasn't arrived. And nobody
knows where she is.”

“
What?” Eoin said in
alarm. “Are you serious? But you have to call the police, you have
to tell—”

“
No, wait, she's fine,
that's the thing, I've been mailing her. She's all alive and well.
I just don't know where she’s alive and well.”

“
Well you could just ask
her!”

“
Oh that never occurred
to me.” He made a face and slapped his forehead a few times.
“Stupid Rob, no thinky that. Course I bloody well asked her! But
she just keeps sayin' she'll tell when she's ready. So in the
meantime I have to lie to the mother and pretend she's in Stockholm
while she's really swannin' around somewhere else, with some
unspecified sorts.”

Eoin chewed thoughtfully. “It
can't be that hard to find out, can it? I mean, her mobile number
should give it away—”

“
Same one she had in
Ireland. No help.”

“
Okay,” Eoin said. “Then
how about the IP information on her mails?”

“
Nope, she’s using some
proxy service to hide it. I suppose I can do like in the films and
record a telephone call and scan it for church bells and boat horns
and stuff.”

“
You know, that's not a
terrible idea.”

Rob stared. “Jaysus Eoin, I was
only joking.”

“
No seriously, why not?
Maybe we'll be able to hear people talking in the background and
pick up the language. Or some noise specific to a place. Even if we
don't, it would still be fun to try.”

Rob nodded. “Fine then, let's
give it a shot. Can't be any worse that doin' nothing, which is all
I have as plan B at this stage.”

Eoin tried to look supportive
although he was really thinking about his to-do list and how it had
just become even longer. What with the Internet project, and
finding Karen, and dumping Anja, and reconnecting with Alice, and
getting himself in with Maria, he'd need a leave of absence to get
through everything on time.

“
And did I tell ye,” Rob
said, “about the party on Friday? Eamonn's thirtieth and he's
invited everyone he knows. And I was surprised but turns out he
knows loads of nice women, the scrawny git. Ye'll have to come
along!”

“
Can't,” Eoin said
reflexively. “I have Damien—”

“
Well get a babysitter,
this'll be a great bash!”

Eoin's face hardened. “No, I
don't have any babysitters. Well Alice, maybe, but not right
now.”

“
What, no babysitters?
And what if something happens when ye have the kid?”

“
Well then I just don't
go,” Eoin said. He could imagine the grief he would have to take
from Jenny if she discovered that some strange person, meaning a
person she didn't know and approve of, had been put in charge of
her son.

“
Oh jaysus Eoin quit
being a bloody victim, will ye? Just get a babysitter and come to
the party. Hoy Milly!”

Milly and Damien were
scrambling out from the slide after another run, still laughing.
She glanced over, shielding her eyes with a hand.

“
What? Is it time for
brandy and cigars?”

“
You want to baby-sit for
Damien on Friday?”

Eoin grabbed Rob's arm and
hissed in his ear. “Damn it Rob, don't—”

“
Friday?” Milly said,
packing a stray dreadlock back into the bungee. “Yeah I could
probably do that. Just not too late.”

Rob turned and patted Eoin on
the shoulder. “There ye are Cinderella, off to the ball! Ye can
thank me later.”

Eoin made no comment. His mind
was swirling with what-if and how-about and think-only, but mostly
with what-would-Jenny-say. But then again, he was an adult and he
was Damien's father so of course he could arrange a babysitter
without having to receive clearance from the kid's mother. She'd
hit the ceiling if she found out, but maybe that might be a good
thing. For all of them.

Milly and Damien returned to
the picnic blanket. Damien threw himself down on his back with an
enormous sigh and stuck all four limbs out like a dog. Milly patted
him on his stomach and got him giggling. “This little guy will be
no problem. I'll call you later for the details, okay?”

“
Thanks,” Eoin said. “I'm
not sure how to pay you back—”

“
It's no problem, just
owe me a favour.” She nudged Rob. “You can add it to the
pile.”

“
Shhh,” Rob said. He
turned to Eoin and smiled innocently. “Don't mind her, just think
about the party.”

Eoin studied them. “Look, what
are you two up to—”

“
Boom,” Damien said. He
sat up and pointed at the sky behind them. They all turned and saw,
moving in over the city, a great slab of grey and black cloud. The
taller buildings darkened as they fell under its shadow, and they
felt the air turn chilly even though they were still sitting in
direct sunlight.

“
That looks a tad …
unfriendly,” Rob said. “Anybody check the weather
today?”

“
Mmm,” Milly said. “In
the paper. Lots of fat grey clouds like the ones that usually cover
an alien mother-ship. Not supposed to turn nasty until tonight
though.”

“
Well it’s only a bit of
rain,” Rob said. “And as you Swedes keep tellin' me there’s no bad
weather, is there? Only bad clothes.”

“
I never really got that
saying either,” Eoin said. “I mean, a warm jacket's no good in a
blizzard, is it?”

“
Well you two can stand
around getting soaked in your excellent clothes if you want,” Milly
said. “But I’m out of here.”

“
Agreed,” Eoin said and
got busy stuffing rubbish into a plastic bag. The others helped
out, working fast, but the dark shadow overtook them as they were
rolling up the picnic blanket. Damien said “Yay!” and started
jumping when he felt the first raindrops on his face.

They put their heads down and
got moving but the rain was faster. In the time it took them to
reach the buildings on the other side of the park, heavy drops were
pummelling their heads. They slipped in under a balcony and watched
as it came down, an almost vertical sheet of water. It was joined
by streams running off the balconies overhead and it soon felt like
they were standing behind a waterfall.

Rob lit a cigarette, pushed his
sunglasses down over his eyes and leaned back against the wall.

“
And there, my friends,
goes the bloody summer. Now only ten months to wait till the next
one!”

Chapter
22

On Friday evening the rain was
still pelting down. It had stopped for a few hours in the afternoon
and given the impression that after two days it had made its point.
No such luck though, and now sheets of water were again flooding
the gutters of Södermalm. It was as if the summer had never
happened at all.

Rob slid onto the seat of the
subway train, ruffled his damp hair and jammed his sodden umbrella
into the crack between the seats. “Bloody hell Eoin, what did we do
to deserve that weather? Brutal. The little fella was okay with the
babysitter then?”