Free The Room by Jonas Karlsson

muttering.
    “Hello. Hello. Hello!” he called, waving his arms in the air.
    One by one they fell silent. Karl turned to me.
    “What do you say, Björn?”
    I took my time, seeing as I knew what he wanted me to say, but I decided to stick to the facts, unlike the rest of them.
    “They say there’s nothing wrong with me and that I’m perfectly capable of carrying on working.”
    Several of them looked at me as if they’d only just noticed that I was still there. Hannah with the ponytail and Ann whispered something between them. Several of the others muttered among themselves, like they were still at school.
    “Well, surely we can agree…” Karl began. “I mean, why don’t we say that it’s okay as long as Björn doesn’t go into the room?”
    There was a long silence. Then Jörgen stepped forward. The picture rocked behind him.
    “Okay, let’s agree on this,” he said, fixing his gaze on Karl. “If I see him standing like that once more. Then he’s finished. Just saying.”
    Karl nodded with exaggerated clarity to show that he was really listening. Then he turned to me.
    “Do you think you can manage that, Björn?”
    I felt a knot in my stomach. But I still opened my mouth and replied.
    “Yes.”
    “Good,” Karl said. “So we’re all in agreement, then?”
    One by one they drifted away.

30.
    Late that afternoon the sun peeped out for a couple of minutes. Everyone in the department turned their faces toward the windows, but soon it was gone and shortly afterward it started to snow again.
    —
    I kept to my desk and wondered if I ought simply to skip my five-minute breaks and carry on working. Maybe it would be best to shut out everything else in the office and concentrate one hundred percent on work? Maybe Karl and I could come to some arrangement where we calculated how much time I saved by not taking breaks, not chatting with my colleagues, not making private phone calls or running to the toilet every five minutes, like some of the older women did, and reduce the time I spent at work by the same amount?
    I took a deep breath and sighed. Getting authorization for something like that seemed unlikely under management that was so hostile to positive developments.
    I pulled open the bottom drawer of my desk and put the indoor shoes inside.
    —
    I passed the room twice that day. Once on my way to the toilet, and once when I tidied my desk and went to put two old journals in the recycling bin. I tried not to think about it. I did my best to imitate the others and pretend the room didn’t exist. It felt utterly ridiculous. Of course there’s a room there, I thought. After all, I can see it. I can touch it. I can feel it. I went round the little corridor once more, as if to check that the door hadn’t suddenly disappeared and I’d been imagining it all. But the door was still there. It was firmly fixed in the wall. No question. Solid. As clear as day. It almost made me laugh. I nudged it with my elbow as I walked past it the second time. I heard the sound as the fabric of my jacket touched it. And when all the others were off at lunch, I couldn’t see any reason not to go in there for a short while, the tenth time.

31.
    After lunch we were all called to yet another meeting in Karl’s office. I didn’t understand how it could have happened, but I assumed someone must have seen me sneak into the room even though I had taken all reasonable precautions. I prepared myself for the worst.
    “Well?” Karl said, when everyone had squeezed into his office.
    His gaze swept round the room and settled on Jens. I made an effort to look as relaxed as possible.
    “Well…” Jens said from over in the corner. “I’d just like to know…how much did those shoes cost?”
    “The shoes?” Karl said, stretching to his full height.
    Jens nodded, with a self-important expression on his face.
    “I mean, they weren’t free, were they?”
    “No,” Karl said, picking up a pen which he drummed idly against the edge