Free Exposed at the Back by Guy; Arild; Puzey Stavrum Page A

back and forth across the table until Steinar had to pretend that he understood this business of sniffing it and letting it roll around his mouth. After what he hoped was a long enough pause, he signalled to the waiter to pour and took control of the conversation before Benedikte had a chance to.
    ‘How did you get started at TV2?’ he asked, taking another sip of wine. Benedikte looked at him for a few seconds before speaking.
    ‘You know how some people irritate you from the very first moment you meet them?’ she asked.
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Well, there were a couple of girls who used to come into the petrol station where I worked for a while. They came to buy baby food. You know, those small jars of mashed up lasagne. These girls didn’t have children, they just lived on baby food, and every day they stood there talking about some brain-dead rubbish. One day, I overheard them talking about a vacancy they’d seen for breakfast TV editorial staff on God Morgen Norge , and they were saying how cool it would be to work there and meet all the celebrities.’
    ‘Baby food?’
    ‘I think they thought it was healthy. Anyway, that’s not the point. After hearing their conversation, I went in to see the boss, handed in my uniform and took the tram into town. I showed up at the TV2 offices and asked about the job vacancy, which it turned out wasn’t vacant after all. But I refused to leave and they eventually let me do a trial shift as a studio runner.’
    ‘What’s that?’
    ‘Someone who chats, serves coffee, makes sure people are miked up and takes the guests down to the studio at the right moment. Then off with the microphones once their pieces are done, and into a taxi theygo. I got fed up after a while, started saying things I shouldn’t have.’
    ‘Like what?’
    ‘A studio runner’s supposed to reassure the guests. Make sure they perform, to use the sports jargon. But I started saying things that put them off. Have you seen that classic advert for the business school?’
    ‘I’m not sure.’
    ‘The one where there are people being made to feel nervous and out of their depth, who say “erm” before being reduced to their underwear by a puff of wind. It became my ambition to do that to people. Sometimes I was vicious. “Mind that step, a few people have broken a bone on that one.” I said that to the new leader of the Pensioners’ Association, who was already nervous. I once put off the prime minister so much that he offered me an internship.’
    ‘So you turned down the prime minister?’
    ‘I took time to think about it, and while I was thinking, along came Bertil Olsen.’
    ‘Who’s that?’
    ‘The chief editor of TV2 Sports Review , but also the most frequently used handball expert on the breakfast show. He didn’t turn up at the arranged time. I phoned him, waking him up at his hotel, then managed to rearrange the transmission schedule and organise things so that he could be on air before the 8 o’ clock news bulletin. I think he was having a few problems with his boss at that time, and he was grateful I sorted it out for him. So grateful that he gave me the chance to be a reporter on Sports Review .’
    ‘How come?’
    ‘Between you and me, being a blonde woman is quite an advantage when you’ve got to interview male sports personalities,’ said Benedikte, making a movement with her right ankle. Steinar noticed her ankles were bare above a pair of spotted pink and black high-heel sandals.
    ‘Really?’ said Steinar.
    ‘The only problem is that we have to cover all kinds of sport. You’ve got no idea how much we have to look into some trivial stuff, sports that should be forgotten and that would be forgotten if a couple of Norwegian idiots hadn’t found out that they were able to win at them. Not that hard when nobody else is taking part.’
    ‘What’s the worst?’ asked Steinar.
    ‘Skateboarding.’
    ‘Skateboarding?’
    ‘We did an in-depth report on Norwegian skaters. Everything