Chapter 7 Chapter VII The Gallows

"But I'm scared, Rathermus," said Merlie Olsen, "I'm just scared!" "I know," said Rathermus Olsen in the warm voice that had accompanied his wife for twenty-five years through political decisions, driver's license road tests, storms of anger and weird panic attacks. "Of course," he said, throwing his arms around Mellie, "you work so hard and have to think a lot, and your mind doesn't have the strength to keep that out." "That kind of thought?" Mei Li said, turning her head to look at her husband on the sofa. She had already lost interest in the "Love Actually" DVD they were watching. "That kind of thought, that kind of rubbish, what do you mean?" ?"

"It doesn't matter what I mean," he said, touching his fingertips, "what matters is..." "...What do you think." Mei Li imitated his tone and said, "God, Ruthermus, you don't want to watch Doctor Fell's talk show anymore." He let out a soft chuckle: "I just want to say that you are a member of the Norwegian Parliament. If you feel threatened, you can apply for a bodyguard to protect you at any time, but is this what you want?" "Hmm..." Mellie made a contented voice, and Rathermus' fingers began to massage her favorite part, "What do you mean 'what you want'?"

"Think about it, what's going to happen?" Mellie thought for a moment, closing her eyes, feeling her husband's fingers press peace and harmony into her body.She met Ratsemus from working at the Norwegian Employment Service in Alta, Finnmark.At that time she was selected as an officer of NTL, the civil servants' union, so she was sent to the Somakha Convention Center in the south for training.On her first night, she was met by a lean man with piercing blue eyes and a rapidly receding hairline who spoke in a way that reminded her of the redeemed and joyous youth clubs in Alta City. A Christian, except that what he said was politics.He served as secretary of the Socialist Party, assisting MPs with practical administrative work, travel, media relations and sometimes even writing speeches for MPs.

Rathermus offers Mellie a beer and asks if she wants to dance.They danced to four old classics that got slower and slower, and there was more and more physical contact, when he asked Mellie if she wanted to join, not in his room, but in the Socialist Party. After Meili returned home, she began to attend the Socialist Party gathering in Alta, and at night she had a long conversation with Ratham on the phone, talking about what she had done and what she was thinking that day.Mellie never said what was on her mind out loud: sometimes she felt that the best time they had together was when they were two thousand kilometers apart.Then the appointing committee called, put her on the list, and, as if by magic, she was chosen as Alta's civic representative.Two years later, she was deputy chairman of the Socialist Party in Alta, and the following year she sat on the county council when she got another call, this time from the Norwegian parliament's appointments committee.

Now she has a small office in the Norwegian Parliament, and a partner helps her prepare speeches and map out her political future.She always avoids making a big mess out of herself. "They'll send a policeman to look after me," Meili said, "and the media will wonder why a little-known congresswoman needs to pay taxpayers for bodyguards to run around with her, and once the reporter finds out it's because A female member of parliament suspects that someone is following her in the park, and they will surely say that since this is the case, every woman in Oslo can use this kind of reason to spend the state's money and ask for police protection. I don't want to apply for a bodyguard, stop talking."

Rathermus smiled quietly, and continued to massage his fingers to express his approval. The wind whistled through the bare trees of Vigeland Sculpture Park.A duck floated across the dark lake with its head buried deep in its feathers.Vigeland's open-air swimming pool is empty, save for piles of rotting leaves.This place seems to have been abandoned forever, like a lost world.The wind whirls in the deep swimming pool and sings a monotonous lament under the ten-meter high diving platform.The jumping platform stands in the night sky like a gallows.