Bangkok, Khlong Mon
Scene 6
Jansson did not look really Swedish. At any rate she was not blond – which, in Maille's view, was a basic feature of Swedish appearance. But she had an air of deep-seated silence that led one to think about Vikings, who, armed with a beer in the hand and an awl in the cheek, had sailed over seas as motionless as mist to the ends of the earth without turning a hair, armoured in the certainty of the Protestant who holds no false hopes.
«It's beautiful here», said Jelena Jansson at some point. That was a start, a tiny thaw in the human climate. An end to the Ice Age was not yet in sight – and probably Maille could as well have tried to pass for a fir tree in a snow-covered landscape.
Maille was not in any particular hurry. Bangkok was not the worst place to put the brakes on, especially with regard to his professional anger – and the Swedish girl would eventually surely have something to say. He decided to give her time.