I Is Another

by Jon Fosse

  No, it’s you, he says

  Nice to see you again, he says

  and he holds out his hand and The Namesake and Asle shake hands

  Yes, a lot has happened since we last saw each other, The Namesake says

  and Asle thinks he needs to say he doesn’t have time and then he sees the tubes of white paint and he picks up two big tubes and The Namesake says yes you can’t do anything without white

  Yes, a lot’s happened, The Namesake says

  I, he says

  Yes, you need to hear this, he says

  I’ve been accepted at The Art School, The Namesake says

  Yeah I took the bus to Bjørgvin and went to The Art School and showed my paintings to the first person I saw, I showed him the best paintings I’d done and he said I had talent, it was a long time since he’d seen pictures that showed such talent, so even if I didn’t have an examen artium, yes well what did that really have to do with being able to paint? yes, he was completely sure that The Principal would let me start at The Art School, The Namesake says

  and he says that then they went to The Principal and The Principal said that since his paintings showed such clear talent of course he could start at The Art School without an examen artium and The Namesake asked, The Namesake says, if he couldn’t maybe start right away and The Principal said that there was always a place for a talent like his, so it would be fine, he said and The Namesake said that he lived in Stranda but that he was going to try to find a place to live either in Bjørgvin or near Bjørgvin as soon as possible so that he could start at The Art School as soon as he could and The Principal asked if he had money, and he’d said hardly any and The Principal said that now that he was a student at The Art School he could apply for an artist’s stipend and then he asked for his name and address and birthdate and he asked to see his ID card, because he had to see that if The Namesake was going to start at The Art School and when The Principal saw his birthdate he’d said that his age was also a factor in letting him start right away at The Art School and then The Principal wrote out a letter stating that he had been accepted to The Art School because his paintings showed clear talent and he gave Asle a form and said he had to fill out the form and include it with the letter and apply for an artist’s stipend, yes, the students who went to The Art School got a higher stipend than other students, which was reasonable enough, The Principal said and then he shook hands with The Namesake and it was really great that he got into The Art School, he says, because Liv, yes, Asle probably remembered he’d told him about her, she was very pregnant now, her belly had grown so big that it looked like it was about to burst, and she wanted to give birth in The Hospital and she said that she wanted to go to Sartor where her parents lived as soon as she could, because the childbirth was getting close, she might be giving birth any day now, and he could come along to Sartor and they could stay for a while at her parents’ house until they got a place of their own to live, preferably in Bjørgvin, she said, and now, yes, he was actually just standing there looking at the tubes of oil paint without planning to buy anything because he had to pack up everything he owned, all of it, and Liv had to pack up everything she owned, and she found room for everything in her one suitcase but it was harder for him since he had to bring all his paintings with him, and of course the easel and brushes and all the other painting things, but he didn’t have many clothes to pack, so if The Bus Driver wasn’t too difficult there’d be enough room for everything in the baggage compartment, he says