BLOG TOUR SPOTLIGHT: The Boy at the Door by Alex Dahl @xandrabo @aria_fiction
The Boy at the Door
by Alex Dahl
Honored to be a part of the blog tour today for Alex Dahl's The Boy at the Door! Continue below to learn about the book, the author and read an extract!
What would you
do for the perfect life?
Would you lie? Cheat? Or... kill?
Cecilia Wilborg has the perfect life. A handsome husband, two beautiful
daughters and a luxurious home in the picture-postcard town of Sandefjord.
She's the type of woman people envy, and she wants to keep it that way.
Then Tobias enters her life. He's a gentle, lonely eight-year-old boy. But he
threatens to bring Cecilia's world crashing down…
*Picture by Nina Rangoy
Alex
Dahl is a half-American, half-Norwegian author. Born in Oslo, she currently
divides her time between London and Sandefjord.
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EXTRACT
Tonight I’m in a particularly
stressed-out, irritable mood, as things didn’t exactly go to plan at work. I
bend over backwards for my clients, sometimes literally, and still they
complain. Angela Salomonsen had the nerve to email me today, saying that the violet
raw-silk cushions I commissioned handmade in Lyon look dove-gray in the
particular light of her conservatory, and could I call her immediately so we
could discuss this situation. These are the kinds of things I have to deal with
as interior stylist in a wealthy town full of spoilt, bored wives. Sometimes I
think it is a miracle that I work at all, considering I have two small children
and my husband is always traveling and I have no au pair. It’s not really like
I have to, but I quite like what I do, and being me is very expensive. Also, in
my circles, it’s definitely looked upon as a bit lazy to stay at home. Unless
you have a cupcake business from the kitchen counter and blog about it, which I
don’t, as I hate cupcakes and
blogs.
It’s raining hard outside, and as I
watch volleys of rain slam against the floor-to-ceiling windows beyond the
pool, it occurs to me that I don’t remember the last day it didn’t rain. I
suppose October is like that in many places, but I think I’m one of those
people who is particularly sensitive to dreary skies and wet wind – I am a
Taurus, and I prefer my surroundings to be beautiful at all times.
A little boy catches my eye as the
children line up at the one-meter diving board. I’m not sure why. He’s
significantly smaller than the other children and his skin is a deep
olive-brown and smooth. He’s bouncing up and down on his heels, rubbing his
arms, but his face is completely void of the goofy expressions of the other
children waiting their turn. He looks frightened. I look around at the other
parents who are waiting in the steamy, overheated room for someone who might be
the boy’s parents – I don’t remember seeing him here before. There’s chubby
Sara’s fat mother who I always try not to have to talk to – I’ve heard from several
people that she’s really needy and the last thing I need is some cling-on mummy
friend. There’s Emrik’s father – a good-looking guy I went to school with back
in the day who is now a police officer, and who I occasionally glance up at
before quickly looking away. I can feel his eyes on me now but wait ten seconds
longer than I want to before meeting his eyes. I give him a very faint smile
and he immediately returns it, like a grateful puppy. I’m a good girl these
days, though it doesn’t come easily to me; there was a time when I would have
felt giddy with excitement at this little game, perhaps easing the top button
of my blouse open, running my tongue slowly along the backs of my teeth. I scan
the few remaining people for the little boy’s parents, now pointedly ignoring
Emrik’s dad’s wanting gaze.
There are the grandparents of
Hermine’s best friend from school, Amalie, sitting closely together and sharing
biscuits from an old, faded, red cake tin. There is also a slim, ginger woman
sitting close to the door, a heat flush creeping across her freckled white
chest. She, too, is watching the boy intently, and I suppose she must be the
mother, though it faintly surprises me that she must have had the child with
someone pretty ethnic; the kid is so dark the father must be even darker, and
she doesn’t immediately strike me as someone with such exotic tastes.
There’s nobody else here; I imagine
the other parents are out in the parking lot, preferring their own
rain-battered cocoons and a newspaper to listening to kids’ screeching voices
cutting through the clammy, hot air.
Finally, Hermine’s class finishes
after two rather underwhelming attempts at diving, and she walks over to where
Nicoline and I are sitting.
‘Did you see that?’ She beams,
exposing the wide, fleshy gash in her mouth from six simultaneously missing
teeth.
‘Fabulous,’ I say, standing up,
gathering our things together and nudging Nicoline, who is watching a
ten-year-old in America apply a thick layer of foundation before expertly
contouring her elfin face. ‘Hurry up in the changing rooms. We’ll wait in the
foyer.’
Hermine does not hurry up in the
changing rooms, and Nicoline and I wait impatiently in the brick-clad foyer,
staring out at columns of rain moving back and forth across the parking lot
like dancers in a ballroom. I keep checking my watch and it’s already past 7.30
when Hermine appears, freshly blow-dried and with a lick of pink lip gloss in
spite of the fact that she’s about to step into a torrent.
I can practically feel the thin,
cool stem of the wine glass in my hand and am slightly hysterical at the
thought of having to deal with the girls for much longer today. They begin to
argue over something as we walk out the door, and over the sounds of their
high-pitched squabbling and the crash of the rain, I don’t pick out the other
sound until I’ve taken several steps outside. I briefly turn around, and there
is the receptionist, an older, tired-looking woman with tight gray curls and a
sweater that reads ‘Happy Halloween’. She’s shouting my name into the downpour,
motioning for me to come back inside, and it’s so typical – one of the girls
must have left something behind.
‘Cecilia, right?’ she asks as I step
back inside, already drenched. I notice the little boy again, the one who’d
caught my eye at the pool. He’s sitting on a bench, staring at the floor, his
hair dripping onto the brown tiles.
‘Yes?’
‘I… I was wondering if you could
possibly take this little boy home? Nobody has come for him.’
‘What do you mean, nobody’s come for
him?’
The receptionist comes over to where
I’m standing near the door and lowers her voice to a near-whisper, indicating
the little boy on the bench.
‘Maybe there’s a misunderstanding…
He knows where he lives. It’s over on Østerøya; I looked at the list, it
doesn’t seem too far from where you are.’
‘I’m sorry, it’s really
inconvenient,’ I say, glancing back out at the black, wet night, longingly now.
‘Isn’t there anyone else who can take him? There was a woman in there I thought
was his mother.’
‘I’m afraid it can’t have been;
they’ve all gone.’ Damn Hermine and her blow-dry.
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