Drain
When Lalli woke up, Stefan and Leif had already left the guest room in which they had all been put. By the time he got downstairs, everyone else was having a conversation over breakfast. The first person he clearly heard speak was Isak's sister:
-Wait, if such people are actually just doing everything they can to get a reaction from others, shouldn't the fact that Lalli almost never visibly reacts to anything be a good thing for him?
Stefan was answering by the time Lalli entered the kitchen and was seating himself:
-This also means that if Lalli does visibly react to something, such a person will have found a very reliable means of getting a reaction out of him in the future. Good morning, Lalli, you can help yourself. And if he takes steps to no longer react to that specific trigger, then it's back to the "what, I thought you actually cared about that thing?" response I told you about earlier. From there we go back to the fact that we are all taught that if we truly care about anything, we should promptly react to any instance of harm being done to it, yet have a response that is proportionate to the harm that was done. This gives the person an easy way to continue the "you never do anything right" game by deeming the response to be either excessive or underwhelming. The "excessive" reproach is often hypocritical, while the "underwhelming" one encourages taking them as an example.
Lalli's seat was next Leif, who had finished his breakfast and was witnessing the conversation rather than participating in it. Lalli tried a brief greeting, but didn't get any answer and wasn't the type to insist in such situations. As the conversation between Stefan and Isak's sister – Lalli remembered her name to be Gerda after a few bites – continued, Lalli picked up that she had been quite young when her parents had separated and didn't remember much about her father. The conversation had apparently started because she believed her mother and brother to be too hard on her father. He was able to listen to the conversation for a while, but it was starting to make bad thoughts emerge by the time he had stopped eating. As he left, he noticed Leif following him. One of the few things Lalli knew of his new situation is that he was no longer supposed to be left alone. He had also been listening to that conversation for longer than he had. Letting him follow him outside probably wouldn't hurt, but having a walk around town with him probably wasn't a good idea. As the rest of his family wasn't expecting him before lunchtime, just sitting somewhere away from that conversation would probably be enough for both of them. He fortunately remembered that the house had a porch.
After both of them settled in the porch's chairs, he told Leif he wasn't expecting any sort of conversation from him and started pondering the fact the Gerda had suggested that one of the things had been told to "work on" by plenty of people could actually be a good thing. Mere minutes into it, Reynir, of all people, found him and handed him money:
-I didn't quite catch the reasons, but something about that ledger you brought yesterday gave our employers the idea that they may be involved in a scam and have unknowingly dragged us into it. They want you to bring Emil and the children here as fast as you reasonably can. This is to pay for drivers and overnighting in a roadside Inn.
Isak was willing to drive him back and return with extra passengers, on the condition that he was given time to use some of his newfound money to get extra goods for his store, which turned out to be quite close to opening.
Lalli tended to not try to make conversation with cart drivers he hired. Those not seeking conversation themselves tended to appreciate that fact and gave it credit for making good time in spite of his motion sickness. This, unfortunately, didn't make up for leaving after the time at which most people had breakfast, resulting in them staying the night at the Inn at which they had eaten lunch the day before. The next day, Isak's cart arrived in town just in time for Lalli to be able to reach the Solberg house by the beginning of Emil's lunch break. Between taking care of tasks that absolutely needed to be done by Emil himself, getting everyone's stuff ready, making the old man aware of what Lalli knew of the situation and getting the children out of school at the least disruptive moment possible in regard to classes, the now-familiar Inn was used both for dinner and sleeping.
With Emil among his fellow travelers, he ended up being the one whose bed Lalli slept under for the night. Or at least, tried. From what he understood, he owed Emil for the night on which he had ended up not leaving after delivering a cake. He listened as Emil told him the story of what he had done in response to the loss of his family's money via the investor's association and his reluctance to do more stemming partly from out of fear of letting himself get dragged into another scam. The exact arrangement that he had with Helena's parent's, which Lalli had either not been told about or hadn't picked up on before, caught his interest: they were apparently willing to get their money back more slowly if it allowed Emil to learn how to manage his own money in the process. Things inevitably came back to how the clerks at the general store short-changing him contributed to him saving his money more slowly than he would like.
-It's like there's a special tax for having ever been involved with this guy!
Part of Lalli's brain had taken to quasi-instantly making the money-to-mental energy conversion, and the image worked there, also. The words came out before Lalli could stop him:
-Isn't there a tax for being involved with everyone?
He then realized that Emil would understand him better if he explained:
-Spending time with people is tiring, so it's a tax on your energy.
-Huh? Spending time with other people is how you get your energy back. And they get their energy back by spending time with you.
Lalli had been half-suspecting this for a while, but Emil was the first to confirm it. Yet another thing that was so normal for everyone else that nobody had managed to properly spell it out until just moments ago. He suddenly remembered the concept of draining people he had recently come to understand. Why would it exist unless there were some people who took energy away even from people sought company to get their energy back? Processing the idea took some time, and he noticed when Emil looked under the bed and asked him if he was okay. He was used to seeing upside-down faces, but if was the first time he was seeing Emil's. As sights went, it was a pleasing one. His head still upside-down, he spoke again:
-Wait… that thing you said about losing energy around people… you weren't just talking about the man before Stefan. Does that mean that for you, spending time with everyone is like spending time around Göte? Even me?
Lalli thought for a while, and realized it might, indeed, be the best way to explain things to someone who knew of draining individual people, but not of everyone being draining to an extent.
-It changes, depending on who it is, but it's never not there at all. It was much worse with the man before Stefan than with most other people right before I broke up with him.
Emil's head disappeared from his field of vision, then he spoke:
-Okay… I need to think of how to deal with that. You seem to know of needing time to think, so how about we leave things at this for the night?
Lalli couldn't agree more.
xxxx
When Lalli woke up the next morning, he was alone in the room. Because of its location, he didn't pay attention to the smell of food until he opened his eyes and that a tray of food had been left where he could see it. Not needing to deal with other people before breakfast had happened only a handful of times in his life, each of them making him wish he had such mornings more often. A few bites in, he realized whose idea it must have been. In that case, why did he leave? People who brought him food without being asked usually stayed around for a while, as if expecting him to start a conversation. While it would have been hard for him to talk while he was asleep, people who did that were usually willing to wait a little. He remembered one of his rules, which being around Roni had only reinforced: never complain if he got what he wanted, unless the end result had undesired elements he had genuinely not foreseen. All things considered, he was liking having breakfast alone. However, that left him with nobody to tell him what to do with the tray. All he knew was that the cheaper the place, the more likely it was that he was expected to bring things back to the kitchen himself.
After finding where he was supposed to put the tray, he started looking for the people with whom he shared the room. He found them having already finished the breakfast, apparently in the middle of a game of cards. Emil was the first to notice him coming and greet him, with everyone else following his cue. Isak was the next to speak:
-We'll all be up as soon as we finish this game. You can do what you want in the meantime, provided it doesn't risk making us too late.
Lalli nodded and rushed back to the room to re-pack his bag, which didn't take long. He didn't have any time to get bored before Isak, Emil and the children showed up to do the same.
xxxx
As they approached their destination, Emil got more and more self-conscious about the children looking like he had been taking care of them properly and kept looking for any physical sign it might not have been the case. Soon enough, it got on Lalli's nerves:
-Don't look like you did too well, or you're going to get them back next time their parents need someone to watch them.
Lalli remembered this from how his family could potentially be rehired by the same employer at a later date if they did a good enough job. Isak let out a loud laugh for some reason. It was soon drowned out by statements from the children:
-I'd like to go back there again.
-Me too.
-Would it bother you, Emil?
Emil ruffled his own hair:
-Well, if I get some warning and your parents actually plan proper accommodations for you, why not. I don't think Helena's family is going to take the three of you in again now that your parents know better.
The children yelled just loud enough for Lalli to need to cover his ears:
-Yay!
Once his ears had recovered, Lalli realized something:
-So you three would spend more time with him if you could?
The children all nodded a smile on their faces:
-He and the other baby-sitters there are more fun.
-The things to do are more fun too.
-I want to find out more about trolls. There aren't any where we live.
For all the source of noise and chaos they could be, children had the merit of being reliable sources for the sort of knowledge Lalli considered useful. There were also things for which their tastes overlapped with his. While he didn't want another Roni, Lalli had also been on the lookout for Emil's good side sides all this time. How much the children liked him was definitely to put in the "good things" list. He suddenly became aware of something Emil had missed concerning looking good while meeting the children's parents and pointed at his own hair in hope of getting the message across. Emil quickly arranged his hair, but missed a spot. Lalli realized all too late that he had moved to fix it himself. The children were staring at him and the boy with short hair was asking if he was going to kiss Emil. Lalli shook his head and returned to where he had been sitting.
He found himself looking at the boy cousins, thinking about how he'd have trouble telling them apart if they had similar haircuts, when something hit him: their father and Emil's probably looked alike, at least to an extent. The next thing he thought of was the way Emil had reacted when he had realized they were in his old bedroom. Should he tell Emil? Had Emil already figured it out and had merely not told him? Would he be interfering with something that wasn't his business if he brought it up? After thinking for a while, he got an idea. Was there a way to talk about it that would make Emil become aware of the situation if he wasn't, but not be useless if he already was? He thought of the reason for which he was worried about that situation in the first place, and hoped the question he would ask would be the right one:
-Will you be okay if their father looks a lot like yours?
Emil looked at him, then apparently at the kids for a while before answering:
-Actually, I hadn't thought of it. Guess there's still time to mentally prepare. Thanks for asking.
It looked like it had been a good idea. This time, at least.
xxxx
When they got to town, many introductions were made, a thankfully quick and silent lunch was eaten, then Lalli ended up watching the children with Reynir while all the other adults engaged in a very long meeting. Lalli was used to it, but also preferred things to be done that way, since he only cared about the final decision and the very few times he had attended one had been extremely draining for him. Reynir, meanwhile, had become the odd job person since his arrival and tended to just do what he was told as often as Lalli. As his hair alone turned out to be enough to keep all three children occupied, Reynir ended up telling Lalli what the family's current job was supposed to be, as everyone else had apparently forgotten to tell him:
-Someone apparently recently discovered that troll body parts have a certain property and is willing to pay a lot of money for them. However, some types of trolls and specific body parts show the property more than others. Since that person doesn't want the price of the best goods to increase because of too many people trying to make money off them, they share the information when they meet people who might know of a good way to harvest them. Our employers are among them. This lake has so many trolls under it that people are supposed to shelter in place whenever it starts raining hard enough. We lure them out one by one and Cecilia makes sure any failure to get just one doesn't get into the town proper. Someone shows up to pick up the trolls about once a week, comes back with the money that was paid, then takes the next load of trolls. The money made from some trolls doesn't cover the costs of neutralizing them, but it can be worth it for other specimens. From what I know, the operation was just barely starting to make a worthwhile profit when you showed up. I tried to ask Tuuri how our employers figured out they could be involved in a scam. But she's the only one besides them to know what to look for in the ledgers, so all I've gotten out of her are complaints about being hungry, complaints that she's tired and insistence that I don't need to worry. She did that last one the way she does it when she knows that there may be, in fact, a good reason to worry.
This was the first time Lalli heard anything about changes in Tuuri's way of insisting one didn't need to worry when she knows there may be a good reason to do so. It looked like Reynir was a better match for her than he had initially thought.