‘You do, do you?’ Greta said. I took one of the little pouches and copied Jonas, who popped it in his cheeks like a lop-faced gerbil, and carried on talking.
‘The nicotine goes straight into your bloodstream, so you don’t need to do anything,’ Jonas said, but it was too late, I’d already started chewing.
‘Cool,’ I side-mouthed, tasting the grossness and looking for an appropriate spittoon.
Henrik was lowering himself into the water, which was now just below his chin. ‘Got it,’ he said, bouncing back up and holding a stone in the air. Blue and bronze-green with gold-tinged edges, it twinkled in the light as he held it out to me. ‘Labradorite for the lady.’
‘There’s loads of it in this pool,’ Jonas said, feeling down and pulling out another piece. ‘It polishes up really nice.’
‘I prefer it natural and raw,’ Greta said, finding her own rock to admire. ‘You should take them for your cabin, Sara. Labradorite is very calming – it gets rid of negativity.’
‘Facts,’ Jonas said, putting his piece on top of Greta’s and giving them both to me. ‘It’ll take awayallyour stresses. Guaranteed.’
‘Thanks,’ I mumbled, trying to smile, my mouth now full of nicotine spit.
‘All included in the mind and body transformation package,’ Henrik said with a wink.
I considered coughing the snus into my hand and washing it in the pool. But I couldn’t bring myself to contaminate the water. Not when Tore had beseeched us all so earnestly to follow the rules. There was obviously a tiny eco-warrior inside me, somewhere.
I rolled onto my front, letting the water massage my legs, then put the tiny chewed-up bag on the edge of the pool. Yuk! There were a lot of things to like about Norway, but snus was not one of them.
