Finding Home on the Little Swedish Island

Chapter 1

“Does it make you feel sentimental, your eldest graduating?”, Sara asked.

Emelie smiled and nodded. It was a bit of a milestone, there was no denying it.

“Mum, mum, do you see Linn?”

On her other side, Linnea was jumping up and down, trying to catch a glimpse of her sister. It wasn’t easy to get a good look when you were only seven years old and Emelie picked her up and pointed at Linn, who was dancing and singing with her friends. Linnea waved and called out to her big sister.

“Liv, can you lift the sign up a bit higher so that Linn can spot us? Otherwise she might think that we’re ignoring her”, Emelie said to her middle child, and Liv held up the sign as high as she could.

A little later, the whole family and Linn’s godmother, Sara, were gathered in the center of the big square, embracing Linn and laughing.

Linn was a bit tipsy from the champagne breakfast with her friends and now she was laughing and crying at the same time.

Liv and Linnea looked at their sister with big eyes.

She wore her hair down and like a halo around her face.

The highlighter sparkled on her well-defined cheekbones, and her brown eyes were surrounded by long, black lashes.

In their eyes she was the coolest person in the world.

Emelie grabbed her eldest daughter, holding her tight.

“You’re a baker now, love, how does it feel? Have you been enjoying yourself?”

Linn nodded but had a hard time focusing on the people in front of her.

Her eyes were scanning the crowd in search of her friends and the lorry that was going to take them all around V?xjo, dancing and partying.

Emelie and Sara exchanged smiles. They knew exactly what it was like.

Standing around with her two little sisters, her mum and her mum’s best friend wasn’t exactly the most exciting thing right now. Sara gave her a hug.

“Aw, my darling goddaughter, congratulations, you have done so, so well. Have you gotten a job for the summer yet? Perhaps at that bakery that you were interested in?”

Linn gathered herself for a moment and focused on Sara.

“Yes, I have, but I’m going to be working for mum. It will be brilliant. But here come Olivia and Julia now, I’ve got to run. Love you all!”

She ran over to her best friends and the three of them embraced. The three girls skipped off with their arms around each other, just like when they were little kids. Emelie sighed and looked back at her younger kids.

“All right, anyone up for an ice cream?”

Back in the terrace house on Parkv?gen everything was peaceful.

Liv and Linnea had gone to visit friends.

They were on summer holidays and could come and go as they pleased.

In a few days’ time, they were going to begin attending after school activities for a couple of weeks before Emelie’s holidays started.

Sara and Emelie were relaxing after the graduation spectacle in town.

“I can’t wait for the holidays to begin.

This year has been a real pain at work. A lot of staff changes and then my boss who suddenly quit and before we got a new one…

It was a real mess”, Emelie said, pouring a glass of white wine for herself and one for Sara.

They were sitting in the garden. The flowerbeds were overgrown and Emelie felt guilty just looking at her neglected little lawn.

She was going to deal with it. Any day now.

She did dream of having a green lawn, but she just didn’t have the energy. Sara stretched a little.

“We decided yesterday that we are going to Italy later this summer” she said, smiling.

“Christ, I wish I could afford that. But as a single mum with three children there’s no room for any Italian holidays. We’ll have to make do with good old Sweden” Emelie said. And then added, “it’s not so bad either.”

She could hear how jaunty and unbelievable she sounded. Of course, she would rather have gone to Italy and enjoyed the sun, sea, pasta and good wines. Sara smiled at her.

“It will be brilliant. We were thinking about going back to Tuscany, we really enjoyed it last time around. By the way, have you heard anything from Ousman yet?”

Emelie shook her head. Three years ago, she had come home from work and found a letter from the children’s father on the kitchen table.

In the letter he explained that he was leaving them.

He didn’t want to pursue his life here anymore and had decided to go back to Gambia.

She hadn’t heard from him since, and it had turned her whole world upside-down, to say the least. Taking care of three children by herself, dropping off and picking up at school, wiping snotty noses and caring for scuffed knees and a million other things was hard.

And then she also had to try to answer their questions about their father and why he wasn’t around anymore.

And she didn’t even have a good answer for that herself. It was exhausting.

“No, I don’t think he is ever coming back.”

“You don’t? But he must want to see his girls?”

Emelie took a sip of the dry, white wine and gave Sara a sceptical look.

“If he could take off three years ago and not have been in touch since, I reckon he’s just not that interested.”

Sara sighed.

“Men can be such pigs, no matter which continent they are from,” she said, stroking Emelie’s arm.

They sat in the garden for a while longer, staring at the overgrown garden and the brownish yellow lawn, and they concluded that life went on, the kids got bigger and that things were awfully complicated, but manageable.

“Is it a relief, not having to host the graduation party?” Sara asked.

“A bit of both. Of course, I’m a bit sad that Linn can’t have a party at her own house, but it wouldn’t have been much of a party. You, me, Liv, Linnea and their maternal grandparents…That’s what happens when half your family lives in Gambia and the other half is rather small to begin with.”

Sara looked over the fence where the neighbour was hunched over his new robot lawnmower. He was holding the manual in one hand while scratching his balding, grey head with the other. She shook her head.

“Little boys, little toys, big boys, big toys. But speaking of a small family, was it boring being an only child?”

“Are you kidding? That’s the reason why I wanted lots of kids with Ousman, I didn’t want them growing up like me. Always playing alone, no little sister or brother to fight with. I was always so jealous of you and your brother.”

Sara scoffed.

“Ha, Per was such a pain! I promise you were better off without him,” she laughed.

“But Ousman also wanted a lot of kids, that’s the way you do it in Gambia. Just having three was almost a bit too few to him. But then I guess he took off anyways…”

She finished her wine, took both glasses and went inside to fill them up from the box of wine in the refrigerator.

The post was on the kitchen table. She hadn’t gone through it yet, just piled it up.

She didn’t have the energy for any more bills.

She worked as a housekeeping manager at the City Hotel, and it wasn’t exactly well-paid.

She always managed to make ends meet, but it was boring never being able to do anything fun with the girls.

Like going to Italy. Actually, it didn’t have to be that extravagant at all, taking a trip to Kolm?rden Zoo or to Liseberg - Gothenburg’s famous amusement park - would have been enough, but if she were to bring them all it would still be expensive.

Now that Linn had graduated and was about to become an adult, their circumstances would change, but so far she lived at home and loved being around the house.

Most evenings after the two younger sisters had gone to bed, the two of them would just sit on the sofa watching TV series or chatting about Linn’s crushes.

Linn tried to convince her mum to get on Tinder and try her wings, but so far, Emelie had refused.

She just didn’t want to be fooled again.

And she was way too busy. She had enough stress in her life.

The envelope on top of the pile had a stamp from The National Lottery, and she had no plans to join that, so she pushed it to the side with her wineglass.

Then her eyes fell on a white envelope without an address window.

She read the cursive writing on the back of the letter:

“Bertelson it wasn’t about Ousman after all.

She took the letter, the two wine glasses and went back outside to Sara again.

“Don’t you fancy meeting someone new? I mean, if you don’t think Ousman is coming back?”

Emelie handed her the wineglass and sat down next to her.

“I definitely don’t want him back, how could I ever trust him again? And no, I don’t feel like dating yet. I don’t really dare, what if he would leave too? I just couldn’t bear it.

Sara shrugged her shoulders.

“I think you could, but I understand if you are a bit careful and restrictive.”

Emelie showed her the envelope with the logo.

“Check this out, it looks like I inherited something…”

Sara took a sip of the wine and looked excited.

“What? Do you have some old relative that has died and that you knew nothing about? But that’s a dream come true! Inheriting a lot of money from someone you never knew and that you don’t have to grieve. It’s perfect. Stefan and I have fantasised about that a million times. Who is it?”

Emelie shook her head.

“I don’t know. I don’t have any relatives that I don’t know about, at least I don’t think so, but it says that someone named Astrid Svensson is dead and that she has left me an inheritance.”

“And who is she?”

“I have no clue! But it has to be on my father’s side, since her last name is Svensson. I have a vague memory of some old aunt…”

“Does it say what you have inherited?”

Sara leaned over her chair, snatched the letter from her and started reading it out loud.

“We are honoured to invite you to the law firm Bertelson & Bart, Monday June 7th at 11:00 p.m. – but that’s on Monday! Jesus Christ, it’s exciting! Do you want company? Oh bloody hell, I can’t, we have a board meeting then. But you have to call me the moment you are done.”

Sara was almost shouting with excitement and Emelie laughed and raised her glass.

“Yep, who knows? I might be a millionaire. Cheers to that!”

She reached over to Sara who smiled at clinked her glass.

“Or maybe you have inherited her old dog and some sugar tongs. Cheers!”