Chapter 12
She looked at the time when she put the salmon with feta cheese in the oven, a quarter to six.
She texted Liv and Linnea, saying that dinner would be served at six, it was better to exaggerate a little since they were usually late.
Linn would be working until six o’clock and would be home soon after that.
Emelie set the little table and came to think about Andreas’ offer regarding the bigger kitchen table.
If they decided to stay, she would let him build it for her.
And perhaps take down the wall. She inspected one of Astrid’s old, green farm chairs.
They were in great condition and if she painted them in different pastel colours, they would look great with the oak table.
She could probably find some more chairs too, which would give them some more seats around the table.
The sudden sound of a moped out on the driveway made her jump, maybe it was Andreas?
She pulled herself together, it wasn’t very fitting to try and compete with your own daughter and behave like an infatuated teenager.
But the moped didn’t drive towards the guest house, instead it stopped outside her house, and she heard voices.
Curious, she peeked out through the porch window.
It was Oskar who had given Linn a ride home from work, along with a giant bag of flour.
The timer went off and she went back into the kitchen to take out the salmon.
Moments later, Liv and Linnea came home with Linn, who was pulling the heavy flour bag into the hallway.
“Where should I put the flour?”
Emelie peeked out her head, holding the platter with salmon in her hands.
“Just leave it there, at least while we are eating,” Emelie said, putting the hot platter on the table.
Soon they were all seated around the table, eagerly sharing what they had experienced during the day.
“Mum, this is the best salmon I’ve ever had,” Liv said.
“Yes, you’ve never made tastier salmon,” Linnea said, putting another forkful of salmon, feta cheese and new potatoes in her mouth.
“Oh my, the two of you are just like Chip and Dale!”, Linn laughed
She took one last bite and some water before getting up from the table.
“We’re having a lemon cake that I made this morning before work for dessert, I’ll go down in the cellar and get it.”
She took her plate, put it in the sink and went down the cellar stairs, but soon returned again.
“Who’s been stealing my cake? Not that it is that big of a deal, but I wanted us all to try it together so we can grade it.”
Liv and Linnea solemnly swore that they hadn’t been down to the creepy ghost cellar to steal cake.
“Is it you then, mum?”
Linn gave her a disappointed look, and Emelie shook her head, no, she hadn’t been down to the cellar today.
“Could it be a mouse? Or that cellar ghost that I imagine hearing once in a while?” Emelie said.
Liv and Linnea shrieked.
“Do we have mice in the cellar?”
“And ghosts?”
“I’m never, ever going down there!”
“If it’s a mouse, it cuts cake with a knife,” Linn said, smirking, and showing them the cake.
It was true. The cut was nice and even, with no little marks from tiny mouse teeth. Linnea’s eyes grew wider.
“That’s what I’ve tried to tell you, there are ghosts down there.”
Emelie finished clearing the table.
“A ghost that eats cake, I don’t know… I was away for a couple of hours this afternoon taking a walk, and maybe someone came in then. It’s probably not a ghost, but perhaps a wandering specter?”
“Never mind, let’s try it, and as always I’m interested in your grades”, Linn said.
“And I want us to have a small family meeting” Emelie added.
When they had all given the cake five stars and Linn was happy, Emelie told them about her plan to stay on Sardinon for at least a year. Liv and Linnea started jumping with joy and Linnea jumped into her mother’s arms.
“Oh mum, you are the best, really, now I can start in Tore’s class with the nice, nice teacher! Mum, can I run over and tell him right now?”
Liv jumped up from her chair.
“I’ll come too; I want to tell Kajsa!”
“Who is Kajsa?”, Emelie asked, laughing.
“It’s Tore’s neighbour, and now she will be my classmate. And mum – she has a horse!”
Before Emelie had the time to ask any more questions, they were both halfway through the door. Clearly, Liv didn’t have any trouble making friends here either, Emelie thought, calling out to them:
“I want you home no later than nine!”
“Okay”, they answered in chorus.
Emelie looked at Linn.
“Can I take another piece of the cake, it was wonderful.”
“Of course.”
“So, Linn, who should we run and share the great news with?” Emelie joked, taking a bite of the cake.
She hadn’t counted on Linn taking her suggestion literally, but she did and flew off her chair.
“Andreas, of course, and then he can try out the cake as well!”
The following day, Emelie, Sussi, Stina, Andreas and Linn walked over to the community centre to plan the different activities for the Christmas market.
Since Christer was the project leader on the island, Emelie wanted to run everything by him, and she wanted him to stay enthusiastic about the idea of a Christmas market.
Now that they had decided to stay, it was fun having something to do.
They walked together along the little gravel path meandering between the old fishermen’s houses.
Emelie was constantly making sure that either her, Stina or Sussi were always walking between Linn and Andreas, and for the most part, she succeeded.
They were accompanied by the sound of hammers the growling of lawnmowers. Sussi sighed.
“Oh, the summer guests, you would think that they buy summer houses in order to relax, but all they end up doing is building porches, repainting and squeezing new little houses into their tiny, little gardens.”
“But they take good care of their houses, and they are good costumers over at the nursery,” Andreas commented.
In the bend right before the little bridge over the canal splitting Sardinon in two, they ran into Birgitta. She had a bucket in her hand.
“Look at this, I found blueberries, I was just about to go over to your house with them, Linn, so that you could make blueberry muffins. Where are you lot going by the way?”
When they told her they were going to the community centre, Birgitta invited herself to come along, and when they had passed the bridge she stopped, handing over the bucket of blueberries to Linn.
“Wait here,” she said, sprinting towards a yellow house on top of a hill to the left of the small bridge.
“Where was she going?” Linn asked and tasted one of the blueberries.
“She’s going over to Stig’s. Birgitta would never miss an opportunity to get to spend some time with him,” Andreas said, grinning.
Soon Birgitta returned together with Stig. He wiped his mouth using a big handkerchief that he then pushed down into the pocket of his work dungarees. It seemed like Birgitta had caught him mid-lunch.
“But hello there, gang, lots of lovely people at once, I must say. Are you on your way to Chrille’s? You have heard the news, right?”
Everyone shook their heads and Stig looked extremely pleased to be the one sharing the news that Christer had slipped in the stairs and fallen so badly that he had gotten a concussion and had to stay on bed rest for two full weeks.
“So now he is grumpier than ever and is bossing the poor home care that brings him his food” Stig laughed.
They decided to go to the community centre anyways. When they got there, Stig banged on the door and stepped in.
“Hello there, Chrille, it’s Stickan with the whole Christmas committee, we were going to check out the venue and do some planning.”
They could hear a low, irritated muttering from the floor above.
“Why don’t you guys go and have a look, and I’ll go check on him” Stig said.
“I’m coming with you”, Emelie said and followed him up the stairs.
The staircase was so steep that Emily wasn’t surprised that Christer had slipped and fallen.
If he were to stay here, he should probably consider rebuilding the stair, if he didn’t want to risk any future femur fractures.
They went into the kitchen that was nice and cosy with angled cupboards from the 50’s and a striped wallpaper in light green and bone white.
The muttering came from a room inside the kitchen and, when they stepped in, they saw that all windows were closed, and the blinds were pulled down.
There was a confined and stuffy smell in there and Christer didn’t dignify them with a look, he just continued his muttering:
“I hate stairs and I hate ladies from the help.”
“Hello there, Chrille, as cheerful as always, I hear,” Stig rumbled.
“I hate being called Chrille,” Christer said, but he sounded a bit happier.
Christer was in bed with a supportive collar around his neck and a grey blanket pulled up over his belly.
Next to him in bed was a crossword puzzle and on the brown nightstand was an empty coffee cup and a plate with a couple of cookie crumbs on it.
Emelie and Stig went to stand by the foot of the bed, so that he wouldn’t have to turn his head in order to see them.
“How are you feeling, Christer?” Emelie wondered.
He seemed irritated, waving her question off, then he frowned, and it seemed like the sudden movement had made his neck hurt.
“Its nice that you are here, I will be here for a while and I can’t do any work on the Christmas market, I’m going to need you to take over as a project leader until I am well. I’m sure I’ll be back on your feet before you move back to town” he said, trying to position himself higher up in bed.
Emelie nodded.
“I’ll do my very best, Christer, and if you would like me to, I can come over here and give you regular updates. And by the way, we’re not going back to the city. We are staying here, at least until next summer.”
Stig grinned and gave her a pat on the back that was so hard that she almost fell into Christer’s bed.
“I must say, that is the best news I’ve heard in a long time! Oh well, I guess we have two project leaders for the Christmas market” he said, as if he had just won the lottery.
When Emelie and Christer had decided what to do next and agreed that she would come back in a couple of days to report to him, she and Stig went downstairs to the others.
“Careful on the stairs,” Christer shouted after them.
In the big hall, Sussi was walking around taking notes on her phone while the others were telling her things that needed to be done. Repair the tables, clean the kitchen, the great hall and the hallway, clear out the great hall, wash windows.
“Well now you can all calm down, let me introduce you to the new project leader for this year’s Christmas market,” Stig declared proudly, pointing at Emelie with both hands.
“At least until Christer is back on his feet” Emelie smiled. “But how far have you gotten?” Sussi went over the list with her and sent her a copy over text message.
“Should we take a peek outside as well?” Emelie said, taking the lead out the front door.
Behind the community centre was a large garden with a lawn stretching all the way along one side of the house.
Next to the lawn was a gravel court with white stripes that the pensioner’s association used to play petanque on on clear nights.
Stig and Birgitta walked around explaining where the different salespeople usually stood, where the great Christmas tree belonged and where Santa usually sat.
Sussi stepped a circle around the imaginary tree and declared that they could easily fit double circles around the tree for the dance.
And she added that they could do a Christmas line dance in the same spot after the traditional dancing was over.
Linn had been standing a bit to the side, writing text messages when Emelie called her and asked if she liked the spot were Astrid used to have her café, just inside the backdoor of the yard.
“It’s going to be great,” Linn answered. “Then you can spot the café from both the outside and the inside and it will be easy for me to refill the coffee and the cookies from the kitchen. By the way, is there a freezer in the kitchen?”
Stig put an arm around her and sticking one of his thumbs inside his braces.
“No, love, but uncle Stig here has a large freezer in his cellar, you can fill that one and it isn’t that long of a walk either. And then I will put together your café just like in the old days, when Astrid was still around.”
“Oh Stig, that’s just marvelous, you really are something,” Birgitta said with sparkling eyes, clasping her hands.
Birgitta’s pocket started beeping at the same time as Oskar came skidding into the yard, making the gravel fly around his wheels. Linn ran over to him.
“What did your dad say?”
Oskar smiled and nodded shyly towards the Christmas committee, then looked at Linn and blushed.
“He said that he would love to support your café with coffee and cordial if he could just have some signs up here and a stand where we could sell some nuts and chocolate.”
Birgitta started jogging towards the road and Stig called out to her.
“But Biggan, are you leaving already?”
She turned around with tears in her eyes.
“Yes, I have to, and it’s quite the walk back.”
Linn waved for her to come back.
“We’ll drive you, won’t we, Oskar? Come on, let’s hop up on the platform here, you and I”, Linn said. Oskar nodded, put his helmet back on and turned his moped towards the road.
“Drive carefully with your precious cargo,” Stig called out to him and Birgitta turned around, waving happily to him.