Chapter 22
Emelie dropped Liv off at school after having been to the hospital to check that the leg was healing nicely.
She had suggested that Liv should come back with her afterwards and rest, but Liv had insisted on going back to school for the last class of the day.
Her phone beeped and she took one of her gloves off and put her cold fingers into the warm pocket of her down jacket. It was Linn.
“I’m off soon, are you home? I need to talk to you.”
She stopped not to slip on the pavement. The farmer from ?stersidan who oversaw the gritting had done a good job, but it was best to be careful. One broken bone was enough for this family this winter. She looked at the screen. Linn’s message sounded troubling. She sighed and answered her.
“Just dropped off Liv, on my way home, soon passing by the shop.”
“Wait outside.”
She carefully tip-toed down the hill, saying hello to Greta who was struggling to get up the hill with her red walker.
“Do you need any help, Greta?”
Greta shook her head with determination, her grey curls bouncing around her knitted hat. She was panting, exhausted.
“No, no, this is my workout, it’s good for old legs, you know.”
Greta focused on the top of the hill and continued her slow struggle upwards. Emelie laughed to herself, hoping that she would have the same fighting spirit when she got that old. When she reached the shop, she thought about Linn’s text message again.
She stopped outside and walked back and forth to keep warm and to get her thoughts in order.
“Hello mum,” Linn said, linking arms with her. Blimey, it’s cold, it will be nice to get home and warm up.”
Emelie nodded and they turned into the road leading towards the bridge and their house.
“Your text message made me nervous, what is it that we need to talk about?”
“Let’s discuss it when we get home.”
Linn talked about her workday, that they had done inventory and went on to tell her different stories about the clients.
Usually, Emelie loved hearing her talk about everything that was happening in the little village and how Linn in her youthful fashion seemed to take all obstacles and troubles so lightly.
If she was still working in the store shop ten years from now she would probably have a more critical view of everything.
But today Emelie couldn’t appreciate the stories and she only hummed back, her head spinning with questions of what to expect when they came home.
When they got back to the house, they sat down at the kitchen table with cups of tea and some sandwiches.
“This table is so nice. Blimey, he is so talented and friendly,” she said, stroking the soft wooden surface.”
“He is, yes, but now you have to tell me what’s the matter, I get really worried.”
“Okay, mum, I’m not so sure you are going to think this is great, but I’m happy and it’s super early so I don’t know yet what’s going to happen, but I still wanted to tell you.”
The thoughts were spinning in her head. Had Linn applied for school?
Was she moving away from home, getting a driver’s license, a tattoo?
Or the worst possible scenario: what if she wanted to move back to V?xjo?
” Emelie took a deep breath, preparing for what was to come.
Linn took a sip of the warm tea and a deep breath.
“I’m pregnant, and before you say anything yes, I’m planning on keeping it.”
Emelie slumped down in her chair, her thoughts spinning even faster than before and without her being able to catch them.
Pregnant? Her little girl! There was something so familiar about the whole situation and Emelie knew exactly what it was.
A little over nineteen years ago she had been the one sitting in her mother’s kitchen telling her the exact same thing.
But now it was Linn sitting on the other side of the table, looking as stubborn as she did when she was a little girl and refused to wear a dress to a birthday party.
It was almost impossible to change her mind when she looked like that.
“But how… when… love… oh, but you’re just too young!”
Linn got up, angrily pushing the farmer chair and standing behind it so that it created a shield between her and her mother.
“I knew you were going to say that! And how old were you when you got pregnant?”
Emelie just stared at Linn, thinking about the situation she had been in back then.
Then it had been her standing broad-legged with her arms crossed over her chest and her parents that had dropped down into different chairs in despair.
She had come back from her Gambia trip and told them that she was pregnant and that there wasn’t a thing they could do about it and that hopefully the child’s father would soon come to Sweden.
She got up and started clearing the table just to have something to do while she was taking deep breaths, and she could feel Linn’s determined stare on her neck.
She looked out the window and saw Andreas who was unloading plants and putting them onto his moped.
Just looking at him made her furious. That prick, coming here and being all nice and building tables and driving her daughters to the hospital while he couldn’t even keep his willie in his pants.
“Bloody hell! Shit!”
She threw the cups in the sink making red porcelain pieces fly all over the kitchen and forcing Linn to take cover behind the chair.
Emelie rushed out onto the porch, the anger rushing in her ears so loudly that she couldn’t hear Linn call out for her.
Andreas looked up as she came stomping and raised his hand to wave, but let it fall when he saw her bright-red face.
She stopped about ten centimeters from him and yelled:
“How could you? Suck up to me and play all nice and friendly and sweet!”
Andreas took a step backwards and stumbled on a water hose. He regained his balance and stared at Emelie in surprise.
“What do you mean?”
“You bloody well know what I mean! Shit, and I thought you were my friend, even though I should have known what you were after, but you should have taken responsibility! She is far too young, too young for you, too young to become…”
She was interrupted by Linn who came running.
“Mum! Stop it right now!”
She hadn’t heard Linn following her out into the lawn, but now she was standing there, tears in her eyes. She grabbed Emelie’s arm and started pulling it.
“Come back inside with me right now, before you make a complete fool out of yourself,” she said, pulling harder.
Emelie looked from Linn to Andreas and back at Linn and there was something that just didn’t make sense.
Linn took her hand and pulled her back into the house, and Emelie saw her turning her head and mouthing ‘I’m sorry’ to Andreas, who followed them with his eyes all the way back to the front door.
A couple of minutes later, Emelie was sitting by the kitchen table with her face in her hands.
Linn was sitting across from her, leaning forward with both her hands softly placed on her mother’s knees.
“Try to relax and listen to me,” Linn said. “Oskar is the father of the child, I thought you understood that I’m madly in love with him. Getting pregnant wasn’t part of our plan, of course, but we want to keep the baby and live here on the island.”
Emelie dried her eyes and looked up on her daughter.
“But when…”
“When did I get pregnant you mean? I don’t know exactly, but I was supposed to have my period three weeks ago and then two weeks ago I took a pregnancy test, and it was positive, and we decided to tell our parents before I contact the midwife, or whoever it is you’re supposed to contact.”
“And Oskar, has he told his parents and what did they say?”
“I don’t know, he’s doing it today too,” she said, anxiously twisting a with napkin with a star pattern between her fingers.
Emelie’s head was spinning. Linn was going to be a mum. Her little, little girl.
“I’m sorry. Linn, it was just such a surprise. But if you have made up her mind then of course I’m happy for you. You’re right, I was only nineteen when I had you and…”
Her eyes were burning, and a tear ran down her cheek.
“It’s the best and most amazing thing that has ever happened to me, and I want you to know that I will always be here to help you - and I mean both of you - as much as you will let me.”
She got up, opening her arms to Linn who fell into her embrace, sobbing. Emelie held her and rocked her in her arms while stroking her dark curls and mumbling calming words into her ear. She took her head between her hands, looking straight into her brown eyes.
“I can’t imagine that my little girl is becoming a mum and…”
She stared at Linn in horror when she realised what that meant.
“I’m going to be a grandmother! Jesus Christ, a grandmother, isn’t that an old lady with grey hair who bakes cinnamon rolls and knits sweaters? Am I going to be a grandmother?”
She dropped down onto the chair and Linn giggled.
“Not in this family, I’m in charge of the baking here, and you are in charge of project management.”
“So where are you going to live?”
“I don’t know, we’ll figure something out, and it isn’t a very large island so for the time being, I hope that I can stay here.
And then we have planned to start a YouTube-channel and a blog.
We can get a bunch of followers, you know: young couple have a baby and start a café on an island – isn’t it brilliant? ”
Emelie laughed.
“It sounds great, but one thing at a time, we’ll have to see how you are feeling. And maybe it isn’t the best idea to start a café when you have a new baby in the house”
Linn gave her mum a tired teenager-look and sighed.
“I know, I know, I will take it easy. But mum, what was that about Andreas before?”
Emelie sat down again, hiding her face in her hands.
“Oh, it’s so embarrassing, but I was certain he was the father. I meant you’ve been over there all the time going on about how nice and friendly he is and invited him over here. And he has been coming here coming up with excuses to show up all the time…”
Her voice broke. How could she have thought that about Linn? And about Andreas? Linn grabbed her hands, looking her into her eyes and softly shaking her head.
“Yes, I’ve spoken to Andreas, and I really like him. But how daft can you be? The reason why he is here all the time is you. He is way too old for me and not one bit interested, because he is in love with you.”
Linn had said it with a wise grown up-voice, the voice of a future mother, not a teenage girl, but she still wasn’t able to understand what it was she was saying. It also didn’t matter how grown-up she sounded, she had no intention of discussing her love life with her anyway.
“Oh, never mind, I’ll deal with it later. So, what’s the plan? Are you telling already? Might be a bit early still, don’t you think?”
“I hadn’t planned on telling anyone else, but now I guess I will have to tell Andreas. And then I guess we will wait until after week 12.”
Emelie nodded and got up to clean up the broken Christmas mugs on the kitchen top and in the sink.
Better get it cleaned up before Liv and Linnea came home.
In the garden, Andreas had finished loading the plants onto his moped, and now it was completely filled with flowerpots.
Small, hard leaves were sticking up from the brown ceramic pots.
Poinsettias, Emelie thought to herself, and imagined the table at the market where he was going to be standing selling poinsettias, amaryllis, hyacinths and other Christmas decorations.
She stood there a while, watching him carefully and tenderly wrapping the plants and securing everything on the platform.
Linn was sitting behind her texting frenetically on her phone that was constantly beeping. She looked up at Emelie.
“Now Oskar has spoken to his parents, they handled it well, and they want us to come for dinner on Sunday. Can we do that?”
Emelie nodded and Linn got up and gave her a hug. She looked out the window.
“Ah, he’s still there. Great, then I’ll go over and tell him.
She heard the front door close and saw how Linn went over to Andreas.
She could see him listening attentively and asking a couple of follow-up questions before opening his arms to her, giving Linn a giant hug and spinning around with her on her lawn.
Then he put her down again and gave her a kiss on the forehead.
She smiled. Andreas seemed to ask something else, and Linn shook her head, pointing towards the house and in Emelie’s direction.
Emelie threw herself on the floor in front of the sink, the last thing she wanted was for him to see that she was spying on them.
She looked at the clock. Liv and Linnea would be there any minute and the day after tomorrow the whole Christmas market committee would come over to try out the new mulled wine.
The whole committee also meant Andreas. She was so ashamed her whole body was shaking. All she wanted to do was to disappear.