Chapter 23
It was Sunday and time to for the young couple and their parents to have dinner.
Emelie was standing in the hallway looking at herself in the full-size mirror with the red frame and cutouts of green leaves and red berries in the corners.
She had chosen a pair of cream-coloured culotte trousers and a white t-shirt.
Simple, nothing too noticeable. She wore her blonde hair in a ponytail, and she realised that she needed to go to the hairdresser.
She had to ask Birgitta or Christer where to find one of on the island.
Emelie guessed that there was probably some middle-aged lady that had a hair salon in her basement.
Wasn’t that the way it was in small places like this? ”
She looked at the clock and shouted to Linn that it was time to leave, she didn’t want to be late the first time she met Oskar’s parents. She heard a faint answer coming from the tower room and then her daughter coming down the stairs.
“You look lovely, mum,” Linn said.
“You think? Is it nice enough for meeting your daughter’s in-laws?”
Linn waved her off.
“You have already met Anders, and Oskar’s mum is super nice,” she said, putting her winter jacket over her jeans and short top.
“Are his grandparents alive?”
“I don’t know about his maternal grandparents, but his paternal grandfather, the one who started the shop which Anders has taken over, is dead. I think his grandfather was called Anders as well, even though it sounds a bit unpractical” she said, laughing.
“And his wife?”
“She’s alive and lives on their top floor, but I have never met her. Come on now, let’s go!”
Twenty minutes later they were standing on the stairs to one of the biggest houses on Sardinon. The house had double porches, one on each side, and a large wooden deck in the back which was three stories high.
“Christ!” Emelie said, craning her neck in order to see all the way up to the roof.
The white carpentry work stretched all along the house and glistened in the autumn sun.
“But they don’t have a tower, and we do” Linn said, pushing the doorbell.
“They also have a doorbell that doesn’t play Jingle bells,” Emelie said, and they both burst out laughing.
When they heard steps coming from inside the house, they pulled themselves together and stood up straight. The door opened and Anders, the shopkeeper, was standing in the doorway with an apron around his waist.
“Welcome, welcome, come on in!” he said, pulling them into the hallway.
They took off their jackets and Anders grabbed them, putting them behind a sliding door.
“How are you doing? Come on in and have a little drink. Well, maybe not for you, but your mother might want one? Cava or Prosecco?”
“I’d love some Cava,” Emelie said, and they followed him into an impressive living room with an adjacent dining area.
A red-haired woman that looked just like Oskar came out from the room that Emelie assumed was the kitchen.
“Hello there, welcome to our house. My name is Helena, so nice that you could make it,” she said, energetically shaking Emelie’s hand.
“Yes, of course. And what a lovely house you have! Such high ceilings,” Emelie said, surprised.
Most houses on Sardinon were quite modest, and even if some of them were large they usually didn’t have high ceilings, big windows or large kitchens. They were kind of low with a small kitchen and an eating nook.
“Yes, we’ve elevated the whole house. We did it when we added the third floor,” Anders said, handing her a tall glass full of bubbly wine.
“When Anders’ mum couldn’t live by herself any longer, we decided to add to the house so that she could get her own floor. Now she is living on the top floor. She’ll be down for dinner. But come on in and sit down,” Helena said, pointing them to the large, white sofas.
They sat down and Oskar came rushing in, giving Linn a quick kiss on the cheek, saying hello to Emelie and his parents and explaining that he was going to take a quick shower since he had just come home from work.
Linn followed him upstairs. When the three of them were left alone in the sofa Anders looked intensely at Emelie.
“Well, there’s a reason why we are here, even though it could have been a nice get-together between families, now the situation is slightly different,” he said.
Emelie swallowed hard. Linn had said that they had handled the news about the child well. But now it didn’t feel like that.
“It might not have been exactly what one had in mind,” she said hesitantly and took a sip from the tall glass. “Linn being so young and everything, yes – Oskar too, of course.”
Helena nodded.
“Way too young, if you ask me,” she said stiffly.
Emelie didn’t know what to say. She smiled hesitantly and felt that someone had to break the silence. Apparently, it was her.
“I was the same age as Linn when I had her, so I know it’s possible, even though it isn’t exactly what I would have chosen for my own daughter. But I think they will manage just fine. With our help, of course,” she said, looking optimistically at the other two.
Anders looked at his wife, and Emelie thought that he had made a face. What was that supposed to mean? She had no clue, but this time she decided to stay silent. It was someone else’s turn to talk. Helena cleared her throat.
“Naturally it’s a difficult situation and becoming grandparents by 45 wasn’t exactly something we had in mind, but they seem solid and very much in love, and that’s always a good start,” she said and Emelie relaxed.
“Yes, and I think that it’s great that they are living here on the island.
It’s a small place, everyone knows each other and can help.
My experience from the short time I have been living here is that everyone is really kind and welcoming.
There was only one occasion with this old lady in the shop… ”
She didn’t finish the sentence, just smiled nervously. There was no point sharing her experience of the racist lady with the walker with them, perhaps it would make them less welcoming towards Linn and less fond of the idea of her as the mother of their grandchild. But Helena had gotten curious.
“In our shop, what happened?”
“The children’s father is from Gambia, and I guess she had some opinions about that. They are all Swedish and born in the maternity ward in V?xjo, but she didn’t think that was a good enough answer regarding where they were from,” she said.
Anders suddenly got on his feet.
“Blimey, the potatoes! Helena, will you tell the children and grandma that it’s time to eat?”
Helena walked out into the hallway and rang a bell that echoed through the whole house. She looked apologetically at Emelie.
“It’s just so grandma can hear it all the way up there,” she said.
“Can she get down by herself?”
“Yes, we had a stairlift installed last year, it’s very practical. Come on now, let’s sit down.”
The table slowly filled up with people. Oskar and Linn were sitting next to each other holding hands and giggling about something only they knew.
Anders sat down next to Emelie, and Helena took the chair next to Oskar’s.
They started chatting about the market and the Christmas house when Emelie heard a buzzing sound coming from the hallway and looked up.
A hunched, old lady with a walker came into the room.
“Oskar! Are you going to give me a hand?,” she asked in a sharp voice.
Oskar got up, lent his grandmother an arm and walked her to the table. As she sat down, she lifted her head and stared straight at Emelie. It was the racist old lady. Emelie nearly choked on her Cava and hoped with all her heart that the old lady wouldn’t recognise her. But she wasn’t so lucky.
“So, you’re the one that has brought a whole clan of people over here?”
The old lady didn’t have time to say more before Anders hushed her in a loud and clear voice.
“Mother, Emelie and Linn are our guests, and Linn is Oskar’s girlfriend, so you need to try and behave yourself. You know that already,” he said, trying to make nice with the old lady who scoffed.
“Yes, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it!”
Emelie smiled at her. She couldn’t be cross with a lady that was over eighty years old and lived in a different reality than them, but she didn’t have to accept her racist views either.
Emelie had stopped being quiet in situations like these a long time ago, even if there were older people involved.
“Perhaps we should start over? My name is Emelie,” she said.
The old lady didn’t answer, and Emelie saw that Helena gave Anders a look.
“Mum, get it together,” he said harshly.
The lady looked up, squinting
“Svea,” she replied shortly.
Emelie smiled, it was usually the best weapon.
“All right then, Svea. I don’t have to enjoy sitting at the same table as you either, but the truth is that my daughter and your grandchild are going to have a child together, and you and I can think whatever we want about that.
But I won’t accept that you are rude, not to my daughter or to her coming child,” Emelie said stiffly.
“But mum”, Linn said quietly.
Emelie hushed her. She might as well get this over with right away.
“Linn’s father is from Gambia, as you already know, and I don’t know where he is now.
He left us three years ago and I haven’t seen him since.
But there is still a part of him in Linn, Linnea and Liv and that is something worth cherishing.
That is something that will live on in your child, Oskar and Linn, and I hope that you understand that.
It’s not always easy, but one has to stand up for oneself and for those one cares about,” she said.
It got quiet around the table. Not even Svea said anything. Eventually, Anders broke the silence, raising his glass.
“It’s our grandchild too, and I promise that we will do everything in our power to make sure that these opinions that my mother has grown up with won’t live on.
Do you hear that, mother? We won’t accept any such nonsense!
And it stops here, because no one is more thrilled than us that it’s you, Linn, who is Oskar’s girlfriend. Cheers!”
They all cheered and Emelie smiled. Everything was going to be okay.