Chapter 24 #2
“It doesn’t feel good not to be able to cope on my own, he is my husband and my responsibility. But now they are looking into finding him a place at the nursing home, because I just can’t do it any longer,” she said, wringing her hands.
But then she saw the kitchen table and let out a joyful little shriek.
“But Linn, Emelie, what a beautiful table, and all these amazing smells! You’ve done nothing but bake, have you Linn?”
And she was right. The mulled wine was in the middle of the table and between the plates and the bowls there were lanterns with burning candles.
Branches of ivy decorated with amaryllis and red winter apples adorned the table.
Linn was handing out small plates and made sure they all tried all the cakes and cookies and the sugar kelp bread.
Oskar looked proud as he stood next to her in a matching Christmas sweater and handed out mulled wine cups while Linn instructed them not to taste the drink before everyone had a cup in their hand.
The kitchen warmed up and for a while, Emelie forgot everything and even felt a slight hunger.
Oskar clinked his teaspoon against his cup and declared in a ceremonious voice:
“All right, everyone, it is time to taste the mulled wine, made according to Astrid’s old recipe.”
He filled everyone’s cups and they all put in raisins and almonds in the drink and Linn raised her cup for a toast.
“One, two, three – cheers!”
Emelie looked around, keeping her fingers crossed that it wouldn’t taste as terrible as it did last time.
At least it wasn’t as thick, she concluded and now it seemed perfect.
Linn had watched over the mulled wine in the bucket like a hawk during the weeks that had passed since the last tasting.
Everyone was still, tasting. Birgitta snorted, Christer hummed in an appreciative way.
Andreas smacked his lips and took another sip, but it was Sussi who eventually broke the silence.
“Wow, Linn, it’s delicious!”
“Best mulled wine I’ve ever tasted, but dangerously strong, I think,” Stina added.
“Yep”, Andreas said, “do you know what the alcohol percentage is in this one?”
There was a hard knock on the door, and someone stepped in.
“Ho ho ho, are there any nice children here?”
Linnea let go of her plate and ran out into the hallway and soon came back followed by Santa Claus.
He had a slight limp and carried a big lumpy bag on his back.
His white beard went all the way down to the belt of his worn, red jacket.
With some difficulty, Santa put the bag down on the floor, and Andreas found a chair for him.
As he sat down there was a loud cracking noise and the Santa toppled backwards a little, laughing.
“I guess this Santa has eaten a bit too much porridge lately.”
He got up slightly, showing them his behind where the red pants had torn along the whole seam. Liv and Linnea giggled.
“I can fix that, and I can wash and fix up the jacket as well,” Birgitta said, smiling and blushing.
“Ho ho, Birgitta, for your sake this Santa will gladly take off his pants,” Stig chuckled and winked at her.
Birgitta blushed until she was the same hue as her home-knitted, red sweater with snowflakes and suddenly got very busy putting almonds in her cup.
Emelie suggested that they go and sit in the living room, and they all brought their plates full of Lucia buns, seaweed bread and cookies.
Sussi and Stina sat on the sofa and made room for Andreas in the middle.
Linn and Oskar grabbed farm chairs from the kitchen and Linn sat down where she could see the kitchen table.
Christer and Santa Claus Stig sat down in different armchairs and Stig patted the chair next to him and invited Birgitta to sit there and practice being Santa’s assistant for the Christmas market.
Linnea sat down on a rug on the floor and Liv sat in another armchair, putting her bandaged leg up on the footstool.
Now Emelie was the only one making nervous circles around the room.
“Take a chair and sit down, Emelie, it’s time for Christmas gifts,” Santa said in a deep voice.
She found a small Emma armchair in the corner over by the fireplace. It was upholstered in a striped fabric in red and gold, but Emelie saw potential in the cute little chair. Maybe she could give it a facelift with a beige velvet fabric?
A couple of hours later, everyone had gotten their gifts, Liv and Linnea had disappeared up to their rooms and Linn and Oskar had taken some leftovers and a couple of bottles of mulled wine and walked over to his parents.
Birgitta had excused herself and said she had to get back home and take over for the home service and Stig had offered to walk her home and carry the Santa suit.
Christer joined them and walked back to his place.
Now only Sussi, Stina and Andreas were left.
They had replaced the cups and the mulled wine with wine glasses and a box of wine that was almost empty by now.
Emelie was in the kitchen taking care of the dishes, feeling after a successful evening and a bit dizzy from the strong mulled wine and a couple of glasses of wine, and for the first time in several days she felt relaxed.
She had gotten lost in Andreas’ eyes a couple of times during the evening, and every time they happened to brush against each other it was as if there was an electric current passing through her, and something told her that he felt the same way.
She was putting the sugar kelp crispbread into the pantry when she heard Sussi’s cheerful voice become more serious and she moved closer to the door to hear what was being said whilst not being seen by the three people sitting in the living room.
“This might sound super odd, Andreas, but we don’t want you to think that this is something we’re saying just because we have had some wine, it’s something we have discussed for a long time and given much thought,” Sussi said.
Emelie was standing completely still, a couple of plates in her hands, and she leaned as closely to the doorway as she dared to.
“To get straight to the point, Sussi and I would love to have children. We feel ready now that we have settled down on the island and well…we are actually after your sperm,” Stina said.
Emelie almost dropped the dishes but successfully maneuvered them into a better grip. She could hear Stina start to speak again.
“You are nice, smart and handsome – a perfect donor. We understand that this must come as a bit of a surprise to you, and we would be thrilled if you wanted to think about it and not just say no right away.”
Emelie heard Andreas laughing a bit awkwardly and thanking them for the compliment before Sussi continued:
“But don’t about it for too long, because we both want to try and get pregnant, and it’s two weeks until we are ovulating,” she said.
Bloody hell, Emelie thought to herself, they had really figured this one out. Poor Andreas, how the hell was he going to handle a question like that? She slowly moved closer to the living room, not to miss out his answer.
“Girls, I actually don’t need any time to think about it. I would love to have children, and something tells me that the woman I want to be with doesn’t want any more of them. But I have one demand and it’s not up for discussion.”
“All right?” Sussi and Stina said, in chorus.
“I want to be a real father to the child – or the children. We live so close to each other that we don’t have to talk about every other week, not in the beginning, but maybe later, as they grow older.
I want to be their dad and not some anonymous sperm donor.
I want to take care of them and split the responsibility with you. ”
It was completely quiet for a while before Stina spoke again.
“It wasn’t exactly what we had in mind…”
Andreas laughed.
“Then I guess it’s you and not me that has a couple of weeks to think about it.”
Emelie heard him get up from the sofa and just barely had time to get back to the sink and put the plates into the soapy water before she heard his steps behind her. Soon, she felt his arms around her and his warm breath in her hair.
“Hey, hostess, I think the last guests are leaving, and then it’s just you and me. If you’re not going to ask me to leave?”