“I’ll be there – and I look forward to September” Sara said with a smile.
Chapter 5
Emelie was sitting by the kitchen table in Astrid’s house. They had spent hours putting Astrid’s Christmas decorations into boxes and unpacking their own belongings, and now she felt like she deserved a cup of coffee. She would have preferred to drink the coffee under the apple trees in the garden, but a stubborn rainfall had positioned itself over the island and now the raindrops were falling in a steady stream outside the window. The rain created such a cosy tapping noise against the roof of the glass porch, and the sound carried into the kitchen, so it didn’t really matter too much.
Linn had immediately claimed the tower room, explaining that she needed a bit of privacy, being the eldest and all. Liv and Linnea tried to protest, but soon had to admit defeat by their older sister. They had chosen a bedroom each and Emelie could hear them running back and forth upstairs, cheering joyfully every time they discovered more Christmas-themed stuff.
Emelie sighed deeply, the housewaslovely, but how on earth was she going to create any sort of order among all these things? Astrid had probably done her best, and if one box said “Christmas ornaments” on it, it had Christmas ornaments inside, there were just so many of them! So far, she had found five different boxes full of Christmas ornaments and put them away in the cellar, but maybe there were more of them somewhere. Wherever she looked there were more Christmas things. Tapestries, bowls, cups, not to mention elves of all kinds, colours and sizes. She was awoken from her thoughts by heavy steps in the stairway and the sight of a cardboard box that was so big that she could only barely make out Linn’s hands with pale pink nail polish, the brown legs and a couple of wild curls sticking up on top of the edge of the box.
“Mum, please come and help me with this, it’s seriously heavy!”
Emelie reached for the box and her knees buckled under its weight before it slowly slid out of her hands and landed beneath the stairs with a thud. Linn started laughing and jumped over the box and onto the floor.
“No worries, its full of tapestries, so nothing that can break. It was in my closet, and I couldn’t close the door because of it”.
She opened the box and grabbed the tapestry on top, it was a picture of Santa with a big bag over his shoulder walking through a snowy landscape with little red cottages and smoke coming out of the chimneys, with cursive text that read: “Christmas Greetings from Father Christmas”.
“Christmas Greetings” Linn said, using a deep Santa voice.
They burst out laughing.
“This is just insane” Linn snorted. “Everywhere you look and whichever door you open you find new Christmas stuff. She must have been collecting her whole life!”
Emelie agreed and nodded.
“And there are many lovely things too, it’s not like we can just toss them all out, we’ll have to make room in the cellar and save them until we know what to do with it all.”
Linn looked around in the kitchen that also was also filled with Christmas decorations.
“Yes, most of it is really nice, just look at these tapestries and the table cloths, it must have taken hours to make. Did you make coffee?”
Emelie found a cup with dancing elves and the words ‘pitter-patter’ written like a garland along the rim, and the poured coffee with a splash of milk for Linn. They sat down on the green farm chairs by Astrid’s faded kitchen table and continued to talk about the house and try to imagine what kind of life its owner had lived when there was a knock on the door. Before Emelie had a chance to react Linn shouted:
“Come on in!”
The door opened, and Andreas came in, carrying an enormous geranium in his arms. He was hardly visible behind the light-green leaves filling the flowerpot and in between them were numerous buds promising a cascade of pink flowers within few weeks’ time. Geraniums were Emelie’s favourite flower, and she started smiling. This house was almost made for having lots of geraniums. But she felt annoyed by the fact that Andreas had shown up uninvited. She figured that he had come and gone whenever he wanted when Astrid was still alive, but her family was living here. Linn did apparently not share her concerns because she flew to her feet, welcoming her him with a big smile.
“Andreas, how lovely, come on in! What a beautiful flower, what kind is it? Do you want coffee? There’s probably a Christmas mug for you too. In fact, there’s probably a Christmas mug for every person on this island,” she said, laughing.
“I guess that’s true, I’d love a cup, if I’m not intruding, that is?”
Emelie turned around to get a new cup and to hide the fact that she was disappointed to be interrupted in the middle of her cosy mother-daughter chat. She found a green cup with a terribly ugly Christmas pig on, that would have to do. She heard Linn praising the flower all over again and asking him what kind it was. The irritation flushed over her again, and she just couldn’t stop it. It wasn’t just because Andreas had come uninvited, but also because of all the Christmas things, the rain that made Andreas’ boots leave wet puddles on the floor and the fact that Linn got so excited when he arrived. She turned around, sneering:
“It’s a geranium, can’t you see that for yourself, we’ve had plenty of those back home.”
Andreas and Linn stared at her in surprise and she quickly turned to the coffee machine again, filled up the pig cup with coffee and put it in front of Andreas.
“I’m sorry, maybe I am intruding, I just wanted to deliver this geranium and ask if you wanted it, and maybe the rest of Astrid’s geraniums too,” Andreas said.
“Oh, mum, isn’t that sweet of him? And pink geraniums, aren’t those your favourites?”
Andreas smiled hesitantly, passing her the heavy flowerpot, and Emelie grabbed it and held it in front of her face. She pretended to be smelling the flower, but rather she was trying to hide her face and neck blushing from the embarrassment.
“It’s Astrid’s geranium, so I guess that means it belongs to you now. I always keep them in winter storage over at my place, and then we re-plant them over here at Astrid’s in March each year,” Andreas explained.
Sadness clouded his face and he got tears in his eyes. He had large, clear blue eyes with long, thick and dark eyelashes. They were the most beautiful eyes Emelie had ever seen on a grown man, and actually a bit unfair considering women would have paid fortunes to get lashes like that… Emelie put the heavy flowerpot down on the table and instinctively reached out, petting him sheepishly on the shoulder. He smiled at her, shaking his head.
“I’m sorry for getting a bit emotional, she just meant a great deal to me.”
