He stroked his face and continued:
“Back to the geraniums. I have five more of these that are yours, and I’ve taken good care of them this spring. Some of them are already blossoming and if you want them I’ll pick those up too after I have finished my coffee.”
Now she felt even more embarrassed to have lashed out at him and about the ghastly coffee cup.
“I’m the one who should be apologising, I don’t know what got into me. It’s just a bit overwhelming with the house, all the things and new people. But thank you, it’s a lovely flower and I would love to look after Astrid’s geraniums, I was thinking they could stand out on the porch, and I promise to look after them to the best of my abilities”, she said.
“That’s where Astrid always used to keep them, and you are welcome to keep them in winter storage over at my house. You should take advantage of having a gardener living in your garden and everything,” he said, smiling.
Emelie smiled and tried to swallow the lump in her throat that kept growing. It was moving to see what good care this young man had taken of the old lady that used to live in this house. And her geraniums. She picked up the flowerpot and brought it out to the glass porch. She hadn’t thought about it before, but this was the only place in the house where there weren’t Christmas decorations in every blank space. Astrid had saved room for her geraniums here, and there were also little hooks attached to the beams in the ceiling, she noticed that now. She had to ask Andreas whether he had hanging geraniums in his winter storage as well. She picked the most beautiful spot overlooking their driveway and the old garden, carefully placed the pot in its rightful place, leaned over and whispered:
“Welcome home.”
She chuckled a bit to herself and peeked out the window that was rapidly being coloured grey from the rain. She could make out a figure dressed in light purple that was quickly approaching her front door. Better make some more coffee, she thought to herself and sighed. She had hardly had the time to finish the thought when she heard a determined knock on the door. Emelie opened and let the soaking wet person dressed in a lilac raincoat with a matching rainhat into her home. Her guest stomped the water off her sturdy rainboots on the little rug with jolly Santas that was laying right inside the door. She pulled off her rain hat making raindrops fly all around her and Emelie instinctively took a step backwards. Her guest reached out a wet hand.
“Well, hello there, quite the weather we have, don’t you think? My name is Birgitta, and I live in the house next door, and I just wanted to come over and say welcome and deliver a little welcome gift.”
She let go of Emelie’s hand and handed over a bag of something that looked like cinnamon rolls. Emelie grabbed the bag and smiled.
“Thank you very much, we are just having some coffee. Would you like a cup, then I will make some more?”
“Oh, don’t go to any trouble, but some coffee would be lovely right now.”
Emelie shouted to Linn to make some more coffee while taking Birgitta’s raincoat and hat and putting them on a hanger to dry. Birgitta neatened her short, grey hair and looked empathetically at Emelie.
“My condolences, we all miss Astrid terribly, she was a marvelous person, so gentle and generous and…”
Birgitta stopped in the middle of the sentence. Emelie didn’t know whether to say anything but then Birgitta started speaking again.
“But nowyouhave arrived, and it is so wonderful getting some more life into this old house, and then all the children and their different backgrounds! I think it’s quite wonderful what you are doing for them, giving them this opportunity, it can’t always be easy. But who am I, you might wonder? I have supported Astrid to the best of my abilities, because it is hard to handle everything as one gets older, but I have always been here for her! Yes, I dare say that I was Astrid’s best and closest friend on this island.”
Emelie had no idea how to respond to the stream of words coming from Birgitta, but soon realised that it wasn’t necessary. Birgitta petted her lightly on the cheek and stepped into the house.
“Ah, Andreas, I can see you didn’t rest on your laurels, here you are again in Astrid’s kitchen,” Birgitta said, with a pretended harshness in her voice.
Andreas answered something she couldn’t make out and Linn giggled. Emelie followed Birgitta into the kitchen and put the bag with cinnamon rolls on the table.
“Linn, can you find a cup for Birgitta?”
“No, no, love, you are quite busy with the coffee, I’ll find one myself,” Birgitta said. Before anyone had a chance to react, she had opened three different cupboards and thoroughly gone through every shelf while mumbling:
“No, not here, not here either…Ah, there they are.”
She grabbed a cup with the same elf motif as the one Linn was drinking from.
“Not so easy to find, of course you have put your own touch on the house, rearranging the cupboards,” she said, apologetically.
“Astrid has kept her cups in that cabinet for as long as I have known her”, Andreas commented. He looked at Linn who looked back at him and they both burst out laughing. Birgitta shrugged her shoulders and snorted.
“So, where are the other children? Adapting to our harsh climate perhaps?”
Emelie had no idea what to answer. Needless to say, it was a rainy day, but apart from that, the climate wasn’t that much different in Sardinön than it was in Växjö?”
“But Birgitta, what kind of a comment is that?”
It was Andreas interrupting, and there was no laughter left in his voice. Birgitta looked nervously around.
“Oh, there was nothing special about that comment at all, I just meant that it can be difficult with all new things, especially if you are not from around here. But please help yourselves to some rolls, I do realise that they can’t compare to Astrid’s…”
