Almost three weeks had passed since Midsummer, and they hadn’t really talked much about what had happened that night. Emelie didn’t want to confess to Linn that she had gotten drunk and upset, and had and stumbled home all by herself, and Linn didn’t even seem to have noticed; she just kept babbling on about what a great dancer Andreas was and how much she had enjoyed her time with Oskar and his friends. When Emelie heard her mentioning Andreas, she pursed her lips and forced herself to smile while reminding herself that she needed to talk to him about Linn. Andreas had stopped by several times, it was hard to avoid as he was living approximately three yards from them, and he also didn’t seem to understand what had happened on Midsummer Eve, so it seemed that the whole ordeal had blown over. Emelie had no plans on telling them that she was a pathetic, 40-something that had cried all the way home. Certainly not.
From afar she could hear Liv, Linnea and Tore coming back. They were laughing and joking and, for a moment, Emilie was reminded of her own childhood when she used to go to a beach called Björnö together with her parents. The lake, Allgunnen, was always pretty warm, and that’s where she’d first learned how to swim. Allgunnen, it was a rather strange name for a lake, she still thought so, and when she was a child, she had always thought that the grown-ups were referring to “Avgrunden”, the Abyss.
“I’ll go jump in the Abyss now”, she shouted and ran out into the water while her mum and dad were sitting on their towels with the picnic-basket between them, laughing.
“Mum, I am starting school here, aren’t I?”
Linn pushed herself up on her elbows, answering her little sister instead of Emelie.
“No, we are going back to Växjö, you silly. We can’t live here”, she said, poking Linnea in the belly.
Linnea jumped and giggled, but then became serious again, stomping her foot in the ground.
“But I want to be in the same class as Tore. He says that his teacher is really nice.”
Emilie sat up and removed the headphones from her ears. This was her battle to fight, not Linn’s.
“Oh love, we have several weeks left here, you’ll have plenty of time to play with Tore. Now run and take a swim and rinse off all that ice-cream you have around your mouths, come on, all three of you, run along” she said, giving Linnea a friendly slap on the bum.
But Linnea didn’t give up and Emelie could see that she was working herself up to a tantrum of epic proportions. Tears were streaming down her face, and she clutched her little fists until they were all white. These blowouts weren’t that uncommon for Linnea, but Emilie hadn’t quite figured out how to handle them. She had a couple of tricks up her sleeve, and sometimes they worked. She grabbed Linnea’s arms, slowly stroking them and spoke to her in a calm voice.
“Linnea, calm down. Breathe. We can talk about this when we get home. We’re on the beach now, and we are going to swim and have a good time, okay? One thing at a time, remember?”
Linnea was still panting, but nodded, her sandy hair whipping around her little face.
“But mum, I want to…”
Emilie interrupted her.
“Not now, Linnea”, she said firmly.
Tore took Linnea’s hand.
“Come on, Linnea, let’s go swimming!”
The little girl wiped her tears, nodded again and smiled a little. The danger was over for now and the three kids went on down to the sea.
“Phew, that Tore is quite something,” Linn said. “He can even control Linnea, not bad. But hey, have you thought about what to do with the house?”
“Oh, don’t you start now too,” Emilie said, putting her headphones back in her ears.
She could feel the heat of the rock through the towel as she gazed out over the water that was glittering in shades of blue and green, the happy children were jumping from the pier and she felt at peace. She hadn’t been this relaxed in several years and she really didn’t look forward to going back to Växjö, her stressful job and a dull future as a single mum. Not that there were many promising suitors her age here, but everything felt new. New place, new people and a new house. Maybe a new beginning?
Three hours later, they were on their way back home. They didn’t talk much, since they were all tired after a whole day in the sun. They passed by Tore’s house, dropping him off, and Linnea told Malin and Jesper that she was going to move to Sardinön permanently.
“Oh really?” Malin said, giving Emelie a puzzled look. Emelie just shook her head and smiled at her daughter.
They chatted for a while before saying goodbye. Back home, Emilie poured a bath for Liv and Linnea while Linn took a shower. When the younger kids had gotten out of the bath and into their pyjamas, Linn made dinner; yoghurt and cereal in front of the telly upstairs while Emelie jumped in the shower.
When she came back out with a towel wrapped around her head and another around her body, she peeked out the living room window. A bit further away, a small hill stretched towards the sky and there seemed to be something on top of it. Or someone. Emelie walked closer to the window to try and figure out what it was. At first, she thought it was some sort of landmark of the kind they put up back in the day to make the fishermen find their way home, but suddenly, it moved.
“Linn! Come on down, love,” she shouted up the stairs.
She heard Linn come bouncing down, taking the last three steps in one leap.
“Do you have to bounce like that? All the windows are shaking, and I don’t think they have triple glazed windows here. But look at this,” she said, pointing through the window.
“What is it?”
