“So, Linn, who should we run and share the great news with?” Emelie joked, taking a bite of the cake.
She hadn’t counted on Linn taking her suggestion literally, but she did and flew off her chair.
“Andreas, of course, and then he can try out the cake as well!”
The following day, Emelie, Sussi, Stina, Andreas and Linn walked over to the community centre to plan the different activities for the Christmas market. Since Christer was the project leader on the island, Emelie wanted to run everything by him, and she wanted him to stay enthusiastic about the idea of a Christmas market. Now that they had decided to stay, it was fun having something to do. They walked together along the little gravel path meandering between the old fishermen’s houses. Emelie was constantly making sure that either her, Stina or Sussi were always walking between Linn and Andreas, and for the most part, she succeeded. They were accompanied by the sound of hammers the growling of lawnmowers. Sussi sighed.
“Oh, the summer guests, you would think that they buy summer houses in order to relax, but all they end up doing is building porches, repainting and squeezing new little houses into their tiny, little gardens.”
“But they take good care of their houses, and they are good costumers over at the nursery,” Andreas commented.
In the bend right before the little bridge over the canal splitting Sardinön in two, they ran into Birgitta. She had a bucket in her hand.
“Look at this, I found blueberries, I was just about to go over to your house with them, Linn, so that you could make blueberry muffins. Where are you lot going by the way?”
When they told her they were going to the community centre, Birgitta invited herself to come along, and when they had passed the bridge she stopped, handing over the bucket of blueberries to Linn.
“Wait here,” she said, sprinting towards a yellow house on top of a hill to the left of the small bridge.
“Where was she going?” Linn asked and tasted one of the blueberries.
“She’s going over to Stig’s. Birgitta would never miss an opportunity to get to spend some time with him,” Andreas said, grinning.
Soon Birgitta returned together with Stig. He wiped his mouth using a big handkerchief that he then pushed down into the pocket of his work dungarees. It seemed like Birgitta had caught him mid-lunch.
“But hello there, gang, lots of lovely people at once, I must say. Are you on your way toChrille’s? You have heard the news, right?”
Everyone shook their heads and Stig looked extremely pleased to be the one sharing the news that Christer had slipped in the stairs and fallen so badly that he had gotten a concussion and had to stay on bed rest for two full weeks.
“So now he is grumpier than ever and is bossing the poor home care that brings him his food” Stig laughed.
They decided to go to the community centre anyways. When they got there, Stig banged on the door and stepped in.
“Hello there, Chrille, it’sStickanwith the whole Christmas committee, we were going to check out the venue and do some planning.”
They could hear a low, irritated muttering from the floor above.
“Why don’t you guys go and have a look, and I’ll go check on him” Stig said.
“I’m coming with you”, Emelie said and followed him up the stairs.
The staircase was so steep that Emily wasn’t surprised that Christer had slipped and fallen. If he were to stay here, he should probably consider rebuilding the stair, if he didn’t want to risk any future femur fractures. They went into the kitchen that was nice and cosy with angled cupboards from the 50’s and a striped wallpaper in light green and bone white. The muttering came from a room inside the kitchen and, when they stepped in, they saw that all windows were closed, and the blinds were pulled down. There was a confined and stuffy smell in there and Christer didn’t dignify them with a look, he just continued his muttering:
“I hate stairs and I hate ladies from the help.”
“Hello there, Chrille, as cheerful as always, I hear,” Stig rumbled.
“I hate being called Chrille,” Christer said, but he sounded a bit happier.
Christer was in bed with a supportive collar around his neck and a grey blanket pulled up over his belly. Next to him in bed was a crossword puzzle and on the brown nightstand was an empty coffee cup and a plate with a couple of cookie crumbs on it. Emelie and Stig went to stand by the foot of the bed, so that he wouldn’t have to turn his head in order to see them.
“How are you feeling, Christer?” Emelie wondered.
He seemed irritated, waving her question off, then he frowned, and it seemed like the sudden movement had made his neck hurt.
“Its nice that you are here, I will be here for a while and I can’t do any work on the Christmas market, I’m going to need you to take over as a project leader until I am well. I’m sure I’ll be back on your feet before you move back to town” he said, trying to position himself higher up in bed.
Emelie nodded.
