When they heard steps coming from inside the house, they pulled themselves together and stood up straight. The door opened and Anders, the shopkeeper, was standing in the doorway with an apron around his waist.
“Welcome, welcome, come on in!” he said, pulling them into the hallway.
They took off their jackets and Anders grabbed them, putting them behind a sliding door.
“How are you doing? Come on in and have a little drink. Well, maybe not for you, but your mother might want one? Cava or Prosecco?”
“I’d love some Cava,” Emelie said, and they followed him into an impressive living room with an adjacent dining area.
A red-haired woman that looked just like Oskar came out from the room that Emelie assumed was the kitchen.
“Hello there, welcome to our house. My name is Helena, so nice that you could make it,” she said, energetically shaking Emelie’s hand.
“Yes, of course. And what a lovely house you have! Such high ceilings,” Emelie said, surprised.
Most houses on Sardinön were quite modest, and even if some of them were large they usually didn’t have high ceilings, big windows or large kitchens. They were kind of low with a small kitchen and an eating nook.
“Yes, we’ve elevated the whole house. We did it when we added the third floor,” Anders said, handing her a tall glass full of bubbly wine.
“When Anders’ mum couldn’t live by herself any longer, we decided to add to the house so that she could get her own floor. Now she is living on the top floor. She’ll be down for dinner. But come on in and sit down,” Helena said, pointing them to the large, white sofas.
They sat down and Oskar came rushing in, giving Linn a quick kiss on the cheek, saying hello to Emelie and his parents and explaining that he was going to take a quick shower since he had just come home from work. Linn followed him upstairs. When the three of them were left alone in the sofa Anders looked intensely at Emelie.
“Well, there’s a reason why we are here, even though it could have been a nice get-together between families, now the situation is slightly different,” he said.
Emelie swallowed hard. Linn had said that they had handled the news about the child well. But now it didn’t feel like that.
“It might not have been exactly what one had in mind,” she said hesitantly and took a sip from the tall glass. “Linn being so young and everything, yes – Oskar too, of course.”
Helena nodded.
“Way too young, if you ask me,” she said stiffly.
Emelie didn’t know what to say. She smiled hesitantly and felt that someone had to break the silence. Apparently, it was her.
“I was the same age as Linn when I had her, so I know it’s possible, even though it isn’t exactly what I would have chosen for my own daughter. But I think they will manage just fine. With our help, of course,” she said, looking optimistically at the other two.
Anders looked at his wife, and Emelie thought that he had made a face. What was that supposed to mean? She had no clue, but this time she decided to stay silent. It was someone else’s turn to talk. Helena cleared her throat.
“Naturally it’s a difficult situation and becoming grandparents by 45 wasn’t exactly something we had in mind, but they seem solid and very much in love, and that’s always a good start,” she said and Emelie relaxed.
“Yes, and I think that it’s great that they are living here on the island. It’s a small place, everyone knows each other and can help. My experience from the short time I have been living here is that everyone is really kind and welcoming. There was only one occasion with this old lady in the shop…”
She didn’t finish the sentence, just smiled nervously. There was no point sharing her experience of the racist lady with the walker with them, perhaps it would make them less welcoming towards Linn and less fond of the idea of her as the mother of their grandchild. But Helena had gotten curious.
“In our shop, what happened?”
“The children’s father is from Gambia, and I guess she had some opinions about that. They are all Swedish and born in the maternity ward in Växjö, but she didn’t think that was a good enough answer regarding where they were from,” she said.
Anders suddenly got on his feet.
“Blimey, the potatoes! Helena, will you tell the children and grandma that it’s time to eat?”
Helena walked out into the hallway and rang a bell that echoed through the whole house. She looked apologetically at Emelie.
“It’s just so grandma can hear it all the way up there,” she said.
“Can she get down by herself?”
