“How nice” Emelie said. “I’ll just move the chocolate salesman out into the yard and put someone selling knitted Santas inside instead, in that way we’ll have snacks both on the outside and in here, what do you reckon?”
Bengt seemed very happy about the solution and Emelie sighted with relief, voicing athank youto Linn.
“Mum, I’m finished here, do you want to walk home with me?”
Emelie looked around, and, as there was nothing else she could do now, she nodded.
“I’d love to.”
They walked arm in arm on the way home, giggling when they though about Bengt who had gone from an angry wolf to a timid lamb with the help of some Lucia buns and a vanilla heart. Linn kept talking about how wonderful it was that Andreas had let her borrow her house and oven and how cosy It was over at his place. It was just the kind of place her and Oskar would want to live in one day. Emelie listened with one ear while considering if this was right time to tell Linn about her and Andreas. It was crucial to her that her girls approved of her meeting someone new, and it felt natural to start by telling Linn. Perhaps now was the right time.
“Are you listening?”
She looked sleepily at Linn.
“Sorry, I was distracted.
“By what, I might ask?” Linn said, and it sounded like she was insinuating something.
It was the right time. Emelie told Linn about her and Andreas and their new but growing feelings for each other. It was amazing to get to talk to someone about the person she was falling in love with, but also strange that that person was her own daughter. Linn squeezed her arm and laughed.
“Ha, I knew it! You are perfect for each other, just go for it, mummy,” she said, grinning.
Chapter 27
Emelie squinted sleepily towards the display of her alarm clock. 04:30. She moaned and rubbed her eyes. Yesterday, her and Linn had eaten dinner with the young ones and then she had returned to the community centre to keep decorating, moving tables and chairs around, fixing electrical outlets and putting up parking signs. Then she had fallen into her bed to get a couple of hours of sleep. Now it was time to get started and down to business.
In the kitchen, she ran into Linn who proclaimed that there was fresh bread for breakfast and that Oskar was soon going to come and pick her up. They were going to drive the last things over to the venue and fill up the counter with cream rings, Lucia buns, cinnamon rolls, currant cookies and vanilla hearts. The smell of the bread made Emelie’s belly rumble.
“Can you go down into the cellar and fetch the IKEA-bag with paper plates, coffee mugs and plastic spoons? We can’t fit them right now, but perhaps you can bring them when you come over?” Linn said on the way out, and Emelie nodded and waved goodbye to her energetic daughter.
Nowadays, when Birgitta wasn’t lurking down in the cellar and Andreas had installed a new light, it wasn’t at all spooky anymore, and after breakfast and a quick shower, Emelie opened the door and went downstairs. When she had turned on the light and had time to adjust, she spotted the blue bag in one of the corners of the room. As she bent down to pick it up, she noticed something sticking out behind a shelf. It was brown and rectangular, and when she leaned in closer, she saw that it was an envelope. It was stuck between the back part of the wooden shelf and the baseboard. Emelie carefully pulled one of the corners and dust and a disgusting old, dead fly came out with it. Emelie swept away the worst part of it and pulled out the envelope. There had been a stamp on the back of it, but it was faded, and she couldn’t make out what it had said in the dim light in the cellar. She grabbed the envelope and the bag, turned off the light and went back upstairs. She put away the bag and leaned against the kitchen counter while opened the envelope that wasn’t sealed. A smile slowly spread across her face as she read what was inside the envelope.
Thirty minutes later, she had made it to the community centre with the IKEA-bag which she handed over to Linn and the envelope under her arm. Oskar was standing behind the counter arranging the cookies and he smiled shyly at Emelie. She felt all warm and fuzzy looking at him, and a bit guilty about her thoughts yesterday when she thought that they had miscarried. He was her son in law, after all, and would make a lovely father for her grandchild.
“Hello Oskar” she said and walked over to give him a hug. “How’s it going?”
“Great. Lots to do, but it will be fine once we got the hang of everything,” he said.
“Hey, have you seen Birgitta? And have you made the coffee yet? I can see that there are salespeople on their way in.”
“Yes, the coffee is ready, but I haven’t seen Birgitta yet.”
Linn called him from inside the kitchen and he rushed off. Emelie met Christer on the stairs and they were standing next to each other watching boxes of Santas, Christmas-themed oven mitts, stockings, cheeses, painted bricks, jewellery and crocheted tablecloths find their place onto each of the tables. They nodded to each other.
“Let’s do this,” Christer said. “If you take care of the people on the inside, I’ll handle the ones outside.”
“I’ll start arranging my table too,” Emelie said. “We have about one hundred boxes of Christmas things that I plan on selling. I hope we get rid of a lot of things, preferably everything!”
Inside the great hall, Emelie had booked a six-metre-long table for herself and the girls. It was placed right across from the café, the best spot in the whole house, but shouldn’t one have some advantages for being the market general? Behind the table were boxes filled with Astrid’s Christmas decorations. Emelie put a red tablecloth on the table and opened box number one. Santas, bowls with Santas, carved Santas, crocheted Santas. She sighed. Every time she saw all these Christmas things, she was amazed by the sheer amount of them. Box number two; an abundance of Christmas tapestries. She started arranging them on the wall behind the table and it soon was completely covered.
When most things were in their right place, the salespeople gathered into little groups and the buzzing and the laughter mixed with the smell of coffee. Emelie had introduced herself to everyone and told them about Linn and Oskar overseeing the café. A couple of times she had helped Christer with the electricity outside but now it seemed to run smoothly out there too. She was walking along the tables, exchanging a couple of words here and there and praising the lovely items. Imagine, that they were finally here and that they had succeeded. Now she was hoping that Sussi’s website and their ads in the local newspaper would work their magic and get lots of visitors to the market. The next event on the program was the Lucia procession and then Stig was going to be Santa for a couple of hours in the afternoon, assisted by Mrs. Claus, Birgitta. Emelie saw a woman in her sixties come walking towards her. She knew that it was Christer’s ex-wife, Carina, and smiled at her. They had just exchanged quick hellos when she arrived, but now she had a cup of coffee in her hand and looked more relaxed.
“Hello”, Carina said, looking around. “It looks lovely in here with all the flowers and wreaths.”
Emelie also looked around.
“Yes, we have a very talented gardener here on the island,” she said, smiling.
