The thought of Andreas gave her butterflies and she felt that her smile stayed on longer than necessary. The woman nodded and shifted her weight from one foot to another. She grabbed Emelie’s arm, pulling her in behind a table that was filled with aromatic spices.
“Well, yes…You might know that I was married to Christer?”
“Yes, I’ve come to that conclusion,” Emelie said in a slightly amused voice.
Was Carina planning on courting her own ex-husband? A man who hated almost everything and was pretty grumpy but still had a very good heart.
“I saw him outside, but I didn’t dare to say hello. I’m afraid he is still terribly angry with me,” she said, scanning the room.
“Okay…”
“So, I thought you could introduce us?”
Emelie chuckled.
“Introduce you? Don’t you know each other already?”
“Yes, but I thought that if you do, it might stop him from making a scene.”
“Ah, I see what you mean,” Emelie said. “Yes, I suppose I could, if I have the time, but I can see Christer is waiting for me now, so I have to run.”
Christer showed Emelie the way up to small stage in one end of the room where he already standing prepared with a microphone in his hand.
“I thought we could say welcome to everyone, tell them why we are here and say something about the rules and regulations.”
Emelie nodded.
“Good idea, do you want to start?”
Instead of answering, he looked out over the room where the volume had gone down a bit and most people were quiet. Christer turned on the microphone and tapped it a couple of times to check that it worked properly, then he loudly cleared his throat.
“Okay, well hello, everyone.”
It got completely quiet in the room as all eyes were drawn to them.
“If you have been around for a while, you know that the Christmas market is an old and appreciated tradition, that has been on hold for a couple of years for various reasons. But this year, Emelie came to our island and decided to revive the old market, in Astrid’s honour. Astrid was a remarkable person and a big Christmas enthusiast; she would have loved it. And I can see that you have already found the lovely cookies that Linn has baked, they are all made from Astrid’s recipes. The last thing that Astrid did, was to make sure that Emelie and her lovely family came to the island, and we are all so thankful for that.”
Christer put his arm around Emelie who wiped away a tear from her cheek. She wasn’t going to stand on this stage bawling, but these were some pretty big words coming from Christer and she smiled warmly towards him as he started speaking again.
“Yes, and many of you might wonder why the island is called Sardinön, Sardine Island, since everyone knows that sardines live in the Mediterranean and in the Atlantic, but not here in Kattegat.”
There was a buzzing in the crowd and Emelie stared at Christer in surprise. It hadn’t even crossed her mind.
“The original name of the island was Lilla Carlstensön, but then in 1971 it was decided that Marstrand was to be included in Kungälv municipality. The politicians decided that there could only be one Carlsten and that Lilla Carlstensön had to change names. And then the inhabitants of the island were invited to send in suggestions. That’s why the island council gathered right here in the community centre one chilly Saturday afternoon in November and Anders, who has our shop here on the island, and is selling chocolate and nuts here today…”
Everyone’s eyes were turned to Oskar’s father who got up and took a bow, grinning.
“Yes, Anders’ father, who was also called Anders, had promised to bring the food if the others brought beer and schnapps. It just so happened, that Anders had gotten a shipment of sardines in tomato sauce in that day, and he brought ten cans and some Swedish crisp bread and butter. When the city council split up a couple of hours later, the beer and the schnapps had been drunk and the sardines eaten, and everyone agreed it was one of the best meals they had ever had and that the island should be called Sardinön from that day on.”
The laughter echoed over the great hall and the buzzing grew even louder than before when everyone tried to make their comments about Christer’s story heard. Christer raised one hand to ask for silence.
“Yes, the suggestion was sent in and approved, and the rest is history.” There was a spontaneous round of applause from down the hall where Carina had gotten on her feet.
“Bravo, such an amazing story, and how neatly told!”
Christer grinned and looked at the woman stat was standing at the other end of the room. As he recognised her, his smiled disappeared and he stared angrily at Emelie. He handed her the microphone and angrily walked off the stage, muttering.
“Bloody hell, I hate it when people are clapping!”
