Amma embraced the name, boasting of her ram’s spiteful nature, until he killed a young ewe in her own herd.
“He cannot help his nature,” Una’s amma had said. “But he is a danger to the others and must be destroyed.”
Though Una was elsewhere when Púki was butchered, she sat at the table on the summer solstice as his meat was served for the Feast of the Midnight Sun. It bobbed in a soup of potatoes, carrots, turnips, and herbs. The meat felt slimy on Una’s tongue. When she bit down, her mouth was flooded by a sour, rancid flavor, and she spit the half-masticated piece back into her bowl.
Púki’s head had been prepared especially for Pappi.Sviðwas one of his favorite dishes, and he grinned with glee whenAmma placed it in front of him. After his brains had been scraped out, Púki’s head had been cut in half and boiled for an hour.
Without his horns and black eyes, he looked sad and diminished.
Una turned away when her father stuck his fork behind Púki’s cheek and scooped out a hunk of flesh. After one bite, he told Amma that the meat was rotten and gave it to the dogs.
They sniffed and pawed at it but refused to eat it. By the time the sun set and rose again, a legion of black flies had found Púki’s discarded head. It was a long time before Una could eat lamb again.
Now the sky above the Cold Harbor United Methodist Church was the color of Púki’s fleece, and the buzz of Natalie’s voice in Una’s ear sounded like a mass of black flies.
“What did the letter say?” she asked Natalie.
Natalie’s eyes were feverishly bright. “She agreed to Elaine’s requests on two conditions. The first is that she wants to hire Charles, J.J., and Jill to work in her yard. She offered averygenerous wage.”
“No,” Una whispered.
Misinterpreting Una’s objection as surprise, Natalie barreled on. “I couldn’t believe it, either, but I’m thrilled.”
Una wanted to dig her nails into Natalie’s shoulders. “The children—they’re going to work for her?”
“Yes, but don’t say anything to them. We need to get through this regatta first.”
A woman in a green paisley print dress hurried up the sidewalk. She took a program from Kristofer and then put a hand on Natalie’s arm. “Hey! Long time no see. Are you going in?”
“In a minute,” Natalie said. “I need to finish up with Una. Let’s catch up after the service, okay?”
The woman looked down her nose at Una and then entered the church.
“I need to tell you the second condition. It’s even more unbelievable than the first one.” Natalie sounded breathless—overexcited—like a child who’d eaten too much sugar. “She wants an invitation to Charles’s bar mitzvah!”
Una stared at Natalie in shock.
“That was my reaction, too! I had to pick my jaw up off the floor.” Natalie glanced at her watch and began to edge toward the entrance. “I guess we’re finally going to see the mysterious Mrs. Smith in the flesh.”
Suddenly, the church bells began to peal.
Una tried to open herself up to the melody. “How Great Thou Art” was one of her favorite hymns, but the music failed to reach her. Her head felt thick. Like the cross on the steeple had pierced the clouds and they had fallen around her, cocooning her in a gray miasma.
But then, Kristofer was taking her by hand and leading her into the sanctuary. “You’re white as the snow onSnæfellsjökull. What did she say?”
“It was nothing,” Una said as she slid into the pew reserved for greeters and ushers.
How can she send the children to that house?she thought as the minister asked the congregation to rise for the processional hymn.Doesn’t she feel the presence there?
As the service progressed, Una stood up or sat down along with everyone else. She closed her eyes when she was supposed to be praying and sang along with the hymns, but none of the messages sank in. It was as if a fog had invaded her mind.
Focusing on the program, she saw that there was to be a baptism today. A baby boy would be received into the church fold and the entire congregation would promise to serve as his guardians.
As the parents walked up the center aisle—the mother in a white dress with padded shoulders and the father in a smoke-gray suit—the baby turned his head and looked right at Una.
His eyes were almost the same blue as her own. They were just a fraction darker, as if a fleck of black had been mixed in with the blue.
The baby’s eyes looked exactly like Svana’s eyes.
