“Okay,” said Sven-Erik. “We’ll have a word with the nice doctor and we won’t bother having a word with the nice prosecutor, and we’ll see.”
Sven-Erik Stalnacke pushed Rebecka’s bed in front of him along the corridor. Mans was one step behind with the rickety drip.
“That reporter who dropped the assault complaint has been sticking to me like a tick,” said Mans to Rebecka.
The corridor outside Sanna and the girls’ room was almost eerily empty. It was half past ten at night. From the dayroom farther along they could see the bluish glow of a television, but no sound. Sven-Erik knocked on the door and backed away a few meters, along with Mans.
It was Olof Strandgard who opened the door. His face contorted in an expression of distaste when he saw Rebecka. They glimpsed Kristina and Sanna behind him. There was no sign of the children. Perhaps they were sleeping.
“It’s okay, Daddy,” said Sanna, stepping out of the room. “You stay here with Mummy and the girls.”
She closed the door behind her and went to stand beside Rebecka. Through the door they heard Olof Strandgard’s voice:
“I mean, she was the one who endangered the girls’ lives,” he said. “Is she supposed to be some sort of hero now?”
Then they heard Kristina Strandgard, couldn’t make out any words, just a soothing mumble.
“What?” Olof Strandgard again. “So if I chuck somebody through a hole in the ice and then pull him out, I’ve saved his life, have I?”
Sanna pulled a face at Rebecka. Don’t bother about him, we’re all a bit shaken up and tired, it said.
“Sara,” said Rebecka. “And Lova.”
“They’re asleep, I don’t want to wake them up. I’ll tell them you were here.”
She’s not going to let me see them, thought Rebecka, biting her lip.
Sanna reached out her hand and stroked Rebecka’s cheek.
“I’m not angry with you,” she said gently. “I know you did what you thought was best for them.”
Rebecka’s hand clenched into a fist under the blanket. Then it shot out and fastened itself around Sanna’s wrist like a pine marten grabbing a ptarmigan by the back of the neck.
“You…” hissed Rebecka.
Sanna tried to pull her hand away, but Rebecka hung on to her.
“What is it?” asked Sanna. “What have I done?”
Mans and Sven-Erik Stalnacke carried on talking to each other a little distance away down the corridor, but it was obvious they had completely lost the thread of their own conversation. All their attention was fixed on Rebecka and Sanna.
Sanna crumpled.
“What have I done?” she whimpered again.
“I don’t know,” said Rebecka, holding on to Sanna’s hand as tightly as she could. “You tell me what you’ve done. Curt loved you, didn’t he? In his own twisted way. Maybe you told him about your suspicions of Viktor? Maybe you did the whole helpless-little-girl bit, told him you didn’t know what you were going to do? Maybe you cried a little and said you wished Viktor would just disappear out of your life?”
Sanna jerked back as if someone had slapped her. For a second something dark and alien passed across her eyes. Rage. She looked as if she wished her nails would grow into claws of iron so that she could dig them into Rebecka and rip out her insides. Then the moment was gone and her lower lip began to tremble. Big tears welled up in her eyes.
“I really didn’t know…” she stammered. “How could I know what Curt would do… how can you think…?”
“I’m not even sure it was Viktor,” said Rebecka. “It might just have been Olof. All the time. But you can’t get the better of him. And now you’re taking the girls back to him. I’m going to put in a complaint. Ask Social Services to carry out an investigation.”
They had met on the spring ice. On an ice floe, the remains of something that no longer existed. And now the ice was cracking, splitting in two. They were floating away in different directions. Irrevocably.
Rebecka turned her head away and released her hold on Sanna, almost threw the white hand away from her.
“Tired,” she said.
In a flash Mans and Sven-Erik were by the bed. Each of them bade a silent farewell to Sanna. Mans jerked his head. Sven-Erik gave a brief nod, and smiled. They swapped places. Mans grabbed hold of the bed and Sven-Erik took the drip. Without a word they pushed Rebecka off down the corridor.
Sanna Strandgard stood there watching them as they disappeared around the corner. She leaned against the closed door.
In the summer, thought Sanna, I’ll take the girls on a cycling holiday. I’ll borrow a trailer for Lova. Sara will be all right on her own bike. We can cycle down through Tornedalen, they’d like that.
Sven-Erik said good-bye and disappeared in the opposite direction. Mans pressed the elevator button, and the door slid open with a ping. He swore as he banged the bed against one of the walls. He stretched out for the drip, keeping one leg in front of the electronic eye at the same time so the door wouldn’t close. The unaccustomed gymnastics made him breathless. He was dying for a Scotch. He looked at Rebecka. Her eyes were closed. Maybe she’d fallen asleep.
“Do you think you can put up with this?” he asked with a crooked smile. “Being pushed around by an old man?”
From a loudspeaker in the ceiling a metallic voice announced “Third floor,” and the elevator door slid open.
Rebecka didn’t open her eyes.
You carry on pushing, she thought. I can’t afford to be choosy. I’ll take what I can get.
And evening came and morning came, the seventh day
Anna-Maria Mella is kneeling on the bed in the delivery room. She is hanging on to the steel bars of the headboard so tightly that her knuckles are white. She pushes her face into the gas mask and breathes deeply. Robert is stroking her sweat-drenched hair.
“Now,” she yells. “It’s coming now!”
The labor pains are like an avalanche rushing down the side of a mountain. All she can do is go with them. She squeezes and pushes and bears down.
Two midwives are standing behind her. They are shouting and cheering as if she were their winning horse in a trotting race.
“Come on, Anna-Maria! One more time! Just once more! You’re such a good girl!”
It burns like fire when the child’s head starts to emerge. And then, when the head is finally out, the child slides out of her like a slippery salmon in a stream.
She hasn’t the energy to turn around. But she hears the furious, demanding cry.
Robert takes hold of her head in both his hands and kisses her smack in the middle of her face. He is crying.
“You did it!” he laughs through his tears. “It’s a little boy!”
AUTHOR’S ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Rebecka Martinsson will be back, she’s not that easy to get rid of. Just give her a little time.
Remember that this story is made up, and so are the characters. Some places in the book are also invented:
