costume was standing on the top. The colors, which had once been strong and clear, red and blue and yellow and green, had faded to tame pastels. The doll looked blankly at the opposite wall, which was covered by an impressive piece of embroidery, a wall hanging really. The motif started lifelike in one corner, a medieval knight ready for a jousting tournament, in his coat of armor with lance raised. This then became abstract and flowed into an orgy of colors up toward the right.
“I must… did you make all these fantastic things?”
Aksel Seier stared at her. He slowly raised the beer can to his mouth. He drank, then dried his mouth on his sleeve.
“What did you say?”
“Is it you who…”
“When you came. You said something about me being…”
“I have reason to believe you were wrongly convicted.”
She looked at him and tried to say something more. He took a step back, as if the sunlight from the kitchen window bothered him. He gave a slight nod and the shadow from his mop of hair, heavy and gray, hid his eyes. She looked at him and regretted having said anything.
She had nothing more to offer him. No redress. No restored honor. No compensation for lost years, both in and out of prison. Johanne had come over the ocean, more or less on impulse, with nothing in her luggage other than an old woman’s absolute conviction and a lot of unanswered questions. If it was true that Aksel Seier had been wrongly convicted of the awful crime, the most horrible attack-how did he feel right now? How must it feel finally, after all these years, to hear someone say: I think you are innocent! Johanne had no right to do this. She should not have come.
“I mean… Some people have studied your case more carefully… One person… She is… Can we sit down?”
He stood, frozen. One arm hung loosely by his side, swinging almost imperceptibly to the beat of his heart, backward and forward, forward and back. He held the beer can in his left hand. He was still hiding behind his greasy hair; his eyes were small slits of something she could not recognize.
“I think it would be better if we sat down, Mr. Seier.”
A snuffle came from his throat. An involuntary noise, as if he really wanted to swallow but had something stuck in his throat. He sniffled again, almost a sob; his whole body was shaking and he put down the beer can.
“Mr. Seier,” he repeated, in a hoarse voice. “No one has called me that for many years. Who are you?”
“Do you know what?”
She carefully retreated from the battle tableau on the floor.
“I’d like to ask you out, to a restaurant. We could get something to eat and then talk about why I’m here. I think I’ve got a lot to tell you.”
“Where can you get a decent meal around here?” she asked instead, in a light tone.
“Come,” he said and walked toward the door.
When she moved to follow him, she stepped on the general. The breaking noise was deadened by the rough floor. Horrified, she lifted her foot. The glass figure was smashed to smithereens, tiny shards of blue and gold stuck to the sole of her shoe.
Aksel Seier stared down. Then he lifted his face toward her.
“Do you really believe that? Do you really believe in my…
He turned away at once, not waiting for a reply.
TWENTY-ONE
The new girl was named Sarah. Even though she was a year younger, she was as big as Emilie, so it was a bit difficult to comfort her. Just like with Daddy. Emilie wanted to comfort him so much when Mommy died. After the funeral, when the house wasn’t full of people who wanted to help them anymore, he didn’t want her to see him crying. But she knew how he was feeling. She heard him, at night, when he thought she was asleep, with a pillow over his head to make sure that she wouldn’t hear. She wanted to comfort him, but it was impossible because he was grown up. He was bigger than her. There was nothing she could say or do. And when she did try, he put on a big brave smile, got out of bed, and made waffles and talked about the holiday they were going to have in the summer.
It was almost the same with Sarah. She cried and cried, but was just a bit too big to be comforted. Emilie was actually very glad that Sarah had come. It was much better when there were two, and particularly good that they were both girls and even better that Sarah was nearly the same age as her. That was all that Emilie knew about Sarah. What her name was and how old she was. Every time they tried to talk, Sarah started to cry. She sniffed something about a bus and a grandmother. Maybe her grandmother was a bus driver and Sarah thought she would come and rescue them in the same way that she sometimes still thought that Mommy was sitting in her red dress with plum diamonds in her ears, watching over her.
Sarah hadn’t realized it was best to be nice to the man.
After all, he was the one who brought them food and drink and a horse for Barbie a while back. If Emilie smiled and said thank you and was nice and polite, the man smiled back. He seemed to be happy, kind of, and more pleased when he looked at her. Sarah had bitten him. As they came into the room, she sunk her teeth into his arm. He howled and hit Sarah hard on the head. She started to bleed just above her eye. There was still a big cut there and the blood hadn’t dried and scabbed yet.
“You have to be nice to the man,” said Emilie, and sat down on the bed beside Sarah. “He brings food and presents. It’s best to be polite. I think he’s actually quite kind.”
“He hi… hi… hit me,” sobbed Sarah and felt her eye. “He said he was Mom… mo…”
It was impossible to hear the rest. Emilie felt a bit dizzy. She got that old feeling again, the horrible, sickening feeling that there was no oxygen left in the cellar. The best thing was just to lie down and close her eyes.
“He said he was Mommy’s new boyfriend,” Sarah whispered tearfully.
Emilie didn’t know if she’d been asleep. She licked her lips. Her tongue tasted of sleep and her eyes felt heavy.
“Mommy’s got a new boyfriend who I was going to meet to… tomo…”
Emilie sat up slowly. It was easier to breathe now.
“Try to breathe slowly,” she said-that was what Mommy used to say to her when she was crying so much that she couldn’t speak. “Breathe deeply. In and out. There’s plenty of oxygen here. Do you see that opening in the ceiling?”
She pointed and Sarah nodded.
“That’s where he sends oxygen down to us. The man, that is. He sends down lots of oxygen to the cellar, so we can breathe, even if there are no windows. Don’t be scared. You can borrow my Barbie. Is your grandma a bus driver?”
Sarah was exhausted. Her face was white and covered in red blotches; her eyes were so swollen that they were nearly closed.
“My Granny’s an electrician,” she said, talking without crying for the first time.
“My mother is dead,” said Emilie.
“My mother has a new boyfriend,” said Sarah and wiped her nose.
“Is he nice?”
“I don’t know, I was going to meet…”
“Don’t cry anymore now.”
