The Ice Palace Read Free Page B

it difficult to begin. She let it go. They put their clothes on again without haste. To tell the truth, Siss somehow felt cheated. Was this all?
    They sat in the same places as before, the only places there were in the little bedroom. Unn sat and looked at Siss, and Siss realized that there was something that had not come out after all. Perhaps it might become exciting. Unn did not look happy any more. What had happened just now had only been a flickering of the eyelids.
    Siss became nervous.
    ‘Aren’t we going to find anything to do?’ she asked when Unn failed to take action.
    ‘What should we do?’ said Unn abstractedly.
    ‘If not I must go home.’
    It sounded like a threat. Unn said quickly, ‘You mustn’t go home yet!’
    Oh no, Siss didn’t want to either. She was really trembling with eagerness to stay.
    ‘Haven’t you any pictures of where you lived before? Haven’t you an album?’
    It was a bull’s-eye. Unn ran to the bookshelf and took out two albums.
    ‘This one is all of me. Me all the time. Which one do you want to see?’
    ‘Everything.’
    They turned the pages. The pictures were of somewhere far away, and Siss did not recognize a soul, except when Unn was included. She was in most of them. Unn provided brief comments. It was like all other photograph albums. A radiant girl peeped out from the page. Unn said proudly, ‘That’s Mother.’
    They looked at her for a long time.
    ‘And that’s Father,’ said Unn a little later. An ordinary youth standing beside a car. He looked a little like Unn, too. ‘That’s his car,’ said Unn.
    Siss asked, half afraid:,’Where is he now?’
    Unn replied discouragingly, ‘Don’t know. It doesn’t matter.’
    ‘No.’
    ‘I told you, I’ve never seen him. Only his picture.’
    Siss nodded.
    ‘If they’d been able to find Father, I don’t suppose I’d have come to Auntie,’ added Unn.
    ‘No, of course not.’
    Once more they looked through the album with just Unn in it. She had been a splendid girl all along, thought Siss. Then they came to the end of that, too.
    What next?
    They were waiting for something. She could tell by Unn’s silence. Siss had been waiting for it all the time, so tensely that she started twice as violently when it finally did come out. Now it came tumbling as if out of a sack.
    After a long silence Unn said, ‘Siss.’
    The start!
    ‘Yes?’
    ‘There’s something I want -’ said Unn, flushing.
    Siss was already embarrassed. ‘Oh?’
    ‘Did you see anything on me just now?’ asked Unn quickly but looking Siss straight in the eyes.
    Siss became even more embarrassed. ‘No!’
    ‘There’s something I want to tell you,’ began Unn again, her voice unrecognizable.
    Siss held her breath.
    Unn did not continue. But then she said, ‘I’ve
never
said it to anyone.’
    Siss stammered, ‘Would you have said it to your mother?’
    ‘No!’
    Silence.
    Siss saw that Unn’s eyes were full of anxiety. Was she not going to tell her? Siss asked, almost in a whisper, ‘Will you say it now?’
    Unn drew herself up. ‘No.’
    ‘All right.’
    Again silence. They began to wish Auntie had come and tried the door.
    Siss began, ‘But if –’
    ‘I can’t. So there!’
    Siss drew away. All kinds of notions raced pell-mell through her brain and were rejected. She said helplessly, ‘Was this what you wanted?’
    Unn nodded. ‘Yes, that was all.’
    Unn nodded as if relieved, as if something was over and done with. There was nothing else to come. At once Siss felt relieved as well.
    Relieved, but as if cheated, too, for the second time that evening. All the same, it was better than hearing something that might frighten her.
    They sat for a while as if resting.
    Siss thought: I’d like to go now.
    Unn said, ‘Don’t go, Siss.’
    Silence again.
    But the silence was not to be trusted, nor had it been any of the time. Here the wind came in sudden, capricious gusts, quick to change direction. It had dropped, but here it was