The Lily Pond Read Free Page A

come home at any time, and she wants to be there when he does. She wishes she had asked Elna when he was expected.
    Two little girls are playing in the courtyard. They must be about Nellie’s age, around eight. One of them looks a little like her, although she has light brown braids, not black as soot, like Nellie’s.
    Stephie no longer has braids. Since she cut off her long hair last year, it hasn’t grown back like it should. It won’tget really long, and it’s straggly, so before they left for Göteborg, she asked Aunt Märta to give her a haircut. Now her hair ends even with her chin, with a side part. It makes her look older.
    On the other side of her closed door, she hears noises. The front door opens and shuts when Dr. Söderberg comes in from his walk. He starts talking to his wife, though Stephie can’t make out the words. She can hear Elna working in the kitchen, and the toilet flushing. The telephone rings once, and Mrs. Söderberg has a long conversation.
    The sounds don’t seem real. It’s as if they have nothing to do with her. In her room, time stands still. She listens to water running in the pipes. Finally, as the afternoon draws to a close, Elna knocks on her door and says it’s time for dinner.
    “Didn’t you have anything better to do than spend such a beautiful day inside?” she asks. “If I’d been free, you wouldn’t have caught me sitting staring into thin air like that.”
    The doctor and his wife have already had their Sunday meal in the dining room, even though Sven hasn’t yet come home. He was supposed to return by dinnertime, Elna tells Stephie, and Mrs. Söderberg changed her mind back and forth before deciding they would go ahead without him. She finally gave in when the doctor said that all the military transports on the railway might mean Sven would be delayed for hours. The kitchen is hot and Elna is grumpy. She bangs down the platters and almost whisks Stephie’s plateout from under her nose before she’s finished. Elna is supposed to have Sunday evenings off, but now she can’t leave until Sven has come home and had his dinner.
    Stephie thinks Elna must have a gentleman friend waiting for her; that must be what’s making her so impatient. Just as impatient as Stephie feels waiting to see Sven again.

Stephie and Elna are eating a gooseberry compote for dessert, there is a sudden commotion at the other end of the apartment. Footsteps, banging, voices.
    The next instant something brown and white shoots down the narrow passage and into the kitchen. Stephie slides off her chair and bends toward the floor. Crouching, she opens her arms wide.
    “Putte,” she whispers into the dog’s white fur, then into his ear. “Putte, Putte, Putte.”
    Putte sets his paws on Stephie’s shoulders, licking her cheeks and nose. Elna watches disapprovingly.
    “That dog’s not supposed to be in the kitchen,” she starts.
    Before she can go on, Sven fills the kitchen doorway.
    “Stephanie!”
    Sven is even more suntanned than when he was vacationing on the island. His brown hair has grown; it hangs in his eyes. He’s wearing hiking pants, a plaid shirt, and heavy boots. When she sees him, her insides go all warm.
    “Sven, would you please remove that dog?” Elna asks. Then she falls silent, glaring at the floor around Sven’s feet. Stephie’s gaze follows hers, and she sees all the mud and clay he’s brought in on his hiking boots. And not just here, of course, but all the way through the apartment.
    “Don’t be angry, Elna,” Sven cajoles. “I’ll sweep it up. I wasn’t thinking. I’m really sorry.”
    Elna smiles at that, and Stephie can see she finds it difficult to be mad at Sven for long.
    Sven takes Putte by the collar.
    “Coming with me?” he asks Stephie.
    Then he notices that she was eating dessert.
    “Dinner in the kitchen? Why didn’t you eat with Mother and Father?”
    Elna answers first. “Mrs. Söderberg thought it best so.”
    Sven’s gray eyes narrow