Harbor by John Lindqvist (no david read aloud TXT) 📗

to the archipelago, to have exactly the right knack for starting up an outboard motor, and to find a pet seal of their very own.

The young people of the archipelago got to know the summer visitors, and began to long for the nightclubs and cinemas of the capital. Houses and farms were left with no one to inherit them, and of course the brokers popped up again, buying everything in sight until the archipelago resembled a corpse that came to life for a couple of months in the summer, then sank back into its silent grave.

This was the gist of Holger’s thesis, and he would usually end with some detailed fantasy concerning what he would like to do toEvert and Astrid if they were still alive. These were terrible things involving both lead weights and petrol, and he would brook no contradictions.

The archipelago had been romanticised to death. That was Holger’s considered opinion.

Anna-Greta

A wall of yellowing lilacs hid Anna-Greta’s house from view. The only thing visible above the hedge was the metal roof of the tower, covered in verdigris. When Anders was a child he used to think it was a real tower, the kind you found in castles where knights lived, and he was frustrated because he could never find the way to it, and no one would show him.

Later he had realised that the pointed tower was purely decorative and the window on the gable was painted on. A hundred and fifty bygone years slumbered in that wind-battered wooden panel, and the impression of a haunted house lost in its own memories would have been complete, had it not been for the woman who opened the front door and came running down the garden path.

Anna-Greta was wearing jeans and a check shirt. On her feet she had rubber boots. Her long, white hair was woven into a plait that thudded against her back as she rushed up to Anders and threw her arms around him.

‘Oh, Anders!’ She hugged him, she shook him. ‘It’s so good to see you!’

She squeezed him so hard that for a moment Anders thought she was actually going to lift him off the ground, the way she used to do when he was little. He didn’t dare respond with the same force—she was eighty-two, after all—so he stroked her back and said, ‘Hello Gran.’

Anna-Greta suddenly let go and stared closely at his face for fiveseconds. Only then did she appear to notice Simon. She tilted her head to one side. Simon leaned over and kissed her cheek. Anna-Greta nodded as if to indicate that he had behaved correctly, and grabbed Anders’ hand.

‘Come on. The coffee’s ready.’

She led Anders towards the house, and Simon lumbered after them. It wasn’t that his gait had actually altered, but next to Anna-Greta most people looked as if they were lumbering, regardless of age.

It was as if she lived only on clear, salty air, and when the day came for her to pass away, she would probably do exactly that. Just take a step to one side. Dissolve into a north-westerly wind as it whirled around the lighthouse at North Point, then out across the sea.

The table was laid in the parlour: anchovy sandwiches with egg, delicate biscuits and cinnamon whirls. The hunger which Anders had refused to acknowledge suddenly caught up with him. Simon pretended to be offended, and said to Anders, ‘I see, we’re in the parlour because you’re here. I have to sit in the kitchen. When I’m invited.’

Anna-Greta stopped and raised her eyebrows. ‘Is that a complaint?’

‘No, no,’ said Simon. ‘I’m just saying there seems to be some sort of preferential treatment going on here.’

‘If you stayed away for almost three years, I’d probably set the table in the parlour for you as well when you came back.’

Simon scratched his chin. ‘Well, perhaps I’d better do that, then.’

‘In that case I’ll walk straight into the sea and drown myself, as you well know. Sit down.’

Anders’ father had once said that Simon and Anna-Greta were like an old comedy double act. They had their set routines, polished over the years; by this stage they knew them so well they were no longer routines, but rather a basis for improvisation. You recognised the theme, but the words were different every time.

Anna-Greta watched Anders as he gobbled two sandwiches. She pushed the plate towards him.

‘I don’t suppose you’ve got any food down there in the cottage.’

Anders paused with his hand half way to the plate.

‘I’m sorry, I…’

Anna-Greta snorted.

‘Nonsense. That’s not what I meant. You help yourself. But we need to sort out some kind of arrangement.’

‘Wood,’ said Simon. ‘Have you got any wood?’

The problem was discussed, and it was decided that Anders would take home a bag of provisions, that he and Simon would go shopping the following day, and that Anders’ boat needed to be put in the water as soon as possible. He could help himself to wood if he ran short.

Anders excused himself and went out on to the porch for a smoke. He sat down on a stool, lit a cigarette and looked at Anna-Greta’s plum tree, weighed down with overripe fruit. He thought about Holger and about Holger’s wife, about the sea, which seemed to demand its dues at irregular intervals, about the anchor in the churchyard in Nåten, Maja.

It still seems strange…that there wasn’t…that no one…

When he went back inside, the table had been cleared and the coffee pot topped up. Simon and Anna-Greta were sitting at the table leaning towards each other, their heads close together. Anders stood quietly, watching them.

That’s what love looks like. It can happen. Two people can find one another, and then work together to sustain that amorphous, incomprehensible third party that has arisen between them. Love becomes an entity unto itself: the thing that determines how life is to be lived.

How does that happen?

Anders sat down on his chair, heavy and damp. Simon and Anna-Greta moved apart.

‘It’s nice to get a bit of fresh