her on the island sometime.
Their first class on Monday mornings is German. By now Stephie, like all the others, knows very well what the accusative and the dative are. They’ve learned rhymes by heart to remind them which prepositions govern each and both.
“An, auf, hinter, in, neben, über, unter, vor, und zwischen,”
they repeat in unison, Miss Krantz keeping time with her pointer against the edge of the desk.
What not a single one of them has done since the first day of school, however, is say a full sentence in German. They work on their grammar and read out loud from a boring textbook, translating the long sentences slowly and choppily into Swedish.
Stephie does her best to pronounce the words the way Miss Krantz does, but much too often she forgets and says them as she’s accustomed to doing.
“Standard German!” Miss Krantz orders then, banging down the pointer. “In this class we speak standard German!”
After school, Stephie goes to the lily pond to be by herself and do some thinking. The weeping willows reflected in the water have begun to shed their leaves, and the ivy on the brick mansions is bright red. The water lilies are no longer in bloom, but the little islets of leaves still ornament the surface, and Mr. and Mrs. Swan are still floating there.
The bench feels cold against her thighs in the gap between where her underpants end and her stockings begin. She pulls her coat way down so she can sit on it.
All day Harriet and Lilian have been giving her conspiratorial looks, winking and smiling. They won’t forget what she’s said. It reminds her of when Putte gets a bone; they’ll never let it go, not until they’ve squeezed every juicy tidbit out of her. She’s going to have to tell them the things they want to hear.
Well, that won’t be difficult. She’s already pictured it all in her head, images of romantic scenes that will make Lilian sigh and Harriet long to hear more. Scenes she remembers from the magazines she and Evi used to read in secret at home, or from the movie posters pasted up outside the cinemas. Marvelous scenes starring her and Sven.
The hard thing will be not getting caught. She’ll have to be extremely careful and keep herself on Harriet’s and Lilian’s good sides so they don’t stop liking her and use her story as gossip for their mill. And most important of all, she must be sure May never catches on.
The worst part is that she feels like she’s betraying Svenby telling lies about him. If he ever finds out, she’ll lose all her chances.
She’s entangled in a net of her own making, as helpless as if she were caught in the clutching stalks of the lily pads and being pulled down toward the muddy bottom.
My beloved Stephie
,
I was thrilled to hear that you are happy in your new school. Your homeroom teacher really sounds like a wonderful person. It’s important for a girl of your age to have an adult role model. I mean, a woman who is not her mother. You’re growing up so fast, and even if we had not had to be separated, you would soon not be my little girl any longer. Of course, you will always be my little girl in one way. When things are hardest, I pull out the photos of you and Nellie when you were babies, and remember our wonderful days together
.
Oh, I’m sounding morose, as if there were no future. But we must believe in the future. One day this nightmare will be over and we will be together again, all four of us
.
The only thing that worries me is that since you are living in Göteborg now, you and Nellie will grow apart. You do visit her regularly, don’t you? Nellie needs you. She’s still such a little girl
.
I’ll have to stop now. We have no electric lighting and we have to be economical with the carbide for our lamp. Write soon and tell me everything that’s going on! Please send my best greetings to all the kind people who are helping you, and remind Nellie to write to us
.
Kisses from your mamma
Stephie sits on her bed, her
Their first class on Monday mornings is German. By now Stephie, like all the others, knows very well what the accusative and the dative are. They’ve learned rhymes by heart to remind them which prepositions govern each and both.
“An, auf, hinter, in, neben, über, unter, vor, und zwischen,”
they repeat in unison, Miss Krantz keeping time with her pointer against the edge of the desk.
What not a single one of them has done since the first day of school, however, is say a full sentence in German. They work on their grammar and read out loud from a boring textbook, translating the long sentences slowly and choppily into Swedish.
Stephie does her best to pronounce the words the way Miss Krantz does, but much too often she forgets and says them as she’s accustomed to doing.
“Standard German!” Miss Krantz orders then, banging down the pointer. “In this class we speak standard German!”
After school, Stephie goes to the lily pond to be by herself and do some thinking. The weeping willows reflected in the water have begun to shed their leaves, and the ivy on the brick mansions is bright red. The water lilies are no longer in bloom, but the little islets of leaves still ornament the surface, and Mr. and Mrs. Swan are still floating there.
The bench feels cold against her thighs in the gap between where her underpants end and her stockings begin. She pulls her coat way down so she can sit on it.
All day Harriet and Lilian have been giving her conspiratorial looks, winking and smiling. They won’t forget what she’s said. It reminds her of when Putte gets a bone; they’ll never let it go, not until they’ve squeezed every juicy tidbit out of her. She’s going to have to tell them the things they want to hear.
Well, that won’t be difficult. She’s already pictured it all in her head, images of romantic scenes that will make Lilian sigh and Harriet long to hear more. Scenes she remembers from the magazines she and Evi used to read in secret at home, or from the movie posters pasted up outside the cinemas. Marvelous scenes starring her and Sven.
The hard thing will be not getting caught. She’ll have to be extremely careful and keep herself on Harriet’s and Lilian’s good sides so they don’t stop liking her and use her story as gossip for their mill. And most important of all, she must be sure May never catches on.
The worst part is that she feels like she’s betraying Svenby telling lies about him. If he ever finds out, she’ll lose all her chances.
She’s entangled in a net of her own making, as helpless as if she were caught in the clutching stalks of the lily pads and being pulled down toward the muddy bottom.
My beloved Stephie
,
I was thrilled to hear that you are happy in your new school. Your homeroom teacher really sounds like a wonderful person. It’s important for a girl of your age to have an adult role model. I mean, a woman who is not her mother. You’re growing up so fast, and even if we had not had to be separated, you would soon not be my little girl any longer. Of course, you will always be my little girl in one way. When things are hardest, I pull out the photos of you and Nellie when you were babies, and remember our wonderful days together
.
Oh, I’m sounding morose, as if there were no future. But we must believe in the future. One day this nightmare will be over and we will be together again, all four of us
.
The only thing that worries me is that since you are living in Göteborg now, you and Nellie will grow apart. You do visit her regularly, don’t you? Nellie needs you. She’s still such a little girl
.
I’ll have to stop now. We have no electric lighting and we have to be economical with the carbide for our lamp. Write soon and tell me everything that’s going on! Please send my best greetings to all the kind people who are helping you, and remind Nellie to write to us
.
Kisses from your mamma
Stephie sits on her bed, her
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