Ane Riel - Resin

Mrs Angel was also obese and looked nothing like an angel. Else thought it highly unlikely that she would ever run off with her son.

Jens’s fists slammed against the table so hard that his mother’s illness temporarily worsened.

‘Hell, no. If Maria leaves, so do I,’ he thundered. Not like a child, but like the young man Maria had made him. His voice was deeper than ever.

Else was speechless while she tried to shake off the shock. The words cut her to the heart. Jens had been defiant before, especially when he lost his father – and surely that had been understandable – but he had never gone against his mother as he did now. She was horrified that he would speak like this to the woman who loved him more than anyone in the whole world; in that respect, he very much reminded her of her other son. But above all it confirmed Else’s fear that Maria had driven a wedge between her and her boy.

At that moment she heard bicycle tyres crunch against gravel. Maria was back.

‘Very well, if you feel that strongly about it…’ she said in her sweetest voice. ‘You know I only want what’s best for you, Jens. After all, we love each other so much, you and I. You would never abandon your sick mother, would you?’

Jens turned on his heel and left his sick mother in the living room. Else sat staring into the air and concluded that this must be one of the worst days of her life.

However, he soon returned to the living room, and Else Horder’s heart softened at the sight of her younger son, who came back with his gentle gaze and tender nature. He was smiling in the endearing way in which only her Jens could smile. His dark eyes were shining.

‘Maria is pregnant.’ He beamed as he said it.

They were married, in love and in haste, by the mayor of Korsted. A handful of acquaintances were witnesses and congratulated the couple while secretly wondering if a new little Horder was on the way. The bride’s stomach looked a little round, didn’t it? Out of common courtesy people preferred to gossip rather than ask the couple outright. Besides, everyone was delighted for them, because there was no doubt that Jens Horder had been through some tough times, first with his father dying, then with his brother’s sudden disappearance, although he had never let on. Jens was a man of few words. He was friendly and helpful, as his father had been before him, but he never said more than the bare minimum. It made it practically impossible to have a normal conversation with him. In fact, few people had believed that he would ever find himself a girl, but then again, perhaps it was she who had found him. They considered the options. The girl was sweet and pretty, but also rather subdued. Was it ultimately his mother who had set it all up?

After the ceremony there were sandwiches at the pub. People toasted the happy couple and sang a traditional wedding song. One hour later Jens and Maria walked home with the groom’s mother when she decided that it was time for them to leave. She was in pain.

Maria continued to sleep in the white room next to the workshop, where Jens now kept his pregnant wife company in the single bed, while his mother and her pain shared the double bed in the main house.

In his heart of hearts, Jens wanted a boy. In her heart of hearts, Maria wanted a girl. And Else Horder, in her heart of hearts, wanted disaster to strike.

All three of them got their wish.

Maria had twins: a boy and a girl.

Jens named the babies Carl and Liv.

It wasn’t until after the children were born that Jens finally managed to get his mother to vacate the master bedroom. Moving Else into Jens’s old bedroom further down the passage proved something of a battle. It was rather small and she didn’t like the air in there, but as only the master bedroom was big enough for two adults and two cradles, she ran out of arguments.

No one mentioned that Maria had gained quite a lot of weight during her pregnancy. She appeared unable to shift the extra kilos, which made the single bed in the white room that they had shared until then feel increasingly small.

Jens had worked on the cradles in the months leading up to the birth, once it became clear that two children were on their way. He had never built a cradle before, and yet he was sure they were the most beautiful cradles in living memory. He had devoted loving attention to every detail, just like his father used to with the coffins. When the second cradle was finished Jens put his face inside it, closed his eyes and thought about the wonderful new life that would grow out of that little space.

His mother had been hard to please during Maria’s pregnancy. It was tempting to think that it was Else’s hormones – rather than Maria’s – that were raging when she screamed and shouted for a sandwich or freshly washed tea towels. Sadly, the situation only deteriorated once the babies arrived. Else spent most of her time in her new bedroom, despite its smallness, and she asked to have her meals brought up there, while complaining loudly about the menu.

And although Jens also found his mother deeply irritating, he was ultimately so grateful for his wife’s love and the two children he and his sweetheart had brought into the world that nothing could bring him down. And despite Else’s best attempts, his attention was first and foremost directed at the twins, at Maria and at the incomprehensible joy which overwhelmed him daily.

Or at least it did for a time.

One day while Maria was in the barn and Else Horder was fast asleep in her room, Jens went to check on the children. The girl was sleeping soundly. The boy was lying on the floor below his cradle. In a pool of blood.

They never told me exactly what happened to my brother. All they said was that he had an accident when we were very young, and afterwards my granny went to live with her cousin on the mainland. The rest of us stayed and grew bigger. Especially Mum.

I didn’t learn about the business with my granny until later. And then I learned it from her. Until then I had no idea I even had a granny. But one day she turned up out of the blue and moved into the room behind the workshop and made pancakes every morning for almost a whole month. That was December.

Dad didn’t want to talk about her. He didn’t even seem to want to talk to her, and I found it all very strange. And though her pancakes were yummy and I liked hearing her stories about the mainland, I was a bit sad at how she made Dad feel. Mum didn’t like her very much either.

And it wasn’t just because she snored. And I’m telling you, she could really snore. When she had her lunchtime nap, you could hear it all the way over in the main house.

We’d been just fine until then. It wasn’t until my granny arrived that things went really wrong. I think something snapped in Dad. Especially when she said that she was going to take me with her to the mainland and send me to school over there. They didn’t know I was standing right outside the door and heard everything.

Dear Liv

Your granny took up a lot of room. Not in the same way I do; in a different way. She left when you were very little. It was a huge relief, and I hadn’t expected her ever to come back after all this time. I think you were coming up for your seventh birthday.

I had almost managed to forget about her.

When I saw her again it felt like someone was gripping my throat; as if all the air had been sucked out of my lungs. Deep down, I guess, I’d hoped she had died. Now suddenly she was standing there, smiling, looking healthier and stronger than ever.

I didn’t know what she wanted. I didn’t know if she even realized what she had done to Carl, to this family. Maybe it was her medication. She had sent some letters to your dad, but every time he burned them without reading them.