Ulla-Lena Lundberg - Ice

Once the ice has broken up, everything moves quickly. So quickly that you lose your breath and wish you were back in the life-giving isolation of winter, which allowed you to think through your thoughts and plan for the day ahead. Now spring runs away with everyone and drives its own agenda. The seal hunters had their boats at the edge of the ice but got sufficient warning and made it home, squinting and sunburned, without any losses and with seals in a row on the floor. Now the hunt for seabirds will begin, eiders and old squaws, which fly along the edges of the bays and land in their traditional places, and there the men sit in their hunting coverts and blast away. Hardly a man in church, consequently, and only a few womenfolk because of the lack of available boats. In the barns, the floorboards are visible. The cows are dry and people can only hope that they’ll make it through these lean weeks until things start turning green in earnest. It is not the case that summer breaks out as soon as the ice has gone. On the contrary, it can be cold and raw for weeks, and that’s when things get tough.

At the parsonage, the peace of winter has been driven away. Papa paces about, stressed and incoherent, and Petter recognizes the symptoms. Now that the ice is gone he’s going home to tar his boat, put it in the water, and talk Granboda village to death before Mother arrives with all their worldly goods sometime in June. Now Mona has to fit him out, see to it that his clothes are clean and mended and that he has bread and butter to go with the fat spring perch he’s going to pull up from his favourite perch hole. At the parsonage, too, they are happy that net fishing can begin, but it is one more time-consuming chore that steals time from pastoral studies. Once again, he stands and wonders how he’ll have time for all the work that’s falling on him like a house.

AS LONG AS THE ICE REMAINED, it seemed a long time until Mona’s confinement but now her pregnancy too is progressing with frightening speed. No one knows better than Mona how much they need to get done before she can start thinking about having a baby. They have to finish the haymaking, and before they start on that, there’s a great deal to do in the garden that they didn’t have time for last spring. The kitchen garden needs to be fertilized and enlarged, a new drainage ditch must be dug, they have to sow and plant, and just imagine if they’d had time to break up part of the meadow and sow feed grain! Not to mention that they need to look after the everlasting fences, take the sheep out to the islands, groom the cows so they don’t have to be ashamed of them. They must be plump and shiny for the congregation to admire. It would all be so much simpler if they had a horse! When Petter has passed his pastoral exams and been made permanent vicar, their finances will get a bit better, but the loans, the loans! Should they borrow more and buy a motorboat and a horse, or should they wait a year? Why not break in Darling, Goody’s heifer calf from last year? Then they could plough up another piece of land. Worth a try!

Time rushes by. They get a lot done, as they notice when they look around, but a great deal goes undone as well. When they make lists of all their work, they notice that Sanna is never mentioned once, and their consciences bother them. They’re neglecting their child for all the other important things they have to do, although she’s a little more than two years old, full of curiosity, and loves to talk and philosophize. Most of all, she likes to be read to, but whichever one of them takes the time to read her a good-night story can barely stay awake once there’s a moment to sit down. Time to do something about it, and that’s how Cecilia comes to the house, one of the confirmation candidates who is good with children and reads well. It will be her job to spend time outdoors with Sanna and read her fairy tales all spring and summer. Now, Sanna, you’ll have company and a real pal!

In years and size, Cecilia is the missing link between Sanna and the adult world. She is smaller than Mona, and at fourteen, she is halfway between them in age. She is child enough to be able to play and enjoy the story books as much as Sanna, and old enough to have a sense of order and responsibility. She appears at the parsonage like a young lady, knocks before entering and curtseys, but all with the fluttering heart of a little girl. The pastor’s wife has a reputation for speed and resolve that could frighten anyone, but in reality she is kindness itself and says they are happy she could come. Cecilia gets her own room in the attic—something she has never had before. The pastor’s wife has put some grape hyacinths and narcissus in a glass on the chair meant to serve as a bedside table. It is all lovely beyond description, with a wonderful view across the water. Sanna follows her up the steep stairs on all fours, with careful concentration, and looks at Cecilia rapturously. “Are we going to read?” she asks, eyes sparkling.

“Yes, indeed,” says Cecilia. “As often as we can! And play!”

Sanna is prepared to begin at once, and so is Cecilia, but Mama tells Sanna that first they’re going to let Cecilia unpack, and then she’ll come downstairs and they’ll all have coffee and get to know each other. She takes Sanna with her, and Cecilia hears them talking on the stairs: “Is she going to live here?” “Yes, this summer. Then she’ll go to school.” “I’m going to go to school too, with Cecilia.” “Well, not quite yet. Do you like her?” “Oh, yes.” “Good …” and then they go into the kitchen and Cecilia stands in her room and pretends she’s a grown woman, the children’s nurse at the parsonage. The best view in the house and a bureau where she can keep her clothes. Not many of them, but you don’t need many in summer. It takes two minutes to put everything into the drawers, but grownups generally take such things seriously, so she stands at the window for a while and gets used to the room, and then she goes down the stairs. There is a smell of coffee from the kitchen and the door is open so she doesn’t need to knock. Sanna comes towards her and takes her hand. “Come and have coffee!” she says. “I get to sit next to you.”

The priest has come in. She curtseys and he takes her hand. Sanna curtseys too and takes Papa’s hand, and the pastor says Welcome! And how nice that she could come. “Just look how happy Sanna is.” Both the priest and his wife hope she’ll feel at home, and she says that she already does. She blushes each time she has to speak and hasn’t the courage to look at anyone but Sanna, who looks back open-heartedly and smiles. “Drink coffee now!” she says impatiently. They can all see that she’s eager to start having fun, but the pastor’s wife tells Cecilia not to be too nice and let herself be ordered around by the little princess, who’s been given too much leeway. “Just tell me if she gets too unruly and headstrong! You’re a sensible girl, and you have younger brothers and sisters, and I’m sure you know it’s a mistake to be too indulgent.”

Cecilia wants to ask if the pastor’s wife also had little brothers and sisters, but it’s the pastor who answers, almost as if he’d read her thoughts. “Both Mona and I have younger siblings, so we have no illusions. You have to keep after them or they’ll take over the whole house.” But he says it lovingly and is so sweet to Sanna, who looks at him starry-eyed, that anyone can see that his parenting principles allow for many exceptions. And anyway, who would want to be strict and curb this little girl’s eager expectations!

The pastor and his wife have had great piles of children’s books sent from their childhood homes, and Sanna has received several new books for her birthday. “Don’t read any more than you want to yourself!” says the pastor’s wife, who doesn’t want Sanna to become a tyrant, but Cecilia says she thinks it will be fun. Suddenly she utters several sentences in a row: “I didn’t get to read much when I was little, because no one did. The first stories I read were in my first reader. Once I had learned to read, I read the whole reader in a few days. And I got scolded because I wasn’t helping.”