Christmas Island

by Natalie Normann

  Holly faltered. ‘Sort off. I did remind him we would be here.’

  ‘And he came.’ Britt smiled. ‘That might be as romantic as a Norwegian man can get, you know.’

  ‘No, it’s not like that. And there really isn’t anything romantic about selling mustard and Christmas cookies,’ Holly said.

  ‘Never underestimate the sexiness of a man who steps up. He came all the way from the island to help you, didn’t he?’

  Holly was not having that conversation. ‘Actually, I think Tor wanted to see the market. It’s Christmas soon and this is a great place to fill up on presents, as you said yourself.

  ‘Of course,’ Britt said, trying to hide her laughter.

  Holly smiled. ‘I hope you didn’t scare him off, by the way.’

  ‘I would never.’ Britt pretended to look offended. ‘I didn’t even go over to say hello. He’s a bit skittish, you know.’

  I can’t argue with that, Holly thought. ‘I’m sure he wouldn’t have been scared off. He came over to say hi and then I asked him to help.’

  ‘He’s a nice boy.’ Britt looked pleased when she was next in line. ‘My turn. Finally.’

  Holly hurried back to the stall and could see that there was several people talking to him, before leaving with a jar or a box.

  ‘Hi,’ she said, ducking into the stall.

  Tor turned and smiled at her. ‘Hi. I had people asking about the restaurant and if it’s open during Christmas.’

  Holly suddenly became very aware of how small the stall was.

  ‘I have no idea. Jack never said anything about it.’ Holly tried to take a step back, to get some space between her and Tor, but gave up when she bumped into the wall.

  ‘Well, if he wants to open, I think he would have plenty of customers.’

  ‘I’ll tell him.’ Holly pulled herself together and smiled at another customer.

  Tor handed the customer a biscuit tin, and proceeded to handle the card machine like a pro.

  ‘Are you hungry?’ he asked when the customer left.

  ‘Not really. We had breakfast at the restaurant before we left. A massive breakfast with cake. I’m surprised you’re not all waddling like chubby ducks if you eat like that every day.’

  ‘There’s everyday breakfast and then there’s Christmas breakfast. Huge difference,’ Tor said.

  ‘What’s everyday breakfast?’ Holly knew he was aching to tell her.

  ‘Two pieces of brown bread, one with yellow cheese and one with salami or liver pâté, or the classic mackerel in tomato sauce. And if you’re really lucky, you’ll get a piece of fruit.’

  ‘Very Spartan sounding,’ Holly said.

  ‘Oh, yes. Especially since you’ll get the same thing for lunch, because you make your own matpakke.’

  Holly knit her brow. ‘Which is?’

  ‘Your packed lunch.’ Tor smiled and something about him made Holly look at him. He was different somehow.

  ‘Ah, the famous Norwegian packed lunch. Does everyone do that?’

  ‘Yes, it starts in kindergarten and continues until we retire. Some of us have a cafeteria at work, but, as we also only have half an hour for lunch, standing in line for food is wasting good coffee and eating time.’

  ‘Seriously Spartan,’ Holly said. Half an hour for lunch would barely be enough time for her to get down to the coffee shop.

  ‘Are you hungry? I mean, there’s plenty of food everywhere if you want something,’ Holly said, trying not to hit him in the face when she brought up a new tin. ‘And nobody sells sandwiches, I promise.’

  Tor leaned against the counter. ‘Just around here, they are roasting sausages that give off a very interesting fragrance. Something with rosemary, I think.’

  Holly narrowed her eyes. ‘Good thing I’m not that hungry.’

  Tor looked at her. ‘Are you sure? You’ve been her a long time today, haven’t you? I mean, long enough for you to need a bathroom break.’

  He smiled ever so slowly, and Holly couldn’t believe the way she reacted to him. Oh my, she thought. This is not good. Not good at all.

  For some reason she could hardly breathe. There really wasn’t much space inside the stall. That’s probably it, she thought.

  A cheerful voice interrupted the moment. ‘I’m so sorry I’m so late, Holly.’ Sigrid gave her a pained look. ‘Olav was late and I can’t let the kids loose on their own. They’d be wrecking the place if I did that.’ She suddenly realised Tor was there. ‘Oh, are you helping her?’

  ‘Only because I had to go to the bathroom,’ Holly said.

  Sigrid smiled. ‘Good. Well, I’m guessing neither of you have had a chance to look around, so perhaps you two should leave this to me?’

  Holly hesitated, then berated herself for hesitating, and then nodded. ‘Thank you. I would like to take a look, actually.’

  The stall was too small for all three of them, so Tor and Holly stepped outside.

  ‘Are you sure it’s okay to just leave everything to Sigrid like that? I feel as if I’m taking advantage of her.’

  ‘It’s called dugnad,’ Tor said.

  ‘What?’ Holly pulled up the zipper on her coat.

  ‘Dugnad. It’s what Norwegians call it when there’s a group or community that needs help and everyone participates. Everyone on the island always steps in to help one of their own. Like she’s doing now,’ he said, nodding towards Sigrid who was about to sell a jar of Jack’s best chutney to a woman.

  ‘I think Jack told me about it. Almost like the Amish when they raise a barn or something, and everyone chips in.’

  ‘Well, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone building a barn. It’s more like helping each other when the lawns need cutting or garbage needs cleaning. Smaller than a barn stuff,’ he said.

  ‘Okay. Can we eat now?’ Holly looked around. All the delicious smells made her hungry.

  He took her hand. ‘Follow me. I am starving,’ he said.

  Holly waved at Sigrid before they turned a corner and the lovely aroma of roasting food almost made her swoon.

  Tor stopped in front of a huge grill, where there were more sausages in one place than Holly had ever seen.

  ‘What would you like, Holly?’ he asked.

  Holly smiled at the man who was in charge of the grill. ‘I’m not sure what to choose, to be honest.’

  He lit up. ‘Everything here is good. We have the spicy stuff and the sort of healthy stuff, and we have fish if you like that. Smoked pork is delicious, of course, but our speciality are the grilled sausages. Do you like chilli or a bit milder? There’s also cheese.’

  Holly decided to throw caution to the wind. How many times in my life will I eat something like this, she thought.

  ‘Give me spicy, please.’

  The man grinned. ‘Wise choice. It’s my own recipe, so it comes with a guarantee.’

  ‘You mean she’ll get her money back if she doesn’t like it?’ Tor said.

  ‘No, I mean I can guarantee that she will like it,’ the man said, winking at Holly. ‘But to be sure, you can have a small taste, yes? I don’t want you to take a bite of my handmade sausage, hate it, and then throw it away. It’s bad for business and also it will break my heart. Okay?’

  Holly tried to repress the giggles, and only managed the smallest of nods.

  He had a plate next to the grill with samples and handed one of them to Holly. ‘What do you think?’

  Holly chewed carefully, not sure what to expect. ‘It’s hot and really, really good. I’ll have one of those.’

  ‘See? I told you so and I’m never wrong’

  He put buns on the grill to warm them up, all the time talking about the spices and how difficult it was to get it just right.

  Holly watched as the buns got nice, grilled stripes on them, then the vendor put the sausage in the middle and looked like he expected her to say something. Holly had no idea what though.

  When she didn’t respond at once, he pointed at a table filled with condi
ments. ‘What’s your choice? We have raw and crisp onion, pickled red beets, shrimp salad, ketchup and mustard, of course, but also remoulade and mayonnaise, and finally my wife’s favourite: pickled relish. She makes it herself.’

  ‘I’ll have the relish and the mustard, please.’

  He loaded it on top of the sausage and handed it to her. ‘Good appetite,’ he said.

  ‘Uhm, thank you,’ Holly said.

  The vendor made Tor his choice and handed the sausage to him.

  Holly looked at his food. ‘What are you eating?’

  ‘This is bacon sausage with shrimp salad and ketchup. It’s freaking delicious.’ Tor took a huge bite.

  Holly couldn’t help laughing. ‘You have shrimps in your beard.’

  He was chewing and looking like a chipmunk, and he really did have small pink shrimps in his beard.

  Tor stared cross-eyed down his nose. ‘Where?’

  Holly took the serviette the vendor had given her and tried to help him. ‘Are you sure you don’t have birds in here? Something is holding on to that shrimp,’ she said to make him laugh.

  ‘Please don’t lose that thing in there. Frøy will tear the beard off my face when I get home,’ he said.

  ‘Stand still.’ Holly rubbed his cheek.

  ‘If you spit on that thing…’ he said.

  Holly laughed. ‘I would never. Do you have any idea how unhygienic that is?’

  ‘Yes, I do.’ Tor took a step back and put his hand around her fingers when he took the serviette from her. ‘You’re going to rub away my beard,’ he said.

  Holly pulled her hand away and suddenly it was all awkward again. I’m behaving like a bloody fourteen-year-old, she thought.

  Tor threw the serviette in one of the many bins, and looked at her. ‘What? Are there more shrimps?’

  Holly breathed out slowly. ‘No, not at all. You look… a lot better.’

  He smiled. ‘A lot better than what?’

  ‘Than a man with shrimp cocktail in his beard. I can’t believe you would put that on a sausage, by the way.’

  Before he answered, he gobbled up the rest of the food. ‘It’s one of those rare experiences of perfect taste,’ he said, laughing at her.

  To hide her fluttering breath, Holly took another bite of her sausage.

  Tor watched her. ‘Good?’

  Holly nodded before finishing the rest. ‘Really good.’

  ‘Let’s see what else we can get ourself entangled in, shall we?’

  He took her hand and almost pulled her with him.

  ‘Where are you taking me?’

  ‘I think we need dessert, don’t you? If there’s anything my people can make, it’s sweet stuff.’ He scanned the market stalls and grinned. ‘That one. You’ll like this, I hope.’

  Holly could smell cinnamon as they got closer. ‘You’re not feeding me more waffles, are you? Because I’ve had lots of those already.’

  ‘No, this is different. This is proper old fashion yummies. I bet the Vikings made this, although most likely without the cinnamon,’ he said.

  When they approached the market stall, they saw lots of people in front of it. Holly stretched her neck to see what they were looking at, and Tor pulled her in so she could watch.

  It looks like a cooking show, she thought. Two women, both with colourful headscarves, were having a great time showing off their skills.

  The centrepiece was a large cooking plate. One of the women was using a huge rolling pin to roll out a thin dough, while the other stood by the heat and picked it up on a long, thinner rolling pin.

  ‘Is it a pancake?’ Holly asked Tor.

  He shook his head. ‘Not even close,’ he said.

  The woman folded the not-really-a-pancake gently out on the plate, then she just as gently flipped the sides and lifted it up, putting it on a cloth next to her.

  All the while she was talking to the audience.

  ‘What is she saying?’ Holly looked up at Tor.

  ‘She’s explaining the process. These are called lefser, and there are variations all over the country. You can use them with savoury food or as cakes, depending on what you put on them. What she’s making is used with kling, which is basically a spread made of butter, cream, sour cream, and sugar.’

  He laughed when he saw the expression on her face. ‘This is what we do at Christmas. All year round it’s all about healthy and moderation, and at Christmas it’s upside down world.’

  ‘Do you eat them hot?’ Holly couldn’t see that the women were handing out the fresh lefse.

  ‘No, I don’t think so.’ Tor pointed at the end of the counter where there were several plates of square cakes. ‘These are the ones we want.’

  He elbowed his way to the counter and bought a few pieces. When he got back to her, he had a lopsided grin on his face and two paper bags in his hands.

  ‘Here. I had to buy a few potato lefser too. They are good with smoked salmon or gravlaks,’ he said.

  He opened one bag and showed it to her. ‘Take one. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to eat it.’

  Holly was game. She took one of the lefser and eyed it. It was rectangular, not round, and there were layers in it, and when she took a bite, there was the taste of creamy, buttery sugar and cinnamon that just melted on her tongue.

  ‘Oh my god, this is… wow.’ Holly took another bite.

  ‘Good, right?’ Tor looked delighted when she tried to take his from him. ‘No, that’s mine. Here, take another one.’

  Holly took another lefse and bit into it, expecting the same, creamy buttery taste. She frowned. ‘Why is this different?’

  ‘I don’t know. I thought they were all the same.’ Tor took it from her and sniffed it. His face lit up. ‘There’s brown cheese on this. You don’t like that?’

  ‘Not really, and I think this cheese is different from the one Alma gave me on the waffles. I didn’t really like that either.’

  ‘This is real brown cheese. Made with goat milk.’ Tor smiled at her. ‘I’ll give you mine if you’ll give me yours.’

  ‘Yours first,’ she said.

  ‘What? You don’t trust me?’ Tor feigned insult.

  Holly shook her head. ‘I do not like goat milk, white goat’s cheese or your brown version.’

  Tor held out both his hands, open towards her. She snapped the good lefse and handed him the other.

  ‘Does your brother like the cheese?’ Tor ate his with every sign of enjoyment.

  ‘Yes, he can’t get enough of it. That and Old Cheese, whatever that is.’

  Tor frowned. ‘That’s… that’s awful. I can’t eat it.’

  ‘Good. Then you won't try to get me to eat it, will you?’

  After dessert was over Tor looked at her. ‘Now what will we do?’

  ‘Well, I probably have to go back to the stall. Poor Sigrid has her kids to look after.’

  Tor looked disappointed, but nodded. ‘Of course.’

  ‘Would you like to help me? We’ll finish in an hour or so, and then take the ferry back.’

  ‘I… would love to stay.’

  Holly raised her eyebrows. ‘Are you sure? Because it’s fine if you don’t want to. It’s not very interesting, so if you have anything else you rather be doing, that’s fine.’

  Tor smiled. ‘This is what I’d rather be doing.’

  Holly opened her mouth to answer, then got completely flustered and knew she was blushing like a whole crop of tomatoes.

  ‘Uhm, thank you.’

  He laughed. ‘This is fun.’

  ‘Really? I can’t imagine why,’ Holly said, getting herself together. ‘It’s a lot talking to people for another hours. Won’t that ruin the whole hermit thing for you?’

  He took her hand again, and Holly’s heart skipped more than just a few beats. ‘Maybe it’s time to stop being the hermit? And if I leave now, who’s going to tell you about the pink city hall behind us?’

  Holly looked up. The huge building was indeed pink. Proper pink
too, like a four-year-old’s princess pink. ‘I didn’t notice that!’

  ‘It’s great isn’t it?’ Tor smiled, looking at the building.

  ‘Sure. Why is it pink?’ Holly was fascinated now.

  ‘Honestly? I don’t know.’ Tor laughed when she pretended to box his shoulder. ‘But does it matter? It’s the perfect colour. I know the architects were heavily inspired by Italian architecture and they must have liked pink.’

  ‘Lame answer, but okay. Are there any other pink city halls in Norway?’

  ‘No, only this one. Makes it all the more special, I think. And here we are,’ he said, stopping in front of her stall.

  Sigrid looked relived when she noticed them.

  ‘There have been so many people here,’ she said. ‘It’s a good thing the two of you are back.’

  It certainly is, Holly thought, when Sigrid had left and Tor took up half the room in the stall.

  They didn’t talk much, but she was so aware of his presence. It was impossible not to touch or bump into each other, exchanging smiles and jokes, and Holly didn’t notice the time until Britt knocked on their counter.

  ‘Guys, we’d better pack up if we want to catch the last ferry. Do you need any help?’

  Holly smiled at her. ‘I think we’ll manage. There’s barely a full box left, to be honest.’

  ‘Good for you. Tobben and I will help Alma, but we have a lot of stuff to carry back, we could really use your help too.’

  Tor looked at her once they’d put the last of the items in the box. ‘I had a good time today,’ he said.

  ‘Me too.’ Holly smiled at him while closing the doors to the stall.

  With the doors closed, it became dark, and suddenly his proximity was almost too much. Holly couldn’t breathe, he was so close.

  ‘Are you… are you taking the ferry with us?’

  ‘No, I took my boat today. I would ask you to come, but they obviously need you.’

  ‘Yes, they do.’ Holly looked at him. ‘I’m sorry.’

  Tor touched her cheek. ‘Don’t be. I’ll see you on the island, right?’

  ‘Right.’ Holly wasn’t sure what that meant. Tonight, tomorrow? What?

  She was about to ask him when he leaned in. The intention was clear and she had no problem with it when he kissed her.