by Willow Rose
But it is difficult as a mother to see your son look at his brother with longing jealous eyes as he takes his bike and rides it to school every morning. Per will start school next year as well, and then Ulrik will be the only kid left at the farm all day. It’s going to be tough on him. He doesn’t seem to enjoy this work much, nor does he seem to look forward to his future here on the farm. I worry about him a lot, but you probably know how that is, having a son of your own.
Since Ulrik is working full time here now, there isn’t much work for Peter to do once he gets out of school, so our neighbor, old Hansen, is paying him to work on his farm every weekend. I do think Peter will be the one using his hands for a living. He is very skilled in almost all areas of handiwork, especially when it comes to carpentry. That is where his real skills lie. He has built an entire new barn for Old Mr. Hansen and helped put a new roof on his house. Peter certainly will do well in this life, I am sure.
Our youngest, Per, is still the one bringing me the most joy. He is such a happy child. Oh, sister, I wish you could come and visit again soon and see how big he is now and experience how wonderful a boy he has turned out to be. Everyone loves being in his company and he always makes me laugh. He has a way with animals. You should see him with the dogs. He plays with them and trains them to do all kinds of tricks. He likes the outdoor life and spends most of his time with the animals. He rides our horses and they seem to obey his every command. It’s truly amazing. He even adores the pigs and has named all of them, even though I’ve told him that he really shouldn’t, since they’re meant to be slaughtered eventually. He doesn’t seem to care. I’m curious how he will take it once he has to start school in the fall. He’ll be devastated to not be able to spend time with the animals all day. Well, it’s the way it must go, I guess. He’ll grow up and be a blessing to this world. I’m sure of it. He’s such a beautiful boy. Such a delight to be around. Never gets himself in trouble. Nothing like his older brothers. I still consider him my baby, but I guess it will always be like that with your youngest.
How are things in the city? Is Bengt still doing well in school? I will try and see if I can come for a visit in the fall if Claes permits it. He seems to think we have more important things to do than go to the city. I try and tell him I would like to see something different for once. I’m tired of cornfields and pigsties. We will harvest the wheat in August…that’s the busiest time of the year for us. Maybe I will find the time to come for a visit in September or October. I can’t believe it has been almost three years since we last saw each other. Where does the time go?
With love,
Helle
Chapter Thirty-Two
November 2014
I PUT THE letter back in the envelope and into the box. I stared at the iPad on the table. Morten was walking around upstairs. He hadn’t been able to rest all afternoon. Neither had I, and I thought reading one of my grandmother’s letters would make me forget my troubles. I had succeeded for a little while, but now it was all back again. I felt a knot in my stomach, and it wasn’t because of the carrot cake that I had finished all by myself; it was because of the uncertainty, the anxiety for the both of us. What was this going to mean for us?
I had called my lawyer, Helene Quist, and she promised to look into the matter. She asked me to send her an email with all the information. I couldn’t help laughing.
“I’m not allowed near a computer,” I said, still chuckling.
“Oh. I forgot. Well then, I’ll call PE and tell them they’ll have to go through me from now on, and have them send over the charges against you. We’ll get to the bottom of this. Don’t you worry.”
But I did. I worried like crazy, wondering if I would have to go to jail. Wondering if I would ever be able to sell a book again.
I grabbed the iPad and went online. I checked the Facebook page. Almost a thousand followers now, and lots of nasty comments on the story about me, and even more on the one about Morten. I closed the app and went online to check the newspapers. Morten’s story wasn’t front-page news, but they all mentioned his suspension. Only because he was my boyfriend; otherwise, they wouldn’t have bothered. It annoyed me. Everything about this affair annoyed me immensely. Especially the fact that I felt paralyzed. This guy could post all these things about me and my loved ones, and I couldn’t do a damn thing about it. How was that even possible? It was spreading like a fire around the web and people were getting in line to scold me. Why were people so nasty online?
So, what was I supposed to do now? Just sit here and take a beating? What else would this person come up with?
I’m not gonna just sit here and take it. The hell I am.
I got to my feet and walked to the closet in the hallway. I found a hooded sweater and a big fluffy jacket that I hardly ever used. I also found a dark-haired wig that I had bought for Fastelavn, but never used. I put it all on and pulled the hood over my head. I looked in the mirror, then pulled out a drawer in the dresser. I found a pair of my dad’s glasses that he had forgotten when visiting one day and put them on as well. There. No one would recognize me now.
Kenneth barked at me like I was an intruder, but he always did that. I gave him an old shoe to gnaw. That should keep him busy for a little while. I yelled to Morten and Maya that I was going out for a little, then left. I walked through town in the drizzle, sensing how my steps became angrier and more powerful the more I walked. Why was this strange person behind the Facebook page so keen on hurting me? On hurting Morten? What did he get out of it? I didn’t understand how anyone could act like this. It was a fair amount of work he had put into finding these accusations against us. It took a lot of work and planning to create the email and send it to Morten, not to mention all the work it took to find out in which passages in my books I had provided details that weren’t known to the public. This guy was really out to get me, and I had a feeling he wasn’t going to stop anytime soon.
I entered the public library, found a computer, and sat down, making sure no one spotted me. I opened Facebook and found the page that had the articles about Morten and me, then I opened Morten’s Hotmail account that I knew the password for. I scrolled down and found the email allegedly sent from me.
“Someone’s gone to a lot of trouble here,” I mumbled. “Creating a false account in my name and everything.”
I looked around to make sure no one was watching me, then started a trace to find which IP address the email had been sent from. While waiting for the result, I tapped my fingers and looked around nervously again. The librarian, Mrs. Houman, was deeply buried in the newspaper behind the counter. She paid no attention to me. Still, I constantly felt like I was being watched. But I had felt that a lot lately.
The result came up and, to my surprise, the IP address was the library, the same address that I was stationed at. In other words, whoever was behind this had used the computers at the library to send the email to Morten. He wasn’t sitting behind a computer somewhere far away ruining my life. He was here on the island somewhere.
Chapter Thirty-Three
November 2014
LISA RASMUSSEN felt annoyed as she parked the car in front of SuperBrugsen, the city’s only supermarket. She had spent the afternoon in meetings and just got the call that one of the local police officers had turned out to be a pervert and had been suspended for being in possession of some outrageous porn. To top it off, he was Emma Frost’s boyfriend, so the story was all over the online newspapers already.
Lisa sighed aggressively and looked out through the windshield. It was raining heavily now. It was dark already. On the streetlamp, her poster was getting soaked. Someone had painted a mustache on her upper lip. Lisa felt tired. Tired of this island and its people. She couldn’t believe them. Didn’t anyone have any respect anymore? Especially, Emma Frost annoyed her immensely. She was bad news for the island. All those stories going on right now attracted the wrong kind of attention to the island. And Lisa was trying to get the tourism back. It was her cause, the one t
hat was going to get the islanders to love her.
Luckily, there still hadn’t been another candidate announced, and she doubted that there was going to be, since there were less than two weeks till the election.
“You will be mayor, Lisa, no doubt about it. There’s nothing that can stop you now. Don’t worry. Just breathe,” she told her own reflection in the rearview mirror. “They will come to love you. They will learn to. Or you’ll make them.”
Lisa closed her eyes and calmed down. All this bad publicity was getting to her. How was she supposed to fix things? How was she supposed to get people to return here? This island lived off the tourists. And it was like it kept getting worse and worse. One bad thing after the other. The news of the old man Larsen, who was killed in his home, had spread as well. So had the story of the mayor getting killed in the fire, even though they had told the newspapers it was an accident. Lisa had held a meeting with her people and asked them to figure out what to do about the island’s bad reputation. If she was going to get people to elect her and love her as a mayor for bringing back the tourists and the good reputation of the island, she needed to do something extraordinary. They had to figure out what that could be. But their suggestions hadn’t been useful so far.
Amateurs. Always surrounded by freaking amateurs.
Lisa took in a deep breath to calm herself down. She puffed her hair with her hands to make it look good, then put on her election smile before she exited the car. She grabbed a cart and walked through the sliding doors, smiling at everyone and nodding, even if they didn’t look at her.
“Hello. Don’t forget to vote,” she said to as many people as possible. It was her campaign manager who had told her it was important that she was seen in public doing ordinary chores, but always with a smile and showing her best side. It was all about appearing ordinary, showing she was one of them. According to a questionnaire, that was the only problem the islanders had with her. That she wasn’t local; she wasn’t one of their own. They didn’t like that. So now, Lisa had to show them that she was just like them. Lisa grabbed some cereal, put it in the cart, and continued down the aisle. She nodded and smiled at a couple she passed while grabbing a head of lettuce to go with the lasagna she was preparing for tonight. She hurried past the meat, since she wouldn’t be needing any of that for quite awhile. She had the entire freezer full. When she stopped at the fruit section, a cart was blocking her way. A woman was bent over the apples. Lisa needed oranges and had to pass the woman to get to them, but couldn’t.
She clenched her fist, but kept smiling. There was nothing more annoying than when people blocked the way with their cart and then took forever to move it. Lisa cleared her throat to let the woman know she was waiting for her. The woman didn’t react. Lisa looked at her while her nostrils flared, but kept smiling. She cleared her throat again, this time a little louder. The woman still didn’t react. She was touching all the apples, feeling them one after another in her hands to see if they were ripe. She even smelled some of them and had her disgusting nose touch them before she put them back. That annoyed Lisa even more. She had to address it.
“You’re not supposed to touch all of them,” she said.
The black-haired woman turned her head and looked at her. She was Asian. Lisa bit her lip. She had never liked Asian people much. Never trusted them. Something about their eyes just wasn’t right. They had all kinds of diseases out there in the East, didn’t they? Lisa had always been terrified of getting SARS or MERS, or whatever those diseases were called. Especially, bird flu scared the crap out of her. What those Asians did to those birds to get the disease, she never wanted to know.
“Excuse me?” the Asian woman asked.
Lisa wrinkled her nose. “You’re touching all of them,” she said. “It’s gross. Don’t touch those, and certainly don’t put your nose on them if you’re not buying them. Think about others. Besides, your cart is blocking the way so no one can pass you.”
To Lisa’s surprise, the Asian woman burst out into loud laughter. It was very odd, Lisa thought. Everything about this woman came off as very odd. The woman was still chuckling as she grabbed another apple and put it in her small plastic bag. “I just need one more,” she said. “Then I have five. Five is my lucky number, you see.”
Lisa sighed and looked at her watch. It was getting late. She had a dinner to cook. “Please, just move your cart a little,” she said. “I’m in a hurry.”
The Asian woman smiled from ear to ear. “I can tell,” she said. “Your entire aura is completely messed up. You really should calm down a little.”
Lisa snorted. “I don’t have the time to calm down a little. I’m very busy, as you can see. Now, please, just move your cart.”
“I could clean it for you, you know?” the woman said. “I could clean your aura. I’m guessing your life path number is all wrong for you. I could help you find a new name and completely change your life. You’ll be surprised when you realize how much it means.”
Lisa’s eyes glowed in anger. What the heck was this? Who was this insane woman? Never had she heard anything this ridiculous.
“Listen. I have a family to get home to, that doesn’t see me much, and I have a very important election coming up. I really just want to get to the oranges over there, so I can be done and go home. Do you have any idea who I am?”
“No.”
Lisa stared paralyzed at the woman in front of her. She still hadn’t moved her cart. She picked up her purse and Lisa noticed that there was something inside of it. A small face peered out. Lisa gasped and pointed.
“A…a rat!”
The Asian woman kissed the disgusting rat on the mouth. It returned the kiss by licking her nose before she put it back in her purse with a smile. Lisa could have thrown up right on the spot. She could hardly speak; the anger was boiling in her throat.
“You…you…brought a RAT to the supermarket? You have it near the food? You kiss it on the mouth and let it lick your nose? The same filthy nose that you use for sniffing the fruit?”
The Asian woman shrugged. “Yeah. So?”
Lisa had no more words. She was so shocked she couldn’t stand being in the supermarket anymore. She grabbed the handle of her cart, then smashed it into the woman’s cart several times until the cart moved sideways enough for her to get through. With a loud whimper of distress and anger, Lisa stormed past her towards the cashier, while thinking to herself:
No wonder they get all these diseases out there! Well, I’m not having it here. Not on our peaceful island. I’m not. I’m simply not tolerating it!
As she threw her groceries on the counter for the cashier to ring them up, she stared at the moving objects, still in shock, while mumbling, “I’m such a fool. We just had lasagna last week. I’ll serve sausages instead.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
November 2014
WHEN I CAME home from the library, Morten was sitting in the kitchen. He looked upset.
“Where have you been?” he asked.
“I told you I went out for a little bit.”
“You’ve been gone for two hours,” he snarled.
“Well, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize I had to hurry back,” I said, and put my jacket on a hanger and put it in the closet in the hallway.
“I’m sorry,” Morten said. “I’m just so frustrated. The chief of police just called and asked me to be in his office tomorrow morning. With the cutbacks we’re facing, I’m pretty sure he’s not going to promote me.”
I grabbed a chair and sat down. “Oh, you’re afraid he’s going to fire you?”
“I’m not exactly popular on the force right now. Allan won’t even return my calls. They all think I’m some pervert.”
“I’m sure they don’t think that,” I said and got to my feet. “Let me make us some coffee. I think I have some butter cookies in the cabinet.”
I grabbed the pot and poured water into it. Morten looked at me. “Is that your answer to everything? Food? Coffee?”
“Ouch. That hurt,” I said.
Morten exhaled. He closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. “I’m sorry. I’m not myself. I’m just so…so angry with myself. Why did I open that stupid link? Why did I click it?”
I put the pot on the coffeemaker and turned it on. Then I sat down again. I desperately wanted to indulge myself in a box of cookies to forget everything, but I restrained myself. Morten was right. Food was my answer to everything. It was becoming an awful habit.
“Anyone could have made that mistake,” I said. “Don’t be so hard on yourself.”
“But I should have known it didn’t come from you. How could I have been that stupid?” he asked.
“I don’t know, sweetie. But looking back won’t change a thing. We need to figure out who sent that email in the first place. We need to stop this harassment before it goes any further. I have no idea who is out to get us, but I am determined to find out and make it stop.”
Morten looked up at me. “How?”
“I went to the library,” I said. “I found something out. Whoever sent the email, sent it from the library’s computer. It was the same IP address. That tells me he’s somewhere here on the island. We can find him.”
Morten looked like he couldn’t believe me. “You went on a computer at the library?” he asked.
“Yes. Don’t worry. I wore a disguise. No one recognized me. Besides, I was the only one there. I was very careful.”
Morten looked like he might explode. “Are you INSANE?” he yelled.