Summer Island

by Natalie Normann

  She could see her father checking out prams. He had the same expression of amazement he had when he looked at new cars.

  ‘Pappa, what are you doing?’

  Petter beamed at her. ‘We want the type of pram that grows with the baby. So that you don’t have to buy a new one every time she hits a new milestone. Look how practical they are.’

  Ninni looked at the pram he was pointing at. ‘Why do they all look like they are made for Formula One drivers? Do they expect the baby to drive on the motorway?’

  Petter chuckled. ‘You should have seen the pram we had for you. It was chunky and smelled of mould. Your grandmother had it in the garage for twenty years. I want you to have a good pram, a nice one for when you take her outside. Like this one, I think.’ He pointed at a pink pram amongst the gleaming wonders.

  Ninni checked the price tag. ‘Pappa, are you insane? For one thing it’s insanely expensive.’

  He looked insulted. ‘But it’s my gift to you. My granddaughter will be safe and look stylish.’

  ‘Yeah, well, I’m not getting a pink pram. You can forget about that.’

  Now he was disappointed. ‘But we’re having a girl!’

  ‘Still, no.’ Ninni shook her head.

  Petter wasn’t ready to give up. ‘But it’s lovely. It will stand out amongst all the other boring prams.’

  Ninni rolled her eyes at him. ‘We live in Bergen, not in Spain. And in case you haven’t noticed, we’re back to normal weather conditions. Summer is over. It’s September, Pappa.’ Ninni waved her arm towards the window. The rain was pouring down outside.

  Petter looked disappointed. ‘Ah, well. A navy one will have to do then.’

  They chose a more sensible one that, according to Petter, she would be able to take apart and turn it into a car seat. Or a backpack. Ninni wasn’t sure. But it would have to do.

  ‘Now, let’s get the rest of everything.’ Petter looked around with a greedy glint in his eyes. ‘Where do you want to start?’

  A couple came in from the rain, laughing and shaking water off their raincoats. The woman smiled at Ninni, a shared feeling of anticipation, perhaps. She held hands with her partner, who fixed his eyes on the super prams. Obviously having a flashy pram was a man thing, Ninni thought.

  The partner looked a bit like Jack and her heart jumped.

  Petter seemed to sense her moment of sadness. ‘You okay, sweetie?’

  Ninni turned away from the couple and smiled at him. ‘I’m tired. Can we do the rest another day?’

  ‘Not a chance. We’re here, let’s get it done. You’ve postponed it too many times already, my girl. It’s now or the baby will end up sleeping in a cardboard box.’ He pointed at a chair. ‘Sit down and relax. Hold onto the pram. Leave this to me. I have done this before, you know.’

  Within a matter of minutes, he had placed two wire baskets filled with colourful toys, bedclothes, pacifiers and a lot of things she had no idea what they were next to the chair. She was exhausted just looking at him.

  The baby suddenly kicked and the surprise made her laugh. She put her hand on her stomach again, and another little kick hit her. It was such a strange sensation.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ Petter appeared in front of her with a fluffy yellow duck in his hand, for some reason.

  ‘Nothing. Active baby, that’s all.’

  He beamed at her. ‘That’s what we want. She’s getting a lot more active now.’

  Ninni nodded. ‘Two more months until she’s here.’

  ‘And that’s why we are here, in this store. Here, take this.’ He handed her the duck. ‘What else do we need?’

  ‘A crib,’ Ninni said. ‘And please, let’s not get one that’s too complicated to put together. You know how you get.’

  He pretended to look insulted. ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’

  ‘I’ve seen you with bookshelves,’ Ninni said.

  At the sales desk the woman smiled at Petter, then let her eyes move over Ninni with a tiny glint of judgement, obviously making a creepy assumption.

  Ninni smiled sweetly. ‘My father is helping me shop for baby equipment,’ she said. ‘We are looking for a crib that’s not too complicated to put together.’

  ‘But safe. I don’t want my granddaughter to fall out of it,’ Petter said with a huge smile.

  The woman’s face lit up. ‘I can help you with that.’

  Ninni let Petter do the talking. He seemed to enjoy it a lot more than she did and, besides, her back ached again.

  The couple walked past her again. She was holding the same duck and waved it at Ninni.

  Ninni almost burst into tears, then scolded herself for being stupid. Hormones, she thought. It had nothing to do with shopping for baby supplies with her father.

  She wondered how Jack was getting on. Was he doing better? It seemed like it; she had seen online that he was back at the restaurant in London.

  She put a hand on her stomach again. It was better this way, she thought. They would be fine, the two of them.

  ***

  Paul was telling a long-winded story about a woman who came into the garage. ‘I was impressed, actually. She knew the difference between ABS brakes and handbrakes.’

  Holly rolled her eyes and made Jack laugh. He leaned back in his chair. The food went down faster than Frikk’s dinner, and he felt good watching them.

  ‘You’re quiet,’ Paul said suddenly.

  Holly shook her head. ‘He’s pining for his island, Dad. Did you know that he has a bunch of exercise books – log books, he calls them – written by his grandmother? They were in his suitcase.’

  ‘You never mentioned that,’ Paul said to Jack.

  ‘I … forgot about them,’ he said.

  ‘I see. That’s easily done, I guess.’ Paul gave him one of his looks.

  Jack smiled. ‘It’s not a big deal, Dad. I was tired from the trip.’

  ‘Is that why you have barely mentioned why you left the island since you returned?’ Paul put his elbows on the table and looked at him.

  Holly chimed in. ‘Ask him about her, Dad. He never talks about Ninni either.’

  ‘I’m not a talker,’ Jack said.

  That made Paul roll his eyes. ‘Tell us. We’re your family. We all thought that you had found someone far better suited for you than that snooty Fedra.’

  Jack sighed. ‘You know what happened, Dad. Ninni is having a baby with her partner. We decided it was a summer fling. There’s really nothing to talk about.’

  Holly did. ‘I bet he hasn’t told you that the baby daddy is a bastard. I bet she’s not even with him any more.’

  ‘Holly, please stop. You sound like a five-year-old telling on me.’ Jack started to clear the table. ‘It doesn’t matter now, does it?’

  Paul looked at him with a strange smile. ‘Did I ever tell you how I met your mum?’

  ‘Yes, it was love at first sight,’ Jack and Holly said at the same time.

  ‘Well, but did I also tell you that the first time Rosie brought Jack to meet me, he asked me if I was his new daddy?’

  ‘The first time he met you? That’s cheeky.’ Holly laughed at Jack.

  ‘Oh, yes, I think it was his way of asking me what my intentions were.’ Paul shook his head. ‘Problem was, it scared Rosie. She pulled away. She said she couldn’t involve me in Jack’s life in case it didn’t work out.’

  ‘What did you say?’ Holly was mesmerised.

  ‘I said, what if it did? What if I really was Jack’s new dad? And I also told her she was an idiot if she didn’t give us a chance. She told me not to call her an idiot.’ Paul grinned. ‘And, just like that, I was a dad.’

  Jack started loading the dishwasher.

  Later, after dinner, after they had left, full of food and beer and wine, Jack went for a walk.

  He entered the big park behind the apartment complex and walked among the trees. It was September warm, a touch of Indian summer, and he hoped it would clear his thoughts.

>   There were plenty of people walking their dogs, even this late. Quite a few of the pups came over to greet him, to sniff his hand and wag their tails and demand belly rubs. None of them looked like Frikk. Mostly lapdogs or retrievers, from what he could see.

  Eventually he sat down on a bench close to a small duck pond. He missed the view of the ocean from the cairn on the island. Ninni had called it a mountain, but it wasn’t, not really. But from the cairn he had been able to see all the way out to the little islet where his sheep grazed.

  There were possibilities out there, he thought. The community building could be turned into an excellent bistro. The produce of the island, the things that grew out there, the things that people made – if he put all those together he could create great food.

  Wow, he thought. That’s mad. That’s really, really mad.

  For the longest time he sat there, staring at the duck pond.

  He wondered how the sheep were doing, and if Olav took good care of them. He wondered if Tobben and Britt managed the meat production on their own. And, more than anything, he wondered how Ninni was doing. If she was with Karl. He didn’t want to believe that any more. Holly was right. She would never go back to Karl.

  When he finally stood up and walked back down to the apartment he felt calm for the first time in months. All the stress melted away.

  Suddenly everything seemed obvious. He found himself smiling.

  Damn, it felt good.

  Chapter 21

  Jack looked around the block of flats. It was modern and concrete. Not at all like the wooden houses he had seen everywhere else driving up the hill, although Bergen was a proper city, with lots of concrete buildings, cars and people. No wonder Ninni wanted to stay on the island, he thought.

  He rubbed his hands together. It was bloody cold. The wind howled around the corner of the building and he pulled the woollen hat down over his ears. There were already quite a few Christmas lights in the windows, which was strangely comforting.

  Jack read the names on the door tags until he found hers. Then he rang the bell. The buzzer opened the door almost immediately and he slipped in. Inside, he shook his head, happy to be away from the wind.

  Ninni lived on the third floor, and Jack took the steps two at a time.

  Outside her door, he hesitated. What if he was wrong? What if she still didn’t want anything to do with him? What if Karl opened the door? He frowned. No, he knew better than that. Alma had told him.

  Besides, it would be worth the risk, no matter what happened. Not doing anything wasn’t really an option. He lifted his hand to knock when he heard screaming through the door. That did not sound good.

  Before he managed to knock again, however, the door opened and Ninni stood there, holding a howling baby. She looked a total mess. Her hair was plastered to her face, there were stains on the T-shirt and she had dark circles under her eyes.

  ‘You,’ she said. ‘What are you doing here?’

  Jack didn’t have chance to say anything before she burst into tears. Without hesitating, he entered the flat and closed the door behind him. He held out his arms.

  Ninni shook her head. ‘I’m revolting. Please go away.’

  ‘True, but you are also lovely. Hand me the baby.’

  For a second he thought she would refuse, but then she put the bundle in his arms. He felt the weight of the tiny girl and rocked her a little. She kept howling, but Jack tickled her chin and the action seemed to surprise her. She hiccupped and stopped.

  ‘How did you do that?’ Ninni stared at him.

  ‘I speak baby,’ he said, attempting a joke.

  Ninni shook her head. ‘What?’

  ‘You’re not a Doctor Who fan then. Well, we’ll work around that. Now, you don’t look like you have slept in weeks. Have a shower, get some sleep. We’ll be fine.’ Jack kept rocking the baby, who stared at him with those blue eyes all new babies seemed to have.

  ‘What are you doing here, Jack?’ Ninni looked like she was about to cry again.

  ‘What’s her name? Alma didn’t tell me.’

  ‘I can’t make up my mind. My mother thinks I should name her after her, which I refuse to do.’ Ninni rubbed her head. ‘There are so many names to choose from, it makes my head hurt.’

  ‘That’s not a problem. We’ll think of one together. She’s absolutely perfect, by the way. Well done.’

  Ninni looked at the baby, then at him. ‘Why are you here?’ she asked again.

  Jack put a hand on her cheek. ‘Because I love you and if you weren’t so revolting right now I’d kiss you. Go on, have a shower. I bet you haven’t had one in days.’

  The baby cooed. Jack smiled. ‘See? We’ll be fine.’

  Ninni rubbed her eyes. ‘You’re mad, and you’re right. I do need to get clean.’

  She shuffled into the bathroom and Jack smiled at the baby.

  ‘What are you fretting about? You should be asleep, giving your poor mum a much-needed rest.’

  He walked with her, listening to the shower running. The baby kept looking at him. He knew she wasn’t really wondering who he was; she was just a couple of weeks old.

  ‘I wonder what you’re thinking,’ he said.

  He put his finger close to her hand and she gripped it with those tiny fingers, surprisingly hard. ‘I think we’ll get along just fine.’

  ‘Where did you learn how to do that?’ Ninni came out of the bathroom wearing a bathrobe and towelling her hair.

  ‘Learn what?’

  ‘She’s settled. She has been crying for hours, and I had no idea what to do with her. When you rang the doorbell, I was sure it was my neighbour coming to complain.’

  ‘When Danny was born, my mum became ill shortly afterwards. She was in and out of the hospital and she didn’t have the strength to care for him as much as she wanted to. Dad and I took over. I didn’t mind. Danny was easy. Holly was the tough one. She was four and so jealous of the baby she would spit at him.’

  Ninni laughed. ‘I like her already.’

  She came over to him and put a hand on the baby’s head. ‘I had no idea a baby would be so much work. I had convinced myself it would be like having another puppy. Boy, was I wrong.’

  She looked at him, properly this time, and asked him yet again, ‘Why are you here, Jack? And I want a straight answer, if you don’t mind.’

  ‘I came to bring you both back to the island. Back home,’ he added to make sure she understood him.

  She didn’t appear to understand anything he said. ‘I’m too tired for this. I haven’t had more than a couple of hours’ sleep since she was born.’

  Jack watched her while she flopped down on the sofa and pulled a blanket over herself. He guessed he had to wait until she woke up again.

  ‘I love you too, you idiot,’ she muttered.

  ‘Good. Then I guess we return to the island. It’s all ready for both of you. I found an old cot in the attic and repainted it. You wouldn’t believe what I found on the back of it. The names of all the babies who have slept in it. Agnar was the last one. So, when you decide on the name of this one, we’ll put her name on there as well. She’ll like that when she gets older.’

  He was talking to himself. The baby slept, and so did Ninni. Jack sat down at the end of the sofa. It was fine. The important thing was that they were going home together. He fished out his phone, took a picture of the baby and sent it to his dad. It was time he knew he was a grandad.

  Ninni woke up with a jolt. For the smallest of moments she had no idea what she was doing on the sofa.

  She sat up. The baby. Where was the baby? She looked at the sofa with her body frozen in fear. Had she fallen asleep on top of her? Relief rushed through her. No, Jack had her. Jack was here and he had the baby.

  She stood up and tied the belt around the bathrobe. Rolling her head, she heard popping in her neck. That had been the best sleep in a month, she thought.

  Ninni stopped in the kitchen doorway. It smelled divine in there. Jack had the b
aby sitting in her carry cot while he was cooking something. He talked to her, telling her what he was doing. The baby followed every word he said.

  ‘She’s a bit young for cooking lessons,’ Ninni said.

  Jack looked over his shoulder. His face lit up. ‘No, she’s not. I’m making an imprint on her brain. This way, she’ll connect me with good food.’

  Ninni came closer. She couldn’t believe he was here, in her kitchen, taking care of the baby. And, by the look of it, taking care of her far better than she’d managed.

  ‘What are you making?’

  ‘You didn’t have much in here, apart from eggs and cheese, and some questionable milk.’

  ‘Whatever it is, it smells good.’ Ninni drew her breath in. ‘Jack, I don’t understand. Why did you come?’

  ‘I told you. I have come to take you home.’

  ‘I don’t need you to rescue me, and I am home.’

  Jack pointed at the table. ‘Yes, I know that, but you are only really at home on the island. And also I came to apologise,’ he said.

  ‘No, you didn’t do anything wrong. That’s all on me. I should have told you the truth, but I chickened out. I didn’t really know how to.’ Ninni talked so fast, her words jumbled.

  ‘Yes, you should, but I should never have believed you would go back with what’s-his-face. That was my mistake. I should have been here, with you.’ Jack pointed at one of the kitchen chairs. ‘Sit down, please.’

  She was too overwhelmed to protest. He put a plate in front of her. ‘Eat. You need sustenance.’

  ‘What does this mean? Are you staying on the island now? Have you given up London?’

  Jack smiled. ‘Yes, I have. I’m opening a restaurant on the island, in the old “sea house”. I have investors and everything. We are going to serve local produce. Good food all through summer.’

  ‘And the farm? Are you a farmer now?’ Ninni couldn’t help smiling at his plans.

  ‘Not really. Olav is taking over the fields, but I’m keeping the sheep. I like them.’