"I've been very busy at work," he said. "And besides, I have all of you."
This last comment prompted her to start fidgeting with the salad servers. She tossed the tomatoes and cucumbers energetically. "Yes, but you see, we're thinking of going south again. For another term. The last one," she said quickly, giving him a glance and looking more and more guilty.
"South?" He hung on to the word. "To Somalia?"
"Erik has an offer. We haven't given them our answer yet," she said quickly. "But we're giving it serious consideration. Partly because of Matteus. We'd like him to see some of the country and learn the language. If we leave in August, we'll be there in time for the start of the school year."
Three years, he thought. Three years without Ingrid and Matteus. In Norway only at Christmas. Letters and postcards, and his grandson taller each visit, and a year older, such abrupt changes.
"I have no doubt that you're needed down there," he said, making an effort to keep his voice steady. "You're not thinking that my welfare should stop you from going, are you? I'm not 90, Ingrid."
She blushed a little.
"I'm thinking about Grandmother too."
"I'll take care of my mother. You're going to crush that salad to bits," he said.
"I don't like it that you're all alone," she said.
"I have Kollberg, you know."
"But he's just a dog!"
"You should be glad he doesn't understand what you're saying." Sejer cast a glance at Kollberg who was sleeping peacefully under the table. "We do pretty well. I think you should go if that's what you really want to do. Is Erik tired of treating appendicitis and swollen tonsils?"
"Things are different there," she said. "We can be so much more useful."
"What about Matteus? What will you do with him?"
"He'll go to the American kindergarten, along with a whole bunch of other children. And besides," she said, "he actually has relatives there that he's never met. I don't like that. I want him to know everything."
"American?" he said. "What do you mean by 'know everything'?"
He thought about Matteus's real parents and their fate.
"We won't tell him about his mother until he's older."
"You should go!" he said.
She looked at him and smiled. "What do you think Mama would have said?"
"She would have said the same thing. And then she would have had a good cry in bed later on."
"But you won't?"
Matteus came running over with a picture book in one hand and an apple in the other. "'It was a dark and stormy night.' Doesn't that sound a little scary?" Sejer said.
"Ha!" his grandson snorted, climbing up on to his lap.
"The coals are hot," Ingrid said. "I'm going to put on the steaks."
"Put them on," he said.
She placed the meat on the grill, four pieces in all, and went inside to get the drinks.
"I have a green rubber python in my room," Matteus whispered. "Should we put it in her shoe?"
Sejer hesitated. "I don't know. Do you think that's a good idea?"
"Don't you?"
"As a matter of fact, I don't."
"Old people are such chickens," he said. "I'm the one she'll blame."
"OK," he said. "I'll look the other way."
Matteus hopped down, ran to get his snake, and then carefully stuffed it inside his mother's clog.
"You can keep reading now."
Sejer cringed at the thought of the awful rubber snake and how it would feel against her toes. '"It was a dark and stormy night. There were robbers in the mountains, and wolves as well.' Are you sure this isn't too scary?"
"Mama has read it to me lots of times." He bit into his apple and chewed contentedly.
"Don't take such big bites," Sejer said. "You might get it caught in your throat."
"Read, Grandpa!"
I must be getting old, he thought. Old and anxious.
'"It was a dark and stormy night,'" he began again, and just at that moment Ingrid came back, carrying three bottles of beer and a Coke. He stopped and gave her a long look. Matteus did too.
"Why are you staring at me like that? What's wrong with you?"
"Nothing," they said in unison, bending over their book. She set the bottles on the table, opened them, and looked around for her shoes. Picked them up, turned them upside down, and knocked them together three times. Nothing happened. It's stuck in the toe, they thought gleefully. Then everything happened at once. Sejer's son-in-law Erik appeared in the doorway, Matteus jumped down from his lap and rushed across the room. Kollberg leaped up from