Tidal Shift

by Dora Heldt

  Christine nodded like a chastened child. He was right, but then she began wondering how she could discreetly manage to prevent total chaos.

  Chapter 26

  * * *

  Inge turned around to Till, who sat behind her in the sand, carefully rolling up his pants legs.

  “Can you manage that, or shall I give you a hand?”

  “Of course I can manage, I’m not a baby,” he answered indignantly. He ran over to his fine metal shovel, which he had thrown down a few yards away in the sand. “Shall we build a dam first or a sand castle?”

  Inge tied her jacket around her waist and took off her shoes. “Whichever you like, I’m fine with both. You’ll have to show me how to do it though. I’m not sure I can remember.”

  Annoyingly, the aquarium had been shut. Luckily, Till had already known; otherwise, they would have gone there for nothing. But the little boy had still been pleased when Inge had picked him up. “Let’s go to the beach then,” he had said enthusiastically. “To the place where Mom and I usually go. I’ve got this new shovel I want to try out.”

  So now Inge sat on the sand with bare feet, watching the eight-year-old as he built the biggest dam of his sand-castle-making career with a look of sheer concentration on his face. It surprised her how trusting he was of her, even though he hadn’t known her long. But perhaps children could sense when they made people’s hearts melt, and Inge’s was a great big puddle.

  While he employed all of his strength to dig up the wet sand with his spade and form it into a huge pile—“Mom’s boss gave it to me for my birthday. I never had such a nice one. It’s much better than my old one”—Inge gazed out over the sand. This stretch of beach between Wenningstedt and Kampen was one of the calmest on Sylt. There were only a few people walking in the distance and a few over in the dunes. Apart from that it was utterly deserted.

  “So tell me, Till.” Inge looked at his bent-over back. “Do you mind where you end up in your new apartment?”

  “Of course I do!” Till plunged the shovel into the sand so forcefully that Inge jumped. “Because…I don’t want to go to a new school. And it’s a pain that I’ll have to go to my sports club on the train. But please don’t tell Mom I said that.”

  “So you’d prefer to stay on Sylt? Even if it’s in another apartment? And with different neighbors?”

  Till leaned against the shovel handle. “I don’t care about that. I just don’t want to leave.” He had tears in his eyes.

  Inge’s stomach cramped up. “Oh, Till, come here.”

  Without hesitating, he went over to her. Inge stretched her hands out, pulled him toward her, and hugged him tightly. “Listen,” she whispered in his ear, “I’m pretty sure I’ve got an apartment for you. I’m very sure, in fact. So you don’t need to worry. But that’s our secret, okay?”

  “Really?” Till beamed at her. “Okay, I won’t say anything. And I’ll keep making the dam, shall I?”

  Half an hour later, Inge became aware of the pins and needles in her legs and struggled to her feet. She went down toward the water and paddled around. It was still cold, but then it was still early in May. She looked up at the edge of the dunes. Someone was building a sand castle. Perhaps they didn’t want to risk it getting washed away by moving down closer to the surf. Inge put her sunglasses on, but she could only see a shovel, an arm, and a black-and-yellow hat. A deep voice was belting out abrupt instructions.

  “Inge, look, I’ve finished!”

  She turned around to Till, who was pointing proudly at his dam. “Amazing! That’s the biggest dam I’ve ever seen.”

  Till nodded contentedly. “And now let’s build a sand castle up there.” He pointed over to where the other sand castle was being constructed. “Oh, there’s already one over there. Never mind, maybe there are some other kids there too. Can I go see?”

  “Yes, of course.” Inge rumpled his hair. “Off you go.”

  She watched as he ran toward the sand castle and then cautiously peeped over the wall once he had reached it. It was already several feet high, and much larger in diameter than the average sand castle, partially obscuring the people building it. The shovel belonging to the person in the black-and-yellow hat stopped. Till turned back and waved her over. As she walked, she could make out another head in the castle. Inge held her breath; Walter had the same black-and-yellow hat. She shook the thought away. After all, Borussia Dortmund had sold hundreds of thousands of them. Reassured, she carried on. But then she heard the man’s voice.

  “You see? This is how you build a proper sand castle.”

  Walter. And now he had seen her too.

  “God, Inge! What are you doing here? Look, Kalli, that’s my wife.” He wiped the sweat from his forehead and stuttered, “The boy said he was…are you…?”

  Startled, Till had run over to Inge and pushed his hand into hers. Walter’s thundering voice took some getting used to.

  “Inge?” Confused, Walter looked at his wife and the unknown child. “Why don’t I know anything about this?”

  “I’m sure he’s not hers.” Kalli had carefully climbed out of the sand castle and was taking his hat off. “Is he? Hello, Inge, I haven’t seen you in ages.”

  “Hello, Kalli. This is a surprise. Can Till join you? Or did you two want to play alone?”

  “No, no, we could use an extra pair of hands. Come in, Till, we’re still excavating.”

  Kalli lifted him over the wall, then clambered in after him. Walter watched him, saying, “Kalli, make sure you don’t knock the wall over. Watch where you’re going with those lumbering big feet of yours.”

  Inge looked at her husband in amazement. “You’re building a sand castle? You and Kalli?”

  “Heinz too. He just popped off back to the car because he thinks he has some cardboard in the trunk that we can use to make the floor sturdier. Ah, here he comes now. Hello, Heinz, look who’s here.” Heinz, laden down with cardboard and three wooden boards, was hurrying toward them with a look of gleeful surprise.

  “That’s great. Were you looking for us?”

  “No! I would never in my life have expected to find three old folks building a sand castle here by themselves. That’s the kind of thing you do with grandchildren.”

  “Well, Walter and I don’t have any. And Kalli’s are in Bremen. So what are we supposed to do?”

  Walter nodded. “I’d like some, believe you me, but I doubt our daughter will give us any. Anyway, so we went to watch the sand replenishment and got to talking about sand, and one thing led to another.”

  “Exactly.” Heinz handed him some cardboard. “Oh, that must be little Till, Anika’s son, right?”

  “Anyway, so we were talking about sand,” Walter continued, “and Kalli mentioned that he once won a competition on Norderney for the best sand castle. But it was years ago.”

  “Over thirty, to be precise,” added Heinz. “But he was sure showing off about it. So we said, ‘Come on then, show us what you can do.’ And then we bought some shovels. Walter found this deal in a shop. Three for the price of two. And now we’re here. But it turns out Kalli isn’t so hot at it anymore.”

  “Kalli,” Walter shouted in Kalli’s direction. “The wall is crumbling. That’s shoddy work.” Shaking his head, he looked at his wife. “And to think he won a competition. Laugh able really. He’s making construction errors right from the start. So whose child is this again? It’s all news to me.”

  “This is Till, the son of Anika, a good friend of mine. I’m looking after him this afternoon.”

  “And how do you know her? Why do you suddenly have such young friends? I thought you were here with Renate.”

  “I am, and by the way, we had an agreement. You were going to leave me in peace.”

  “But you’re the one who found me,” said Walter indignantly. “We were just minding our own business, building a sand castle.”

  Kalli said something to Till, who burst out laughing. He was clearly having fun.

  With a si
gh, Inge unfolded the blanket she’d brought and sank down on the sand. “Then carry on. But on one condition. No arguing in front of the child. He’s only eight.”

  Inge closed the white Frisian door. The old wooden floor-boards in the hallway glistened in the sunlight. A large bouquet of poppies had been placed on the small table next to the closet. She walked along the hallway past a number of doors that were painted different colors, some blue, others red, until she came into a huge room. In the middle was a large wooden table, set for coffee. Mark was at the head of the table, Renate to his left, then Heinz and Kalli, all wearing caps, each of them representing a different soccer team. Anika and Till were sitting at the other end of the table. He was the only one to lift his head, beaming at her and calling out, “Look, Inge, we’ve got a really big living room.”

  “Inge! Look!”

  Inge yawned and sat up, shielding her eyes from the sun. She had nodded off. Till was standing impatiently in front of her, pointing at the sand castle.

  “Walter put in a wooden floor. And the living room is really big and the bedroom’s really small. But Kalli forgot the kitchen.”

  Still drowsy, Inge squinted at the sand castle. “The kitchen?”

  “Yes, just imagine.” Till nodded energetically. “But Heinz said we can just go out to eat.”

  “Sure, go and put ideas like that in the kid’s head,” bellowed Walter from the depths of the sand castle. “Go out and eat, as if money grows on trees. And all because Kalli made a mistake.”

  “I didn’t make a mistake!” Kalli’s head suddenly popped up. “Sand castles never have kitchens. Did you have a good nap, Inge?”

  Now she was wide awake. “Oh God, how late is it? I have to get Till to Badezeit for when Anika finishes.”

  “They may not have any kitchens on Norderney.” Walter’s voice boomed out from the sand castle again. “But they normally do everywhere else, right?”

  “It’s five thirty.” Heinz knelt down in front of the castle and carefully pressed shells into the walls to form letters: “Private resid…” The remaining letters were still missing.

  Inge gave a start. She had slept for almost two hours. “Till, we have to go, your mom is waiting.”

  “Oh.” Disappointed, he turned around to his new friends. “My room isn’t finished, and we haven’t even moved in yet.”

  With a snort, Walter stood up and answered, “You don’t build a house like this in one day, you know. Not if you want it to be something special. No, we’ll have to work on it tomorrow too. But that’s enough for today—come on, men, pack up your tools.”

  “You mean I can come back tomorrow?”

  Till pulled on Inge’s sleeve enthusiastically. Walter gave Till an encouraging look. Inge looked at her husband thoughtfully, then turned back to Till.

  “We can discuss that with your mom in a minute. But the construction stops for now.”

  Walter glanced shyly at Inge. Then he straightened his hat and turned around to Heinz and Kalli. “Are you both ready? I bet Charlotte is already waiting for us with dinner on the table.”

  By the time Inge and Till arrived at Badezeit, it was just after six. They were half an hour late. Anika, who was standing behind the bar and serving drinks, looked up and pointed toward a small table by the window.

  “Coffee?”

  “Water, please,” answered Inge, nudging Till gently toward the table. Anika brought two glasses and pulled a third chair over. “So, sweetheart, did you have a good time at the beach?”

  His eyes gleamed with delight and high jinks. “It was great. Walter is nice. Heinz too. And Kalli is really funny. We built a house.” He took a gulp of his drink and kicked his legs excitedly. “I want to have one just like it. But with a kitchen. We won’t tell Kalli that though. Then we can all live in it. Walter, Heinz, Kalli, Inge, you, and me.”

  Baffled, Anika looked first at her son and then Inge.

  “My husband, my brother, and their oldest friend,” Inge hurried to explain. “We ran into them on the beach. They sometimes have strange ideas. The…”

  “Mom, Inge said that we don’t have to move away, that she knows a place for us.” Till couldn’t resist. The words burst out of him.

  “So much for our secret…” murmured Inge.

  Anika’s face darkened. “Till, I’ve spoken to you about this. We don’t have a choice in the matter. We’re in this together, remember?”

  “But Inge said…” Till’s voice was almost trembling now.

  His mother gave him a warning look. “Have you washed your hands? Go do it now, please.”

  He pouted, made a fuss of getting off the chair, and slouched away to the bathroom. Anika waited until he was out of earshot and then said sharply, “Did you have to do that? If it doesn’t work out with the apartment, then he’ll be disappointed. I had only just managed to get him to accept the idea of moving to the mainland.”

  With a deep breath, Inge decided it was time to come clean. It wasn’t right to carry on just dropping hints. She looked at Anika. “Okay, listen. I didn’t want to talk about this yet, because not all the formalities are dealt with. But perhaps you can promise me you’ll keep it to yourself for now.”

  Anika looked at her and nodded cautiously.

  “I’ve inherited a house in Wenningstedt. From my old teacher Anna Nissen—she died two months ago.” Inge turned her head and looked out over the surf. Old memories were coming back. “When I was Till’s age, I had a best friend, Sinje Nissen. We were inseparable and did everything together. In the summer we went to the beach every day. We were both very good swimmers. Until one terrible Sunday in July…It was very hot, and Sinje and I had spent the whole day picking raspberries at a farm in Morson. We went for a bike ride and decided to have one more dip in the sea before dinner. Sinje was the first to go in the water…I don’t know what happened…Maybe she got a cramp, perhaps she had been in the sun too long, maybe it was the current, but in any case, suddenly I couldn’t see her head in front of me anymore. Somehow I managed to swim over to her and grab her under the arms…but she wasn’t even moving anymore…”

  Inge blinked away the tears. It was so long ago, and yet the memories were still so vivid.

  Anika took her hand. “And then?”

  “There were some people walking along the beach. They helped me. One of the men was a doctor, but he couldn’t do anything. Sinje was dead.”

  “How old were you back then?” asked Anika, her voice hoarse.

  “We were twelve.” Inge rummaged around in her handbag for a tissue.

  “My hands are clean now.”

  Till had come back unnoticed, making them both jump. Anika was the first to respond.

  “Great. Then go into the kitchen and ask Markus whether he has any ice cream left.”

  Till was only too happy to run off. Anika reached for Inge’s hand again. “That’s terrible.”

  “Yes.” Inge blew her nose. “And do you know what the worst thing was?”

  Anika shook her head.

  “No one knew that Sinje was Anna’s biological daughter. Everyone thought Anna had adopted her after the war.”

  “But how? You can’t hide a pregnancy.”

  Inge looked back out over the water. “Sinje and I were both born in 1944, during the war. Anna was a nurse back then. In 1941 she went to help out at a military hospital in Flensburg. That’s where Sinje was born. I have no idea how Anna managed it all by herself. Once the war was over, she came back to the island with the child and told everyone that Sinje’s parents had lost their lives in a bomb attack. Everyone believed her. Her parents, her friends, everyone. And there was never any talk of a man in Anna’s life. Her parents looked after Sinje while Anna was in Kiel, so she could study. After that, she got a position as a teacher in Westerland. Anna became my class teacher, and Sinje and I became best friends.”

  Anika had been listening breathlessly. “And how do you know all of this?”

  “Anna told me. I was the only one
she ever spoke to about it, and that wasn’t until ten years after Sinje’s death. I was twenty-two by then, and I guess she had to finally get it off her chest. She always saw me as her honorary daughter—that’s why we were always so close. My family knows we stayed in contact, but they never realized how close we really were. After I left the island to marry Walter, we used to speak on the phone about twice a week. We always found things to talk about. Once a year, we went away on vacation together, always for a week in May. And I would choose the destination. Paris, London, Oslo, Majorca. The last time we went away, it was Iceland. But after that she didn’t want to travel anymore. She had seen everything she wanted to see…” Inge paused. “I miss her so much.”

  “I can tell. And who was Sinje’s father?”

  Inge shrugged. “That remained Anna’s secret. She never spoke about it. I only know that he supported her financially. I mean, she had her income as a teacher, and she also inherited a little something from her parents, but she would never have been able to afford a house like that by herself. I always thought she was renting it. I only found out that she was the owner through the will.”

  “Muuum!” Till was suddenly back at the table, this time with ice cream smeared around his mouth and a whining voice. “I’m bored.”

  “We going soon, sweetheart.” Anika tousled his hair reassuringly. “Could you please fetch me my handbag from the back?” As he ran off, she asked softly, “And now you’ve inherited the house and that’s how you have an apartment for us?”

  Inge nodded. “Exactly. There are four apartments. Three were vacation apartments until now, and Anna lived in one of them herself. I’ve already been to the lawyer with the will, and I still need to take the certificate of inheritance to the probate court in Niebüll. Then it will all be official. But until then it has to be our secret. If Walter finds out about it, then he’ll want to sell it. And I don’t want that.”