It wasn’t long before Paddy roared up with Dani’s father on the bike. A woman was running up the hill behind them.
“The nurse!” cried Grandma, looking dismayed.
“Did he have to bring her along?”
At first Dani didn’t understand what Grandma meant. This was a nurse?
She wasn’t wearing a nurse’s uniform but instead a dress covered with daisies, and she was carrying a cake box.
It looked as if they were going to have to eat another cake!
Paddy drove right up to the table and helped Gianni from the bike.
Suddenly Dani came to life.
“Dad!” she cried and rushed up and threw her arms around his neck.
“Ouch! Please, Dani, careful!” he said. “I’ll fall over.”
But Paddy and the flowery nurse were right there and helped him to a chair.
Dani’s father sank into it.
“There!”
He looked around and wiped his forehead.
Ella stepped forward and held out the flower.
“Welcome to our happy island,” she said.
“Well, thank you!” said Dani’s dad. “It’s not my birthday, is it?”
“No, but you’ve got a girlfriend!” said Sven. “I’m not lying, am I, Gianni?”
Dani looked at her father. But he didn’t seem to have heard.
“Amore!” He turned to Dani. “Come, sit here with me.”
He pointed at the chair beside him.
Dani went over and sat there stiffly.
“Sit a little closer,” he said, giving her a tug.
Dani inched her chair a little closer.
“You’re so brown!” said Dad. “You must have been doing lots of swimming.”
Dani didn’t need to answer because Ella took over.
“Yes, she has. Fishing too.”
“What sort of fish?” asked Dani’s father.
“Perch mostly,” said Ella, “but you haven’t come here to talk about fish, have you, Gianni?”
“No, I haven’t…”
He turned to Dani again.
He wasn’t the slightest bit brown. He was white as a sheet, patched and stitched in several places.
Dani stole a glance at him.
“I know, Dani,” he said, as if he could read her thoughts. “I look terrible. I shouldn’t have come to see you yet, but I couldn’t wait. I’ve missed you so terribly!”
“Why didn’t you call then?” mumbled Dani.
“Haven’t I called? I have! Every evening at seven o’clock after dinner!”
“No…not yesterday!”
“Come, Dani,” said Dad. “Come and give me a hug.”
Up until now this story could have had a happy ending.
Dani’s father could have had a hug and everyone would have been happy and satisfied. At least for a moment.
It was Sven’s fault it didn’t work out that way.
“Gianni!” he burst out. “Can you finally answer my question! Is it true you’ve got a girlfriend?”
And Ella joined in: “Tell the truth, Gianni! You only need to say yes or no.”
But Gianni said nothing at all. Not until Grandma gave him a reproachful look.
“Well, it’s like this…” he said tentatively. “I have met someone I think Dani is going to like very much… May I introduce you to Sadie?”
Dani’s eyes flew wide open. This was Sadie!
Sadie smiled at Dani, but Dani didn’t smile back.
“Won’t you say hello?” asked Dad.
Dani shook her head.
Sadie went red in the face and started looking for something in her handbag—a packet of cigarettes.
Ella wrinkled her nose.
“It’s bad for your health to smoke,” she announced. “You should know that, working in a hospital.”
Sadie quickly put the packet back in her bag.
Ella looked at her critically and turned to Dani’s father.
“In any case, I think you should have talked to your daughter first,” she said.
“Why should he?” asked Sven. “Is there something wrong with Sadie?”
“See for yourself!” said Ella. “She smokes!”
“Only when I’m nervous,” mumbled Sadie.
Then Grandma stepped in: “You must excuse us, Sadie, but this is a little unexpected for Dani. Since her mother died she’s lived alone with her father. She’s used to being everything to him…”
“Sadie knows that,” Gianni interrupted, and reached for Dani again, but she wriggled away. “Please, Dani, can’t you just say hello?”
Dani pressed her lips together.
“Gianni! It doesn’t matter what you say,” explained Ella. “Dani will never say hello to Sadie if she doesn’t want to! And I understand her!”
“Ella, will you calm down,” her mother said.
“No, I can’t!” replied Ella. “Now Dani’s whole life has been ruined! It’s a catastrophe!”
“Was it a catastrophe for you when I met Paddy?” asked her mother.
“That’s different,” said Ella.
Dani’s father crumpled in his chair. Sadie mechanically stirred her spoon in the coffee cup.
“Won’t anyone try the cake?” she asked.
“Perhaps we can save it till later,” Ella’s mother suggested.
But there was no later, because soon after that Dani’s father decided that they should go.
“It was silly of us to come here,” he said. “Really. We might as well go back to the hospital. Is that what you want us to do, Dani?”
“Yes, she does,” said Ella. “Can’t you see how sad she is?”
“Won’t you have a look at the island first?” Paddy tried.
“No, we’ll go as soon as we can get hold of a taxi boat,” said Dani’s dad.
He eased himself slowly out of the chair and called for one.
“It’ll be here in ten minutes,” he said and turned again to Dani.
“I know you refused to say hello to Sadie, but perhaps you could bring yourself to say goodbye?”
Dani’s face didn’t change.
Then her father lost his temper.
“I’m ashamed of you,” he told her. “Do you hear me? Ashamed!”
But this was too much for Grandma.
“That’s enough, Gianni,” she said sharply. “You could have spared us all this!”
“What do you mean?”
“You know very well.”
“Bringing Sadie with me?”
“Of course. Don’t you think the child has been through enough? She almost lost her father and now you turn up with an unknown woman in tow and expect her to be pleased! I don’t think Dani needs any more worry. Come, Daniela!”
That is Dani’s proper name, Daniela. But it’s only used when things are serious.
Grandma took her by the hand and went towards the house.
“Wait,” called Sadie running after them. “We can’t end like this. Can I say something?”
Dani came to a stop on the steps.
“It’s all my fault,” said Sadie. “I shouldn’t have come, but I so badly wanted to meet you.”
“And now you have,” said Grandma.
“You can meet her again some other time. If it’s still relevant.”
She disappeared inside with Dani.
Sadie blinked away a tear.
Ella went up and looked at her again.
“Children can actually be very difficult,” she said.
But when she tried to go on, Paddy interrupted: “Stop. That’s enough now.”
And that was the last word.
The taxi boat arrived and Paddy helped Gianni back onto the motorbike and drove him to the jetty.
Once again Sadie had to run.
“She didn’t laugh one single time,” said Ella when they had disappeared.
“But Gianni didn’t tell any funny stories either,” muttered Sven. “What shall we do now? Go fishing?”
&nbs
p; They went off to the fishing spot. They stood and waited silently for bites. You’re supposed to be quiet when you fish, otherwise you scare them away. But Sven couldn’t be quiet for long.
He tried to lighten the gloomy mood with a few jokes.
“What did the baker do when robbers turned up?”
“Battered them,” yawned Ella, because she’d read that joke on an ice cream stick.
“Who doesn’t move a whisker the whole holidays?”
Ella knew that joke too, because she’d read it on another ice cream stick.
“The barber!”
Dani thought they were very bad jokes.
And then Paddy appeared.
“Come on, Sven,” he said, “you can test-drive my motorboat.”
Sven was overjoyed and disappeared with Ella’s extra father. Dani watched them with relief.
She liked her cousin a lot, but he could be a bit dense. He didn’t know how it felt for her not to be everything to her dad.
It was probably because Sven didn’t have a father himself. Only a mother and a grandmother and grandfather. And a parakeet called Tiger.
Only when Grandma and Sven had gone back to town did Dani start speaking again.
They were sitting on the jetty, watching the sunset.
There, right on the edge of the jetty, Dani said something no one had ever heard her say before:
“I wish I had my mother,” she said.
And it was like a shiver running over the water.
“I want to be everything to somebody,” she explained. “Do you know what I mean, Ella?”
“But you are!” said Ella. “You are everything to me. Write it down in your book! It should say I AM EVERYTHING TO ELLA!”
She meant the book that Dani wrote in her first year at school, called My Happy Life.
But that year was finished and Dani wasn’t sure that her life was actually happy any more.
Besides, she no longer had the book. She had given it to her teacher at the end-of-year party.
Ella hugged Dani.
But it didn’t help for long.
As soon as Ella let go Dani felt unhappy again.
“This is no good,” said Ella. “I think I’ll have to make a spell!”
“A spell?”
“Stay here!”
She disappeared up to the house.
When she came back she had a crow’s feather and a jar of muck.
“Open your mouth and close your eyes!” she commanded.
Dani hesitated.
“Do I have to?”
“Yes, if you want to feel happy again,” said Ella.
Dani did as she was told and Ella began to feed her with the muck.
First it tasted strange, but then it tasted of oats. Then it tasted of butter and cucumber.
And raisins!
When the contents of the jar were finished Dani was allowed to open her eyes.
Ella was dancing about with catlike steps, humming a single note and waving the crow’s feather.
She moved faster and faster, and in a minute she pulled Dani up and made her join the dance.
Just as Dani was starting to find it funny, Ella suddenly stopped and let out a loud, blood-curdling cry.
“There!” she gasped. “Now your father doesn’t have a girlfriend any more!”
She had hardly uttered the words when the door opened up at the house and Ella’s mother waved the phone.
“Dani,” she called. “Telephone for you!”
Dani ran so fast she almost flew.
It was Dad!
“Dani, I can’t sleep,” he said. “I’m so terribly sorry!”
“Me too,” whispered Dani.
“Everything went wrong today. It didn’t turn out at all as I thought it would.”
“I know,” said Dani.
“But you can sleep better tonight. I’ve talked to Sadie…”
Dad cleared his throat and Dani pressed the phone harder to her ear.
“I’ve told her that it’s just too soon for me to have a new relationship.”
“Rela…what?”
“Too soon to have…a girlfriend, I mean. I’ll never do anything you’re not happy with! The main thing is that you’re happy again… Can you hear me, Dani? Are you there?”
“Yes, the main thing is that I’m happy again,” Dani repeated.
And so it was. The main thing was that she would be happy again.
Dad paused for a moment. Then he said: “Of course Sadie is sad…”
“She can probably find someone else to be a girlfriend to,” suggested Dani.
“I’m sure she can,” Dad agreed. “But she’d thought up lots of fun things you could do together while I still have to be in the hospital.”
“Like what?”
“Like a little trip to her sister Lisette who has Iceland ponies.”
“In Iceland?”
“No, in Risinge.”
“Is that close to Iceland?” asked Dani.
“No, it’s close to Northbrook.”
“Oh, Northbrook,” Dani exclaimed.
Ella lives in Northbrook when she isn’t on the island.
“You could choose for yourself which horse you wanted to ride,” Dad continued.
“I’m scared of horses,” Dani reminded him.
“I know, but Iceland ponies are very nice and gentle.”
“Ella says that too,” said Dani. “Wait, Dad!”
She turned to Ella, who had followed her and was sitting close by.
“Do you want to ride Iceland ponies?” Dani asked. “Except not in Iceland.”
“Where then?”
“Close to Northbrook!”
Ella nodded eagerly.
“That’s all right,” Dani said to her dad. “But only if Ella can come too.”
“I’m sure that will be fine,” said Dad. “Sadie will do anything to be able to meet you again!”
“It’s fine for her to meet me,” said Dani. “Just not you!”
“I’ll tell her that,” Dad promised.
“Don’t forget, Ella has to be allowed to choose her own horse too!”
“Absolutely. What do you think about next weekend? Sadie could come and get you.”
Ella nodded even more eagerly.
“Yes,” said Dani, “but tell Sadie that Ella is just as nice as me. In fact, nicer even!”
“Yes, I know…”
Dad cleared his throat again.
“Then maybe Sadie could come and visit us sometime,” he suggested carefully. “When I’m better, I mean.”
“In that case she could only meet me,” said Dani.
“Where would I go then?”
“You can go and see Grandma and Grandpa and help Sven with his homework.”
“Or go in the garage,” whispered Ella.
“Or be in the kitchen making dinner,” suggested Dad. “And now we’ll say goodnight!”
The phone call ended and Ella tickled Dani on the nose with the crow’s feather.
“It worked,” she said happily.
“What did?” asked Dani.
“The spell!”
And so the day came to an end.
By the time Dani and her father had finished talking, the sky was black and stars were peeping out.
As they watched, one suddenly broke loose and hurtled through the sky.
“Look!” cried Ella. “We have to wish for something! What do you wish for?”
Dani didn’t have to think for long. She always had a couple or three or four wishes stored up.
“I wish that we’re allowed to take our hamsters to school when it starts next year. And you?”
“Me?” said Ella. “I don’t know. When you’re here I have everything I could wish for.”
And a familiar feeling spread through Dani.
She felt warm and light inside even though it was so dark around them. Happiness had turned up again!
In that moment life was exactly as it should be.
&
nbsp; Life according to Dani.
Copyright
Print edition first published in 2016 by Gecko Press
This e-book edition published in 2016 by Gecko Press
PO Box 9335, Marion Square, Wellington 6141, New Zealand
[email protected]
English language edition © Gecko Press Ltd 2016
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted or utilized in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher
First published by Bonnier Carlsen, Stockholm, Sweden.
Published in the English language by arrangement with Bonnier Group Agency,
Stockholm, Sweden
Original title: Livet enligt Dunne
Text © Rose Lagercrantz 2015
Illustrations © Eva Eriksson 2015
The cost of this translation was defrayed by a subsidy from the Swedish Arts Council, gratefully acknowledged.
Translated by Julia Marshall
Edited by Penelope Todd
Typesetting by Vida & Luke Kelly, New Zealand
Hardback (USA) ISBN: 978–1–776570–70–6
Paperback ISBN: 978–1–776570–71–3
Ebook ISBNs: 978–1–776570–72–0 (epub); 978–1–776570–73–7 (mobi)
For more curiously good books, visit www.geckopress.com
More curiously good books from
GECKO PRESS
Life According to Dani Page 2
