Thorleif Brenden wakes up with a start and looks around. There is light all around him. From an open window that overlooks the courtyard the sound of children shouting enters and exacerbates his headache.
He gets up and goes to the kitchen. Then he fills a glass with cold water and swallows the contents with rapid gulps. He groans with satisfaction. The next moment the door is flung open as if Kramer from Seinfeld himself is about to make an entrance. But it is only Julie with Elisabeth at her heels.
‘Hi, Daddy! I need the loo.’
‘Okay, sweetheart,’ he smiles and looks at Elisabeth. ‘Remember to close the door behind you.’
‘Okay,’ Julie replies.
‘And afterwards you must tell Daddy what you’ve just learned, promise?’ Elisabeth calls out after her daughter.
‘Yesss!’
Elisabeth smiles and looks at him tenderly. ‘Hi,’ she says in a soft and affectionate voice. ‘Did you have a good sleep?’
Thorleif shakes his head and refills his glass.
‘You certainly look as if you have.’
‘How can you tell?’ he asks her.
‘Your eyes are swollen. As if they’ve relaxed properly for once.’
‘It’s probably just an allergic reaction.’
‘Oh, you poor thing. You shouldn’t have joined us on that horse-and-cart ride. Have you taken your medication? Do you feel better for it?’
‘A bit, perhaps.’
Elisabeth strokes his cheeks and gazes at him as if he were a baby. Then she kicks off her shoes. He can hear Julie singing happily through the open bathroom door.
‘Are you going to fix the alarm today?’
‘What?’
‘The burglar alarm. We must get someone in to take a look at it.’
‘Oh, right.’
Thorleif had already forgotten that the alarm had, unexpectedly, not been working when they came back from Bogstad Farm.
‘Daddy,’ Julie shouts as she comes storming out of the bathroom. ‘Do you know what?’
‘No.’
‘I’ve learned to ride my bicycle!’
Her sense of triumph is written large across her face.
‘Really?’
Julie nods, bursting with pride.
‘Do you want to see, Daddy? Do you want me to show you?’
Thorleif looks at Elisabeth. Julie’s parents are bursting with pride, too.
‘Of course I want you to show me, sweetheart. Hang on, let me just put my shoes on.’