Excerpts from
House and Home
By Helle Helle
I wake up at half-past six on Sunday morning. The sky is blue and the sun is shining. I walk up to the baker´s and buy bread and a paper, which I read on the walk back. Anders calls just after eight and says he´s going to drive down, just for the day. He managed to get a lot of work done yesterday and he´s longing to see me.
"I´ll be there in a couple of hours," he says.
"What a surprise," I say.
"You don´t sound all that happy."
"Of course I´m happy."
"I´m looking forward to seeing what you´ve been doing," he says. The minute we´ve both hung up, I go into the study and open the can of paint. There´s no time to put up masking tape, but I scatter some newspapers over the floor and start rolling on the paint in short, sharp strokes. When I have finished the four walls, I take a large brush and paint the cornerpieces and the cornice round the ceiling. I stand up the ladder, constantly on the point of losing my balance. I´m sweating and my head aches. It looks awful. Trickles of paint are running down over the panelling and there are loads of bare patches.
When I´ve done all I can I rush off to get washed. I tidy up a bit and make some coffee. Then I sit down at the kitchen table and flick through the paper, as if I´d been doing nothing else all morning. I yawn a bit. I hum.
Anders arrives at quarter past ten. I open the door for him and we hug in the hall.
"The place smells of paint," he says.
"I know, I can´t get rid of it. I´ve just given it another coat, so mind you don´t get paint on your clothes. Come and have some coffee, you can see it later."
We go through to the kitchen and I pour him some coffee.
"Why´ve you washed the bedclothes again?" he asks, pointing out at the garden.
"I haven´t. That´s the lot you threw up over."
"Why haven´t you taken them in?"
"It´s been raining all week. So I thought they might as well stay out."
"You´ll need to do better than that."
"No, no, rainwater´s really good for the washing," I say. "It makes it so soft."
He shakes his head.
"And anyway, I´ve been so busy," I say.
"Did you have a good time last night?"
"How d´you mean?"
"Weren´t you supposed to be going round to Charlotte´s?"
"Oh that. No, she wasn´t feeling well, so we called it off."
Translated by Barbara Haveland
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