Open Grave

Twenty-one

There was life and activity at the Ohler house. Even laughter. When Liisa Lehtonen let out her cackle for the first time Agnes did a double take. It had been a long time. Now she was compelled to leave the kitchen and peek through the chink of the door to the hall.

Hanging wallpaper was clearly a pleasurable job. For the Finnish woman anyway. Birgitta von Ohler was obviously of a different opinion. From the kitchen Agnes could hear her muttering, which sometime rose to more loud-voiced objections. But Birgitta had to accept the consequences. She was the one who had taken the initiative for the renovations. She had managed to convince Bertram with the argument that in any event the first impression of the house should be light.

“Now it feels like stepping into a crypt,” she had maintained.

Expressed a little insensitively, thought Agnes, but she silently agreed with her. The old wallpaper must have been hanging for thirty-five years and even when it was new it had not made anyone happy. The pattern was dark leaves of some vague sort, perhaps grapevines, against an even darker background.

Now the hall would be lightened up with a light cream-colored paper with elements of barely visible, light-blue lines. Agnes thought the sight of the heaps of plastic-covered widths and all the working material was almost indecent, a feeling that was hard to explain. Perhaps it was because it had been so long since anything new had been brought into the house. Everything had settled into a quiet rut where she and the professor had become increasingly worn in increasingly worn surroundings. For that reason she perceived Liisa’s loud laughter as almost improper, like laughing out loud in a hospital ward of dying patients.

Couldn’t they have waited until Bertram died? was Agnes’s next blasphemous thought while she sliced leeks. She suspected that it was Birgitta who would take over the house when the professor was gone. She had hinted at something along those lines, and even said that Agnes could go on living in the house as long as she wanted, “no matter what happened.” The only thing that could happen was that the old man would drop down and die. Or perhaps it would happen in the opposite order, she’d go first and then the professor?

She sighed heavily, even though she was content cooking for more than just the professor and herself, neither of them particularly interested in food any longer.

As far as she knew he was in the study. He would spend the day answering letters, he said in the morning. But not that many letters had arrived, she thought, that it would take the whole day to write responses. But it’s all the same, he kept calm and she could catch her breath a little.

Birgitta’s voice from the hall sounded more and more whiny. Agnes thought it was due to fatigue, she had looked out of sorts already that morning, but Liisa had hinted that Birgitta was simply upset that she did not get to accompany her boss to Baltimore, which he had more or less promised her. That would have to be as it was. Birgitta liked leek au gratin and that she would get.

She let go of the thoughts about the family, let the knife work over the cutting board and sliced up the last leek, then greased a casserole dish and noted at the same time that the oven had reached 175 degrees. The leek au gratin was only one of the dishes for lunch. Birgitta had bought mackerel, which Agnes would grill. With that boiled potatoes and a cold sauce with a touch of curry flavoring. A green salad would complement the whole thing.

As she leaned over to put in the casserole she saw the reflection of her face flutter like a shadow in the oven window, and happened to think about Greta. Her sister had called earlier that morning and told about the policewoman’s visit and said that she thought Ann Lindell seemed pleasant. Based on the little she had seen, Agnes was prepared to agree.

Greta had reported that Viola was getting steadily worse. She mostly slept and during her waking moments she did not say much. Edvard tried to feed her, but she mostly refused. He had only gotten a little porridge into her.

Agnes understood that it was a matter of days, perhaps hours, before Viola would be gone for good. This pained her. Viola had always been a fixed point, someone to hold on to. During the worst time, after Anna came back, Agnes had secretly gone over to Viola as often as she could.

Her father’s fanaticism had taken on an increasingly threatening tone. The sermons in the home were not relieved by the good news from the continent. Not even the end of the war made him dampen his pessimism and Judgment Day prophecies. Then Viola became the rescue for ten-year-old Agnes.

During all of Agnes’s teenage years their contact continued and was interrupted only by her move to town in 1953. Viola did all she could to dechristianize Agnes, she understood that completely later on. Or in any case Viola wanted to sweep away the fear of God that she loathed so sincerely. God should be a nice fellow, nothing else, was Viola’s opinion. Agnes had been influenced and her father’s authority had gradually been undermined.

It could not be denied that sometimes she compared her father Aron to the professor. Their capricious moods and will to dominance were common denominators, likewise their vocal resources-in any event, when the professor was younger.

She had been reconciled with her father. Now Agnes was afraid of neither God nor Bertram von Ohler. He was a piece of meat and bone that staggered around the house, nothing more. The reluctant respect she once felt was completely gone. If anything she felt contempt, sometimes even loathing.

It was Greta who pointed that out, saying something to the effect that now and then Agnes looked at her employer with hate in her eyes. Agnes had indignantly dismissed it, but of course it was that way, although she had a hard time admitting it even to herself.

Hate, she thought, standing by the window toward the back side of the house, was that what made Anna leave the island the second time? She was living with Viola and waiting in vain for her parents to restore her to favor, but they barely noticed their daughter. She might just as well have been on the other side of the globe. After a year Anna left and was never heard from again.

What was it that created these awful emotions? Perhaps Viola knew? Or Greta? But she never said anything about Anna. It was as if she never existed.

The regret at the loss of her sister had always rested like a black clump inside Agnes, and the sorrow at having lost her had increased over the years. What she could not understand was why she should be punished, she was only a child, ten or eleven years old, who loved her sister. Anna could have sent a card, shown that she was not angry at Agnes. But nothing.

Anna had always been the happy one, unlike her sisters not only in terms of appearance but also in her disposition. She was the one who came up with mischief and lightened the mood in the home. Despite her father’s protests she could sometimes hum popular songs that she picked up from the radio at her neighbor, perhaps at Viktor’s.

In Lundquist’s yard the gardener worked on. Now he was pruning lilacs and other bushes. It was about time, thought Agnes, it was drab and dark back there.

Perhaps she should ask him if he could prune the fruit trees? It was a long time since that had been done. The professor would surely have no objections.

Shame! It was shame that drove her parents to such implacability. This idea had occurred to her before, but now it seemed obvious. It was something Liisa had talked about when they were having morning coffee. She had read an article about a mother who kept her mentally disabled daughter locked up in the cellar her whole life. When she was asked why, the only explanation she had given was that she was ashamed of showing her daughter to the outside world.

Shame. Anna had left her position even though Aron Andersson promised that she would serve with Professor Carl von Ohler. That was why he had so quickly sent Greta there as a replacement. You don’t disappoint the powers that be, whether they are heavenly or earthly. For that reason Anna had been punished in this cruel way, outlawed from the family. But was that the only reason?

Agnes sighed. She envied the gardener. He stood with a saw in his hand observing his work. She had studied him on several occasions. He always worked alone. Perhaps that was why she felt a certain affinity with him?

Then he suddenly turned around and it looked as if he was staring right toward the kitchen window where she stood. Agnes quickly stepped back.

In order to justify her curiosity-he must have seen her-she decided to exchange a few words with him. She pulled on her boots, hung the old coat over her shoulders, and went out.

She saw that he noticed her at once and set a course toward the corner of the lot. He came up to meet her.

“Excuse me,” Agnes began, “I saw that you were outside.”

“Yes, I am most of the time,” said the man with a smile.

“I was thinking… it looks so nice there where you’ve pruned, and perhaps you might want to look over our overgrown bushes too.”

The man let his eyes travel over the professor’s yard.

“There are lots of things that are neglected,” Agnes continued. “The trees too for that matter.”

He had taken off his work gloves and set them up on Bunde’s fence. There was something thoughtful in his features. He appeared to hesitate, as if he did not know how he should respond to the offer.

“Maybe you don’t have time?”

“Time lives a life of its own,” the gardener said.

Agnes stared at him with surprise.

“You don’t rule over it,” he added.

Agnes shook her head.

“What’s the matter?”

He reached out one hand, as if he thought she would fall down over the fence.

“You’re as pale as a sheet.”

Agnes backed up a couple of steps.

“What did you say?”

“That you’re pale.”

She turned around and walked quickly back to the house.