The Quiet Mother

33

Eygló had tried to get hold of the accountant, Stella’s great-nephew, all day, but without success. She started calling him before noon but he didn’t answer the phone, and didn’t seem to have a secretary to take messages. The day passed, and Eygló decided to try one last time when it was nearing six o’clock. After several rings, the man finally answered. He remembered Eygló immediately, and she sensed his annoyance right away. In a petulant tone, he said he was busy and on his way to a meeting, and Eygló decided to get straight to the point before he could end the call abruptly. She’d racked her brain over something that had been bothering her ever since she and Konrád met the accountant, and she felt she had to get to the bottom of those speculations.

‘Do you know how they managed to get her on their side?’ she asked. ‘What was the clincher? There must have been something.’

‘Get her to what? Who?’

‘Stella. On their side. My father and his partner. Do you know how they managed to deceive her?’

‘Why are you bothering me with this?’ the man said, and Eygló envisioned his thick lips and remembered the heavy air in his office. ‘I told you I didn’t want to talk about it. I have no interest in it. It’s a family matter and no one else’s business!’

‘That’s all I want to know, then I’ll leave you alone,’ said Eygló. ‘I promise that—’

The man hung up on her. Eygló stared at the phone, entered the number again and waited. It was busy. She thought for a moment, then made her decision. A moment later she got into her car and drove as fast as she could towards the city centre. Questions had been gnawing at her non-stop since she woke up that morning and walked hesitantly into the living room, still with that sea-soaked figure in her mind’s eye, her father Engilbert bending over the piano.

The accountant was stepping out of the office building when Eygló arrived. She’d had to park her car at a considerable distance and hurry to his place of work, and was somewhat short of breath when she called to him to wait. He looked around, and when he saw who it was, he quickened his pace. He was disappearing round the corner of the cathedral when she caught up with him and grabbed his arm.

‘Wait a minute, for God’s sake. Don’t make me have to run after you,’ she said breathlessly.

‘What do you think you’re doing?’ the man said, tearing himself free. ‘Can’t you just leave me alone?’

‘I need to ask you a few questions, and then I’ll be done,’ Eygló said.

‘I’m not interested in talking to you about this. It’s a family matter that we don’t discuss with strangers!’

‘Yes, I realise that, and excuse me for being so persistent, but I’ve been thinking a lot about this and it crossed my mind to ask you if there was something that tipped the scale. Sometimes that’s the case. With people in that... that line of work.’

‘Fraudulent mediums, you mean?’

‘Yes,’ Eygló said reluctantly, thinking of her father. ‘If that’s what you think.’

‘They knew about her son,’ the man said, continuing on his way but no longer trying to avoid her. ‘How he died. I told you that.’

‘Yes, I remember,’ said Eygló.

‘Naturally, it wasn’t difficult to get hold of that information,’ said the man. ‘Why do you want to know this?’

‘What do you think they did with that information?’ asked Eygló. ‘Did it have anything to do with music?’

‘How do you know that?’

‘Was that the case?’

‘Her son was immersed in music,’ said the man, stopping. He couldn’t hide his surprise.

‘What do you mean by that? Was he studying music? Did he play an instrument?’

‘Yes. He was very skilled. A top student.’

‘Was it the piano? The instrument he played?’

‘Yes, how do you know... who told you that?’

‘And what happened?’ Eygló asked.

The man stared at her silently.

‘What happened?’ Eygló asked again.

‘They made contact with her son,’ the man said finally.

‘Through the piano?’

Another long silence. Eygló waited breathlessly.

‘This is a sensitive family matter and is really none of your business,’ the man said again.

‘I understand it’s a sensitive issue,’ said Eygló, ‘but you can’t say that it’s none of my business. Was it through the piano? That they made contact with her son?’

‘The boy supposedly gave them a sign via an old piano that he practised on,’ said the man. ‘Stella was adamant that she’d heard the same note played over and over without anyone touching the piano, and was convinced she could have communicated with her son in that way.’

It was evening when Eygló switched on the lights in her kitchen and living room and went to the piano, sat down and ran her hands over the keys. She remembered that when she went to bed the night before, the one key was still stuck and that she’d closed the lid carefully before retiring.

Eygló heard a knock on the door. She wasn’t expecting any visitors and went and opened the door hesitantly. On the doorstep stood the raggedy woman who’d spoken to her in the car park of Fossvogur cemetery following Málfríður’s funeral, and who’d said she’d known the old woman. She was just as raggedly dressed, like a beggar, of an uncertain age and with strong facial features.

‘Has she made contact?’ the woman asked unceremoniously. ‘Our Málfríður? Has she made her presence known?’

‘No,’ said Eygló, not wanting to be impolite even if the woman was unusually pushy. She had known Málfríður, though.

‘Did Málfríður say how she would do it? How she was going to go about it?’

‘No,’ said Eygló. ‘And I don’t know if—’

‘Do you think she hasn’t crossed over?’

‘Sorry, I... it’s late and I’m busy.’

‘Is she dwelling in the realm of light?’

‘Yes. Goodbye,’ said Eygló. She wanted to get rid of the woman as quickly as possible.

‘What are you afraid of?’ asked the woman.

‘I don’t have time for this. I’m going to ask you not to bother me any more.’

‘What is it you fear?’ The woman took a step towards her.

Eygló hurriedly shut the door and waited for a minute or two in the hall, hoping the woman had left. When she thought the woman was gone, she sat back down at the piano, and after a few moments her mind wandered to the conversation she’d had with Stella’s great-nephew and to how those two partners, Engilbert and Konrád’s father, had convinced Stella that she could get in touch with her son via her piano. Eygló had heard such stories about resourceful, fraudulent mediums, and perhaps those stories had followed her into her sleep when Engilbert appeared to her in a dream.

If it was a dream. When she went into the living room the next morning, the piano’s lid was open and the key, which she’d been absolutely unable to move the night before, was now loose and indistinguishable from the others.

Eygló ran her hand over the piano, seeing the ragged woman in her mind’s eye and trying not to think too much about signs from the beyond.