The Quiet Mother

54

Regína was sitting in her garden chair behind her house, looking at the trees that stretched up into the dullish-grey sky. She was wearing a winter coat and a hat, it being cold outside and winter round the corner. She didn’t answer when Konrád knocked on the door, and it crossed his mind that she was in the garden.

‘Oh, is that you?’ she said when she noticed him, as if she’d expected him again, whether today or tomorrow or sometime later. ‘I’ve always wanted to plant a proper vegetable garden here,’ she went on. ‘With swedes and lettuce. I’ve always felt the garden was a bit too small for such a thing, but that’s probably just foolishness.’

‘It doesn’t really need to take up too much space,’ said Konrád.

‘No, exactly, I’m thinking of a few carrots and swedes and potatoes that I can dig up in the autumn. I like working in the garden. Did I tell you that already? I like watching it come to life in the spring.’

‘I don’t have a green thumb myself,’ said Konrád. ‘And besides, I’m lazy.’

She pointed him to a garden chair by the wall and he went and got it and sat down beside her, and together they gazed at the garden. Konrád looked up at the sky. He thought it might rain, but hoped it wouldn’t. They sat there silently for several moments, until Konrád cleared his throat.

‘I’m not sure you told me the whole truth when we met last,’ Konrád said.

‘Oh?’

‘I’m sure you have your reasons for it, and I can understand that, but it would help me a great deal if you could tell me what you know.’

Regína stared at him, silent and questioningly.

‘Do you know a man named Daníel?’ Konrád asked.

‘Daníel?’

‘Yes. A foster child, as far as I understand.’

Regína didn’t answer him.

‘Could he be Valborg’s son?’ Konrád asked, watching a blackbird settle onto a branch high above them.

Regína cleared her throat, but didn’t answer.

‘Can you tell me anything about him?’

Regína looked up at the blackbird.

‘Regína?’

Finally, her head seemed to clear.

‘I couldn’t be with him any more after she died,’ she said. ‘I didn’t have the strength for it.’

‘Daníel?’

‘Yes.’

‘After your daughter died?’

Regína looked at him and Konrád told her that he’d spoken to the daughter of an old friend of hers in the congregation. She’d told him about Regína’s loss of her daughter and that she’d suffered greatly for a long time afterwards.

‘Were you gossiping about me?’ Regína said.

‘No, not at all. On the contrary, she was very reluctant to tell me the little she knew.’

‘Did she tell you about my husband?’

‘Yes. She did.’

‘He’s dead now. Our daughter was the only light in all that darkness. I finally managed to break free from him. It wasn’t easy. I rented a place and looked after us as well as I could, and then Sunnefa came to me and asked if I could take the boy.’

‘Why?’

Regína didn’t answer him. Konrád waited patiently. He sensed that she hadn’t spoken of such things in a long time, if ever.

‘It turned out,’ she said eventually, ‘that the people who took in the boy were... very disorderly, and then the woman had an accident. She was hit by a car and ended up dying in the hospital. The man went on drinking and... he didn’t treat the boy well, let’s say. Sunnefa spoke of neglect. They were friends of hers and had taken the boy in at her encouragement, but then he simply couldn’t stay there any longer. They were registered as his parents, and I don’t know how she did it, but Sunnefa had had it specified on the documents that they were his blood parents.’

‘Did they belong to the congregation?’

‘Yes, as far as I understand. Otherwise, I wanted nothing to do with the whole thing and didn’t ask. I didn’t want too much information. She asked if I could take the boy in, which I did, with no problem. He was lovely, though of course a bit wary at first. They got on well together, him and my daughter, and it all went fine until... until my daughter came down with the flu. Just an ordinary old flu.’

Regína got to her feet and picked up a branch that had broken off one of the trees. She was alone with her thoughts for a short time, until Konrád went to her and asked if everything was all right.

‘It’s difficult to speak of these things,’ she said. ‘Forgive me.’

‘Of course,’ he said, and just then, his phone started ringing. Konrád was going to switch it off quickly, but saw who it was and knew he had to answer. He excused himself and stepped away. Regína seemed not to care at all about the interruption.