Cinderella Girl by Carin Gerhardsen Read Free Book Online

hard. She took out a saucepan from the cupboard under the stove and placed it on the counter. Then she dragged the child’s chair all the way from the dining-room table to the sink, climbed up on it and turned on the water. She took a firm hold of the saucepan with both hands and held it under the running water.
    ‘Ouch!’
    One hand ended up under the stream and the scalding hot water caused her to let go of the saucepan; when the saucepan landed in the sink hot water bounced against the edge and up into her face. She almost lost her balance, but at the last moment managed to grab hold of the counter. She screamed and screamed while she crawled back down to the floor, but no one came to her rescue.
    The pain in her face subsided fairly quickly, but the burned hand was throbbing and soon turned completely red. The tears streamed down her cheeks and she lay as if paralysed on the kitchen floor, howling. She hoped that Mummy, despite everything, would hear her and come running like she always did when Hanna hurt herself. But she knew that it wouldn’t happen this time; Mummy had got tired of her at last. Why did Hanna nag and whine, why did she have to be so difficult all the time? Mummy had warned her many times and said she couldn’t put up with any more fussing. Now she’d had enough and taken Lukas with her and moved away. Without Hanna. And it probably served her right.
    When she had recovered somewhat, the hunger pangs asserted themselves again. Hanna resumed her hunt for something to eat. Something that didn’t need to be cooked. She went through cupboards and drawers methodically until she found the sweets. She’d ventured up on the chair again to hunt in one of the upper cupboards, where deep bowls and large platters were stacked. Here Mummy hid old bags of sweets from parties, a box of chocolates, a bag of lollipops, a tin of gummy bears and a bag the contents of which Hanna could not see. She poked around a little with one arm and everything exceptthe box of chocolates crashed down to the floor. After a few more attempts she managed to push it so far forward on the shelf that she could grasp it with her fingers. She climbed carefully down from the chair, sat down on the floor and stuffed her mouth full of sweets. Mummy wouldn’t like it, but then she should have stayed here with Hanna if she wanted to say no.
    When she was full she wiped her sticky fingers on her nightie and got up. Her nappy was now so heavy that one Velcro fastening had come loose. Hanna peeled off the other one too and freed herself from the burden, which thudded on to the kitchen floor. She wandered aimlessly around the deserted apartment before she sat down on the floor in front of the TV in the living room. She rubbed her sore hand and studied the buttons on the remote control apprehensively. It was impossible to know which of the many buttons she should push to get it to work, but after she randomly played with the keypad for a few minutes the TV suddenly came on.
    She remained sitting there, in front of an incomprehensible programme with women and men wearing strange clothes and speaking a peculiar language, her thoughts fluttering around. At last she felt fairly comfortable, with her belly full and the room filled with TV voices. But her hand still hurt. It would really be nice if Mummy or Daddy could come anyway and blow on it so the hurt would go away. But Daddy would be gone for many days, she knew that. And Mummy had moved away.
    But maybe Mummy would stop by anyway to visit her? Then Hanna would be really happy and nice and not nag or whine at all. She would show Mummy that she coulddo better and that she had done everything right when she had to take care of herself. She would sleep in her own bed and make nice drawings for Lukas. She would take a bath and wash her hair – without shrieking. She would not take out a lot of toys unnecessarily and she would put the ones she was finished playing with back in their place. When