A Faraway Island by Annika Thor Read Free Book Online Page A

their seats, which were directly in front of the teacher’s lectern.
    “You, too, Stephie!” her teacher said sharply. “And Evi.”
    “But I’m not Jewish,” Evi cried. “My mother’s Catholic.”
    “That makes no difference,” the teacher said coldly. “Go sit at the back.”
    Evi got up from behind her desk and rushed out of the room, slamming the door behind her. There was total silence.
    “Come, now,” the teacher said to Stephie. “Do as you’re told.”
    Stephie gathered up her books and moved to an empty desk at the back. The teacher then picked up a piece of chalk and, without another word, started writing arithmetic problems on the blackboard.
    “What are you sitting there dreaming about?” Uncle Evert asks kindly.
    “Don’t play with your food,” Aunt Märta scolds at the same time.
    Stephie snaps back to the present. Looking down at her plate, she’s surprised to see that she has been drawing something in her mashed potatoes with her fork. A star. Like the gold stars in her assignment books. Like the star of David that stands for “Jewish.” Quickly she gives her mashed-up food a stir and begins to eat again.

Uncle Evert stays home for two days. When he leaves again Stephie goes along to the harbor to wave goodbye. The fishing boat has a crew of six. The youngest member, Per-Erik, isn’t much older than Stephie, and when the two are introduced, Per-Erik shyly looks away. Auntie Alma’s husband, Sigurd, is also a member of the crew.
    Uncle Evert has told Stephie that the boat is named the
Diana
. Stephie likes that name, but all it says on the bow of the boat is GG 143, to show that it is vessel 143 of the Göteborg fishing fleet.
    After Uncle Evert leaves, things return to normal. Stephie has breakfast with Aunt Märta every morning, after which she puts things away and washes the dishes. Then she spends the rest of the day with Nellie, until it’s time to go home for dinner. After dinner she washes the dishes again,and helps Aunt Märta with other chores. In the evenings she either sits in her room or in the window nook writing letters or entries in her diary.
    Inside the back cover of her diary she makes a short line for every day she’s been on the island. There are 182 days in six months. Every evening she counts the lines.
Thirty-four, thirty-five, thirty-six …
    In her letters to her parents, she tells them everything is fine. She does the same when she writes to Evi, except that she conjures a particularly lovely picture of life on the island. She hopes that if she makes Sweden sound tempting enough, Evi will want to come, too. But she knows that since Evi’s mother is Catholic, Evi may not have to leave Austria at all.
    When Stephie isn’t writing, she’s reading. Soon she’s read every single book she brought from home. The only book in Aunt Märta’s white frame house is the Bible on the table in the front room.
    “When are we going home, Stephie?” Nellie asks. “Can we leave soon?”
    “We’re not going home,” Stephie explains patiently, “and you know it. We’re going to America. As soon as Mamma and Papa get their entry visas, we’ll meet them in Amsterdam.”
    “When will that be?” Nellie asks for the hundredth time.
    “I don’t know. Soon.”
    They’re huddled close together on a big rock at the beach. The water glistens a beautiful shade of blue in the sun, but the wind is chilly and no one swims anymore. It’s September and all the other children have started school.Stephie and Nellie have the beach to themselves now; it’s the place where they can be alone with their homesickness.
    “Tell me about America,” Nellie begs.
    “In America,” Stephie tells her, “things aren’t at all like here. They have big cities with tall buildings and streets full of cars.”
    “Like in Vienna?”
    “The buildings are much taller. Everything in America is huge. We’ll live in a house with lots and lots of rooms and a big garden. A real garden with tall