Pierced by Thomas Enger Read Free Book Online Page B

washed them.”
    Julie toddles into the kitchen, climbs up on her Tripp Trapp chair and holds out her hands to him. The tears from the snake game are still fresh on her cheeks. He puts the basket on the table and sniffs them.
    “What a good girl you are.”
    Her face broadens into a smile. Across the table Pål’s eyes take on a wounded expression.
    “You never tell me I’m a good boy when I wash my hands.”
    “That’s because you’re eight years old, Pål. You learned to wash your hands a long time ago. By the way, have you washed them this morning?”
    Pål doesn’t reply, but his sulky face gradually changes into a mischievous smile.
    “Then you go and do it straight away.”
    Pål gets up and runs to the bathroom. He bumps into Elisabeth who is coming from the opposite direction.
    “Remember to dry your hands properly!” Thorleif calls out after him. “And hang up the towel when you’re done, please.”
    He looks at Elisabeth. The night still lives in her eyes, but her face instantly lights up when she sees the breakfast table.
    “Oh, how lovely,” she beams as she admires the food. “Candles and everything.”
    Thorleif smiles.
    “What would you like to drink, Julie?” he asks his daughter.
    Pål runs back in and sits down. The water is still dripping from his hands.
    “Milk, please.”
    Thorleif takes a glass and is about to fill it.
    “No, juice,” she says. “I want juice.”
    “Sure?”
    Julie nods adamantly. Pål leans across the table and helps himself to half a bread roll before he grabs his knife and tries to slice off the top of his egg.
    “Who boiled the eggs?”
    “Daddy,” Julie replies.
    Pål groans. “Mum is better at boiling eggs.”
    “Absolutely,” Thorleif replies. “Mum is better at everything.”
    “Not at spotting roe deer,” Julie points out.
    “No, definitely not when it comes to spotting roe deer,” Elisabeth joins in. “Once we saw twenty-five of them along the road when we drove home from Copenhagen. Twenty-five!”
    “Is that true?”
    “Absolutely! Daddy was the first to spot nearly all of them.”
    “Is that true, Daddy?”
    Thorleif nods and smiles proudly as he removes the top of his egg.
    “And not just roe deer. Cows and sheep, too.”
    “And wind turbines,” Elisabeth interjects. Thorleif smiles and sprinkles a little salt on the scalped egg. Around the table the rest of the family help themselves to rolls, butter, cheese, jam, and cold cuts.
    “So,” Thorleif begins. “What are we going to do today? Any suggestions?”
    “Can we go to the cinema?” Pål asks.
    “I want to go swimming,” Julie counters.
    “We’ve been doing that all summer. Can’t we go to the cinema? It’s been so long! Please.”
    “Going to the cinema is expensive,” Elisabeth says. “Or it is if we all go.”
    “Mum is right,” Thorleif says. “What would you like to do today, Mum?”
    “Bogstad Farm is open to visitors. I saw it in the paper. Perhaps—”
    “Is it?” the children shout in unison. “Can we go there? Please! Can we? Can we?”
    Elisabeth studies the children for a little while before her eyes find Thorleif’s.
    “Do you really think Bogstad Farm is cheaper than going to the cinema?” he smiles.
    “No, but we can’t spend the whole day indoors when the weather is so nice.”
    “We want to visit the farm, Daddy. Please. Pleeease.”
    Thorleif looks at his children in turn.
    “Okay,” he says. The children whoop and start jumping up and down on their chairs immediately. “But then you need to eat a big breakfast first. One bread roll each, at least. Do you understand?”
    “Yes, Daddy!”
    Thorleif takes a bite of his bread roll, feels it crunch between his teeth while he looks at Elisabeth, at all of them, one after the other. It’s Sunday morning. Everyone is happy.
    Can life get any better?

12
    Ullevål Garden City lies in the borough of Nordre Aker and was built shortly after the First World War as a residential area for the