The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson Read Free Book Online Page B

she was guided up to the second storey where it was bitterly cold. “It’s always been cold,” Anna explained, “but it was only the maid who lived up here. The guest rooms were almost always empty. Papa didn’t really like having guests; they disturbed his routines, you know… But he wrote a great many letters and mailed them himself in the shop… You know, Miss Kling, although Papa knew hardly anyone in the village, they would all take off their caps when he walked by, just spontaneously.”
    “Did they?” Katri said. “And he tipped his hat?”
    “His hat,” Anna repeated, puzzled. “If he even had a hat… So odd – I can’t remember his hat…” And she went on with her narrative.
    Katri could see that Anna was very excited. She talked too much. Now it was about her mother, who went around to the poor people in the village and distributed white bread at Christmas.
    “They weren’t offended?” Katri said.
    Anna looked up, quickly, then away again. She continued bravely on about Papa’s stamp album, Mama’s recipe book, the dog Teddy’s pillow, Papa’s almanac in which he made notes on good and bad deeds to be thoroughly reviewed on New Year’s Eve. Anna ran amok through her parents’ house, revealing everything and thus, for the first time, calling its worth and charm into question. She dashed onwards, unable to stop, possessed by a wicked sense of liberation in shattering taboos, forcing her unwilling guest to see more and more, hear more and more of Papa’s anecdotes, little stories whose point was annihilated even before she exposed them to Katri’s silence. It was like laughing in church. The inviolable was opened to a great, treacherous attack, and Anna let it happen. Her voice rose and became shrill and she stumbled over thresholds until Katri very tactfully took her arm and said, “Miss Aemelin, I really must go now.” Anna became very quiet. Katri added, kindly, “Your parents must have been exceptional individuals.”
    Out in the yard, Katri lit a cigarette, the dog joined her, and they walked down to the road. Doubt returned, repeating over and over, Why did I say that? For her sake, so she doesn’t have to feel she’s betrayed her idols? No! For my own sake? No! Somebody goes into a spin and has to be checked, that’s all; someone goes too far and has to be stopped.
    When Katri had gone, Anna went cold. All of a sudden the whole house seemed full of people. She had an irrational desire to phone someone, anyone at all, but what was there to say? Maybe not much more than that; she’d said way too much… In any case, Anna thought, there’s one thing I didn’t reveal. I didn’t show her my work.
    Although that had nothing whatever to do with Mama and Papa.
    * * *
     
    On cleaning Wednesday, as Fru Sundblom was on her way home from the rabbit house, she met Katri and her dog on the hill and stopped and said, “Not that it matters in the least, but Miss Aemelin hasn’t had any fresh food for weeks, and I was the one who used to fetch it for her.”
    “Miss Aemelin doesn’t like organ meats,” Katri answered.
    “And how do you know that?”
    “She said so.”
    “And why have you rearranged the refrigerator?”
    “It was dirty.”
    Fru Sundblom went slowly red in the face, and she seemed to swell and fill the road as she replied. “Miss Kling, cleaning is my area, and I clean the way I’ve always cleaned, and I don’t like other people sticking their noses in my business.”
    Katri smiled without answering, the wolf smile that could put anyone off balance, and Fru Sundblom shouted, “Well! I see! I guess I know when certain people are trying to curry favour with the old lady just because she’s losing her grip.” And the big woman stalked off down the hill.
    When Katri came into the rabbit house, she put down her bag in the hall and announced that she couldn’t stay.
    “Don’t you have time? Not even a little while?”
    “Yes, I do have time. But I can’t