“Like when people long for the good old days which really weren’t all that good?”

“Yes. Or longing for a truly golden time that you know is over and will never come again. That’s Nalle’s saudade.”

“Mm.”

She rubbed her fingers along her cheekbones. “All the fellows at home talk war nonstop. They’re convinced the Nazis already have a psychological foothold in Argentina and could easily make a—”

“Hey,” he said, dropping a hand on her calf. “I’m a little weighed down now with a good friend’s troubles. I don’t have an extra arm to hold onto worries about Nazis and war. So…” He smiled and motioned toward the meadow. “Just dump them over there. They’ll keep.”

“You’re right, it’s too nice a day.” She got up and draped her chain of flowers over the top of Ingrid’s stone. “Is this disrespectful?”

“She’d like it. She loved flowers.”

Astrid stepped back, surveying her decoration. “This will sound strange, but I like that she has her own stone. One half of my father’s grave is blank, waiting for Mor. It’s so morbid and…mocking, in a way. And it makes such a disgusting assumption about the rest of my mother’s life. What if she wanted to get married again?” She shivered. “If I die before my husband, give me my own stone and let him go on living. If he finds love again, I won’t haunt him.”

Kennet pretended to write the direction on his hand. “I’ll contact your lawyer immediately.”

“Smart alice,” she said in English.

He laughed. “Smart aleck.”

“How did your parents meet?”

“In the war.”

“What do you mean?”

“Paps was fighting and Ma was running a canteen for soldiers.”

“Where?”

“She ran them all over France for the YMCA. Paris. Cherbourg. In nineteen eighteen she was stationed in Bordeaux. See, General Pershing decided he didn’t want to grant soldiers leave to the big cities anymore. So he picked one place in the southeast of France, near the Italian Alps, and everyone went there on their eight-day pass. The canteen was an old casino in a town called Aix-les-Bains.”

“What was there?”

“The way Paps tells it, everything was there. A theater room for entertainment acts. Another big room for movies. They put pool tables in the old gambling rooms. The ballroom was set up with booths selling candy and cigarettes, and the bar was turned into the canteen. Ma said four hundred and fifty men came into the casino every day. Three thousand men a week.”

“She went to Europe alone? On her own she just…went and did all this work?”

“Pretty much.”

“Oh, Nyck.” Astrid’s hands dropped to her sides. “I’m so sorry she’s gone. I would’ve loved to hear this story from her. I would’ve had a thousand questions.”