Jeanette pursed her lips and something flashed through her eyes. Then she left the house, walking more lightly than she had done in a long time. Perhaps this was the opportunity she had been waiting for, over the course of more than four years. An opportunity to do something right, once and for all. To compensate for everything she had done that had been so very wrong.

Kerstin smiled to herself and made the decision she had been tussling with for such a long time.

Jeanette was forgiven.

65. Sandra

65

Sandra

AN HOUR LATER, she was still sitting there with her eyes glued to the faded picture of her childhood idols. She was unable to move, incapable of forming coherent thoughts, and she didn’t have it in her to face her parents. She wanted to be left alone with her torments, wanted to be able to turn on the waterworks at any time without an audience. But she wasn’t even capable of crying. She was sitting there seemingly paralysed into silence—all she could hear were the seconds dragging by on her wristwatch.

Until the quiet was disturbed by the rattle of her mobile on the nightstand.

Then a stream of elusive events that she would never remember clearly or be able to return to. Sandra answering out of habit in a flat, indifferent voice. The kind voice telling her that Erik had been found and was alive—he was on his way to Visby General Hospital. Sandra, unable to assimilate any further information, already on her feet before the call was over, grabbing things that might be needed during the coming night. She tore through the house, brought her sorrow-stricken parents back to life, and suddenly the house was filled with light and sound and movement. And joy that knew no bounds, that could no longer be contained out of fear for the consequences and aftermath. Because what was the point in worrying about the future when the miracle was happening here and now?

66. Kerstin

66

Kerstin

EVENTUALLY, THE AMBULANCE arrived. There was nothing wrong with their directions, it turned out. Apparently, they had opted for an air ambulance, realised it was impossible to land anywhere nearby and instead dispatched an ordinary vehicle all the way from Visby. It took forty minutes from their call until the paramedics arrived and took over.

Kerstin explained that the boy had been cold when they had found him, but that the temperature in the small body had since risen, and that his breathing now seemed substantially more stable. She also explained that they had managed to get him to take fluids drop by drop, but that he had probably been drinking rainwater over the preceding days and that hunger would probably be the bigger issue. The ambulance crew listened with great interest, and both women were treated respectfully in light of their actions.