‘I don’t know,’ I tell her. ‘Haven’t seen him. Have you seen him anywhere, Olea?’

‘Enough now, come on,’ Marthe says, genuinely cross all of a sudden. ‘This isn’t funny anymore. Tell me where he is.’

I say nothing. Olea slinks down to the ground, I can see that she’s a little apprehensive now, and Kristoffer unfurls himself and rolls out onto the grass.

‘Wow, I can’t believe you didn’t see him there,’ I say. ‘How could you not?’

‘Don’t be cross, Marthe,’ Kristoffer says. ‘We were only messing around.’

‘I know,’ Marthe says, and I can see that she’s forcing herself to smile. ‘I know that.’

The path down to the bathing spot is imprinted on my body, no matter how long I spend away from here. I know the thorny bush you need to watch out for and the smooth coastal rocks you need to slide across on your bum before hopping off, I know the prickling pine needles piled up under the pine trees that filter the sunlight, I know where we have to stamp our feet because there may be adders underfoot; it has that warm, dry, vaguely acidic forest aroma, and Marthe’s back is dappled with patches of sunlight. My feet become a child’s feet, my short legs preparing to leap from ledges, I remember being scared of falling here, I think about thistles in my sandals, smooth rocks scuffing the 29seat of my shorts. Down by the large juniper bush further along the way I am twelve years old, I’ve got braces that hurt my mouth and I’m wearing a new strappy dress, the straps criss-cross at the back, Mum doesn’t like me wearing it because it shows off so much skin, she never used to care about things like that, and I bump into Vegard on the way down, he’s older than me and stays in the cabin along the road, he’s been swimming with his dad and he sees me for the first time that day, or at least I think he does, he smiles differently, or at least I think he does, and he says hello, he says hello to my strappy dress and I scurry along the final stretch of path leading to the bathing spot on tiptoes, repeat his one-word greeting aloud and feel compelled to leap little leaps with my arms wrapped around me because Vegard from the cabin along the road thinks I’m a grown-up in my strappy dress, and Marthe comes running after me and giggles and says you look weird, what are you doing, even though she’s the one who’s chubby and short and always crying about something or other.