She woke disturbed by my concentrated observation of her. Straightened out a little and opened eyes as black as holes in space.

You are my child I said. This time no one can take you from me. Not even katarina.

Was that me speaking. I didn’t recognise my voice.

Who is katarina she asked.

She is dead. But she used to work for the post office here. As a postie. She stole the letters you wrote to me.

Diana looked away. It sounded like a poor lie.

How did you know where I was I asked.

Johnbäckström phoned me she said. The artist.

She didn’t know everything. And I didn’t know how much I should tell her.

Has his exhibition opened I asked. She shook her head. The private view is in a couple of weeks’ time. She looked more assured now.

He said that you’re an artist too. Working in clay. 266

I’m not so sure about the artist bit I said. I work for the homecare service. But I do muck around with clay.

Every word was an effort. Even my tongue hurt. I shut one eye to better focus the other eye on the young woman next to me. She was tall. Sat with her legs folded underneath her. Her neck was slender like a loon’s but her voice low and deep.

Tell me about something I said. The words came out slowly.

Tell me a fairytale.

She stretched her legs. Put her feet on the edge of the bed. Clasped her hands behind her neck.

Once upon a time there was a girl who was born from a seed. She slept in a seashell on the strand under a thick quilt of fleawort leaves. Her mother watched over her day and night until one night when she was so tired she fell asleep. A sea eagle dived for the shell and stole it as well as the girl.

The mother went searching for her child but the girl was nowhere to be found. She was in the sea eagles’ nest and was brought up with the eaglets. But she grew too large for the nest and had to move into a cleft in a rock by the sea. Sometimes one of the big eagles would come to see her. Mostly they left her alone.

She swam with the seals. Played with the children of the waves. Built castles of sand in the summer and castles of snow in the winter. Raided the fishermen’s boats and stole from their catch and their food stores.

It was said she was the patron saint of sea fishing. No one knew if she was protecting the fish or the fishermen who caught the fish.