On the third day, Father heard tinkling in the forest. He didn’t know if it was morning or evening; his watch was in town and the sun shone day and night. But he heard the sound and then spotted Mother between the trees. She was walking with a bell tied to her rucksack; it chimed to repel bears. Mother had come to Lapland on her own, too. She was soaking wet, because she had just waded through a wide river to get to the shop more quickly. Crossing the river shortened Mother’s trek to the shop, which sold chocolate, by two days. Father found the wet Mother enchanting, and he shared his remaining chocolate with her. He had five pieces left, and Mother received three of them (an important point).

Father and Mother found themselves in love, and away they walked from the fell.

Mother lived in a small village at the edge of a big forest with her three aunts, whom she called Auntie Brown, Auntie Marshmallow and Auntie Uncle.

The small village comprised only five houses. The forest, in contrast, was so large that you could walk through it to the Soviet Union and Lapland.

When Mother got home, Auntie Brown, Auntie Marshmallow and Auntie Uncle were terribly cross because Mother had gone to Lapland on her own in secret. It didn’t make any difference that Mother had taken a bear bell with her. Then the aunts got angry because Mother had come back from Lapland with the bearded Father. No one quite knew exactly why Mother, an educated person with a degree, lived with three aunts in the middle of nowhere. But Mother brought Father into the house of the three aunts, who sniffed in a dissatisfied way. To everyone’s surprise, the aunts took to Father and fed him cake and casserole. The following summer, Father repaired the sauna roof and the aunts forgave him everything. Then Mother and Father got married, had the Lovely Baby and moved to Sawdust House. And that was the end of that.

Mum and Dad had their own versions of the summer they met in Lapland. I liked them both. But perhaps I liked Dad’s version more because the mother tinkling like a bear bell sounded like a character from a fairy tale. I also liked the way Dad mimicked the dissatisfied aunts, who ended up cooking him casserole and calling him ‘our Pekka’.

Mum’s version concentrated on the three aunts. I was afraid of them because they sounded so strict and the sur-rounding forest was so big.

Mum was better at describing the Lovely Baby. Dad really wallowed in the way the doctor cut Mum’s tummy open and Dad nearly fainted, while Mum’s version concentrated on me alone. I was pale and beautiful, with large, round eyes and an orange snub nose. A woman in a cafe asked if the baby had a battery inside – it was as sweet as a doll!