“You, Frederik, are a very pushy person,” I said, and the cast-iron pan hanging over the stove behind Marlies fell down. Marlies whirled around, and I held Frederik’s hand as tight as I could. “I’m absolutely convinced that we don’t belong together,” I said, and Marlies’s kitchen shelves collapsed with all the tins of canned peas. Marlies dropped the shotgun and jumped up. And Frederik, who had been looking back and forth from me to Marlies, now looked only at me. He looked at me and flinched slightly every time something fell, but he no longer looked away. “There’s no one I’ve ever not loved as much as you,” I said, and the wall cupboard full of greasy dishes fell with an earsplitting crash. “I’d like a small Secret Love without whipped cream,” I said, and the ceiling lamp that had hung next to the hook on which Marlies’s aunt had hanged herself fell with a bang and sent glass splinters flying. Marlies, whose door sported too many locks, ran to the window, flung it open, and climbed out over the curtain rod.

For a moment she looked like she might run blindly into the forest, but she remained standing next to us in her Norwegian sweater and her underpants.

“What was that?” she asked, her entire body trembling. “And why has it stopped?”

“Did you listen to me, Frederik?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said. Frederik had gone pale, too. “I didn’t know you loved me, at least not like that.”

Marlies wrapped her arms around herself.

“I knew,” she said.

“I need to get some air,” Frederik said softly. He turned and without another word set off across the meadow toward the forest.

I watched him walk away. I felt as if I’d lifted something it was anatomically impossible to lift.

“Come, Marlies,” I said, “let’s get you some pants. And shoes.”

“I’m not going in there again,” she whispered, “and you aren’t, either.”

“Fine,” I said. I got Marlies’s rubber boots that were standing outside on her front doorstep. “Get in,” I said. Marlies steadied herself with a hand on my shoulder and slipped her bare feet into the rubber boots.

“Let’s go look for the optician, okay?” I asked, and put my arm around her shoulders.

“Hands off,” Marlies said, but she came with me.