III

Elin flew off from the buckboard and ran the few steps that separated her from the Creek. She spread her hands and closed her eyes to inhale very deeply, and her knitted lace shawl spread out like a pair of wings of a giant butterfly to catch the wind. The green hems of her dress were mixing in the early grass perking out of the ground.

Hoss smiled at her arched figure and pulled the reins of the horses to stop them from running away, when Tor, Sigrid and Rebecka sprang out, too, and explored the old familiar places of their birth home. Rebecka's dog Svartan ran with the children, barking happily and playing with the kids, biting and snipping at their clothes and running with his mouth open, his red tongue hanging out from his mouth and flapping in the wind that was caused by his jolting speed. His yellow fur shone in the sunlight, competing with the pale braids of Rebecka.

Tor came out from the barn, and disappeared behind another, while Sigrid appeared from the forest line and went behind the house again. Rebecka came back to the well and started to pump, until the fresh water came up to the earth. She laughed and splashed it towards Svartan, who barked his response and licked her face.

Hoss stepped down and gave his hand to Elin, who was expecting him with her own hand extended out. Her eyes were glowing warmly and the first freckle had appeared below her eye. "Your home is wonderful, too, Erik, but this one is so dear to us." She kissed his cheek happily and tugged his hand to make him follow her to the house. They found closed trunks and furniture that was covered with sheets to protect them from dust, and a chimney that needed to be checked to see if it could still pull the smoke up. Elin took a white apron from the rack in the kitchen, dusted it with vigor, and laughed at the flying specks that flew out from the embroidered hems to land on her.

"It seems the cottage was waiting for us to be back, don't you see?" She chuckled and smiled and danced around the great room and opened the windows and pulled away the curtains. "Hoss, why don't you go and chop wood. I want to cook. And clean. And bathe", she added, smiling at him, and the pearl white teeth gave him an encouraging grin. Hoss almost forgot to breathe at the sight of his wife, who was back at the same feel as when he had found her only a year ago himself.

"Hoss, are you all right? You look like you're just about to cry."

He was, but he hid it from her by taking her under his heavy arms. "I don't know what God had in mind when he sent me here last spring, but I can't be but grateful that he did so in any case", he whispered to her ear and smelled her cardamom brown hair that had a faint scent of lemon and ginger in it. Her hands were firm and strong around him like the branches of the pine trees outside, and she stood tall and robust and her spirit responded to his so full of life that Hoss was almost ready to die.

She smiled at him and kept her face very close to his, pulling her head only so far that she could watch him to the eyes and examine his face very thoroughly with her own shining eyes. "Gods can be awful good sometimes, Erik min."

'My Hoss.'

Maybe he had just died after all.

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The dream was back, and Hoss knew he was in a dream from the familiar feeling that it was all very real. But he lifted his wings and stretched them to hold his balance on top of the cliff, and peered toward pines and the spruces to see his spouse.

A small mouse caught his attention, and he thrust himself down to catch the buoyant currents of the winds, and dove into the woods to see what bigger game would be chasing the small rodents.

When he passed the surface of the treetops, he had changed into an owl and he hooted to call his spouse, but he was distracted by little shrews and squirrels, too much. His curiosity took a hold of him and he tried to open a hedgehog that had curled into a ball. He wasn't an owl anymore, but a fox, with a red coat and a white tip of a tail, and his black paws were being stung by the spikes of the little animal.

A crane cried to him from a swamp lake. He pranced towards the voice, without caring what appearance he had taken this time, and followed the call of his wife.

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Two horses were nibbling the twigs and the brushes, pulling out the fresh green branches and playing with the grass on the ground. One was black and stout with white markings on the head and three white stockings; the other one a lean chestnut with an abundant mane and a willowy move.

Two figures were standing and looking over the view at a canyon, which was full of dogwood with thousands and thousands of blossoms on every tree. The other figure, standing a bit taller and quite some bulkier, held the other one from her shoulders and pointed at the trees and the ferns that were filling the canyon and painting it with all the colors of spring. The less tall figure leaned against the tall one and breathed deeply the hovering scent of blooming nature, and laughed audibly to the wind, hanging glass bells on the paths of the breezes with every giggle.

"It's beautiful, Hoss." Elin admired the view and touched the trees as they walked by them, and tried to extend her head as far up and towards the flowers as she could within the reach of her neck. Her eyes were glowing warmly above her golden freckles, and the steel-gray glimmer had been softened to spring sky clearness.

"I was hoping you'd say that", Hoss answered, and picked up some ferns from the ground. "This used to be sort of a special place for me. I... I ain't never took nobody else here." He took a gold back fern and pressed it against his hand, and the golden dust spread on his already tanned skin.

Elin watched his hands while they moved, and smiled at the dust. "It's like from the stars above us on the sky", she said, delighted. Hoss smiled, with a touch of wistful memories in the look of his face where the emotions were so easy to read.

Once, he had wanted to bring someone to this canyon, but she had been very sick, very close to die, and returning to this place had been just a painful idea to avoid for quite some time. He didn't feel that he was all whole and healed even now, but the company of Elin made him able to see the beauty again and to hold on to it even through the aching memories that were still intertwined with its uniqueness. Elin stood beside him, looked at his troubled face and the drops of dew in his cornflower blue eyes, and waited. She allowed him to go through whatever it was that was wailing at the back of his head. When she was sure he had come far enough, she gave her hand to him and patted the back of her own hand. "Try it on me."

Hoss pressed a gold back fern on her hand, and the gold dust made her smile and wash away some of the hurt that had bothered him deep down in his big and hidden heart. A little sparkle was lit on his eyes, and he pressed one more on the cheek of Elin. She pulled her head away in surprise, and blinked heavily. "What was that for?"

"I tried to see if it could match the color of your freckles. They're pretty."

She took the plants in her own hand, and pressed them on his cheek, making him blink this time. "Now you'll look the same. But you don't have any of your own, so maybe it isn't enough." Her fingers tried to put golden color on his cheeks and she chuckled deep from her throat. "I could live the whole of my life in this moment, if I could choose", she said, and made him smile, too.

"Wouldn't that be just somethin'." Hoss looked at his wife and wondered, where she got all that understanding for him and his thoughts even though he had never spoken about all parts of his life or all of his losses to her. "What did I ever do right to deserve you, Elin?"

She looked at the ferns in his hands, touched their leaves and pressed her fingers on his face. "You became worthy of my attention, of course."

"You stop that, will you?" Hoss said with mock irritation, and ducked very quickly to be able to toss Elin over his shoulder. Her surprise came out as exclamations and screams.

"What on earth do you think you're doing to me, Erik?"

"You sit still so I can look at you", he said, and set her on the ground under a tree very gently. She leaned her elbows on the ground and narrowed her eyes to shade them from the sun, and looked at the lush environment lazily.

Hoss lay next to her, leaning on his elbow and staring at her body with an intensity that usually made her very nervous and ready to erupt in verbal or physical reactions. He was trying to make her figure plump up from the sheer force of his blue eyes, and Elin felt sometimes half frustrated and half amused from that look, depending on her own mood.

"You can't stare it out", she told him and covered her abdomen with her hand.

Hoss shook his head and tried to look somewhere else. "It's just that I can't stop thinking how peculiar it is. It's so tiny and small and only God knows if it's even certain yet." He frowned slightly, a bit in wonder and a bit puzzled, and his mouth followed the expressions and the feelings with a thoughtful purse. "Still it feels like the biggest thing that ever happened in my life."

"But pray for it to be all good until the end", Elin whispered, and held her hand out for him. "It would be very hard alone."

Hoss took her hand and stroked the two plain golden rings in her ring finger with his thumb . She lay idly on the ground and let the sun shine on her face and her closed eyes, and Hoss leaned closer to count her freckles. Her eyes opened slightly and observed his concentrated look hazily.

"What are you looking at?"

"Them freckles."

"What about them?"

"They look like they were made of that fudge."

She laughed low from her throat and looked at him in the eyes, with a sparkle in the gray veil of them. "Are you planning to eat them?"

Hoss came a bit closer yet. "That's the bestest idea I've heard today."