CH 11
After a fast French style lunch - mainly assiettes of cold cuts and cheese, foie gras and other confits - Astrid played with the twins on the carpet, building a Lego farm with the help of her dog who bite random pieces. Babette handed Saga a cup of coffee and sat on the couch beside her with another cup, glad to have time to talk with her brother's partner. .
"Your horse is beautiful."
"She's at your cousin now."
"The twins want so see her. I have warm clothes for the barn. Tomorrow?"
"We're going there tomorrow. Hans lends me trousers and boots to teach me to ride her. He says it is easy."
"Henrik can ride, me too, but it has been a long time..." She turned to the voices from the table. " "Mom, stop pressing Henrik to eat another slice, he's full!"
"The cake was good. What was it called?"
"Marmor. It resembles a marble. It's tradition for Pierre. His mother's recipe. Kids like the mix of cocoa and flour patterns in the cake."
"Henrik wants to try it at home for us."
"He's so happy, and mom too. He was lost to us for ages."
"Now he's found."
"Thanks to you and Astrid, I know what you did, you have our eternal gratitude."
"I did it for him."
"From what I see, also for you. It is serious, isn't it?"
Saga nodded.
"He came home with you for Christmas. Alice never wanted to be here. Alice and me didn't had a good relationship. She was so proud of her girls, two in just three years of marriage. She wanted the third, wanted a son, but Henrik said no."
"Is it so? I thought he wanted more children."
"I think he felt the family was becoming too much, too soon and had to reflect."
"He hoped they'd return."
"After so many years? It's unhealthy to be alone like he did."
Saga doubted Babette knew about the club and decide it was not her task to reveal Henrik's secret
"Loneliness has different shapes."
"You're right, but my brother never was a monk. And he could have another child, find another woman. Come on, he's a good catch."
"But if he found one who didn't want children?"
Babett eyed Saga in a strange way, opened her mouth then closed it, took a long breath and went on.
"It's all about love, I think, deep feelings can change people a lot. I wanted to help Henrik more, but we didn't talked a lot about that, I was struggling with my miscarriages. And never a kind word from Alice, Henrik was ashamed for her behaviour."
"But you got the twins."
"Henrik didn't told you? No, I see. We Sabroe siblings aren't lucky with kids."
The sad words of Babette - explaining how she and Pierre spent years in examinations and medicines, when Pierre's poor sperm count forced them to use a donor and the twins were born after four attempts - hit the hidden cord in Saga, the one she was still trying to process. She was right in guessing the parentage. Babette saw she was not surprised.
"So you noticed it. Always a detective."
"I've noticed it and thought it was private."
"You're family now, we have no secrets. Pierre adores his sons, the same for them. Like Astrid you. She placed you in the paint, not Alice."
Babette was right, Astrid could have easily drawed her mother and sister, instead she went for her actual family. The decision to live with them was right.
Henrik sat with a cup of coffee on the near armchair.
"I see you're getting on well."
Babette smiled.
"I've always wanted a sister."
"I know and you got three males at home."
"I hope you'll come to Paris soon and stay with us, we have space, the mini apartment Pierre used for his mother is now free.. I could show Astrid and Saga Paris, do some shopping, while the men look after the kids. You are an uncle Henrik, remember. You have duties." She teased him.
Christmas dinner was a simple affair, leftovers and a soup, because no one was really hungry. The fire in the sitting room was lit and the grandfathers read bedtime stories to the twins, Pierre and Saga started a discussion about neuroscience, Babette was on skype with a friend in Paris, the dog sleeping on a chair and Henrik and Astrid were playing cards.
She was much better than him, winning all the times but one. Henrik felt she let him win, he told Saga; they were the last to retire for the night, their task to cover the remains of the fire with ashes. Completed, they headed for the bedroom.
"Astrid is smart in logical things."
"She's so like you sometimes, I feel your minds run faster than mine. Is she so, or does she copy you as her new role model?"
"It can be a characteristic of female brains, studies tend to demonstrate a female can perceive more information from her immediate surroundings in the same time than a male. You're good at details, but you're not a woman."
"So what did you perceive here?"
"That your mother cooks good, but not as good as you. Her sauce cocktail lacks orange. Your dad scratches his neck whenever he tries to speak a French word with Pierre. The twins aren't perfectly identical, Renaud has a small mole close to his right ear and Jakob a twisted toe in his left feet. The dog peed in the corridor and I smelled it before all of you - I cleaned it up - and you ate alone the whole bowl of dried and dehydrated fruits. It's highly caloric, you'll get weight."
"I devoured her dried fruits since I was a kid, she has a special device to dehydratate them naturally."
"I grabbed only a fig and two apricots."
"I'll buy more for you at home."
"You mother wants to give us the same machine she uses and we'll dry pineapple, too, it is less dangerous for your waistline."
"So it seems all went well with my family. My sister you were so scared of?"
"She's intelligent and she wants to protect you, it's evident the way she speaks of you."
"She gave me her blessing about us."
"You do love her, don't you?"
"We always had a strong bond, when she married Pierre I was her best man."
Henrik explained Saga how Babette and Pierre met while changing for the night.
henrik felt he has lost his sister when she choose France and he kept her at a distance during his hard years, although she always called him twice a month or wrote if he did not answered.
Babette never complained about his behaviour, simply accepted Henrik and his demons.
"She did for you like you did for me when I pushed you away."
"I had a great lesson from her. She is younger but wiser than me. Life wasn't kind with her, too, did she tell you about her children?"
"Yes. And didn't tell her about our…you know." He nodded, it was rude to reveal the abortion to a woman who had multiple miscarriages. She'd understood, Henrik was sure, still he didn't' want Saga to be judged.
"I'm glad you stick to me during prison time."
Saga had long therapy session to analyze her behaviour in prison, how many times she refused to see Henrik, or allowed him a few minutes only, never caring about the sad look on his face. The same when she only wanted sex, without talking, leaving the visiting room as soon as they were done. Still he was there every week for her.
"I'm sorry when I refused to see you, I'm different now."
"We are both, I worked with my doctor a lot, about the wrong things I did. The only right thing was that I needed you."
"We need each other."
Saga put a hand on his shoulder, pulling him close.
He accepted the request, glad to feel her, their intimacy a craving he always had, no matter the time or place, not caring to be heard making love by the others in the house.
When both lied on their backs, spent and satisfied, Henrik slowly caressing Saga's palm, he looked straight into her eyes and smiled.
"Thanks for the best Christmas of my life."
EPILOGUE
"We could have flied, it'd be faster."
"Yes, but grandma asked me to bring Babette two boxes of home made preserves and other Danish food and I'm sure we'll fill our boot when we leave. It's mid term sales, Babette wrote me. And I plan to buy French groceries, too. It's the nation of breast duck!"
Henrik looked at Astrid, already excited for the promised shopping trip with her aunt. She and Saga compromised, half day shopping, half day museums, three tourist discount cards already bought from internet.
"While me and Henrik drive, you can see new landscapes, Astrid, and find ideas for your geography essay."
"I took lots of photos when we stayed the night in that village in Holland and when we passed through the battlefields of the Somme today."
"Saga is right. And it is good for history, too. It is first hand knowledge, not from books or internet. Not all your classmates travel like you for Easter holidays."
"Maja is in Italy with her Mom for a Malmo opera performance in Milan. But in my classroom I have already the best ideas for ess….Saga are you listening to me?
"Sorry. A long text from Klaus."
"Now my father texts you?"
"He thinks you're driving. So….the architect has a new project for the ground floor of our house, …he wants to see us when we are back…and….oh my God.."
"What happens? Dad, Saga is crying! Saga!"
"Windy is with foal!"
"That's why she was so strange last Sunday! Hans called the veterinarian?"
"Yes, who confirmed Hans' suspicion. I'm not crying Astrid, I'm happy. It seems you'll have your own horse soon."
"I wonder who the stallion is."
"She's often out with your old horse, maybe Groggen isn't so old."
"Groggen is the father of the foal?"
"It can be, Astrid, I'm sure Hans knows best."
"Saga, look at the road signs, we're close, I don't want to miss our exit. Pierre says the motorways are so complicated here, especially the Peripherique."
"I'm on it."
"Dad, Saga, look right, what is it?"
All heads turned to follow the indication.
A thin structure pointing up the sky in the spring sunset light captured their attention.
"It's the Tour Eiffel, Astrid, we're in Paris now."