Aliss at the Fire

and he sees, standing there on the little road, Aliss come up the hill toward him with Kristoffer pressed against her breast, she comes running, and with black hair thick around her face, and those big eyes, and Aliss is coming as fast as she can on her short legs, and then Kristoffer’s terrified shrieking, and then this darkness, and these winds, and the rain, and now he has to get home soon, he thinks, because he can’t just stay standing on the little road and not go into his own house, where he’s lived his whole life, home into the old house, he thinks and he sees Aliss go past him and then he looks at her back, Aliss’s back, his great-great-grandmother’s back, that’s her, that’s Aliss, that’s her he sees hurrying around the corner, with her black hair hanging far down her back, and with her narrow hips, her short thin legs. That’s Aliss. That’s his great-great-grandmother, probably around twenty years old, he thinks, and the boy she’s pressing to her breast, about two years old probably, that’s his great-grandfather, Kristoffer. And he goes around the corner too, and he looks at Aliss with Kristoffer pressed against her breast go home through the front door of the old house, and he sees the door shut and she sees, lying there on the bench, the hall door open and then she sees a small woman with long black hair come in, she has big eyes, she is carrying a boy pressed against her breast and the woman rushes across the room and then she puts the boy down next to her on the edge of the bench and then the woman pulls the boy’s pants off, his sweater, she strips the boy totally naked and then she lays him down on the bench next to her, and the woman rubs his back again and again

There there, good boy, don’t be cold anymore, the woman says

Good boy Kristoffer, now you’ll get all warm, the woman says

Don’t freeze now, she says

Mama Aliss is here to rub you till you’re all warm, you’re a good boy, she says

and Aliss rubs Kristoffer all over his back again and again and she sees Aliss stand up and she looks at Kristoffer lying there next to her on the bench, and he is wet, he’s sobbing a little, and there are shivers going through his body, and she sees Aliss go open the bedroom door and go in and then come back in and she is carrying a wool blanket and then Aliss comes over to the bench and she spreads the blanket out all over Kristoffer and then Aliss sits down on the edge of the bench and she starts to rub Kristoffer’s back again, over and over, rubbing and rubbing his back

So, my darling Kristoffer, now you’re getting warm again, good little Kristoffer, Aliss says

There there, good boy, good boy Kristoffer, she says Just think, you fell in the water, such a little boy and you fell in the water, but luckily Mama Aliss was there, yes, she says