Aliss at the Fire

Well it’s happened before, Asle says

What has, Signe says

Yes, that I said I’d go out for a while, that the wind was too strong and it was too dark to go out onto the fjord but that I did it anyway, Asle says

Yes that’s happened before, you’re right, Signe says

But not today, Asle says

It’s good that you’re home now, Signe says

and he stays standing there, he sort of doesn’t quite know what to do with himself, he thinks

I, I was so worried about you, Signe says

What’s the matter, she says

Now come inside, don’t just stay standing there, she says

Yes, Asle says

and he looks at her gently

I’m coming right in, Asle says

and he stays standing there

But it’s cold here, can’t we go inside, there’s a nice fire in the stove, Signe says

and then she goes and takes his hand lightly, and she lets it go right away, and then she goes into the room and lying there on the bench she sees herself come into the room and then she sees him come in and she sees that right behind him Aliss comes in too, and she too walks into the room, and then she sees herself go over to the stove and pick up a log and she sees herself bend down and he looks at her standing there bending down in front of the stove and then she puts the log sideways in the flames and at the same time he sees that now it’s Aliss who is putting a log in the stove, it’s not her, it’s Aliss, his great-great-grandmother, it’s her standing in front of the stove now and putting a log sideways into the stove and it shines in her black hair and there on the bench, back there in the corner, he sees Kristoffer lying with a wool blanket wrapped around him and then he sees Aliss go over and sit down on the edge of the bench and she puts her hand on Kristoffer’s forehead

You don’t have a fever now do you, Kristoffer, do you, Aliss says

You feel a little warm, she says

Just go back to sleep, good boy, she says

and he sees Kristoffer nod and then he looks at her where she’s standing in front of the stove and looking in at the flames

You’re standing there and looking in at the flames, yes, Asle says

I guess I am, Signe says

and he sees that she stands there and looks in at the flames, and he sees that the flames gather around the wood and then fly up free of the wood, and then, very quickly, the wood has turned into part of the flames and he looks at the window and he looks at the flames reflected in the window and mixing with the darkness there outside and with the rain that’s now running down over the window, and then he hears the wind

This wind is terrible, Signe says

Yes it seems to be picking up, Asle says

and he looks over at the bench and he sees Aliss lay down on the bench and put her arms around Kristoffer and she presses him to her, starts to rock him

These fall storms are getting worse and worse, Asle says

These last few years it’s just gotten worse, he says

But it’s probably always like that, changing from year to year, he says

Anyway, it wasn’t like this before, he says

and he goes over to the window and he stops in front of it and looks out and he says now it’s blowing so hard that he’s starting to get nervous about the boat, whether it’s tied up tight, he says, maybe he should go out for a minute and check on the boat, he says and she says no, in this weather, do you really have to, she says, he surely must have tied the boat tight enough, she says and he says he probably did, and then the walls crack in the wind

Yes that was quite a gust, Signe says

Unbelievable how it’s blowing, Asle says

I should really go check on the boat, he says

No do you really have to now, Signe says

It can’t hurt, Asle says

But be careful then, Signe says

and he steps closer to the window and he tries to look out and he sees only the darkness and then the rain that covers the windowpane and then he says well I’ll go then

Yes all right but come home again soon, Signe says

I’m just checking on the boat, Asle says

And I have good warm clothes on, he says

That’s a good sweater you knit, he says