Aliss at the Fire

and Kristoffer goes a little farther away from Brita, and he stops, looks at her

Brita, Kristoffer says

and Brita doesn’t answer, just stays standing there like before, with that long black hair hanging down over her eyes

Asle is dead, Kristoffer says

Asle’s alive, Brita says

Don’t say that, Kristoffer, don’t say that he’s dead, she says

Asle’s gone, Kristoffer says

He’s dead, he says

and Kristoffer starts to walk up the little road, he goes around the corner, he walks across the yard, slowly, step by step, and the fish on the string swing from side to side, and it is as if Kristoffer will collapse before he takes half a step and turn into the earth that he walks on, she thinks and she sees Kristoffer stop and stand and look down, he stands there with a string with fish on it in one hand and he looks down and she turns around and then she starts to go down the little road and she stops next to Brita and then she lifts her hand and then she lightly smoothes down Brita’s hair, she strokes and strokes and smoothes down her hair and then she hears footsteps and then she sees Kristoffer come walking down the little road and the fish on the string are swinging from side to side and Kristoffer stops too and then he also smoothes down Brita’s hair

Come inside now, Brita, Kristoffer says

You can’t just stand here, he says

We have to go inside, he says

We have to take Asle inside, he says

and Brita looks up and through her long hair she looks at Kristoffer

It’s November 17 today, Brita says

November 17, 1897, Kristoffer says

November 17, 1897, Brita says

and Kristoffer puts his arm around Brita’s shoulders and Kristoffer and Brita, and Brita with Asle in her arms, slowly walk up the little road

On November 17, 1897, Asle died, Brita says

And he was born on November 17, 1890, she says

and Kristoffer stops, and Brita stops, and then they stand there and look down at the brown earth and then the front door of the old house opens and an old woman comes out and stops on the front step and Kristoffer looks at her

He’s gone, Asle’s gone, Old Aliss, Kristoffer says

Don’t just stand there like that, Old Aliss says

The Lord moves in mysterious ways, she says

He is happy, Asle’s happy now with God in Heaven, so don’t be sad, she says

Don’t be sad, she says

God is good, He is, she says

and Old Aliss lifts one hand, with its stubby bent fingers, up to her eye and she rubs along the edge of her eye with the side of her finger

God is good, she says