It was a rather simple morality tale. All of the troll tribes were represented—the Skojare as a shy fish, the Omte as a tough vulture, the Vittra as a clever cougar, the Kanin as a wily rabbit, and the Trylle as a flower-loving squirrel.
At the start of the story, all the animals are pals and love hanging out together until this big snake-like monster—simply referred to as “the Orm”—decided to mess with them. The story left it vague about what his motives were—possibly jealousy or maybe just boredom—but eventually he gossips to all the animals and gets them to turn on one another.
In the book I read to the kids, all the animals become friends again and gang up on the Orm and chase him out of their happy home. But Hanna told me that that’s not really how the story goes. In the end, all the animals die except for the cougar, and the Orm laughs at him, so the cougar cuts off his head before dying himself.
“It’s a rather nice uncomplicated story,” Johan said. “The problem with the story of the Orm is that, because it usually begins with ‘Once upon a time,’ everyone assumes that that’s the beginning of the story. But really the story begins long before that, when the Orm still lived in a land of magic, and he fought a man called Jem-Kruk.”
I smirked at him. “You say this like it really happened.”
“Who’s to say it didn’t?” Johan asked, and I would swear there was a twinkle in his eye.
I laughed and shook my head. “Immortal snakes and talking animals? That sounds like the stuff of fairy tales to me.”
“What about trolls with super strength?” he countered reasonably. “Villages built in secret inside mountains? Kingdoms hidden amongst the humans? That doesn’t sound like a fairy tale to you?”
“That’s different.” I took a long drink of my wine as I tried to come up with an argument.
“How?”
“Because I’ve seen it. I am it.”
He cocked his head, staring at me thoughtfully. “Haven’t you ever thought that there was more to this world than only what you see?”
“I don’t know.” I wanted to come up with a better answer than that, but the exhaustion of the day and the wine hit me all at once, and then I was doing the best I could to suppress a yawn. “That’s probably too deep a question to be asking me at two in the morning.”
“Oh, yes, of course.” He stood up and offered an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry. I get carried away talking about my work. You’re probably ready to get some rest. We don’t have another guest room, I’m afraid, but we do have a very long couch in the living room that my wife has all made up for you.”
“Thank you.”
6
Speed Bump
I had driven six hours, which added nearly four hundred miles to the odometer, when I stopped at a little gas station on a deserted stretch of road. I finished filling up the tank when the Jeep started rocking, and a loud banging sound emanated from within. The back gate swung open, and bags came tumbling out onto the ground, along with one very sweaty, disheveled tween girl.
Hanna stood up, dusted off her jeans, and pushed her damp curls off her forehead. “Oh, jakla, I seriously thought you’d never stop.”
“Hanna!” I gaped at her in disbelief. “What the hell? What are you doing?”
I let out a frustrated sigh. Everything had seemed fine this morning. I woke up later than I’d wanted to after sleeping soundly on Johan’s couch, but I’d still had a quick breakfast with Hanna and her grandparents. Hanna was quiet, but more of the shy-awkward type and less of the sulky-quietly-planning-to-run-away kind.
We’d all said goodbye in the driveway, and Johan chatted with me a bit about Merellä and the weather and the roads. I’d thought Hanna had gone out to explore the village to avoid a sappy goodbye, because that’s what she told us all she was doing.
But apparently that had been a lie.
“I thought you’d gone far enough that it would be safe for me to get out,” Hanna said.
I narrowed my eyes. “What do you mean, ‘safe’?”
“Well, like you won’t turn back.” She motioned vaguely to the highway. “I was planning to wait until Merellä, but it was way too hot and cramped back there.”
“Hanna, I have to turn back. All you’ve done is add another…” I groaned as I did the math of going to Eftershom and back. “Twelve hours? Ugh. That can’t be right.”
“Right, and you have to start your internship tomorrow,” Hanna said with a waggle of her eyebrows. “You don’t have time to go back and forth if you want to get any sleep before then.”
“Hanna! What’s so terrible about your grandparents that you’re trying to hold me hostage over it?”
“I don’t know them.” She kicked at a rock and stared down emptily at it. “The last time I saw them was two years ago. Grandpa Johan sends me letters, and they call a few times a year, but … you wouldn’t want to stay with strangers for six weeks, would you?”
“Maybe I’m not the best one to ask, since I moved in with your family pretty fast,” I reminded her.
She shrugged it off. “Well, that’s different. We have TV and internet.”
“Come on, Hanna. You’re being ridiculous.”
“You don’t get it, Ulla. I don’t care if they are my family. I don’t want to stay with them.”
I chewed my lip as I stared down at her. Her arms were crossed over her chest, her chin up, defiant, but her eyes showed what she was truly feeling—fear.
Forcing a young girl to spend time with adults she felt uncomfortable around sounded way beyond my pay grade, so I decided it was time to hand it over to her parents. I called Mia on my cell, and after briefly explaining the situation to her, I handed the phone off to Hanna. Even though I stepped away to give her some privacy, it was hard to ignore her body language—which slowly shifted from slouching and trudging to standing tall with quick steps.
“Here.” Hanna skipped over and thrust the phone at me. “Mom wants to talk to you.”
“Hello?” I replied uncertainly.
“So, Ulla, I’m so sorry to have put you in this position,” Mia said, her voice tight with worry. “I don’t want to ask you to do anything that would jeopardize your time at the Mimirin, but I also can’t have Hanna left alone on the side of the road in Washington.”
“Mia, I would never—”
“No, no, of course not, I know you never would,” Mia assured me quickly, then let out a sigh. “We have to figure out where she is going. Where are you staying in Merellä?”
“Just an apartment. I don’t know that much about it, and I haven’t seen any pictures.”
I closed my eyes, trying to remember the listing I’d found online. It had been a few short things: FLATMATE WANTED. 2 BED, 1 BATH, KITCHENETTE. CARRIAGE HOUSE APT W/IN SHORT WALK OF MIMIRIN. After I’d found it, I went to Finn for help, since I’d never rented anything before in my life, and he’d actually set up most of it, gifting me a month’s rent as a going-away present.
“Finn helped me out, so he knows all about it,” I said.