Itsy Bitsy Spider (Emma Frost #1) (5 page)

A couple of
weeks
later I bought that bottle of wine and went
across the street to Sophia's house. The kids had started school and both of
them had a great start. So far Victor hadn't had any seizures or anxiety
attacks. So far so good, I told myself. We managed to get the rest of our stuff
from Copenhagen transported to the island and - even if we hadn't unpacked
everything - we were quite settled in by then. It felt more like a home for
each day that passed. Maya was still angry and slammed the doors now and then,
but apart from that we were having an almost pleasant time in the new house. I
for one was thrilled to finally live in a real house, something I had always
dreamed of, with a yard and even close to the ocean. The house was old and
hadn't been very well maintained the last years before my grandmother died, but
it had been a beautiful house once and it still had some splendor to it, I
thought. The tiles for example in the hallway were pure white marble and it was
gorgeous. A pain to clean, but I didn't care much about that.

Fall had finally come and the winds coming from
the North Sea picked up a lot, causing the last leaves to fall off the trees
and leave them barren until spring. I had done some exploring with my kids
(Maya angry, frowning on the backseat, sighing annoyed the entire trip) on the
island and had to say that its beauty had taken my breath away. The island was
only sixteen kilometers long and five kilometers wide, so it didn't take us
long to drive from one end to the other. It had three towns, the smallest was
Rindby, then came Sonderho and finally the biggest was Nordbo, where we lived -
well my house was placed just outside of town. I had learned that the entire
western shore was made up of wide sandy beaches and that the island had one
heath and one small pine wood.

I put on my long winter coat and told Maya to
look after Victor and come and get me if he woke up. The sun had long set and
darkness surrounded Sophia's small house.

I knocked on the door and heard yelling from
behind the door. The door was opened and a small face peeked out.

"Who is it?" I could hear Sophia yell
in the background.

The young face had ketchup on his nose and was
smiling. "Mommy is coming now," he said with a mischievous grin.

"Now that's a nice surprise," Sophia
said when she saw me. I lifted the bottle of wine in the air and Sophia smiled.

"Now that's an even better surprise. Come
on in."

The house was a mess, but it had a nice
atmosphere to it. It was small and cozy. Sophia removed some clothes from a
chair and told me to sit down. A clatter sounded from elsewhere in the house
and she sighed. "Give me a minute and I'll get these kids to bed, then we
can talk properly," she said.

It took an hour. Several times one of them
jumped out of bed and ran around, screaming, yelling, teasing the others making
them laugh. I couldn't help but chuckle. Five kids. It was quite the handful. I
found two glasses in the cupboard, then noticed the sink packed with dirty
dishes. I started washing them up and putting them back in the cupboards. When
Sophia finally came back she took one glance at the clean kitchen.

"Wow, I really should have you over a
little more often. Thanks."

I shrugged. "I'm not much if a cleaner
myself, but you looked like you could need a hand."

Sophia sighed and threw herself heavily in the
chair. "Let's pop this baby open," she said and looked at the bottle.

"So how're you enjoying your new
house?" she asked after we had been chatting for a few minutes about this
and that.

"I love it. Victor, my seven-year-old
especially loves it, Maya not so much, but she'll get there. At least I
hope." I sipped the wine and looked at the woman I hoped to make my new
friend. I had been a little lonely in the big house alone with no other grown
people to talk to. She seemed worn out, but who could blame her with that many
kids and being all alone with them.

"It's a nice house you got there. I
wouldn't mind having it. Might even be able to give my kiddos a room each. How
many rooms does it have again?" she asked.

"Eight bedrooms," I chuckled. "I
seriously don't know what to do with that many rooms. Me and the kids only need
three. I think I've been inside all of them but I could be wrong. I swear
sometimes I'm afraid to get lost. I haven't even seen the cellar yet. I'm
afraid to get locked in or something. Saw it in a movie once. Some woman moved
into a new house then was stuck in the basement because a door jammed or
something and then she starved to death."

"Sounds like a boring movie," Sophia
said.

I laughed. "It was actually. But seriously
it's too big a house for just us. I often wonder how my grandmother managed to
not get lost."

"I heard she only used the downstairs the
last few years. Slept in a chair in the living room. I think she even died in
it," Sophia said. "At least that's what I heard. Maybe it’s just
rumors. I wasn't here. I had met a guy and we were on a trip to Skagen when it
happened. We broke up while we were there. A little too overwhelming with five
kids on a road trip, if you know what I mean. Anyway when we got back she had
died. I never heard what killed her. Was a heart attack or something?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. She was old. I
never knew her though. My dad never talked about her. I always got the feeling
that he resented her for some reason. But he never told me why."

"Well a lot of people end up hating their
parents. Me, I love my mother. She's the one who comes to my rescue whenever
things get too bad around here. She lives all the way up in Aalborg, but every
now and then she comes down and saves me from killing my kids. I owe her a lot.
Without her I wouldn't have made it."

"So what about all the fathers? Aren't they
around?" I asked and poured us both a little more wine.

"Well I get alimony from all of them, not
every month since there is always one of them trying to avoid having to pay.
But then I threaten to call the police and they always pay. It helps me a lot
financially. I work as a teacher at the school on the side. Yeah, more
children. Who would have figured huh? You'd think I had enough at home."

"No. I bet you're great at it," I
said.

"Well it pays the bills. The days are short
plus I have vacation whenever my kids have it. But it also means I have to deal
with them even if I'm at work," she said and laughed.

I nodded and drank some more. It felt great to
finally talk to a grown up again. The wind made the old house creak. I could
feel the cold from the window. Sophia saw it on my face.

"These houses are old," she said.
"The ones on our side of the road aren't as fancy as yours. Used to be old
summer cabins but later they were rebuilt and it was allowed for people to live
in them all year around. But they are badly insulated. Can't keep the cold wind
out at winter. I bet your mansion doesn't have those kinds of problems?"

"I haven't lived in it long enough to know,
but until now there haven’t been any problems, no," I answered, feeling a
little guilty for living in this big house all alone with my two kids.

"I thought not. Well I made my bed and now
I have to lie in it, right?" She lifted the bottle. "More?"

"Just a last one. Then I have to get
going."

"So what do you figure of that whole Mrs.
Heinrichsen thing?" I asked while she was pouring the rest of the bottle
into our glasses.

"What do you mean?" she asked and put
the empty bottle down.

"Did you know her?"

"No one knew Mrs. Heinrichsen. She was an
old bitter lady who was angry at everybody apparently because she didn't have
anything better to do. That's all I know," Sophia said. "We never saw
her much. She stayed in that big mansion of hers and looked down at us all when
she drove out of her gate in her old Mercedes. Like she was better than all of
us. " Sophia paused then drank. She looked at me once she had put the
glass down. "Why are you interested in her?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. Just curious I
guess. They say she was murdered."

Sophia exhaled. "Why anyone would want to
kill an old lady, I don't know. I mean why not wait till nature kills her on
its own? But on the other hand I think a lot of people would like to see her
dead. That's just my opinion."

"Like who?" I asked.

"I don't know. But ask down at the church.
She practically ran that place. I heard rumors she even controlled the pastor's
speeches and corrected them before he did his sermons. She used to be the
chairman of the parish council, but it wasn't a democracy as far as I know. Ran
it like a dictator. Nothing was decided unless it came from her. So I guess she
could have gotten a lot of enemies down there."

"Do you go to that church?" I asked.

Sophia burst into a loud laughter. "Me? You
have got to be kidding. They would probably never even let me in. An unmarried
single mom with five kids all from different fathers. No way they would ever
let me in."

"It sounds pretty old fashioned. Don't you
think these things have changed, that they could be different?" I asked.

Sophia smiled compassionately. "You really
are from the big city, aren't you? Out here these things don't change.
Especially not when it comes to the Home Missions society. They are kings out
here. Me I'm not from around here, I just moved here with one of my boyfriends
and then stayed when he moved away, so I don't care, but those people, they're
like a closed society where you can't get access unless you are born here or
you become just like them. And that means forgetting all about who you are, and
forget all about having sex or even thinking about it. You keep those hands
above the blanket, little missy. Those people still tell their kids that if
they masturbate they will wake up blind. I kid you not. That's what they tell
them at the church. That God will punish them for every wrong thought they
have. I'm just glad my kids weren't born into one of those families."

"So Mrs. Heinrichsen was one of them?"

"She was
the
one. She was their leader, the boss, the top, their freaking
cardinal if they had one. She ran the place and decided who was in and who was
out."

"Wow," I muttered under my breath.
"It sounds like the dark ages."

"It
is
the dark ages, my dear. Welcome." Sophia laughed again. "I hope I'm
not scaring you away cause I really enjoy having a normal person around for
once. These women on this island drive me nuts. No wonder the youngsters get
the hell out of here as soon as they're done with school." Sophia paused
and drank. "All you have to do is to stay clear of these people,
especially the women then you're good. There are many nice people here as
well."

"Jack, your neighbor, which category is he
in?" I asked.

"Ah Jack. Well he's in a category of his
own."

"How so?"

"He got out," she said and became
serious. "Not many do. But it cost him dearly. Sophia sighed deeply.

"How so?" I asked.

"I think you'd better ask him that yourself
some day."

She felt the
baby
kick one morning when she was still asleep. It
woke her up. Astrid started laughing. It felt like it was trying to tickle her
from the inside.

I'm not alone after all
,
she thought.
You're really alive!

Next she thought about him. About Christian.
Christian should have been here, she thought with great sadness. Been here to
experience this wonderful moment when their baby kicked for the first time. No
dad should be deprived of that joy of feeling his child for the first time.

Astrid told him she was pregnant a few days
before she got stuck in the bunker. He would have been so thrilled to feel it
too, she just knew he would. Just like he had been so happy when she told him
she was carrying his baby, that they were finally going to be a family. Well,
not thrilled at first.

"Mother will kill me," he had
answered.

Astrid had shrugged. "So what?"

Christian shook his head. "How did this
happen? How?"

"Well you tell me. You were there,
remember?" She tried to touch him, to caress his chest the way he used to
like it, but he pulled away. They had met on their usual spot in the dunes. It
was near the end of summer.

"But I thought we were being careful. I
thought you were on the pill?" He said harshly.

"I was. Mother gave me those pills so I
wouldn't get myself in trouble. A safety precaution, she called it. And they
were supposed to work, they really were Christian. I don't know why they didn't
work. But it doesn't matter, does it? Things happen. Life happens."

"This is bad. This is really bad."
Christian paused and looked at Astrid. "She's gonna say you did this on
purpose. You did it to get me to marry you, to get a hook on me. Did you? Did
you do this on purpose?"

Astrid shook her head. "I don't know what
you're talking about. I don't understand."

"Of course you don't. You're too damn
stupid to understand anything."

"What's the matter Christian? Aren't you
happy? This is our child. Made from our love?"

Christian smiled. "Of course I'm happy.
It's just ..."

"What?"

He put his arm around her neck. "Nothing.
You wouldn't understand anyway. I'll take care of Mother. Don't you worry. I'll
handle this."

"What is it you'll take care of?"
Astrid felt confused. She had been so happy once she found out she was
pregnant. She was very young at only sixteen, but it was okay, wasn't it? It
was after all everything she had ever dreamed of, to become a mother, to start
a family of her own and do it better than her own mother had.

"Don't you worry your pretty little head
with that," Christian said and kissed her. It was the first and only time
he ever called her pretty.

Then they made love one more time.

He was supposed to talk to his mother about it
on the day everything went so terribly wrong for Astrid and she ended up in
this strange hole in the ground. Now she wondered if he ever got to do it.

She felt the baby kick again and laughed, but
soon the laughter became tears, tears of sadness and despair when it suddenly
struck her. What if she lived long enough to give birth? Was she going to do it
on her own? Was she going to give birth to her baby down here in this hole in
the ground? Or was she going to die trying?