Thirteen, Fourteen... Little Boy Unseen (2 page)

“So, what’s on for today?” Sara asked, when I returned to my desk.

“As a matter of fact, I don’t know,” I said. “I haven’t heard from Jens-Ole yet. I’m expecting his call any moment now, when they’re done with the morning meeting at headquarters. While I spoke, the phone on my desk started ringing. I could tell by the aggressive sound that it had to be him.

I chuckled.

“As we speak of the…”

Sara laughed. “That sure sounds like him.”

“Rebekka!” Jens-Ole yelled into the other end. I smiled at the sound of his voice. As always, he sounded like it was of top urgency. I liked that about him. There was never a dull moment.

“Yes, dear. And a happy New Year to you as well. What do you have for me today?”

He grumbled something sounding slightly like
happy New Year
, but I wasn’t sure.

“Bodies,” he said. “Two bodies. Husband and wife. Found yesterday in a lake not far from Karrebaeksminde by some boy and his dog. I want them in my paper! If the dog is cute, I want a big photo on the front page!”

3

S
UNE WAS
called in and met me by my car that I had parked in the street in front of the office. Jens-Ole had emailed me the details. Sune and I shared a quick kiss before we drove off.

“Was my dad up when you left?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Good,” I said. I was worried about him. He was getting weaker and weaker as the days passed. We had gotten help from the county, and a nurse came every day to take care of him while we were at work.

My father had developed a tendency to stay in bed most of the day. He needed to get up and get moving, the doctor had told us. He was losing his muscle mass too quickly and that was a slippery slope, according to the doctor. It made it harder and harder for my dad to get out of bed, with the result that he only lost more muscle. He simply had to get out of bed every day and get his body moving and his blood pumping. “So, what do we know about the bodies?” Sune asked.

“I called the forensics team a few minutes ago,” I said, and took a right turn as we got to the city limit. “They haven’t identified them yet, but they are a male and a female, about forty-five to fifty years old. The police believe they must have drowned; that they went fishing and the boat sank. They’ve been in the water a long time. Several weeks, they think. Maybe even months.”

“How come they weren’t found before?” Sune asked, as I found the road leading towards Naestved. We were in the countryside now, and the houses were few. Horses in a paddock were wearing covers. Frost had painted the grass white.

“It’s been a rough winter so far. The water has been cold, and they think that’s why it has taken so long for the bodies to resurface. They were found floating face down. I don’t know how much you know about these things, but a cadaver in the water starts to sink as soon as the air in its lungs is replaced with water. Once submerged, the body stays underwater until the bacteria in the gut and chest cavity produce enough methane gas, hydrogen sulfide, and carbon dioxide to float it to the surface like a balloon. But the buildup of methane, hydrogen sulfide, and other gases can take days or weeks, depending on the temperature.”

“I see. So, it was the boy who found the bodies floating in the lake?” Sune asked.

“Yes. They can have been there for quite awhile. But our part is simply to tell about the find. It’s as easy as can be. I say we simply interview the boy and get his picture. I spoke to his mother earlier, and they’ve kept him home from school today, since he was in a great shock from the find yesterday. He’s at his grandparents’ place, and they have the dog there with them. Jens-Ole is very keen on getting the dog in the paper, for some reason. He thinks cute animals sell newspapers.”

Sune leaned his seat back with a sigh and a smile. “That shouldn’t be too hard. All dogs are cute.”

I chuckled while the GPS on my phone told me we had to make a left turn down a small dirt road. I blinked and turned, and we bumped towards the small farmhouse behind tall trees. A pit-bull bull ran towards us as I parked the car in front of the main building.

I looked at Sune, who seemed terrified. The dog stared at us with its almost white eyes.

“I sure hope that’s not the dog,” Sune said. “Please tell me that isn’t the dog.”

I couldn’t help laughing. Of course, Jens-Ole had thought it was this little cute dog with big brown puppy-dog eyes that he could put on the front cover and sell a lot of newspapers.

“Maybe we can Photoshop it?” I asked.

Sune shuddered while the dog barked outside our window. It stared at us, looking vicious.

“I think we need a lot more than Photoshop here,” he grumbled.

An elderly woman came out from the house and started yelling at the dog to get away from the car. She shooed it away, and we could finally get out.

I shook the woman’s hand.

“Rebekka Franck,
Zeeland Times
,” I said. “This is my photographer, Sune Johansen.”

The woman smiled gently and nodded, when I spotted a small boy in the opening of the door. The grandmother saw him too as she turned her head.

“Let’s go inside,” she said. “Steffen prefers to stay in the house these days. Says he’s afraid of zombies, the poor thing.”

4

W
E GOT
back to the office just before lunch. Sune and I had picked up sandwiches for everyone on our way, which we ate before I started writing the article about Steffen and Bastian, who found two bodies in the lake. It wasn’t a big story, and I knew it wouldn’t reach the front cover. Sune did his best to find a picture where the dog looked slightly less malicious, but it still wasn’t front-page material. Not in the way Jens-Ole wanted it to be.

I wrote a couple of small articles about a new bakery opening on our main street and one about one of Karrebaeksminde’s beloved citizens who would turn one hundred tomorrow. I sent it all, along with Sune’s pictures, and looked at the clock. It was time for us to pick up Tobias and Julie from school. When we were about to leave, I still hadn’t heard from Jens-Ole, who needed to approve my articles in case he had any last minute changes.

“I can go get the kids alone, if you like,” Sune said.

“Nah, I want to go home anyway. I’ll just have to make the changes at home, in case he has any,” I said.

I grabbed my laptop from the desk, knowing very well that Jens-Ole wouldn’t be too happy with the article where the boy spoke about zombies and how he thought they would come after him, and a dog so snappy-looking I wasn’t even sure he was going to print the picture. Well, it wasn’t my problem, was it? I had done my part, and now I wanted to go home.

We picked up William first at his day-care. His day-care mom, Anette, was a woman who took care of five kids in her own home, and he absolutely adored her. We all did. It was good to know that he was being well taken care of while we worked. My dad had gotten too sick to take care of him, so it was the best solution for all. William smiled widely and stumbled insecurely towards us when we entered Anette’s house. In his eagerness to get to us, he fell to his knees and burst into a loud scream. I hurried towards him and picked him up. The feeling of defeat wouldn’t go away, and he continued crying as we carried him to the car. I felt a knot in my stomach while trying to comfort him. It was the guilt nagging me. Even though I knew he was in a good place, I still felt bad for working instead of taking care of him at home. It was silly, really. The kid was almost two years old.

“He loves it at Anette’s,” Sune said, as we got into the car and I had strapped William in the seat.  “It’s good for him to get out and be with other children,” he continued.

I started the car with a sigh. “I know. I just feel so guilty for wanting a career. That’s all.”

“I know you do, but you’ve got to let it go. If you stayed at home, you would go nuts. You’re simply not cut out for the stay-at-home-mom life. You have to acknowledge that and make peace with it. You like your job, and there is nothing wrong with that.”

“It’s just so hard,” I grumbled. “Especially since the sinkhole-incident. I can’t stop thinking about how I need to cherish every moment I have with him, how I don’t want to miss one second of his life.”

Sune leaned over and kissed me. “You just need to let it go,” he whispered. “That’s all.”

I looked into his eyes with a strange feeling. I knew what he was saying, but I wasn’t sure I agreed. Not anymore. I wasn’t sure I wanted to let it go. Something had changed inside of me, and I had no idea how to embrace it. I had started thinking a lot more about life and how I spent my time, how precious every little moment really was. I wasn’t sure Sune fully understood the extent of it. It wasn’t just some cliché for me anymore. I wasn’t a kitty-poster on Facebook with a message.

I backed out of the parking lot in front of Anette’s house. Anette was standing in the window with the two other kids that hadn’t been picked up yet, waving at William. I waved at her.

“Look William! Anette!” I said and pointed.

William forgot all about being sad and waved eagerly, while chewing his pacifier greedily.

“Let’s go get Tobias and Julie,” I said.

William shrieked with joy. He could hardly contain his excitement, and both his arms and legs moved as he yelled, “Tobby…Juju!”

5

J
ENS-
O
LE WASN’T
too thrilled about the article and decided to drop it to page seven. He would print the picture, but not in a big size, he told me on the phone, as soon as we came in the door. The big kids were tired and sat on the couch, each with an iPad in hand, playing Minecraft, while William wouldn’t leave my shoulder and clung to me like he wasn’t sure he was going to ever see me again.

“Other than that, your articles were all fine. No need to correct anything,” Jens-Ole said, to my relief. I really didn’t want to spend my evening rewriting an article I wasn’t too fond of in the first place.

“Tomorrow is a new day,” Jens-Ole said. “Maybe you’ve already gotten your nose into a story?”

Usually, I would have done just that. It never took me many minutes back on the job before I had lots of stories I wanted to research, but for the first time, I really didn’t have anything. It kind of surprised me, and I didn’t want to admit it. Instead, I lied.

“I have a few things I’d like to look into,” I said, while William was fussing in my arms, trying to grab the phone out of my hand.

“That’s my girl. Can’t wait to hear more tomorrow,” Jens-Ole said, right before we hung up.

I put the phone in my pocket, wondering if I could come up with a good story by morning. I shrugged. I had been through this before. A lot could happen overnight. Maybe something would come up.

Julie and Tobias were suddenly fighting, and Julie was screaming.

“Hey! What’s going on in here?” I yelled, and stormed into the living room.

“Tobias pulled my hair!” Julie said, crying.

Sune came up behind me.

“Don’t pull her hair! Say you’re sorry,” I said angrily.

William was crying in my arms as well now. He was angry because I didn’t let him have the phone.

Julie looked at Tobias, waiting for her apology. It didn’t come.

“See, he doesn’t even want to say he’s sorry,” she said and looked at me. “He’s so mean.”

“Am not!” Tobias argued.

“Oh, yes you are. You’re always so mean to me!”

“Just say you’re sorry, for crying out loud,” I said.

“Hey, hey, not so fast,” Sune said, and stepped forward. “Who says he even did it?”

I looked at Sune. Was he for real? “Well, Julie said he did,” I said.

“Maybe she’s lying,” Sune said.

“I’m not lying!” Julie said with a whining voice, and then started crying. “I’m NOT a liar!”

“No, of course you’re not a liar,” I said, trying to comfort her and William at the same time. “Sune didn’t mean that.”

“Yes, he did,” Julie said. “He always thinks the worst of me.”

“Oh, come on,” Sune said. “Don’t let her do this to you. She’s such a drama queen.” He looked at Tobias. “Did you do it, Tobias? Did you pull her hair?”

Tobias thought for a long time, then nodded.

“Ha!” Julie said. “Told you so.”

“Okay, well now that we’ve established that he did pull her hair, maybe now he can say he is sorry?” I said to Sune. The tension between us was getting bad. I didn’t like it. There was nothing like our children that could make us turn on each other lately. It was becoming a bad habit. But, I had to defend my child, didn’t I?

“Maybe there’s a reason why he pulled her hair,” Sune said. “Tobias doesn’t do anything like this without a reason.”

We all looked at Tobias to get an explanation. “She stole everything in my chest and won’t give it back,” he said.

“Chest?” I asked.

“In Minecraft,” Sune said, annoyed, like I was supposed to know what they were talking about. “They put all the stuff they gather in their chests.”

“Did you steal all of his stuff?” I asked Julie.

“He took my diamond that I found. So, I stole everything he had,” she answered. I looked at Tobias. My head was starting to hurt.

“You didn’t find it. I found it first!” Tobias said.

I looked at Sune, thinking I was ready to let them handle this on their own. I was getting tired of the discussion, but Sune wouldn’t let it go.

“You can’t just steal everything, Julie,” he said.

I stared at him with surprise. “Hey, don’t take it out on her,” I said. “It seems to me, they were both in on it. Besides, I think it’s slightly worse to pull someone’s hair than to steal some things in a computer game.”

Sune looked at me like I was an idiot. “How can you say that? If she hadn’t stolen the things, Tobias never would have touched her.”

“I still don’t think…” I didn’t finish the sentence before the doorbell rang. Sune didn’t look like he was ready to let go of the discussion, but I was happy to have an excuse to leave the room. I smiled at William and told him to never grow up before I opened the door.