The Dinosaur Feather(8)

“And that’s why I take good care of Cecilie,” he said. “Special care.”

Anna nodded. Anna, too, always tried really hard to please Cecilie.

“But I love you more than anyone, Anna,” he said, and suddenly looked very serious. “Parents just do. Otherwise something’s wrong.”

The next day Anna gave the stamp back to Karen. Along with a small rubber animal that could walk down the window all by itself.


When Anna told Jens in the spring of 2004 that she was pregnant by Thomas and they had decided to keep the baby, Jens’s response was, “Why?”

They were in a café in Odense and had just bought a luxurious dressing gown as a birthday present for Cecilie. They were having coffee before going to Brænderup where Cecilie was cooking dinner.

Anna gave her father a furious look.

“Do you want me to start with the birds and the bees, or how much do you know already?”

“I didn’t think you and Thomas were getting along very well.”

“It’s better now.”

“How long have you two known each other?”

“Almost five months.”

“How old are you?”

“Have you forgotten how old I am?”

“Twenty-five?”

“Twenty-six.”

“And how many years of your degree do you have left?”

“Three years.”

“Why do you want to keep the baby?” he asked for the second time. “The last time I saw you, you wanted to break up with Thomas because he . . . how did you put it? . . . only cared about himself. You weren’t sure you could cope with that. And he was working all the time. Have you forgotten that?”

“You don’t like him.”

“I don’t know him very well.”

“But what you do know, you don’t like.”

Jens sighed. “I do like him, Anna. He’s all right.”

A pause followed. Anna gritted her teeth. Her legs were itching, and she had to make a real effort not to scream out loud. Suddenly Jens hugged her.

“Congratulations,” he mumbled into her hair. “Congratulations, sweetheart. I’m sorry.”

Afterward they had made a beeline for a baby supply store and bought a dark blue stroller for Jens’s grandchild. A dark blue parasol was included, and Anna twirled it while Jens paid. The stroller was a display model and slightly faded on one side, but there was a waiting list to get a brand new one. And Jens didn’t want to wait, no sir. He said “my grandchild” ten times at least, while they were in the store. The cashier glanced furtively at Anna’s stomach, which was as flat as a pancake. Anna giggled.

When they came back to Cecilie, the aroma of roast lamb filled the whole house. Cecilie was standing on the kitchen table hanging a paper chain along the window. Jens rolled the stroller into the kitchen.

“What’s that?” Cecilie said.

“What do you think it is?”

“A stroller.”

“Bingo!”

“I’m menopausal,” Cecilie said, and spat out the pins she had been holding in the corner of her mouth.

Anna started to laugh, and Jens did a round with the pram in the kitchen as he called out to Cecilie:

“Get down, Granny, roll your walker to the fridge and give me your best bottle of champagne. From now on I want to be known as ‘honored Granddad.’”

It wasn’t until then that it hit her. Cecilie dove off like a rock star and hugged Anna. Half an hour later, when they were sitting at the kitchen table and the champagne bottle was empty—Anna hadn’t had any, and Jens and Cecilie were in high spirits—Cecilie suddenly said:

“Who’s the father?”

Anna felt movement under the table and knew Jens had tried to kick Cecilie. Anna looked from one to the other.

“You’ll be the death of me, the pair of you,” she sighed and went up to her old room to watch TV.

The next morning when Anna got up, Jens and Cecilie were looking up something on the Internet.

“I’m moving to Copenhagen,” Cecilie announced. Jens carried on searching while Cecilie got up to toast some bread for Anna.

“You just sit down,” she said and put butter, milk, and cheese on the table, as well as her homemade jam and a cucumber. She made a fresh pot of tea and poured Anna a cup. When she had set down the teapot on the table, she looked at Anna and said, “I’m sorry I asked you who the father was. Of course it’s Thomas. I was just under the impression that things between you two weren’t good. That it was only a question of time before . . .”

“Well, you were wrong,” Anna interrupted her.

Cecilie smiled a fleeting smile.

“I like him very much,” she said, with emphasis.