The Dinosaur Feather(97)

“Now stop it, just stop it, Lily,” Anna screamed. “Do you understand? Or there will be no ice cream for a week, no, a whole month!”

Lily howled and Anna plunked her hard into the body of the cart and stormed off. They stopped at the vegetable section and Anna patted Lily’s cheek to make up. Lily sniffled. Anna hugged her.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “All we need now are some potatoes and we’ll be done.”

“Me do it,” Lily yelled.

“No, darling,” Anna said, exhausted. Søren was very close to them now. Anna and Lily both looked dreadful. Tired, red-eyed, and run down, mother and child both. Lily got ready to throw another tantrum, so Anna lifted her out of the cart.

“Okay.” She gave in. “I’ll hold the bag and you put in the potatoes.”

“Lily help Mommy,” Lily insisted.

“Yes, darling, that’s right,” Anna said.

Lily picked up potatoes with both hands and dropped them into the bag.

“Gently,” Anna said.

“Gently,” Lily echoed.

“Gently, I said,” Anna repeated. Lily carried on. There were now ten potatoes in the bag. Lily picked up a large potato with both hands and hurled it into the bag.

“Right, that’s enough,” Anna said, and at that very moment the bag split and the potatoes rolled off in every direction.

“Oh, no,” Anna gasped. Her hands hung limply by her sides. It was all too much. “Now look what you’ve done.”

Lily started crying again.

“Come on, allow me,” Søren said. He put down his basket, which contained a strange mix of groceries. “Let me help you, please?”

Anna straightened up and gave Søren a look of disbelief. “What are you doing here?”

“Shopping,” Søren said, innocently.

Anna started picking up the potatoes. “I’m not talking to you,” she snarled, keeping her eyes on the floor. “I’m not interested in anything you have to say. I don’t want to hear it.” She looked up at Søren and her eyes glowed yellow.

“I’m going to pick up your potatoes,” Søren said. “And then I’m going to carry your groceries and your kid home.”

“Oh no, you’re not,” Anna snarled.

“You bet I am,” Søren said.

“Over my dead body,” Anna said, theatrically.

“Sure, if that’s how you want to do it,” Søren replied, unperturbed.

Anna glared at him, but Søren held his ground. She looked like shit. Scrawny and spotty, and Lily, in the cart, looked neglected, with tears down her cheeks, snot across her mouth, and a filthy teddy in her arms. Anna hadn’t even noticed the other shoppers staring at her and shaking their heads. A socially disadvantaged, impoverished single parent was precisely what she looked like. All that was missing were some beers and chips in her cart. But Søren was bowled over. It was madness—he didn’t even like her. Contrary and stuckup, as she was. And he had only known her four days, during which time she had grown increasingly hostile to him. But he was completely smitten.


Lily refused to walk. Anna told her she had to, but Lily had made up her mind and was sitting down on the steps of a store that was closed. “No,” she declared and stuck out her lower lip in defiance. “You have to walk,” Anna repeated. Søren was about to say something, but Anna turned to him when she sensed his lips moving.

“She has to walk. If she doesn’t, we can’t get home. I can’t carry all those bags, my books, and a child. I’m not strong enough.” She was on the brink of tears. Søren emptied his groceries into Anna’s least full bag, tied the two remaining ones together, and hung them over his shoulders like a yoke. Without asking for permission, he lifted Lily and put her on his shoulders.

“Keep your feet still, or you’ll break the eggs,” he told her.

“Okay,” Lily said, proudly.

Søren started walking and he soon heard Anna’s footsteps behind them. A gleeful Lily called out from her vantage point, “I can see all the cars in the whole world, I can see all the houses and all the boys and girls.”

Anna didn’t utter a word the whole way back, but when they reached the stairwell, she said, “Thanks for your help, I’ll take it from here.”

“Anna,” Søren said, as he let Lily down. “I’m coming upstairs with you.” He was in no mood for an argument.

Lily, now rested, started to climb the stairs. Anna faced Søren, her eyes brimming with tears.

“I know what you’ve come to tell me, and I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want to hear it!”