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father’s gratitude.
    She decided to call her ex-husband. Hannes
would not be best pleased. The work of an emergency physician was no less
demanding than that of a lawyer, and the days were longer and harder. He took
the kids every other weekend and sometimes asked to have more time with them
when it was convenient, but in general he was not receptive to taking them at
short notice. Hannes had a new wife, and his life now revolved mainly around
the two of them and their needs. Thóra’s, on the other hand,
revolved around everyone but herself; lately all of her time had been going
into her work, her two children and her grandson, who had recently turned one.
The grandchild actually came part and parcel with a
fourth child - her daughter- in law. Sigga was seventeen, a year younger than
Thóra’s son Gylfi, but there was not much difference between them
in terms of maturity. Somehow the young parents had managed to keep their
relationship going despite their belly flop into the deep end of adulthood.
They stayed with Thóra every other week, and in between the girl went
home to her parents with the little boy - without Gylfi. The relationship
between Gylfi and Sigga’s parents was a chilly one; they seemed unable to
forgive him for their daughter’s untimely pregnancy. This was no secret to
anyone, least of all Gylfi, so Thóra was happy when he decided to stay
at home whilst Sigga was with them. In this way she managed to keep her son to
herself a little longer and continue with his upbringing, which had been cut
short when he had accidentally increased the human population.
    Thóra put the receiver under her chin
and adjusted a framed photograph of her grandson as she selected the number.
The little boy had been christened Orri, after countless other proposals by the
young parents that still made Thóra shudder. He was irresistible; blond
and big-eyed, and still with round, chubby cheeks even though he had long since
stopped bottle- feeding. It warmed Thóra’s heart to see him, and
she was looking forward to taking care of him next week even though the
household’s stress levels increased perceptibly when mother and son were
around. She smiled at the little boy in the photo and crossed her fingers when
the phone was finally answered. ‘Hello, Hannes. Could you do me a small
favour? I won’t be able to pick up Sóley . .
     
     ‘The girl watched from the
playground as the ambulance drove up to the house. She twisted in the swing and
let it turn her back in a semi-circle. She was happy that the sirens
weren’t on because if they were, that meant it was serious. Maybe the lady had just fallen down and broken her foot? Once her
friend broke her foot and then an ambulance came to get her. Tinna puffed up
her cheeks then let the air leak out while she thought about all of this. Fat cheeks. Skinny cheeks. Fat cheeks. Skinny cheeks. She
stopped playing bellows with her cheeks and sat deep in thought. Here was proof
that you didn’t need to eat to become fat. Air could make you fat. She
stiffened. Everything was full of air. It was everywhere, and there was nowhere
to hide. She would have to try to breathe less.
    A dull thud came from the ambulance and Tinna
directed her attention back there. She was hoping that someone would come out
of the house so that she could find out what had happened, but the bustle
around the ambulance was better than nothing. The house was more interesting
— maybe they’d arrested a criminal inside, but the walls blocked
her view. If they were thin walls maybe she could see through them, just as it
would be possible one day to see through her. She squinted in the hope of
seeing better, but it didn’t help. Yet something was going on: the first
police car to arrive had had its sirens on. No police car had come when her
friend broke her foot in the school playground, so it was unlikely that they’d
come to the lady’s house because of an accident.
If it was a robbery, then Tinna hoped that