Free The Spring Tide by Cilla Börjlind, Rolf Börjlind

could feel it as soon as
Kostervåg
had left the shelter of the harbour. The big red ferry felt the heaving sea. It got worse for every nautical mile they progressed. The whole of the North Sea pushed against land here. When the wind reached nine to ten metres per second, Olivia’s stomach started to churn. She never usually became seasick. She had sailed a lot in her parents’ boat, mainly in the Stockholm archipelago buteven there a strong wind could blow up. The only times she had reacted was when there was a heavy swell with long waves.
    Like now.
    She made sure she knew where the toilet was. On the left, opposite the canteen. The crossing wouldn’t take so very long, so she ought to manage it. She had bought a cup of coffee and a cinnamon bun, which is what you usually did on this type of ferry, and took a seat beside one of the large windows. She was curious to see what the archipelago looked like on the west coast, so different from her own on the east. Here the rocks were low, worn, dark.
    Dangerous, she thought, when she saw how the waves broke against a barely visible reef some way out.
    But for the skipper this must be everyday fare, she thought. Three return journeys every day in the winter, and at least twenty now. In June. Olivia turned her gaze inwards. The saloon was fairly full, even though this was an early crossing. Islanders who were on their way home from a night job in Strömstad. Summer visitors on their way to their first week’s holiday. And just a few day trippers.
    Like her.
    Well almost.
    She was actually going to stay one night on the island. No longer. She had booked a cabin in a little holiday camp in the middle of the island. Rather expensive, it was high season after all. She looked out again. Far away she could make out a dark strip of coast and she realised it must be Norway. So close? she thought, and that same moment her mobile rang. It was Lenni.
    ‘People might think you were dead! You haven’t been online in fucking ages! Where the hell are you?’
    ‘I’m on my way to Nordkoster.’
    ‘And where’s that?’
    Lenni’s knowledge of geography was not the best, she could hardly have marked in Göteborg on an empty map. But she didhave other talents. Among them what she was now going to share with Olivia. It had all gone a treat with Jakob, they were as good as a couple now and were planning to go off to the big Peace & Love festival together.
    ‘Erik went home with Lollo, there at Strand, but he did ask about you first!’
    Oh, nice, Olivia thought, at least she was the first choice.
    ‘So what are you doing down there? On that island. Have you met somebody?’
    Olivia explained a bit, not all, since she knew that Lenni only had a limited interest in her college work.
    ‘Hang on, that’s the doorbell!’ Lenni cut her off. ‘It must be Jakob! Keep in touch, Livia! Phone when you get back!’
    Lenni hung up just as the ferry was approaching the sound between the Koster islands.
    The ferry called at the west jetty on the south-eastern part of Nordkoster. Some ubiquitous goods carrier mopeds with ubiquitous islanders were parked on the quayside. The first deliveries of the day had arrived.
    And Olivia was one of them.
    She stepped down onto the jetty and felt how it rocked. She came close to losing her balance and it took a few moments before she realised that the jetty was immobile. It was her who was wobbling.
    ‘A rough crossing?’
    The woman who asked was approaching Olivia. An elderly grey-haired women wearing a long black raincoat and with a face that had been facing the sea for the greater part of her life.
    ‘A little.’
    ‘I’m Betty Nordeman.’
    ‘Olivia Rönning.’
    ‘You’ve got no luggage?’
    Olivia was holding a sports bag in her hand and thought that was surely a type of luggage. She was only going to stay one night.
    ‘Only this.’
    ‘Have you got a change of clothes in there?’
    ‘No. A change of clothes?’
    ‘You can feel it yourself, the