Free The Lily Pond by Annika Thor Page A

hug. “This is Ninni, our youngest. Got a kiss for May? Mmmm, what a nice kiss!”
    May holds her little sister up proudly for Stephie to inspect. Stephie isn’t eager to kiss Ninni. She’s cute, but she also has a runny nose, and her face is dirty. Luckily Ninni decides to be shy, turning her head away.
    “Britten,” May calls. “She’s soaked through! Aren’t you supposed to be looking after her? And where are the others?”
    Britten, a long-legged eleven-year-old in an outgrown dress, comes up to them.
    “Gosh,” she says. “I hadn’t noticed. Can’t you deal with her, since you’re going upstairs anyway? It’s almost my turn.” She points to a group of girls jumping rope. “Erik and Gunnel went along with Mamma to work. Ninni’s the only one at home. Please, can’t you take her up with you?”
    “I’ll change her,” May says. “But when that’s done, I’ll call you to come up and get her. Stephanie and I are going to do our math homework.”
    Britten looks at Stephie in admiration.
    “Do you go to grammar school, too?”
    “Yes.”
    “I hope I can go,” Britten tells her.
    “Britten,” the girls with the jump rope shout. “Your turn!”
    “She’ll never get into grammar school,” May tells Stephie once Britten is out of earshot. “She doesn’t have good enough grades. She won’t get a scholarship.”
    May carts Ninni up the stairs to the top floor. The door isn’t locked, and it opens right into the kitchen, where there are a large table, four rib-backed chairs, a kitchen settle, a sink, and a shiny gas stove.
    “Nice, isn’t it?” May asks, striking the pale yellow enamel. “It’s brand new. Until recently, all we had was a wood-burning stove.”
    With a deft movement she lays Ninni on the kitchen table. Holding her kicking little sister with one hand,she dampens a rag with the other. When she pulls Ninni’s underpants down, the strong odor of urine fills the kitchen, and Stephie scrunches her nose.
    “Why don’t you go into the other room till I’m done?” May tells her.
    Stephie goes into the only other room there is. It contains a sofa bed and two trundle beds, a little table, and a couple of chairs. She wonders how there is room for all of them to sleep there.
    “Britten,” May shouts through the open window. “Come and get her!”
    Britten’s rapid footsteps clatter on the stairs. When she has taken Ninni back outside, May comes into the other room, where Stephie’s waiting.
    “Which bed is yours?” Stephie asks.
    “That one,” May says, pointing to one of the trundle beds. “I share with Gunnel. Britten shares with Erik. Kurre and Olle sleep in the kitchen, and Ninni sleeps with Mamma and Papa on the sofa bed.”
    They sit down at the table and get out their math books and workbooks. In the beginning Stephie finds all the noise a distraction: loud voices from the courtyard, people running up and down the stairs, a radio blaring from somewhere, and a muffled ringing May says is noise from the workshop in the next yard. Soon, though, she’s so absorbed by the algebra problems she doesn’t hear a thing.
    They have been at it for a couple of hours when the kitchen door opens. First two little kids rush in; then comesa heavyset woman wearing an overcoat with a housedress under it.
    “This is Stephanie,” May says.
    “Tyra Karlsson.” May’s mother introduces herself as she extends a hand. “May has told us so much about you. It’s a terrible thing to separate children from their parents. I wish I could flatten that Hitler between the rollers of the big mangle. We’d see how much harm he could do after a mangling!”
    Stephie can’t help laughing at the thought of Hitler rolled out as flat as a paper doll.
    “And it’s shameful how the government refuses to take in adult refugees,” May’s mother goes on. “As if there weren’t room for a few more people in Sweden. If nine people can live in this apartment, I imagine there are others who could