The warm breeze caressed his furrowed cheeks as he sat on the little balcony. The sun warmed and healed his aching joints; he was moving more easily with each day that passed. Every day, he went to his job at the fish market where he helped sell the catch that came in early in the morning from the fishing boats.

Here there was no one who tried to take away from older people their right to make themselves useful. Instead he found himself more respected and appreciated than ever before in his life, and slowly but surely he had begun to make friends in the little town. It’s true there was a bit of trouble with the language, but he could tell that he was managing all right with gestures and good intentions, and his vocabulary was also growing steadily. A little drink or two after a good day’s work also helped loosen the bonds of shyness; he found to his surprise that he was starting to turn into something of a chatterbox.

As he sat there on the balcony looking out over the lush vegetation that merged into the bluest water he had ever seen, Eilert felt that he would never get any closer to paradise than right here.

An added bit of spice in his life was the daily flirting with the buxom proprietress of the boarding-house, Rosa. Occasionally, he permitted himself to toy with the thought that over time it might even develop into something more than a playful flirtation. The attraction was there, no question about that, and people were not made to live alone.

For a moment, he happened to think of Svea back home in Sweden. Then he dismissed that unpleasant thought, closed his eyes and enjoyed a well-earned siesta.

Camilla Läckberg