For the past week Jenny had been trying to convince him of the economic benefits of geothermal heating. Her point, he recalled, gulping down a second mouthful of cold water, was that they were already paying thousands of kronor a month for heating and the geothermal system would, in her words, obliterate that cost. He pulled his mouth from the stream of water to take a breath. It would pay for itself in nine months. She’d read this in the materials that arrived in the mail. Nine months worked out to roughly two winters. The math was sound, no question. Still, there was an obstacle to his coming around to Jenny’s side on the issue. The purchase and installation of the geothermal system were so costly they would need to make financial sacrifices. The new car would have to wait. Same for the four days in Are they took every year during sports week in February with the girls. Same for their annual trip to Thailand. They always started saving for Thailand just after Christmas. He placed his lips back to the stream and drank two or three more gulps of cold water.
In the mirror, he picked at an ingrown hair on his neck. Maybe the geothermal heating system would offer an opportunity for long-term financial savings, plus the chance to stay at home for the whole month of July for once. If he agreed to have the system installed, he could call the installation company and request that they do the work in the month of July. He loved July in Stockholm. Everyone was on vacation. Patio service at his favorite bars stayed open late. They could rent a boat, maybe take it out and camp on an island or two in the archipelago. With a pair of Jenny’s nail scissors he made a small incision at the base of the fly. This allowed him to pry the pull tab upward with his finger. He ran his fingernail the length of the incision. It was a simple thing, but they needed to remember the value they held for each other. This is what she said when she’d proposed the idea of taking a trip, just the two of them. He agreed. He dragged the zipper up and down a few times to check that it hadn’t been damaged. It hadn’t. He held the pants tightly against his chest.
Jenny’s voice came through the door. “It’s five to three. What are you doing in there?” He looked at his watch. The pants had cost him fifteen minutes. He left the bathroom for the bedroom, where Jenny was making neat piles of their clothing. The suitcase was halfway filled. She shook her head at him. “I hope you’re not coming down with that bug Alex had last week.”
He held the pants up. “Some trouble with my zipper,” he said.
“Want me to take a look?” she asked.
“I’ll bring a different pair,” he said. He took a pair of jeans from his stack on the bed, pulled them on.
Jenny held up two socks. He sat on the corner of the bed and watched her tuck them into a ball. Outside it was snowing. It was three days into the new year.
“I say we go for it,” he said.
“What?” she said.
“Geothermal,” he said. “The heating. I think it’s a good idea.”
She folded a shirt. “That’s a change,” she said.
“I’ll move some money around.” He was trying hard to sound agreeable.
She put the shirt neatly in the suitcase, smoothed it. “If you think so,” she said. He heard caution in her voice. Her sister had come to stay for the weekend. She was downstairs, watching television and making plans with the girls about what they would get up to for the weekend. Snow was forecast every day.
Jenny was smiling. She arranged a pair of heels upright at the hem of a green skirt. “Too summery, do you think?” she asked.
“Beautiful,” he said. “I’ve always liked that skirt.”
She smiled at him and placed her makeup bag carefully on top of Jacob’s sweaters. The sweaters were bulky and though she pushed the bag down firmly it rose up above the lip of the suitcase when she removed her hand. She pushed again, this time with two hands. The bag still rose back up but she appeared to be satisfied with her efforts because she went to the closet and took out two of his ties, a black one with gray stripes and a solid red one. “I’m putting a choice of ties in here,” she said, folding the ties together at their middle and laying them in the suitcase. “Pernilla was in Copenhagen last month and said there was an excellent restaurant in one of the hotels on the harbor. I can’t remember which one. Remind me to call her when we land.” Jacob nodded his head to all of this but wasn’t listening.
She replaced the green skirt with something darker. “This is going to be good for us,” she said. She smiled at him and moved the ties from atop the sweaters and tucked them into the little zipper pocket. She closed the pocket. “I think this will be fun, Jacob.” He watched her hand reach over the suitcase and touch his shoulder. “The holidays,” she said as if she was going to say more about it.
Her back was to him and he watched her bend over to pick up from the floor a pair of socks she’d decided not to take. His wife was a beautiful woman. Her hips were round and soft. Copenhagen would be good for them. He reached out and touched her. Without standing up, she turned and smiled at him. “That was nice,” she said. “I’m looking forward to the trip, too. I miss you.”
“Me too,” he said.
In the long week between Christmas and New Year, Henrik Brandt had been taken off life support. Jenny spent the day leading up to this with Lisa at the hospital. Jacob had taken the girls out to ski on the trails in Grimsta. They’d had a big storm three days after Christmas and the snow was heavy but not too wet and the temperature was perfect for skiing. He’d enjoyed himself. The girls had gotten along with each other, and he’d had a good workout. They were almost old enough to keep up with him and he hadn’t had to stop to wait as much as the previous winter.
He looked at his wife. She was holding a nightgown he liked. “I almost forgot,” she said. He watched her fold it up into an impossibly small square and stuff it into the suitcase. “That’s it,” she said, “unless you’ve forgotten something.”
“I don’t think I have,” he said.
VIII
Jacob picked up the suitcase and followed Jenny out of their bedroom. If they wanted to make it to Arlanda in time for their flight, especially with the snow, they had five minutes to say good-bye to the girls and get on the road. They walked down the stairs. Jacob balanced the suitcase against his hip. It was heavy and he grunted a little with the weight. “Are you sure you feel all right?” Jenny said. “You were in the bathroom a long time.”
“I’m fine,” he said.
Downstairs, Jenny went straight for the hall and pulled on her boots. In the small windows above the door, Jacob could see that the snow had picked up considerably. It was coming down hard. He saw Jenny see this too. She opened the door and it became instantly cold in the entryway. He watched the snow come down in a great pulsing wall. It was nice to look at. She said something to him. He didn’t hear her but he sensed that she’d said something to him. He felt the weight of the suitcase in his hand and heard the sound of the television in the living room. She said, louder this time, “I said, What are we supposed to do now?” He set the suitcase down on the floor and looked at his wife. He listened to the girls laughing at a cartoon on the television. It was one he sometimes watched with them. He could almost picture the main character. It might have been a talking bear or some kind of large bird but as hard as he tried he could not remember.