Vandelier's Song & 10 Other Short Stories
Uffe Berggren
Vandelier's Song & Ten Other Short Stories
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Vandelier's Song
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Vandelier's Song
Vandelier's Song & 10 Other Short Stories
Uffe Berggren
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------© Uffe Berggren 2020 English version from the Swedish original by Uffe Berggren. Cover photo: Uffe Berggren Print history for Swedish editions: : Published 2004 in Swedish as “Vandeliers sång”. ReaKom: ISBN 91-975104-1-6. It is still possible to purchase a print version, as well as an e-book, from 2017: ISBN 9789176995273. Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand, Stockholm, Sweden Print : BoD – Books on Demand, Norderstedt, Germany ISBN: 9789179698959
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Vandelier's Song
Vandelier's Song & 10 Other Short Stories
Contents The Home Coming .......................................................... 7 Fatz is the Greasiest ....................................................... 13 In the Greyhound Depot ................................................ 23 You’re Looking at the Next President ........................... 40 The Witch Master of Self-pity ....................................... 56 Drugstore ....................................................................... 70 Sunday Morning ............................................................ 83 An Unusual Day, Judy! .................................................. 98 Roses & Perfume ..........................................................112 Not Much of a Smile ................................................... 127 Vandelier’s Song ......................................................... 142 Post Script ................................................................... 156
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Vandelier's Song
The Home Coming Ella steps down from the yellow bus in a cloud of stale diesel fumes aggressively spreading in the quivering heat. The sun sparkles in the dust along the sides of the bus, as if thousands of minimal mirrors are fixed all along the bus side, just to get this bus to appear somewhat brighter. On the stairs of the bus station sits Crazy Harry. He grins between two saliva stripes slowly crawling down the stubble chin. He has not changed. “Hey, Harry!” she says, “how are you holding up?” Harry stares blankly, does not seem to recognise her. He squints into the sun. He and the bus station look the same as four years ago. “Girl,” Crazy Harry says, “dog girl!” He grins even wider and is clumsily flapping his arms. Like he is trying to fly up towards her. Or even greeting her. It is hard to tell. “Nah?” says Ella, “yes, I always had dogs with me. It is right! Now I have no dog.” Why is she telling him that? Does he understand? Ella looks around. No one has come to meet her. The sun is sitting so low that it makes her squint like Crazy Harry when she gazes along the road towards the farm. Nothing is to be seen there, nothing that is moving anyway.
Inside the dusty old bus station there is old Vera Bradley still standing behind the counter. As long as Ella can remember, Vera has been working there. Vera has aged, unlike Crazy Harry. Mainly through that her cheeks are hanging even lower than in the past. Vera looks up from her packages when Ella comes in. “My, oh my, look who’s coming here, Martin Parks girl! The youngest if my old eyes doesn’t deceive me. Jenny, no, Gabriella was your name?” Vera Bradley says and smiles so wide her face splits into hundreds of wrinkles. “Right,” Ella says and is definitely sensing a lump growing in her throat. For the first time in years any one outside work recognises her, or knows who she is. Now, these two guys recognised her in a matter of minutes! “Long time since you were home, right honey?” “Yes, it has been a few years,” Ella mumbles. “At home on vacation?” Vera wonders and gazes intently at Ella with her piercing icy blue eyes. “Nah, I quit!” “Couldn’t you take it?” Vera Bradley asks with some anxiety in her voice. “Oh yes, but ...” “I see! The old place still has its lure. Where did you live, in New York?” “Yes, and in Montreal.” “With your mother then?” “No, but she lives in Montreal,” Ella replies and is 8
Vandelier's Song
noticing that Vera does not keep up with what is happening. “Oh yes, I knew it was a big city. What did you do there then?” “Working at museums as a guard, waitressing, delivering mail and such,” Ella says. Ella feels like she is being cross-examined. Then she remembers that Vera Bradley, of course, serves as the village’s news agency. “Well,” Vera Bradley says and ponders on it,“and now you’re home!” Vera looks at Ella over her horn rimmed glasses. Vera’s grey hair is like aged wood in the harsh bright sunshine from the windows. “Yes, it seems that way!” Outside a car horn is honking. Ella gazes out the window and recognises her father’s old truck. A young, good-looking guy is sitting in it. At first glance she does not recognise him. “But, it’s Jimmy!” Ella yells and rushes out into the blinding sun out on the dusty street. She hugs the young man while he is still trying to step down from the truck’s cabin. When he is standing beside her she notices that her little brother is now a head taller than her. She has to tilt her head back to look at him. Previously, it was he who had to do that tilting movement. He is a little embarrassed she notes. He looks hesitatingly at her. “So tiny you have become,” he says, “you’re so pale. How are you doing?”
“Tired,” she answers with a faint smile. “Okay, get in, so we can be on our way home,” Jimmy says. They sit in silence for a while as a puzzlingly familiar landscape sweeps past them on both sides. Ella notices that Jimmy looks at her a few times, as if trying not to let her know that he is looking. “Seems to have been a tough journey.” “Yes,” she responds, and glances at him. Imagine that her little brother has grown and become such a tall and handsome guy! Where has time gone? “How is mother?” he asks. “Oh well, she’s okay. She thrives well in life, as you could have suspected,” Ella says. “She’s still working at the museum?” “Yes,” she replies.” “Thought of going to visit her in the fall,” Jimmy says. “She’ll like that!” “Might be fun to meet her.” “How old are you now, Jimmy?” Ella asks and looks at him and squints a bit. “Eighteen,” he replies. “And a danger to the girls,” Ella laughs, “you’ve really grown up, little brother!” “Well, I don’t know about that,” Jimmy says, a trifle embarrassed. They sit quiet for some time. Ella notes that she still recognises every house, every bend in the road, well, almost every tree and patch of the road. 10
Vandelier's Song
Vandelier's song are tales of eleven people and eleven destinies. They are not so unique. Some of them are: Vandelier has not had a drink in months. Something happens that throws him back into the habitual behavior. Vandelier can no longer resist. Cliff is sitting with his revolver in his hand in front of the TV, waiting for the evening to end. You have to live as you teach, or? Ella returns to her youth and experiences anguish before meeting her father again. Lucille is intimidated by violence and turns back to her bookkeeping. The numbers are safer than the music in the overcrowded tourist lanes.