Friday, December 20, 2021
Pete came walking down the corridor, his face almost completely hidden behind all the flowers he had got. I hadn’t thought of buying any, which now seemed like a good decision. I waited for Jennifer to give her son a big hug before extending my hand, and offering Pete a firm handshake.

“Well done, Pete, very well done,” I told him.

“Thank you. It was fun,” he said, and glanced at his mother. Then he glanced to his left and noticed Sofie, and did a double-take. I don’t know if Sofie noticed it, but if she did, she didn’t say anything.

“Pete, did you know that your Mom also played in the school play, back when we were kids?” I asked him, even though it wasn’t really a question.

Sofie sighed and looked the other way.

Pete smiled, and I wasn’t sure whether he was sympathetic to Sofie or whether he smiled at the idea of his mother being a kid in a school play, or whether he was smiling outward and laughing – hard – at me on the inside.

“It has come up,” he said.

Jennifer was beaming with pride.

“But I was only one of the ghosts, and not a very good one. Your dad was the star back then,” Jennifer said.

Maybe that’s why I hadn’t paid any attention to the school play. If Sami was the star of the show, I had surely kept my distance to everything that had to do with it, even Jennifer, I now learned.

“Do you do many shows now, or…?” I asked Pete.

“Actually, we do just this one. Which is fine with me. I know it’s not Hamlet and that I’m not exactly … an Oscar winner,” he said and glanced at me, “but I like it.”

“I thought you were great,” Sofie said, surprising all of us. “So extra.”

Pete blushed. “Oh, thanks,” he said.

“She even took a selfie with the cast,” I blurted. Sofie’s eyes sent daggers my way and I quickly changed the subject.

“I just got an idea. Let’s go to Burgerland for milkshakes and fries. My treat,” I said.

“I don’t know, it’s kind of late, and–“ Jennifer began, but I stopped her before she could finish the sentence. This was no way to end a lovely evening.

“My treat, and then I’ll drive you and Pete home. I want to hear all about the play,” I said.

Sofie let out an exasperated sigh, but she didn’t say anything. Her fingers were dancing on the glass of her phone.

Jennifer looked at Pete. I knew they were having a telepathic conversation and when Pete shrugged his shoulders, Jennifer turned to me.

“You know what, Burgerland does sound nice,” she said.

Pete was the tallest of us – a head taller than Jennifer – but he insisted on Sofie getting to sit in the front and somehow managed to squirm into the backseat, with his knees up to his ears.

Fifteen minutes later, we sat at the window table with three milkshakes and a cup of coffee (for Jennifer). After a while, we turned into two pairs. I spoke with Jennifer while Sofie and Peter were in the middle of a conversation of their own. They seemed to be hitting it off, which made me happy. I liked the idea of Sofie having friends in Kumpunotko, a life of her own here.

Jennifer had began to paint again, and she told me about an idea she had got. (That’s where Pete must have got his artistic genes, not from Sami, I thought). When Jennifer was talking about the Big Idea, I eavesdropped on Sofie’s and Pete’s chat. I didn’t know Pete that well, but even I could see he wasn’t himself. Something was off. He seemed aloof and his answers were short and to the point. He kept his eyes on his milkshake.

“Anyway, I could never live in a town like Kumpunotko. No offense, but I’d get bored pretty quickly,” I heard Sofie tell Pete.

“Well… I suppose … if you live in Helsinki,” Pete replied quietly.

“Pete’s Mom used to live in Paris, but now she’s here so Kumpunotko can’t be all bad. It’s just that Sofie’s never been here long enough to really know the town,” I jumped in. “But now, you’ll be here at least a week, right?”

“Something like that,” she said.

We dropped Jennifer and Pete off at their house, and then I took Sofie back to Mom and Dad’s.

“Do you have plans for tomorrow?” I asked her when she got out of the car.

Sofie laughed.

“No,” she said.

“Maybe I’ll see you tomorrow then,” I said, and drove home.

In the middle of the night, I heard a voice in the dark. It was Doc Brown. He sounded worried and anxious.

“Wake up! It’s your kids, Marty. Something gotta be done about your kids!” he said.

I woke up gasping for air. Doc was right.

➡️ More on Someday Jennifer (HarperCollins Canada 2019)